2000 XJ daily driver rebuild

I was looking for another vehicle to drive that my wife would also drive if needed. We needed it to be somewhat fun, low entry price, on the low end of repair price(relative, I know), 4wd, and something that I could eventually have more fun with. I couldn't find anything besides a 97+ Cherokee that fit this. I had a 97 some years ago and I loved it. It was reliable and capable.

We found a 2000 with an engine noise that sounded bad. I figured I could score a used engine and use the current block for a stroker down the road. The jeep was fairly clean, the price was decent, and I was sincerely tired of dealing with people. Not sure why, but people I encountered trying to sell Cherokees seemed to have one thing in common. They were all rude, terrible at responding to calls or texts, all thought their jeeps were leak free and made of gold, etc. I noticed a similar trend when looking for a used engine. My towel was thrown in.

Engine torn apart, spare engine that had bean beaten pretty bad (in case I needed a new block), and then I scored a 4.2 engine.

I got on jeepstrokers and started asking questions and looking around. I talked with Russ Pottinger and besides being a really nice guy he was extremely informative and helpful. I ordered some of the forged pistons he sells along with some of his bushed scat rods and rings. My block is at the machine shop with the crank and my Jeep is on it's way to having the same displacement as my 06 Tundra (4.7).

Slapped out piston and new shiny stuff.

The patient

What CR did order the pistons in? What cam are you going to run?
My 2k build. https://naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1140839

RCP Phx said:

What CR did order the pistons in? What cam are you going to run?
My 2k build. https://naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1140839

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26cc pistons so around 9.2 static and I'm most likely running my stock cam for now. The bushed rods and forged pistons cut into the cam budget a bit. I might leave the cam and run some 1.7:1 roller rockers down the road.

Cams are cheap, talk to Russ about one, I have a set of slightly used Harlandsharp 1.6 rockers that are For Sale and work with his new cam design.

RCP Phx said:

Cams are cheap, talk to Russ about one, I have a set of slightly used Harlandsharp 1.6 rockers that are For Sale and work with his new cam design.

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I was going to talk with Russ about a cam. I know they aren't too expensive, but if I need different springs they start to get pretty pricey. A $200-250 cam can turn into a $500 upgrade if imy not careful. How much do you want for your rockers? I was really thinking about doing the 1.7:1, but it's still worth considering.

I'm a little confused at the moment about my power expectations. I was thinking with some diy head/intake porting, the stroker, the increased compression, bigger injectors, better flowing muffler, and eventual bigger throttle body, I might see somewhere around 240+ at the crank. After your build thread I'm wondering if I wouldn't be more like 250+. I guess anything above 230 is going to make the 31" tires feel a lot smaller anyway.

PM sent........

Is your rig a Federal or Cali model? What are your plans for a exhaust manifold? Are you building a 4.5 because that ring is for standard bore pistons -3.875"?

RCP Phx said:

Is your rig a Federal or Cali model? What are your plans for a exhaust manifold? Are you building a 4.5 because that ring is for standard bore pistons -3.875"?

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Federal model without the extra cat shenanigans.
Probably just port the exhaust manifold a little for now.
The engine was already .03 over bore and developed bad piston slap before I purchased it. I still don't know why, but it had low miles after a rebuild so it's interesting to say the least. With the cylinder scarred I wasn't thinking it could make 30 over again so Russ mentioned that .06 over wasn't a big deal and I figured that's better than custom ordering pistons.

Not that you asked, but I also went with the 26cc piston to hopefully leave room for a little forced induction down the road. Maybe that's unrealistic, but then again I'm silly like that.

Totally off-topic. Does anybody know how to edit a post? I often fat finger words and wouldn't mind being able to go back and change an if to and it and so on

What are you doing for a cylinder head? Don't put any time or money in a factory 0331!

RCP Phx said:

What are you doing for a cylinder head? Don't put any time or money in a factory 0331!

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It's an aftermarket casting that looks new. I'm assuming the new head isn't a coincidence. The factory head probably cracked and then the engine got a new head and a rebuild. I have a pre 99 head that I'm going to try and refresh down the road maybe with bigger valves and such.

Don't forget you've got to deal with the coil rail, specially on the earlier head.
https://naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1148702

RCP Phx said:

Don't forget you've got to deal with the coil rail, specially on the earlier head.
https://naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1148702

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Yeah I'm not sure if I would just make brackets to hold the funky coil rail or convert it over to coil packs. Brackets would be easy enough I think. I do sheet metal design and fabrication for work so I usually fall back on solidworks and sheet.

Here's a couple more for your viewing specially if your thinking about boost!
https://naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1156312
https://naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1156848

RCP Phx said:

Here's a couple more for your viewing specially if your thinking about boost!
https://naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1156312
https://naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1156848

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That's great. Now you have me wanting a way to shut off the ignition until I reach a certain psi of oil pressure. It's something I've thought about anyway, but I didn't think about the obvious benefits it would have on startup. I was just thinking it would be better if my wife was driving and it lost oil pressure that it shut the ignition off and hopefully didn't kill the engine.
I'll have to research how to cut the ignition below a safe oil pressure now.

That would be easy, the MSD had a built in "shut-down" trigger!

OOPS , "has" a shut-down trigger.

In this pic it is the yellow/red cable that you can do anything you want with it(safety/security,all the above). It also has "stepped" timing retards for boost or nitrous apps.

I should add that Russ was very interested in this because he became a Holley/MSD dealer.

I got my block yesterday along with my crank from the machine shop. I had them get me rod and main bearings since they knew what the crank was ground to. I guess there was a mixup and they got me 4.2 mains. The rod bearings look fine although I didn't plastigauge them yet. The mains were obviously different with a different tang location than the 4.0.
I told them to check the deck and they surfaced it, but I don't know how much. Hopefully it was a light skim pass. Anyway it looks nice and hopefully I can get the correct main bearings 06over because just checking now I only see .04 over.

Block is cleaned and cocoon'd until I get mains to plastigauge the clearances.
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