Scratch build questions??

Im thinking about picking up a XJ and was hoping to pick a few brains to see if what I have in mind will come together well. Im very familiar with CJ, YJ's and Comfortable with TJ's but have no idea when it comes to XJ's so heres my thoughts

I have the following.
built 4.2, external slave ax15, waggy 44's front and rear with 4:10's and lockers, high steer set up and a dana 300.

I was thinking about finding a POS blown up XJ with a half way decent body to move all this stuff into. My only real concern or requirement for the jeep would be A/C. I have no problems wiring and would more then likey make my own dash and install a after market wiring harness. I currntly am building a YJ that I will use mostly as a daily driver so this would be my woods, family (me wife and 2 kids) and really hot/rainy florida day driver.

My real confusion comes into setting up the front end and is there any year XJ that would be better off for a donor due to frame construction? Id prefer manual windows but thats not a huge turn off.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

also forgot to add that the front axle is a passenger side drop

You would have to have one hell of a 4.2l to justify pulling a 4.0l

Mnkyboy said:

You would have to have one hell of a 4.2l to justify pulling a 4.0l

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This ^^
I guess you could run pass drop but would need to route the exhaust on the driver side.

Mnkyboy said:

You would have to have one hell of a 4.2l to justify pulling a 4.0l

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.060 over, Comp cam, 4120 conversion head, thin mopar gasket, ARP studs, custom length push rods. It has a few fancy things. Using a few compression calculators it comes out between 10 - 10:5-1 with about 300 hp at the crank. Again those are not "solid numbers" but more of estimates. The XJ is an earlier motor with the Renix?? computer crap.

Guess your biggest problem is finding the right combination of A/C brackets to fit your block and whatever compressor you will be running.
Different 4.0 engines have various tapped holes for accessories.