Lots of work done today. Didn't quite get the engine in, but I'm pretty close. I was having some trouble getting it lined up with the bell housing. If anyone has any tips or tricks on that account I'd be happy to hear them
What I did get done today was getting the new crate motor all dressed up and I actually got really lucky in that I appear to have dodged two of the biggest hang ups I've heard of regarding the 4.0 swap. First of all the boss's for the axle bracket on the back of the block were already tapped
So that saved me a lot of work, but even better the motor mount/diff bracket on the driver side on my eagle (and maybe this applies to all late '87 and 88 eagles) is different than others I've seen and appears to be made to accommodate the 4.0 block. I didn't have to grind down that rib on the block, nor did I have to grind the bracket to fit, it just bolted right up. My guess is in late production they were gearing up to switch the eagles to the 4.0 in the event that production continued so they engineered a bracket that would fit both engines. (EDIT: You still have to do something about the bracket on the back of the motor, that one is not easily modified so grinding the block is probably the best option)
Here is my bracket:
And here is a bracket TheDarkSideofWill on the JeepStrokers forum had to modify:
as you can see the bump where he had to grind is less pronounced on my 87's bracket. In these next pictures you can also see that the later one has an opening in it where the other one does not and a support brace which is in a completely different place.
Anyway, I thought that was kind of interesting, but here's some photos of shiny stuff
Here's a photo of the engine partially dressed. I had originally planned to paint the motor itself AMC blue and the valve cover black, but ATK had already painted it gloss black so now I'm doing the opposite. The valve cover currently on it is a junkyard 4.0 cover I cleaned up a while back, and it's on there were two bolts and no gasket just to keep everything under it cleaned and undamaged during installation. Now that I know it fits, I'll be installing the original 258 aluminum cover I have, but only after I've primed the oil pump and ensured the valve-train is getting oil prior to first start up.
Speaking of the 258 valve cover, I've painted and cleaned it and it's ready to go:
Actually, a lot of painting went on today. I try to get it done between other tasks so I had this little assembly line going
Here's a photo of the oil pickup screen. That was a bit of the pain in the butt as the special tool to install them appears to be made of unobtainium in Northern VA. Luckily my Dad was able to get ahold of one so I didnt have to keep goofing off trying to 'freeze it smaller' with an upside can of duster gas. (That trick totally does work for removing dizzy's on old EFI fords though, ask me how I know
)
Not sure why I didn't get one of the engine fully dressed, it looks a lot more complete with the oil pan, the flex plate and the harmonic balancer installed. I'll make sure to snap one tomorrow, although now that it's in the the bay you can really see those parts that well.
Anyway that's all for now, hopefully I'll be reporting back tomorrow with news that it's fully installed!
Topic: Engine Swap and a Road Trip? Yes Please. (Read 11601 times)