4.0 Swap w/Pictures

[ThisGuyUKnow]

1986 CJ7 4.0 Motor Swap w/Pictures

After all the sweat, blood, and tears dried up in my failed attempt to create a Tuned Port Injection AMC 360, I was so soured on the v8 that I decided I didn't want to deal with it any more. I could have gone back to carb or bought a howell efi kit but I thought about it and my expertise lies in 4.0s. I eventually want to dd my cj and I think a 4.0 would be a much better engine for the task plus swapping one in would potentially give me a way to live test the 4.0 conversion harnesses I have been selling lately.

The Driveline specs will be as follows: 91-95 4.0, Nv3550 (TJ 5 speed), Dana 300 , 91-95 MPFI, AMC20 rear w/3.31 gears .

Although most of this stuff is more or less a direct bolt in,from experience these projects tend to snowball and cascade into a lot of little side projects to make things work. I have done my best to think the project out globally in order to anticipate some of the roadblocks and tangents that will stand between me and the end result. My goal is that the completed project will only be an obvious swap if you know that a 4.0 wasnt an option in a CJ, I want it to look like it could have been installed in the factory or as close to that as possible.

Some areas of concern that I will eleaborate on when the thread progresses to the particular part of the install:

Dana 300 to Nv3550 will require an adapter and clocking ring.

I plan on using a 99+ horshoe intake. There are some issues with the belts when using these intakes on earlier blocks that I have not seen addressed online anywhere.

Hydraulic linkage for the slave. To do this right there are several options and routes. For anyone considering an Nv3550 or Ax15 this portion of your swap really needs to be thought through before embarking on the process.

So on to the project.....

First I started but removing the front grill and most of everything in the engine compartment. I also unbolted the motor and tranny mounts and dropped the D300.

Then I begged my landlord for some floor space because my garage is too small to manuever an engine hoist and moved the jeep into the temporary space for the surgery.

I moved the CJ and proceeded to pull the engine and tranny together. I found that pulling the intake off the V8 and using the intake to head bolts worked just fine to pick it up.

I dropped the engine in a dark corner to sit an think about all that it had done wrong.

Surprisingly, almost as soon as I pulled it, a guy contacted me from my Craigslist ad and came down that day to give me 800 bucks for the engine and the serpentine. He didnt want/need the T-176 so I still have that. I will need to list it individually on CL later.

 

[ThisGuyUKnow]

I searched the craigslist for a few weeks to find a donor motor. I looked into alot of options and came close to buying a few cherokees hole to use as donors but didnt want to deal with the hassle of having a whole vehicle to have to part out to recoup my costs. Eventually my patience paid off an I found a motor in NJ for 200 bucks pulled from a rusted out XJ with 85k on the odo.

The guy seemed trustworthy and the motor turned over by hand with no unusually resistance or rough spots and the oil looked pretty normal when we drained it, so I pulled the trigger and brought it home.

The engine was really really dirty. So I propped it up and started cleaning.

The first thing I noticed was that the block was painted blue.... Very odd considering it came from an Xj and this was not a factory option. As I cleaned the mud out of the freeze plugs I found those disks they glue on the freeze plugs that fall off if you overheat your your engine, so they know you voided your warranty... Again not something you see on factory engines. Then finally I found a metal plate on the side with a serial number and company printed on it. So it turns out that this is, in fact a crate motor, and not a factory orignal engine.

I think this is great! That means that instead of having a 4.0 with 85k, I most likely have one with much much less on it. Since 4.0s are generally known to survive to well over 200k miles if correclty maintained, I just gained that much more service life! I messaged the guy I bought it from and he said he didnt know that the engine had been replaced but he would contact the friend he bought it from and see if he could get more details.

There was nothing wrong with the head on the engine but just because I had the engine out I went ahead and purchased a remaned head with a valve job from a company on ebay. I also got a fancy valve cover while I was at it.

I grabbed some dupli color engine enamel and painted the engine and head MOPAR red and the brackets and tranny semi gloss black.

 

[ThisGuyUKnow]

Next was bolting on the motor mounts. Pretty simple, the stock block and frame mounts from a AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l can be used for this. All the holes are in the block to accept the mounts, with the exception of one in my case.

