4.0L HO longblock to Renix swap

After blowing the head gasket and developing a nasty knock with other bad noises in my 90 XJ Renix 4.0L, we pulled the motor in favor of a 95 4.0L HO. The plan was to use the longblock with the Renix intake/exhaust manifolds and distributor, to eliminate any electronics swapovers. We've found the intake ports are raised...can the lower edge of the head be chamfered to match the Renix intake ports? It looks like the top and sides match, as do the exhaust ports, only the lower edge is 3/8" different.

There's a tons of info out there, sorting thru all the seaarch results is pretty overwhelming. Plan B would be to use the HO intake, either exhaustmanifold?, and put the Renix TPS on with the homebrew adpater (http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1003642)

It can be done. I've done it 3 times myself. If you don't feel like doing it, you'll be okay also. I've port-matched the HO heads to the Renix gasket and the intake and exhaust manifolds to the gasket. Probably overkill.

No matter what, be sure to use the intake/exhaust gasket for a 90.

I'll be"OK" not chamfering the HO head to match the Renix intake....but won't that step between the Renix intake to HO raised ports kill any flow, i.e. the whole point in using the HO head instead of the Renix head?

Why use the Renix gasket? After laying both the old gaskets on the renix intake and HO head, we decided the HO gasket would be best. What'd we miss?

I have match ported HO heads to Renix manifolds with great success. Working on my 3rd one now. Because the HO gasket doesn't seal well with the Renix manifold.

I was planing on using a modern block from around 2000 with my 88 head and everything else. I know it may not be the best way to go but finding parts here is not easy

You should be fine as long as the bosses on the block will accept your alternator, motor mount brackets, and AC bracket.