Hi all,
Wanted to say 'hi' and share a few photo's of my new project - a 1979 Cherokee W/T 360 TH400.
I've been lurking on the forum for the past two months since acquiring this rig, and have learned so much. Thank you to all of the members who have shared their knowledge on this forum. Reading your posts has allowed me to fix quite a few small things (like get my oil gauge working) and I appreciate the help since this is new territory for me. I've also been inspired by the build threads.
I've had other Jeeps - XJ's and and MJ but never anything with a carburator and more than 1 cylinder
I put about 100 miles on the Cherokee before the tin worm was unleashed on our northern MN roads so it is happily tucked in the garage by the wood stove for the winter repairs although I had to take a break to clean carbon out of my gas direct inject car with dental picks....that's another story.
Currently replacing the timing set: I bought the Edelbrock roller chain from BJ's (great service and fast shipping) to replace my very loose set. Oil chamfers were plugged with sludge so my thought is the chain was starved for lube?
Engine seems tight otherwise (haven't checked compression yet) with tons of power, no smoke and good oil pressure. I get ~20 PSI at slow hot idle and 40's when driving from what I have seen (I'm running SAE 30 with ZDDP added). The oil pump gears are worn into the oil filter adapter and I'm planning on adding the stainless midplate from BJ's. Gears look okay but are scored some.
The floors are "well-ventilated." I'm hoping to get the engine sorted and then tackle the floors this winter with new pans. The build threads have been helpful. One body mount (rear passenger) is rotted out but otherwise seems solid. The rear inner fender liners are very thin and I will need to figure out how to fabricate those...
Thanks for looking!
J
PS - I used aging reality TV star filters on the picture below of the Jeep - not quite that clean up close