Build Thread Omega's '84 CJ7 build

[BlackOmega]

Hey there everyone!

Saw this section and thought I'd share the build as it's going. I just joined the forum today, and the Jeep is already more than half torn apart so I will just start out with where I'm at on it so far.

A little back story about the Jeep:
The owner of the company I work for bought a Jeep that he intends to use for his cabin or hunting or something.
He brought it to me and said "tell me what's wrong with it." Well, it's 30 years old, the real question is "what isn't wrong with it?"

So after doing some diag on it, we decided to get the head redone since it was blowing smoke on start up and had some clatter from the valves.
However, once the head was off, it was easy to see that this engine was fairly tired and needed to be redone. So out came the engine.
Then he decided that he wanted to lift it. Then I suggested we switch it over to power brakes, and it seems as though it's been kinda snowballing ever since. Just doing more and more, and even more.

We sent the engine over to the machine shop and had it worked. Block has been decked, bored .030 over, line honed the mains, shot peened the rods, new oil pump, new timing set and stuff, plus some dress up goodies.

Here's a few pics of the engine so far.

 

[Deerejeep]

Welcome to the madness. Hope to see more pictures and progress.

 

[BlackOmega]

Some more progress .


Got all of the springs on. Have to do a couple of things to the suspension yet, however, it's going together well. (No pics yet)


Got the block, exhaust manifold and intake all painted up all perty like.

And for a few pics.

 

[BlackOmega]

And had yet another setback.

FINALLY got my new head bolts and went to put the head on it, then I found some gouges in the deck surface. One could've been smoothed and not posed any real issues, however, the other gouge is right on the sealing portion around the cylinder. arg

Not sure if it's the machine shops fault or not (I've been losing faith in them over the last few years, they've messed up a few of my parts in the past), but damnit, this is the second time I'm going to have to take something back to them to get re-machined (Had to take the block back once already). Looks like this engine may wind up being high compression after all.

 

[tarry99]

And had yet another setback.

FINALLY got my new head bolts and went to put the head on it, then I found some gouges in the deck surface. One could've been smoothed and not posed any real issues, however, the other gouge is right on the sealing portion around the cylinder. arg

Not sure if it's the machine shops fault or not (I've been losing faith in them over the last few years, they've messed up a few of my parts in the past), but damnit, this is the second time I'm going to have to take something back to them to get re-machined (Had to take the block back once already). Looks like this engine may wind up being high compression after all.

Dress it up with a stone and bolt it on........any performance gasket will seal that little scratch once it has been hit with a small flat hand stone.
Those scratches are either from transporting or when someone slid the head across a bench or other dirty surface when installing valves...........anyone in the business knows never to let it ride on the newly surfaced area..........it happens!

 

[BlackOmega]

Dress it up with a stone and bolt it on........any performance gasket will seal that little scratch once it has been hit with a small flat hand stone.
Those scratches are either from transporting or when someone slid the head across a bench or other dirty surface when installing valves...........anyone in the business knows never to let it ride on the newly surfaced area..........it happens!

The first pic isn't really all that bad, and since it's in the cylinder, no big deal. However, the other one is bad. The pic doesn't really show how deep it is.

Aside from that, I've been looking for an excuse to have another .007-.010" shaved off of the head anyway.

 

[BlackOmega]

Another log to the build got the engine together and in the CJ today. No pics of it installed yet, but here are some pics of it mocked up on the stand.

 

[BlackOmega]

Sorry for the delay on the updates on the build. Since I last posted up some pics I've got the engine in and running. Got the power brake swap in.

These pics aren't the most recent, I'll post those when I can find a damn driver for my phone (again).

 

[Petescj]

Nice job. The engine paint looks great!