'96 Jeep Cherokee XJ

[jessenator]

So I had bee jonesing for a new rig since my 22-yr-old Honda had been giving me reliability issues, and I had long-since been tired of pumping money into it. Did some talking with fb friends trying to come up with a decent solution—one that wouldn't leave me (too) broke. I eventually listened to tardis454's advice and decided on saving up for a Jeep Cherokee XJ.

At first I wasn't keen on trying to do what I'm doing now—fixing one up. I had determined to wait it out, save up, and get a decently-priced, working XJ that I would have to do limited work to.

Eventually, I just wanted to find something that would work, or that I would MAKE work—labor and spare time be damned. Thankfully, this little gem fell into my lap. A 1996 XJ with a decent exterior, decent suspension, brakes, axels, etc. Only problem was the engine was completely kaput.

I had intended to dive headlong into serious uncharted territory for me—complete and ground-up engine rebuilding. Thankfully (?) the engine was beyond saving really—well, the short block anyway. When I asked the guy what happened to the engine, specifically if it was throwing a specific error code (the ad said "it will need a new engine") he said, "well, the diagnosis is that a piston rod made a nice hole in the side of the block."

I thought to myself—well, now I need to get a new engine…

[DanStokes]

Not all that big a deal. From the pic I can't tell what engine it has in it but I wouldn't hesitate to replace it especially if it's the 6 cylinder. Those are TOUGH engines! I did one a decade or so back - we used a rebuilt long block (short block + head) from a company in Detroit. You'll have to swap over all the external stuff - intake, EFI, distributor, etc. but it's just nuts and bolts. It came out GREAT and my buddy drove it far many years.

Dan

[jessenator]

The key now was to get something that was running—something with hopefully low mileage and from the same year. Apparently, the head for a 1996, since it was OBD-II, had some unique features. So it was a) fond a good short block and hope the head on the bad engine was still salvageable or b) comb the yards for a new head, or c) get a good, low-miles runner engine.

A few weeks later, KSL became my new best friend. I found a '96 XJ that had recently been in a low-speed wreck. The engine was running after the crash, but had been switched off because the radiator was a bit more like a sieve than a tank at that point.

I called the guy about it and asked him how much he wanted: $450 at 171k miles, which wasn't bad, but the 2 hr drive each way to get it was the biggest detractor. There were other ads (closer to me) that had just the right engines but for $600 and up for 200k+ mile engines and they wouldn't budge a cent on the price. A week went by and I was sure that $450 engine wasn't there anymore. Luckily it was, and I made plans to head up with my buddy Walt who had something that could carry the engine back.

While there, the wife of the guy who placed the ad told us that they were hauling it off that next week, and that aside from a few components they were selling separately, I could take what I wanted from the heap. So tail light housings and more importantly a '96 ECM were an added bonus!

[jessenator]

Next, I needed tools.

Granddad left me a good number of things, including a draw tool chest which I de-rusted and repainted. Unfortunately, I didn't have access to a crane, engine stand, impact, and a few specialty tools…needs must.

The Crane went together nicely—even though the instructions were next to nil in terms of detail. Luckily I have a semblance of mechanical sense.

The engine stand, however, was a piece of s#!t. a single wedge bolt didn't make me feel so confident, so I've modified it. I highly recommend doing this mod with some 3/8–1/2 grade 8 bolts. Things nearly solid as a rock—the front fork of wheels is a bit wonky. Save yourself the hassle, actually, and find a decent craigslist or new engine stand made with competence.

[jessenator]

Sorry—this is going to be all multi-post until I catch up to where I'm currently at


Once I got the stand to a point where I knew it wouldn't fall apart on me, I got the engine mounted and proceeded to strip…it down.

This was a well-cared for (other images will show just how much) but hella' greasy




The first cock-up came when I used a harmonic balancer puller without the crucial metal cone that seats in the crankshaft so you don't do what I did to the threads

So, I had to buy a tap to re-do the threads on the crankshaft—I was sweating bullets the whole time, not just because my tap handle was "for a locomotive," quoth tardis454…


Second cock-up was when I was removing the A/C compressor from the bracket without using PB B'Laster



With those out of the way, I could finally start with the first installment of new parts I ordered: Melling timing kit, Melling(?)/USA-made oil pump and uptake.



Look at that lack of slack


The timing cover was baked with oil and grease. Before:

After: (I didn't get a full after shot)

Didn't get that full shot, but it got clean after a soak.

Then my oil filter adapter rings came (unfortunately, a dealer-only piece)

and back in:

Then came the arguably hardest part…and cock-up #3 — the rear main seal

Aside from a bit of leaky old seals, the main bearing looks amazing for 171k miles (I have a suspicion they replaced them—but good news for me)


Old seals out and cleaned—just remembering where to put anaerobic rtv


The cock-up came in the form of me watching a video where they didn't use the "shoehorn" that came with the FelPro seal kit correctly. I ended up shredding the first seal, but thankfully it was only a $10 mistake…


Eventually I got the upper half of the seal leveled (not shown, but I did get it level). and the lower half seated, sealed, and torqued to spec

[SuperBuickGuy]

neat project.

[jessenator]

neat project.

Thanks! i"ve been very happy how it's turned out so far. I had a lot of great luck in the timing of things.


