Can swap '88 I-6 with '92 I-6?

[mhead]

Hi All,

My daughter rolled my '88 XJ I-6 auto tran Laredo while off-roading at night. No injuries and only the top crunched. I've purchased a '92 XJ I-6 auto tran Laredo. Does anyone know if I can swap the motors? Can I swap the trans? If so I'll rebuild the '88 and swap sometime.

Thanks!

[xj-fx]

Good question.. I have an 88 and I would like to know also.. Probably a computer swap envolved!!

[gettinbetterXJ]

I thought most stuff on the Xj is something like 84-96 should be the same for the block an I6 is an I6 right? Providing of course tehy are both TBI or not, HO or not of course I could be completely mistaken.
http://www.rebuilt-auto-engines.com/cgi-bin/webc.cgi/st_main.html?catid=131&sid=1AlF2z0lsJss6Pz-26103049457.da
Just checked this sight there are three 242 4.o's listed for three different year periods

[Backdraft]

Between the 88 and 92 you can swap them but its a bit of a hassle, the 88 is a Renix computer controlled system and the 92 is an HO computer system. you have 2 choices, either swap the entire wire harness and computer or do a lot of sensor work. run a search on here, there should be a lot of info about it.. Think what i would do is rebuild the lower part of the 88 and when its ready set a few days aside to have the 92 head rebuilt then put em together and throw em in. The trannies should jsut swap in IIRC. HTH

Mike

[mhead]

The '92 is a high output model, but the '88 is not. No, I don't want to swap wiring harness/sensors etc.

What is different about the heads? Seems to me like I could rebuild the head and lower end and swap them into the '92, keeping the intake/exhaust manifolds from the '92. Are the heads different?

Thanks
Mike

[Grndhog]

Take a look at my site to see what I did when swaping an 89 for a 95 HO. It`s realy not that bad to swap all the sensor from one motor to the other, the hardest part is fabbing a new throtle position sensor , and with some thought this can be done several different ways. I haven`t seen two done the same yet. any way go to www.comanche.alloffroad.com on the engine swap page. Hope this helps some.

Yes the heads are different, the port locations anyway. The non-HO intake will not line up with the HO ports properly and vise-versa. They will bolt up but wihout some machine work there will be alot of turbulane created in the ports which will probably affect performance.

[mhead]

I should mention that the '92 is good and the '88 is wrecked. I'm just trying to salvage what I can from the '88.

So it looks like the block can be used but the '88 head is different and not worth it. I'll just plan to spend a couple of days getting the '92 head rebuilt, but I can rebuild the '88 block if I salvage it and have it ready to go.

I have no desire to mess with the harness in any way, and especially no desire to swap a '92 harness for an '88. The '92 looks way better than the '88. I always feared that the wiring would break and leave me stranded somewhere. I had the usual crank position sensor harness problem on the '88 and I was just waiting for something else go go wrong. That connector on the '88 driver's side firewall looked really scary. So I'm not sad to see the '88 harness go.

I am sad to see the '88 go. I beat hell out of it. Too bad my daughter rolled it. It was a good Jeep...