new (to me) 4.0 teardown, what to do?

Threw a rod in my MJ a year ago. I had to move out of state and gave it to my father-in-law tofix and drive. He didnt.
So i went and towed it back. Yanked the motor, its junk. big nasty hole in the crankcase.Pretty cool, never done that before! Plan to never do it again either.
So to the topic of this thread, i was at Harbor Frieght and low and behold i spot a renix 4.0 in the back of someones truck with tranny attached. I went over and asked him what he was going to do with it and if it was any good of course. They had yanked it to do a chevy 350 conversion in an XJ. HE offered me the whole assembly for $150. Sweet deal, i was going to offer $200 so i said hell yeah!
Now i know where he lives and i felt it was all good. I have it on an engine stand in the garage torn down to the crank. Everything seems fine with it from what i can see with the eyeball test.
Heres what i plan on doing before install;
-New crank seals front and rear
-Lifters
-Oil pump
-Total top-end gasket and valve seal replacement
Now for the reason i posted except to brag about my cool find,
WWYD?
I suppose this would be a good time to make a stroker, im limited on funds though and hope to stay under $200 in parts so im @ 150 now.
Should i replace pushrods with the lifters?

Oh yeah the I-6 on a 2-ton engine stand is a bit much. requires support on the other end of the motor....... FYI

Replace Freeze/frost plugs AFTER you-

Flush the heck out of the cooling passages. use a piece of copper tube to get as far in as you can with flush. Blow dry.

Good engine paint while its out.

dont worry about the push rods, re use em......... put the $ in rod and main bearings. Might as well hone it and put in rings since you are that far torn down.
A total rebuild kit is $399 shipped on ebay with everything. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/87-9...ptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

That kit looks nice. I wonder if those are aluminum piston heads. they dont specify. Ill take the advice and clean out the coolant passages. Thats a good idea.I'm one step from taking the block to a machinist shop to have it vatted.
I hate to take it this far and stop. Still limited by funds tho again. Living on the Gi bill which is not allways on time in my account. If it makes it there at all :sigh:

Go to your auto parts store and buy a package of plastiguage. Checking bearing clearances is a simple task. It'll tell you if you need to do anything with the bearings.

Check the lifters. If they are good, keep them in the same order and don't replace them.

Talyn said:

Check the lifters. If they are good, keep them in the same order and don't replace them.

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Why not? my thinking is this, its 20 years old, they most probably are too, i have it apart OUT of the vehicle. Its a $48 venture that will save me tons of swearing about not having done it when i could've. I know they could last forever but they usually dont. Ive read enough loud lifter threads to know i dont like it. Oh yeah my 454 vortec in my suburban has one right now. I cannot stand it. That engine is even more difficult to get into.

The lifters wear a pattern with the cam. On a cam that old I would be a bit hesitant to put new lifters on it and do the proper break in and expect the cam to hold up.

But on the other hand, if only two of the lifters get switched and go back on different cam lobes, the cam and lifters are all trashed and it has to come back apart again. I would be much more comfortable putting all new lifters on the old cam and using the proper breakin lube, like GM EOS.

"Aluminum piston heads"? You mean pistons? Pistons do have a top surface, which may well be called a piston head, but it is not servicable separately. As for the piston construction, ALL modern pistons are aluminum. Variations include cast, forged, and hypereutectic.

Use plenty of assembly lube. When you think you've used enough, use a little more.

As for the lifters, book says new/new, or mark, clean, reinstall same position. That said, I have installed new lifters with an old cam without problems.

And I HATE cast pistons.

Re-use all of the sensors, but new oil pressure and coolant temperature senders.

JJacobs said:

But on the other hand, if only two of the lifters get switched and go back on different cam lobes, the cam and lifters are all trashed and it has to come back apart again. I would be much more comfortable putting all new lifters on the old cam and using the proper breakin lube, like GM EOS.

"Aluminum piston heads"? You mean pistons? Pistons do have a top surface, which may well be called a piston head, but it is not servicable separately. As for the piston construction, ALL modern pistons are aluminum. Variations include cast, forged, and hypereutectic.

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Yeah your right. Ive done a lot of engine work, but never purchased pistons. My experience stops at taking the crank loose except the rear main to replace the rear main seal. So its relatively new to me.Th performance gain is rather obvious with aluminum over cast. Im going to see if ican scrape the extra couple hundred and snag a kit like the one mentioned above. Its not my DD so i have the time to do so and put it together correctly.

Wallyman said:

Th performance gain is rather obvious with aluminum over cast.

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Wat? They are all some for of aluminum alloy (Cast, forged, hypereutectic). Even a hypereutectic piston is cast. 4032 and 2618 alloys are typically forged pistons. Also, there is no forged off the shelf replacement piston for a stock 4.0L.

joe_peters said:

That said, I have installed new lifters with an old cam without problems.

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Just to add.. never the other way around.. i.e. new cam old lifters.

Talyn said:

Just to add.. never the other way around.. i.e. new cam old lifters.

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Yes, never old lifters with a new cam!