This was the first major issue I had with the swap. Really it wasn't all that major. On the driverside of the block, the lower right bolt for the engine mount was not threaded. Not only was it not threaded but the hole was way larger than the other two bolts. I had to go to the store and get a 1/2 course thread tap and tap the block. I did this by hand so I was very careful to line everything up and moved slowly by tapping a little then backing it out and cleaning then tapping some more until I bottome out in the hole. I then drilled out the corresponding hole on the motor mount to accept the larger half inch bolt. It was very shallow and the smallest length i could find was 1 inch which bottome out before touching the mount. I added a lock washer and that seemed to be just enough extra space to make everything fit correctly.

Once that issue was solved, I bolted the mounts and bushings to the block and moved on to the Transmission .

Nothing crazy on the tranny to get it to mate. Although the Nv3550 was not stock behind any 91-95 4.0s, it uses the same bellhousing, throw out bearing/fork, slave, and flywheel as the ax15 which was available behind the 91-95s.

My engine originally had an Auto so I had to order a new pilot bearing sleeve to go in the crank. Crown Automotive 53009180AB - Pilot Bearing with Sleeve for 97-06 Jeep® Wrangler TJ with 4.0L Engine - Quadratec
It took some doing but I was able to hammer it into place to seat it. It turns out it does matter which way this part faces cause the pilot bearing that is in it has an o-ring that needs to face the tranny. Of course I installed it the opposite direction and didnt realize my mistake until I intalled the pressure plate. I had to go get a removal tool and slide hammer from Peppys to pull the bearing out. Instead of reusing the bearing that I pulled with the hammer i went ahead and put in the one that came with my Luk clutch kit. The old (well really it was a new bearing) bearing looked fine after the removal but I had one that hadn't been hammered on so why not?

I then replaced the clutch and bolted the tranny to the Engine.

Then the only thing left to do was to put the engine in the compartment.

 

[ThisGuyUKnow]

The engine went in with a surprisingly small amount of finagling and alot of whispering, please dont fall and crush me. ( I have a sneaking suspicion that this CJ doesn't like me and is intent on ending me) After a couple of minutes I got a good touch down into the frame mounts.

I could not get the cross member to line up in the rear most position on the frame. So this is as far as I got. I will have to reinterogate that this weekend. I did some searching and talked to a jeep buddy of mine and I am assured that there are no different Crossmembers for the 82 up cjs but that occasionally they can bow or warp a little. I am going to try putting it on the ground and jumping up and down on it to see if I can't coax it back into shape. If not I will have to figure something out.

Initially I bought a factory tranny mount for a TJ and bolted it to the NV3550. It doesn't have a torque arm so I am thinking that once I fix the crossmember issue I will see if I can't get measurements and have a friend weld up a way to adapt the the 3550 to the T-176 tranny mount so that the Transmission can actually be bolted to the existing holes used for the T-5 configuration. This way I can avoid drilling my own holes into member and will help aide in that factory look I mentioned earlier.

There will be more to follow but this is as far as I am at this moment.

 

[Kane]

Very nice write up so far. I subscribed so i can follow every post. Keep up the good work.

 

[Petescj]

Get rid of that Fram filter. Its driving me nuts.

 

[ThisGuyUKnow]

Get rid of that Fram filter. Its driving me nuts.

I must be missing some inside joke?

 

[Petescj]

I must be missing some inside joke?

Not at all. Im not sure if they changed design or anything but for a long time Frams were known to collapse inside and cause engine failure. Id never use one again.

 

[Bent]

Great thread! Thanks for posting the pictures.

I've had my crossmember out twice now and it has been a PITA to get back in both times. I've had success starting the bolts on one side, inserting a long punch through the center bolt hole on the other side and into the frame. By using the punch to pry it into place you can get the other two bolts started.
You should be able to use the torque arm off the T-176 . I think the t176 and nv3550 are both set-up for a standard Transmission mount. You should be pretty close to the T-5 mount location on the cross member.
Did your Jeep come with the hydro brake assist?
Do you anticipate any clearance issues with the brake master cylinder and the wider 4.0 intake manifold? Good luck, keep posting.

 

[mtnwhlr]

:lpopcorn:

 

[ThisGuyUKnow]

Great thread! Thanks for posting the pictures.

