I am exchanging a core for a new motor with a warranty. Basically, Scott bought a used 5.3 and had it in the Super Chief for a year maybe and he spun a bearing. Then used it as his core return for a new motor through Autozone that has a 3 year warranty with ZERO miles. He also let me know that the original motor had many heat stressed/cracked weathertight connections and the new motor did not. That is why he also purchased a new harness from Painless with new weathertight connections. Worst case is that I can go pick up the missing items at a local junkyard. I like the advise and want to do this only one time.j20brett wrote:I would not buy the 5.3 in pieces, personally. You can pick up a full takeout for $500 to 600 with ecm, harness and all. The small parts add up quick.
From what I can tell online, full engine setups with 150K+ miles on them go for $800-$1200 so I would assume that they will be a little cheaper at a junkyard. I would rather spend the extra money for a warranty than take the chance.
The seats themselves are Bestop Aqua seats that Bestop does NOT make replacement neoprene coversStuka wrote:BRUTUS wrote:What kind of seats are these? custom seat mounts or original?
for them. I had them for ~10 years before the neoprene really started to degrade and open up. I wanted to replace the covers before they completely opened up so that templates could be made from the original neoprene panels. The seat mounts are the original FSJ sliders for bucket seats. Classic Jeep engineering made the FSJ sliders with nearly identical seat bolt pattern to that of the CJ's so after opening up the holes just slightly, they worked great.
