4.7 Russ Pottenger Stroker Build

[markw]

About a year ago I put a deposit down with Russ Pottenger to build a stroker for my 95 XJ. I've been busy with school, and he finished the motor back in May. So this thing has been sitting here waiting to be shoved into the jeep. Here's some teasers of the head work he did on it. Anyway, I pulled the jeep into the garage today and preceded to tear it down.
Final build will be the stroker motor, and to make sure I don't break a motor mount, I went with the Stinky Fab motor plates and Currie motor mounts. I will post pictures of the motor mounts tomorrow.

Specs are:

91-95 HO block .060 over.
7120 head
99+ port matched intake.
Comp Cams custom grind 68-231-4 on 113 LSA
4.2 rods
custom dished silvolite pistons for a 9.25:1 CR
Head work cleaning up the ports unshrouding the valves, LS1 chevy valves.

 

[markw]

Re: 4.7 Stroker Build

Here are the Stinky Fab mounts. I haven't seen too many pictures of these installed. These things are nice Dallas at Stinky Fab does outstanding work. He is including full hardware with them, I hit them with some rustoleum semi-gloss black and slapped them on the new motor. When I first test fitted them to the bare block there were huge gaps, but those are taken up by the bracketry for the alternator, ignition coil, and power steering pump. A little background here, my first XJ experience in the late 90's was my mom's stocker which sheared the bolts on the passenger engine plate. She drove a lot of Iowa gravel with that jeep. The stock plates break, the bolts shear. This is a known problem. These mount plates pick up all the threaded bosses on the side of the block. Adding an extra 4 pickup points on the drivers side, and 3 3/8" points and 2 5/16" points on the passenger side.

The mounts are available here:

http://www.stinkyfab.com/heavy-duty-motor-mounts/jeep-motor-mounts.html

 

[gradon]

Amazing

 

[StinkyFab]

FYI I have the tranny mounts in again. All pretty and gold plated now too

 

[cal]

pretty pretty

 

[markw]

Motor is sitting in the jeep, need to finish up the top end stuff, stab the distributor in, but first make a tool to prime the oil system. Expect to fire it up Wednesday after work. Break in oil didn't show Friday so I'm not in the biggest hurry. I need to pick up some hardware like 12 point 3/8-16 flange bolts to replace those bastard E12 bolts at the top of the bell housing. This will allow the use of a long flex head ez-red/sunex dual box end wrench to install/remove them. (Excuse to buy tools right??)

http://www.amazon.com/Sunex-9923-Double-Ratcheting-4-Piece/dp/B00CP8DI36

Oh, more pictures. Chevy LS valve springs.

 

[jhc7399]

If you don't mind me asking, what did the build cost you?

 

[XJEEPER]

Following......finally!

 

[markw]

Well, the majority of it is done. Just pay Russ, and pick up your engine. I did post pictures on the jeep strokers site awhile back. Break in oil showed up tonight, but I didn't get a chance to stop by and pick up some parts from the dealer. I have class tomorrow night (Tuesday), so final bolt together will wait until Wednesday.

Mark

 

[XJEEPER]

I'm conceiving a Russ-built stroker delivery/wheeling trip in Moab in your future..........

 

[Russ Pottenger]

I'm conceiving a Russ-built stroker delivery/wheeling trip in Moab in your future..........

The conversation with my wife will go something like this, ... We'll "Have To" go to Moab this year. It's for business.

Just finished up a couple of stroker's for Brian and Billy Behrend, and the McNamara brothers.
KOH will be exciting this year.

PM/Email goin your way Jeff

 

[StinkyFab]

Hey at least you can write it off as a business expense!

 

[markw]

Did some more work on it. Had a small clearance issue with the #2 tube on my Borla Header and the back corner of the drivers side engine plate. Nothing a little bit of grinding couldn't fix.



Here's the clearance issue. Stinkyfab is local to me, this is the first Borla he's heard of with an issue. It could be that everyone just did what I did and grind it down to clear, or Borla may have changed the header design. This is my 2nd Borla, and I know they moved the O2 sensor from the front to the back of the header. I'll let him chime in, but I'm predicting a small change in the design going forward.



Pro tip, or at least someone who's taken a bunch of these apart and back together. Start the bottom bolts (all of them) a couple threads before putting the intake on.



Throttle body... 62mm is huge compared to the stock one, 7mm larger or about .25 inches.



I finally get to use my 4.5" PSC pulley. These won't work with the 95 and earlier belt routing. Also please note, the stock PS pulley is 5.5", and in this belt configuration you have about a 2/3'rds wrap. The stock belt is 95", I read go 1 inch shorter, and I did that, and that put the adjuster almost at the top of it's travel. So then I thought, Pi is 3.14something, and if you drop an inch on the pulley your belt path will get 3" shorter _IF_ you do a 360 wrap, since we do a 2/3'rds I went back and got a 2" shorter belt. No go, well it's almost a no go, I could've forced it on, 95 was too long, 94 was ok, but a 93.5" belt is just right, plus it's the cheapest of the 3.



Oh, here's my first plasma cutter project, ARB compressor mount that bolts to the master cylinder bolts. Did this a year or two ago.

 

[markw]

Update: Motor is in, cam broken in, did the first oil change. Changed the break in oil and took it out to the range today. I have to climb from sea level to 4200 or so feet on 6 percent grade. Jeep is 33" tires Aw4 with 4.56's. Before I would have to use 3rd to maintain speed. Today it was part throttle, 70mph in 4th. Seat of the pants you can tell it's got way more torque.

Also an update on the mounts. I apparently have an older set as I got them from Cal. The corner I cut off has already been changed on the production mounts.

 

[rockclimber]

now you have no excuse for being slow on the trail.

 

[markw]

What are you talking about? I've _NEVER_ parked my junk at the trailhead.

 

[StinkyFab]

I was welding together some more engine mounts the other night scratching my head looking at the pic you sent me of where you needed to grind. Took me a little while to realize that the version you have got changed several years (and versions) ago. I honestly can't even remember when I gave those to Cal LOL.

 

[XJEEPER]

Mark, it's been 6 months so how about an update on the stroker.....dyno, mpg, video doing burnouts......