While waiting for more parts to come in I took a look at the brakes and axles/ujoints:


Rear Crysler 8.25 is a bit weepy, so I have something to do down the road


Front looks recently RTV'd (the glistening oil is from the swiss-cheesed pan in bad engine



Installing the oil pump required a bit of dremeling…

Sorry for the blurriness, but the washer (that incidentally didn't come off) caught on the bottom plate of the new pump (the pump itself was fine, but the plate didn't follow the outline of the pump body exactly). I figured grinding down the washer a little bit would five me fewer problems than grinding parts of the pump itself.

[jessenator]

After the pump came the distributor.

This is how the dist looked at TDC


Which technically will fire correctly from what I've seen, but I wanted it to be put in RIGHT—took of cam sensor, lined up the internal timing holes, set the oil pump to 11 o'clock, and carefully place the dist in—it'll line up just right. The white welding chalk mark is spark terminal #1's position.


Great vid about it, btw:

[jessenator]

Now for the grand cock-up that scared me more than anything I've done on this project: a s#!t harmonic balancer.

To be honest, this wasn't my fault in the slightest. Maybe. If I was a machinist I would have definitely checked the inner diameter of the HB before even attempting to install it. As it turned out, after having gotten the right install tool I was met with disaster.


Sstretched the s#!t out of that bolt that runs the length of the tool, holding in the crankshaft mating piece. THANKFULLY it didn't jack up my crank threads again, or even worse, nick the surface of my crankshaft snout. It did, however, take a sizeable about out of the chinese s#!tebox balancer. Place I bought it from refunded me instantly and didn't even ask for the part to be shipped back, though, which was nice.




I was almost pissing myself, but luckily the key and snout were both unharmed. Enter the part I SHOULD have bought: Omix-ADA

Went on like butter…I also replaced the bad center bolt with a grade-8 from Fastenal.

[TheSilverBuick]

That balancer is a raw deal that sucks all the way around. Keep the pictures coming, everyone likes a good photo build.

[DanStokes]

And it werks gud fer us Illeterite onze.......

Dan

[jessenator]

Thanks, gents. Yeah, what I was more worried about was having to pay for that broken installer kit—$40. Thankfully as long as the pieces are there AutoZone doesn't ask too many questions

They use s#!t bolts in their kits. The puller tool (that I reluctantly had to and rent again) was a mixed bag of grade-8s and their original super stretchy black bolts, so you could tell I wasn't the only DIYer who had problems…


Couple more updates until I get the interwebz at home again.

Valve rockers and rods looked good. Seems like everything was getting well oiled.


Let the valve cover soak in a homemade tank (thanks, harbor freight box!)


Got the new permanent FelPro gasket on


Got a new, good make water pump.


The next cock-up didn't really deserve a pic—it was me trying to remove the feed pipe from the heater core to the water pump. Oddly, the tube from the toasted engine was the one that came off in one piece without a hitch. The one on my other pump basically ripped itself apart thanks to some thread sealer. A bit o' teflon tape and it's nice'n snug (and more importantly facing the right direction). Cleaned off the temp sensor as well and re-taped the threads leaving a grounding gap. A few days after installing it and sealing the gasket I thought, sweet! Water pump in, inlet and thermostat…oh, yeah, I didn't put the thermostat back in the housing…thankfully the sealant was still tacky and I avoided another trip to the store.

Got the new rotor and cap on as well



New wires are in my RockAuto box of wonderful things somewhere, too…

Worked on the oil pan gasket, and wouldn't you know it, the spray sealer ran out after the first side was tacking up—good thing I had a tube of sealer, also— yeah, the spray is better.


Got the extra, crucial rtv on:



Now all I have to do is carefully yank the thrashed engine, pull off a few loaner pieces (brackets mainly), and put the new one in!

Oh, I also opted to throw in a new radiator to replace the original, which was still in decent shape—maybe throw it up on CL and get a Moab jeeper to buy it.


New one is a nice copper & brass Vista-Pro 436020 I got on an open box special—$150 shipped

Hopefully I've got enough in the budget for an Exide 58C just to ice the cake.


More to come—stay tuned.

[BlueCuda340]

Those are great engines, I am not surprised to see how good the main bearing was.

My 97 had 190K miles on it when I allowed it to inhale some water and broke a rod. On tear down it was in great condition, the timing chain was worn and other than that it was mint.....really really mint, machine shop said I didn't need to bore it but I did anyways.

I ended up going for the budget stroker build. I used a crankshaft and rods from an AMC 258 with .020 4.0 pistons in a 4.0 block. I believe it made it 282 cubes or so IIRC. It runs good, its been 10 years and 50K miles and all is well. It moves my lifted cherokee with 35" tires(4300lbs) just fine.

[jessenator]

Those are great engines, I am not surprised to see how good the main bearing was.

My 97 had 190K miles on it when I allowed it to inhale some water and broke a rod. On tear down it was in great condition, the timing chain was worn and other than that it was mint.....really really mint, machine shop said I didn't need to bore it but I did anyways.

I ended up going for the budget stroker build. I used a crankshaft and rods from an AMC 258 with .020 4.0 pistons in a 4.0 block. I believe it made it 282 cubes or so IIRC. It runs good, its been 10 years and 50K miles and all is well. It moves my lifted cherokee with 35" tires(4300lbs) just fine.

Nice! Yeah, I've seen a couple claims of 500k+ miles including video proof. One of the manny reasons I went with the XJ.

If the block didn't have that hole I'd of kept it for a future stroker. I'll still keep the head though. You never know…

[tardis454]

Glad you could make it Chris! You're doing a great job considering this is your first time tackling a project of this magnitude..
I think you've done quite well so far a side from a few hitches here and there. Everything is working out pretty good.