• NAXJA is having its 18th annual March Membership Drive!!!
    Everyone who joins or renews during March will be entered into a drawing!
    More Information - Join/Renew
  • Welcome to the new NAXJA Forum! If your password does not work, please use "Forgot your password?" link on the log-in page. Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] if we can provide any assistance.

Replacing engine

Trebor

NAXJA Forum User
Location
arizona
I'm considering replacing the engine on our 91 Cherokee, it's rattling and clunking away. I friend of mine is selling a 2000 Cherokee engine. Will this be an easy swap? How much adapting of the engine will it take or should I just look for a closer year engine?
Thanks
 
You will need to swap over the distributor and probably all the accessories from the 91. Might have to swap valve cover and manifolds as well.

I just put a 99 engine in my 96 by swapping everything over. Only issue was there is no place for the temp sensor at the back of the head. I moved my sensor to the radiator bung, but a better place would be the t-stat housing if you can figure out how to get both sensors mounted together. It just goes to the gauge on in the instrument panel anyway.

Are you running a closed radiator system? If so, it might be hard to bleed the cooling system without the sensor hole at the rear of the head.
 
Trebor said:
Would there be any issues that would be computer realted between the two motors?
Not if you switch over the manifolds, distributor, sensors and accessories.

That's the nice thing about the 4.0, with the exception of the Renix (87-89) engines, which have a different head port design, you can swap them pretty easy. Heck, I even ran a Renix head on my 96 and had no problems. Despite what some poeple say, it can be done and it will work. I just had to alter the gasket to work.
 
Back
Top