1I've had my crossmember out twice now and it has been a PITA to get back in both times. I've had success starting the bolts on one side, inserting a long punch through the center bolt hole on the other side and into the frame. By using the punch to pry it into place you can get the other two bolts started.
You should be able to use the torque arm off the t176.

2I think the t176 and nv3550 are both set-up for a standard transmission mount. You should be pretty close to the t5 mount location on the cross member.

3Did your Jeep come with the hydro brake assist?

4Do you anticipate any clearance issues with the brake master cylinder and the wider 4.0 intake manifold? Good luck, keep posting.

1. That seems to be what I am hearing alot of. I will have to reattack the crossmember now that I am 100 percent certain it is the correct part. There will definitely be some stern "persuasion" this weekend with it.

2. I havent side by side compared the two bracket mounts but I can say that I swappe an ax15 in place of my T-5 in my first cj and the bracket didnt directly bolt to the ax15. The t5 and T-176 should use the same mount so I doubt it would be a bolt on affair. The 3550 is longer than the t5, I anticipate that the tranny mounts will be a little under 2 inches further back from the t5 mount holes in the x-member. Wont know until I get the SOB to mount to my frame.

3. No i installed the Hydraboost myself. I pretty much do a Hydraboost in every jeep I buy.

4. Is the 4.0 intake wider? It looks the same to me. Get me some measurements of a AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l intake and Ill compare. To answer the question no I do not anticipate any issues. I have ran a Hydraboost in the past with the same intake on a 258 with 4.0 head.

 

[Bent]

My intake (cast iron) is 7.5 inches from cylinder head surface to the farthest outboard point. The master cylinder is roughly 11 inches from the cylinder head.

You should start a thread on the hydro brake assist next.

 

[ThisGuyUKnow]

My intake (cast iron) is 7.5 inches from cylinder head surface to the farthest outboard point. The master cylinder is roughly 11 inches from the cylinder head.

You should start a thread on the hydro brake assist next.

Like as in how to install it?

You mean this?
http://www.jeep-cj.com/forums/f2/hydroboost-install-pics-7406/

 

[ThisGuyUKnow]

My intake (cast iron) is 7.5 inches from cylinder head surface to the farthest outboard point. The master cylinder is roughly 11 inches from the cylinder head.

You should start a thread on the hydro brake assist next.

Ill get you measurements tonight or tomorrow. Even if the 4.0 intake is wider, its on a different plane than the brake booster. Remember this wont have a carb and circular breather on top of that. It will have an air tube running to a breather box on the fender.

 

[Neuner]

Subscribed. This is awesome. Great write up and pics. Please keep it coming.

Bringing back memories of my old XJ. That engine was awesome with a lot of power. Had around 160k when I sold it with no issues.

 

[ThisGuyUKnow]

Subscribed. That engine was awesome with a lot of power. Had around 160k when I sold it with no issues.

Exactly!

 

[ThisGuyUKnow]

My intake (cast iron) is 7.5 inches from cylinder head surface to the farthest outboard point. The master cylinder is roughly 11 inches from the cylinder head.

You should start a thread on the hydro brake assist next.

Here you go sir, it looks like the furthest part of the intake sits 10 inches off of the cylinder head. If you count the vac tubes on this part, it is 11 inches. If the MC is 11 inches off of the head then the intake SHOULD most likely not interfere with the MC. Since the intake is horseshoe shaped it most likely would not interfere with a vacuum booster. If the Pre 99 intakes are the same width, there might be issues with the vac booster clearance.

Just got back from lunch, went out to pic up the freshly baked and blasted intake. It was 30 bucks for the service and I believe he said he used steel beads? He said whatever process he used causes the finish to be darker and generally resists corrosion longer... I was going to paint it to match the block but it looks really good as is so I might pick up a can of clear engine enamel tonight.

 

[Bent]

Like as in how to install it?

You mean this?
http://www.jeep-cj.com/forums/f2/hydroboost-install-pics-7406/

Just like that one!

 

[Bent]

Sounds like you should have plenty of intake clearance.

 

[rufus1138]

in for this one, just noticed it, GO THIS GUY, doing a beautiful job so far, everyone loves a cj with one of amc's sweet sixes.