to 2.8, or to not 2.8

I've recently took ownership of an 87 Cherokee Chief, and I must say I am very happy to have another AMC/MOPAR to off-road!! (My last was an 88" RAM W150 Shortbox 4X4 )

Now to be frank I've seen Chevys 60 degree motors in action, and I must say (Although I'm anti-chevy ), they run like hell when modded.

I've been seeing alot of swaps, 4.0, 350s, and so on, but this will be a daily driver come winter, and to be honest, I'd like to "take what I have, and make what I want outta of it". (As my grandpappy used to say:angel: )

I'm planning on doing a 4.5inch skyjacker lift, 33X12.5X15's. 4.56 rear gears, 4.10 front. Posi's F&R. (I want to run a NP231 if possible)

And I'm still up in arms over the strength of the overall drivetrain. (After all the 87' XJ's were the last to come out of a factory with all the drivetrain riff-raff :anon: )

So, I want the 2-8 to stay, I figured if I port the heads, put a cam in it, intake, carb, and headers, it'd be a good little mudder, and off-roader.

But before I make myself look like a clown, I thought I'd ask the XJ pros first.

I personaly would stick in a 4.3L. If you are insistant in using the 2.8, Get a hold of A4X4freak, he is running one in his and I was impressed with its performance.

Thats odd I've never seen an 87 with the 2.8. if you do have that little POS i'd find a cammarow with the 3.4 and use that its byfar the better mottor. GM srewed up realy bad wth those motors.

The 2.8 will spin rod bearings like crazy...the 3.4 is good advice if you want to stay with a chevy v-6

Oops! 3.4 not 4.3! Why did they do that? The 4.3 has the same bell housing as the good ole' 350. I was wrong! But don't tell any one I admitted to that though!

Something is wrong here. As redXJ4fun said, the 87 came with the 4.0L I-6, not the 2.8L V-6. Eihter you have a 4.0L, or you don't have an '87 XJ.

If you have a 2.8L -- drive it 'til it dies, then replace with a 3.4L -- or even a 2.5L Jeep I-4 would be better than another 2.8L.

BTW --

An '87 XJ is all AMC, no MOPAR involved. Things started going downhill as soon as Chrysler took over.

An '87 XJ is all AMC, no MOPAR involved. Things started going downhill as soon as Chrysler took over.

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I agree..

I also don't belive in an 87 XJ with a 2.8.

Is the 2.8L used in Jeeps the same 2.8L 60 degree V6 that GM used in the older S10s and Blazers? If so I had two that Blazers that had them and they were good, long lasting engines that took well to upgrades. The GMs were throttle body injected and I think the XJ 2.8s are carburated so I'm not sure if they're the same. If you wanted more power you could use any of the 60 degree V6's like the 3.1 or 3.4, they have more power than the 2.8 without having to upgrade them.

Youll need to do more than that to keep it running strong. Greatest problem of the 2.8 is lubrication to the main and rod bearings. I suggest that if you are going to rebuild the 2.8, get your hands on one of the 3 books that cover the 2.8 for a hi performance buildup. Full specs are there including instructions for your machine shop. You can go as high as 400hp reliably with the 2.8, but it has to be built right. There are a few other things to look into including using 3.4 heads on the 2.8 block.

Check out my site, then click on the recommended books.

http://hometown.aol.com/xjguy/auto/index.htm

XJguy

I had a 85 model S-10 with a 2.8...it lasted over 200k miles...but it wouldn't pull a greasy string outta a cat's butt except in low range. it was so bad that I was hard pressed to even take off in 4 wheel high ...the 3.4 is the best choice if you are changing the engine and you want a no hassle drop-in..the GM crate motor is rated at 180hp...but then again my lil ole 2.5 makes that much power

It's *possible* you have an '87 that came with factory 2.5, and some lame-brain previous owner 'upgraded' to the 2.8.

BUT, if in fact you have an '87, then the engine bay is ready to accept a 4.0 without having to bang the firewall and replace the radiator clip.

You should be able to run the VIN through somebody at DC and get original build info.

