97 needs a motor, Stroker crate advice needed

[Ben824]

So, if I may ask, what did you end up doing?

Well my budget changed due to wedding costs being higher than anticipated so that left me no longer able to consider to do a stroker. I was considering a good used engine until I found a deal of a lifetime on a no miles rebuilt 92 YJ 4.0 for $850. I took a gamble that it was indeed rebuilt but it had new freeze plugs and the crank turned good with no binding and obvious compression in the cylinders. When I got it home I pulled the valve cover and saw all new valve locks and seals and the valves looked perfect. There was also still assembly lube on all the push rods where they meet the rockers. So it was a good buy to get the Jeep rolling again which I desperately needed switching jobs and losing my work truck.


But for a stroker engine, after much research I discovered that there just wasn't a good stroker crate motor for what I wanted. There is one company that does a crate motor called S&J Engines that builds Jeep stroker crate engines and they will do a custom build based on what you want and just add the extras to the base cost.

But most of my education came from Russ Pottenger. He is a brilliant engine builder and one of the pioneers of the Jeep stroker. He spent nearly 2 hours on the phone with me over two different phone calls educating me on engine building. He builds a mean stroker and taught me a well built engine can be done to run on regular 87 octane and still make 280ish HP. So after talking to him and looking researching different recipes, this is the recipe that I will go with:

- Keith Black Silv-O-Lite 2229C-060 pistons dished to 28cc
- AMC Jeep 4.2L crankshaft, Scat or reconditioned whichever can be done cheaper
- Jeep 4.0L connecting rods
- Comp Cams 68-232-4
- Zero Deck
- Overbore .060
- Aiming for a distance of .043 at TDC between piston and head with Mopar/Victor .043" head gasket
- Port and polished head with LS1 valves and appropriate springs for the cam

This is about the same recipe that Russ Pottenger does for his low octane street stroker that he says makes 285 HP and 315 torque. My only changes to his recipe for cost savings is using my 4.0 connecting rods instead of the 4.2 shorter rods. This saved the extra machine work to deck the block for the shorter rods and also saved me the cost of buying the shorter rods and using the 4.0 rods I already had. This will be how I rebuild my original 4.0 later on in the future. And I can turn around and sell this 92 4.0 as a low mileage used 4.0 when I eventually swap it out for my new stroker when the time comes.

 

[Red99XJVT]

Cool. Thanks for sharing. You said that you put a new motor in so, out of curiosity, I poked around and saw your thread about the motor situation. I learned a lot and I think I will be going that route. I need more power for towing my boat and I would rather own two Cherokees, one with a striker and one as a backup/ daily driver, than buy a 40k pickup which I don't otherwise need. I am thinking a @300hp/300ft Lbs stroker purposefully built for my needs might be the way to go.

 

[Ben824]

Cool. Thanks for sharing. You said that you put a new motor in so, out of curiosity, I poked around and saw your thread about the motor situation. I learned a lot and I think I will be going that route. I need more power for towing my boat and I would rather own two Cherokees, one with a striker and one as a backup/ daily driver, than buy a 40k pickup which I don't otherwise need. I am thinking a @300hp/300ft Lbs stroker purposefully built for my needs might be the way to go.

A stroker Jeep engine to me is a no brainer. Doing a V8 swap requires so much modification and a new transmission. Plus if you want fuel injection then there is all the wiring to make everything work.

But with a stroker, no modifications outside of the engine need to be made and the computer can handle running a stroker with only an upgrade to the fuel injectors to ones that flow more fuel. Other than that, everything can be used in stock form. Yes, its pricey to have a stroker built, but the cost beats out the ease of installation over a V8.