A little Idea...

Alright... so from some obvious mudding uh-ohs the motor in my XJ is about to take a poop... and I have been going back and fourth with myself on getting rid of the her but it will be hard to part with this vehicle being my first ever and alot of fun times in it... so Ive come to the idea of getting a new motor... but then I decided it would be stupid to dump more money into it because I have alot more in it now than I will ever get out of it(KBB is killing me)...

BUT THEN... I found a deal that might be worth my time and money... locally a guy has 2 91 laredo 4 door XJs for sale, completly Identical that I can get for around a grand... one of them with 122xxx that runs good but has minor body and front end damage with an ax-15, and the other with 220xxx that has a bad motor and has some minor front end damage with a AW4...

So my idea here is swap the motor out of the running heep and put it in my 96 XJ with AW4 (possibly the ax15 aswell) and then swapping my motor in the one of the two XJs doing some major trimming get some 3'' coils maybe some 3'' blocks for the rear and throw some free 33's on it, doorless, maybe even chop the back and using it for offroad only and run it till it dies and keeping the other for parts and my current XJ for DD usage...

now doing some slower thinking I realized that the motor I would be swapping in wouldnt be HO like mine now and its probley not a straight up swap like Im hopeing but would it work? Is there a big difference in the HO/LO engines? would this all be worth my time to swap an older motor into my jeep with 122xxx miles? and what am I overlooking?

thanks

'90 or '91(cant remember) was the first year for the HO. Soooo either way the one you can get should have the HO and should be a direct swap.

Well thats good news... any more wisdom you would like to share?

I recently put my engine back in and a few things to make it easier on yourself...
take off the whole front clip except fenders,
Get access to air tools unless you already have them,
Take a picture before you tear apart the engine for reference on where everything goes.
Also make sure you connect EVERY ground, After I put my engine back in it wouldnt start, took me 2 full hours to figure out it was just a ground connecting to the block.
And if your planning on doing it on a weekend, and you have another car to drive, Slowly start removing electricals, and exhaust and during the week and by the weekend your ready to take it out. Give yourself a full weekend to do it, especially if you've never done a swap before. It's really not that hard but just give yourself extra time in case you need to order parts or anything like that.
Anything else you need to know?

Well I will be loosing my license here shortly due to bad decisions so I wont have to worry about how long it takes to get it done... thanks for the advice though... hopefully I wont run into many issues... have PLENTY of air tools being my father owns an autobody shop plus access to about anything else I need...

the main thing Im worried about though is getting a decent engine... I dont wanna swap in an engine that was no better than the last... it would be kinda hard to beat though with the possible rod nock, burning oil, blowing black smoke, and not to mention it has 30xxx more miles on that the one being swapped in...

would you do it if you were in my shoes? or look else where for a new or reman. engine?

Before I can answer that..How much are you paying for the running Jeep?

around 1000 for both of the jeep together...

(nevermind)

I_1BADXJ_I said:

(nevermind)

Click to expand...

?

I had just posted this:

Zice said:

2 91 laredo 4 door XJs for sale, completly Identical that I can get for around a grand...

Click to expand...

to answer King. By the time I posted it, you had already responded, so I edited to say, you know, nevermind...

Robert

Well actually I was wondering what the price of just the running one was to tell you if it was worth getting that, or a remanufactured one.
I've never personally checked, but I've heard on here that running motors that junkyards sell are around $500-700. So if thats around what your paying for the running one then yes, do it.
Now, you said it's going to be off the road for a while so why not rebuild? or atleast do seals, gaskets and rings while its out. I did rings,seals, and every gasket possible on mine and the total cost came to around $400, so its definitely worth it if you have the time, my XJ hasnt leaked a drop of anything since then.