Re: the 2.8: The factory intake flows very well, maybe needs some port matching.
The only aftermarket manifold I've seen is the edelbrok single-plane 2-piece manifold, and I understand it doesn't flow significantly better than the stock.
In 4bbl form it will accept a 'baby holley' 350 cfm 4bbl.
But from all I've read, the best non-FI setup is a weber (see www.webercarbs.com ) on the stock manifold with a mild 'RV' cam.

-Rick

I must admit before I had four wheeled in a stock XJ I had always been a GM man. Started at 16 with the S-10. In Illinois it is flat, what do you need articulation for. S-10 worked fine, so I spent time and money on engine. By the time I was done I had (3) 2.8 liter complete V6 engines.(easy to find--Humm wonder why?) As I went through college for automotive technology I got to spend countless class hours in a engine shop with every tool and tester you can imagine. Flow test heads, boring, crank work, dynos, etc. By the time I was done with school I was Getting very much improved torque of 243@2100 rpm with torque based cam and only 224 hp at 5500rpm. Best one I like the best is custom made comp cam, e-mail I can give specs. Torqu 235@2800 H.P 267 @6380rpm. Granted I have spent many hours and many dollars to get here. Dont ask why. But I will tell you what, in the S-10's when I would blow the doors off of some new yuppie rice burner or tearing through a good sized mud hole making it only beacuse of high wheelspin and locker. Allready blew up the d35 in the 85. Gonna leave the 84 alone since it is all rusted and mortor would probally kill it. Oh well maybe I will find a clean 2.8 liter equiped some day

Thanx for the replys guy. I have been mixing up the year of this XJ for weeks now. But I know now it's an 86, and that was the last year that the 2-8's came in um.

I was considering just doing a "in the garage" rebuild. But I guess I'll just wait and see. I know I diffently wanna stick with what I got though. For now anyways

my little big guy

Here is my mighty little guy. This is the ways it used to look like anyway. I will not be using the custom dual snorkel air filter housing, since now the carburetor is going to be boxed for the Eaton blower. By they way don't use K&N filters, I had them back before I knew better. Ill be selling that air cleaner assembly, even before I ever use it



Engine is fully detailed by me before during and after balancing and blueprinting. Everything except the block was oven baked, so the paint looks like powder coating, and its just canned VHT. I converted the AC to R-134 and polished the AC compressor myself. The Mallory sticker is from the electronic preluber system (not seen), which can also be programmed to act like a powered oil accumulator.



Here you can see the wrapped ceramic coated Edlebrock headers, and part of the Accel 300+ ignition system.



I don't have any very recent of the engine because its in storage, but some of the things that are changed aside from the aircleaner is a massive amount of aluminum brackets and pulleys for the blower. I also have the rare XJ factory System Sentry option, picked it up at Jeep salvage yard, so all the major fluids now have sensors in them to monitor levels. The blower and the carb box are not installed yet, but its all just sitting in boxes for when I have the time and $$ to finish this seemingly lifelong endeavor.

Most of the engine's specs are on my web site if you want to know more: http://members.aol.com/xjguy/page2/index.htm

XJguy

That looks like one tough motor. Thanx for the pics

NIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICE work!!!! That looks better than my mighty 2.5

if you're hell bent on usin a 2.8L, there's a HUGE change to the 2.8L internally in 87.

I do not know if any 87+ blocks were rear wheel drive though (RWD/FWD starter bosses are on opposite sides and this is a HUGE problem)

oiling was greatly improved in 87. there were other changes too, but I don't remember what they are. I got a 4.0L and stopped caring about that POS motor (I went through 5 2.8s in approx a year, fawk that!!!)

CheapXJ said:

I got a 4.0L and stopped caring about that POS motor (I went through 5 2.8s in approx a year, fawk that!!!)

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CheapXJ said:

I do not know if any 87+ blocks were rear wheel drive though (RWD/FWD starter bosses are on opposite sides and this is a HUGE problem)

oiling was greatly improved in 87. there were other changes too, but I don't remember what they are.

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This is a really old post but I found it looking for something else.

GM used the 2.8l in S10s, Blazers and the GMC counter parts until '90 I believe. The 2.8l in my '89 Blazer was still going at 280K miles. It was getting a little weak (weaker than normal, lol) but still going with no major problems. The later 2.8ls were pretty good motors.