Engine Swap and a Road Trip? Yes Please.

[djohnston89]

My eagle has been sitting for longer than I'd care to admit after I found out that the engine was pretty much done. Now I'm getting things together to do the 4.0 swap, and I'm moving halfway across the country this June, which means a roadtrip!  So I figured I'd start a new thread and chronicle the whole process. I'm going to be doing a bunch of YouTube videos as I go.

You can watch the introduction video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNf92Q2y_bY

[Prafeston]

Sounds fun! I'll go follow the adventure!

[amarshall]

You're going to do a full swap by June and then drive across country?  Geez, way to make the rest of us look lazy! This will be fun to watch.

[eaglefreek]

That was an excellent video and yes, Dokken rocks. I saw them in the 80's when they opened for Judas Priest.  Where in CO are you moving to? If the Denver Metro area, you will have to worry about emission testing. Are you going EFI or keeping it carb?

Not to side track the thread, but to give you inspiration, here are two different vehicles I got running and then proceeded to drive cross country.
First is an IH Metro. When I bought it, it was sitting for 10 years. The previous owner thought it needed an engine rebuild, but turned out to just need the carb rebuilt and some new points. I did have to go through the brakes. Shortly after getting it running, I drove it from Denver to TN.



January 2016, I bought an Isuzu Trooper that needed an engine. I bought a wrecked one for the engine and by April 15th, I had it running. May 19th, I got on the road for a trip to Moab, Utah and back. I put about 4,000 miles on it on that trip.

[vangremlin]

Where in CO are you moving to? If the Denver Metro area, you will have to worry about emission testing. Are you going EFI or keeping it carb?

What he said.  And its not just emissions testing, its also the visual inspection.  I believe that if you swap in the whole 4.0 including all the emissions related equipment for it, that this is an acceptable upgrade, however I think there is an extra step involved in getting it emissions approved.  Probably worth doing some homework on what is required.

And an advanced welcome to Colorado.  Once you're out here we'll have to shoot to have another mini-meet with the local Eagle gang.

[djohnston89]

Sorry for the slow reply guys, I'm actually in CO right now staying with my sister doing job interviews looking at houses etc etc. The emissions thing I am a bit worried about but only so much. I'll be north of Denver, looking at Longmont, Ft Collins and Loveland so I'll definitely be subjected to the testing, but a garage is on our list of must-haves and obviously it's not my only vehicle so I'll have a place to put it and time to get it ready.

 I kept all the factory stuff in a box, so I have it and worst case I can probably put it on  for the visual. I already have Gronk's kit for the motorcraft 2150 so I intend to make the necessary modifications to the factory manifold and run that on the new engine, but if I have to put the carter and all the factory stuff back on to get it through the visual then that's okay too, I'll worry about that once it's out here As far as tailpipe, gotta figure a crate engine with a new cat and a good tune shouldn't have too much of a problem!

My sister actually also mentioned the shop where she takes her XJ never does a visual, just tailpipe. Looking through the laws I didn't see it as a requirement, so maybe visual is county by county or even an inspector by inspector thing?  In VA visual inspection of emissions equipment is actually part of the safety inspection oddly enough which is handled separate from tail pipe emissions (which any vehicle older than 25 years is exempt from), but I've always been able to get my cars through that too so like I said, not terribly worried 

Btw, Eaglefreek that International is awesome! Between your post and a few too many episodes of Roadkill, I'm feelin pretty confident

[vangremlin]

I'm sure if you put some thought into it you'll find a way to pass the emissions test, visual and all.  Just didn't want you to be surprised once you got out here.

And if you've got a couple months, that should be enough time to get the new engine swapped in and get the Eagle back on the road.  It really shouldn't be that big of a project, especially since its not me doing it 

Looking forward to seeing your progress!

[djohnston89]

Right? It's just a couple of bolts and a yoink, how hard could it be 

[eaglefreek]

When did they start emissions testing up north? I don't recall them testing there when I lived there. The feed lots in Greeley are probably much worse than the cars.

[vangremlin]

When did they start emissions testing up north? I don't recall them testing there when I lived there. The feed lots in Greeley are probably much worse than the cars.

Low blow!  True, but low.

I think that area has been included for emissions testing for quite awhile.  I was surprised that Colorado Springs is not included in the testing area.

[djohnston89]

Greeley, that's the exact opposite of Hawaii isn't it?



I grew up within sniffing distance of Virginia's largest sewage treatment plant and I was still caught off guard by Greeley's.. uh... "unique" smell 

[vangremlin]

It's pretty pungent there in Greeley, for sure!

[djohnston89]

I've been meaning to update this thread for a while now, but I've been working on the car pretty much full tilt over the last few days and keep getting more stuff done. So the engine is out, as I'm sure most of you saw over on the facebook page. I must say it actually went remarkably smoothly, especially given it was my first time pulling an engine. So hopefully I'll have video edited and up on that sooner or later as well as I shot most of the process with my gopro.



Today I decided to tackle a bit of rust I noticed on the driver side in the engine bay, while the engine was out. It appears brake fluid leaked out of the master cylinder and did what it does.


So I wire wheeled the bejeezus out of it and cut out the compromised metal, then hit it with the naval jelly, inside and out because I know those frame rails like to rot from the inside once it starts.


Then to further prevent rust, I hosed the inside with POR-15 using a little harbor freight detail gun.


Now, the only welder I have is a little DC inverter buzz box stick welder, which is really not the ideal tool for welding 16 gauge sheet which is what that area is. So I dragged some rusty scrap I had out and did some practice and did some welds I was quite proud of


With renewed confidence in my welding equipment, I cut a piece of clean 16 gauge to fit over the repair area and booger welded it into place


Then I promptly forgot how to weld and did some of the sloppiest stitching I've ever done. 


Its ugly as sin, but it's not going anywhere. In an attempt to make it look less hideous I shmooed over the whole bead with some JB weld. Hopefully once I squirt some paint on it, it wont look so bad. Maybe I'll hit it with seam sealer before that too.


On a brighter note, something special showed up for me at the local Advance Auto!

Ended up going with an ATK 4.0 crate motor, Interestingly ATK doesn't really care that it's going in an '87 Eagle (instead of a '93 Cherokee which is what I had them look it up under) as far as the warranty goes, so I'm good on that end for 3 years or 100k. Originally I was going to try to find a used 4.0 but everyone around here wanted crazy money for high mileage motors so I figured I'd spring for factory fresh.

[eaglefreek]

I wish there was a like button. This is the time to take care of  anything you can think of in the engine bay.

[vangremlin]

Very cool!  Can't wait to see what's in the box!