Put together the best of what I have.

Hi guys, new to the forum and pretty new to Jeeps. A couple friends recently got 4x4 XJs or ZJs to go out in the woods so I thought I would do the same. I really wanted a manual 4x4 and they are hard to find here but I picked up a 96 XJ manual 4x4 with 291k miles. It ran but had a knock in the motor and some rust but I got it for $520. Searched for a motor and picked up a 96 ZJ with a bad tranny and pulled the good running motor. After digging into my newly aquired XJ I realized it had much more rust than I wanted to deal with. I also realized I prefered the look of the 97+ and wantef a 2 door. I just aquired a 99 2 door manual sport 2wd for $950. Its mostly straight but has no rust. I think it has a blown head gasket because the level on the dipstick is considerably higher than it should be but I dont sense any oil in the radiator.

Long story short, this brings me to my questions. Mods, if this should be in OEM, please move it. I want to put together the best Jeep I can from the parts that I have.swapping the 4 by 4 should be straight forward. I believe it's just the tranny, the transfer case, drive shafts and the front axle. I am assuming that the 99 motor is probably bad and will be swapping in the 96 ZJ motor that I have. I know the block will just swap in but had curiosities about the differences in the 99 and the 96, primarily with the head and the ECU. From what I understand they made changes to the 99 head and the ECU to passed emissions but it cost a lot in power. Then they redesigned the intake to make up for that power. If i'm running the 96 engine, can I also use a 96 manual ECU? The ZJ motor that I pulled appear to already have an aftermarket header and downpipe and I was going to reuse the 99 intake on the 96 block. i Is there anything else from the 96 donor XJ that would be better than what's currently on the 99? Any info would be appreciated. Thanks.

This is a lot of work just to get to something that can be readily purchased.

In hindsite I agree, but newer manual 4x4 2 doors are non existent around here and I already have the 2 door I want and the donar to convert it. I know it will be a lot of work but we do have the time, space and tools to do it. Infact we are currently finishing up a 4.0 replacement motor swap in a WJ and its much harder to work on than an XJ.