1981 Cherokee Chief - Rustard - 2WD 2JZ

[SJohn]

I have got around to working on this thing so I figured it's time to start a build thread for the yellow 81 Cherokee Chief I picked up a couple months ago. After almost 5k miles in the J20 this year I started to get an itch for another project, one with possibly more legroom and more seating (the J20 isn't going anywhere) so I found a Cherokee in Tulsa that followed me home. Perfect timing as I was just about to move into a house with a 2 car garage so naturally the vehicle count needed to be a round number 3 > 4 right?

Anyway I have dubbed this thing rustard as it is RUSTY... and yellow. It's a 1981 Cherokee chief, 360, 727, NP229 with a seized engine, bad rear wheel bearings, so holy it was Fred Flintstone's first car and blessed by the Pope. But since my plans are to commit Jeep sacrilege and turn this into a 2wd street rod style car, none of that will matter. Purists Beware
Current plans: Ford Crown Vic front end, ford 8.8 rear axle, modern engine (undecided), manual transmission (undecided)

So far I have just begun tearing into it and getting ready to rip the heart out, fluids drained, radiator, condenser, headlights and wiring removed and prepping for front clip removal. All of the drivetrain from this Jeep is for sale - engine, trans, tcase, 44 front, AMC 20 rear, driveshafts, radiator, engine wire harness. DM me if interested, I prefer to sell it all together.




A Cherokee-ish toy I found at a local antique shop!

[Yeller]

Thanks for removing this from my radar

No worries if sacrilege abuse from me, it’s getting loved, that is what really matters. If you’ve seen my Yellow machine you’d understand my opinion of who cars what you do as long as it it obvious what it is, it gets used and gets loved, that’s what’s important.

PS: shoulda hollered when you picked it up, I’ve been happy to come help load it up.

[SJohn]

Thanks for removing this from my radar

No worries if sacrilege abuse from me, it’s getting loved, that is what really matters. If you’ve seen my Yellow machine you’d understand my opinion of who cars what you do as long as it it obvious what it is, it gets used and gets loved, that’s what’s important.

PS: shoulda hollered when you picked it up, I’ve been happy to come help load it up.

I definitely could have used the help, this thing was hell to push on the trailer. That was a very last minute trip, since the J20 didn't have a receiver hitch at the time I had to quickly borrow a tow vehicle and find a uhaul trailer on Thursday afternoon. The Tahoe pulled the "miata" very well though.

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[Mopar_guy]

Just an FYI, because I'm doing almost the same thing, a 67-72 Chevy long bed truck frame, shortened 17" for the wheelbase, will fit under it really nice.

[SJohn]

Just an FYI, because I'm doing almost the same thing, a 67-72 Chevy long bed truck frame, shortened 17" for the wheelbase, will fit under it really nice.

I have read about that swap on Greg's build - the blue cherokee with the turbo hemi swap. I am leaning more towards staying with the Jeep frame because the vic front end already has disk brakes, rack and pinion steering and coilover suspension in a neat package. The Ford 8.8 can be found with disks and limited slip diff. To me it seems simpler to add the newer suspension to the Jeep frame than swap an equally old frame in that will also need suspension/brake/steering upgrades.

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[SJohn]

Small update, front clip is off, getting ready for plucking the heart out.

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[SJohn]

Picked up the new engine for the Cherokee last night, Toyota 2JZGE VVTI 3.0L inline 6. When I said this project was gonna be sacrilegious I meant it! Plan is to build it for a turbo and run a 6 speed manual. The transmission will be the tricky part as the typical Toyota 6 speed found behind these engines aren't cheap. Current thoughts are find a tremec T56 magnum or Tr6060 at a decent price and use an adapter. I've got alot of learning to do on these engines!

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[tgreese]

Interesting choice of engines. What's your reasoning behind this choice? It was available? You like Toyotas?

This is a gasoline engine that came in Toyota cars like the Supra. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_JZ_engine

Toyota makes some excellent engines, but this seems to be a modest sized engine with a modest power output (200hp?). I also note that Toyota 4x4 vehicles comparable to our FSJs don't get great mileage. I would contend that the Jeep chassis will have way more drag than a modern vehicle, and a gasoline engine transplant isn't going to change efficiency very much. If economy is the target, I would expect a Toyota engine in a Cherokee would not see any remarkable improvement over the factory equipment. Maybe.

[Stuka]

Picked up the new engine for the Cherokee last night, Toyota 2JZGE VVTI 3.0L inline 6. When I said this project was gonna be sacrilegious I meant it! Plan is to build it for a turbo and run a 6 speed manual. The transmission will be the tricky part as the typical Toyota 6 speed found behind these engines aren't cheap. Current thoughts are find a tremec T56 magnum or Tr6060 at a decent price and use an adapter. I've got alot of learning to do on these engines!

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FSJ's are one of the few vehicles where you can't really be sacrilegious when it comes to drive trains. I love nice AMC build. But lets be frank, AMC has not existed for 35 years. Parts are getting harder to find, and their prices are going up.

To your advantage, FSJ's were designed to come with i6 engines, so they have a good mount of space for such a long engine.

The 2J is a fantastic engine. Though its also known for very little torque, so drivability may suffer a bit. I know Mike Finnigan has made comments about having to rev the 2J in his Charger to the moon so that he doesn't stall it. And as heavy as a '68 Charger is, its lighter than an FSJ.

But I like the idea of being different than every LS swapped Jeep out there!

Interesting choice of engines. What's your reasoning behind this choice? It was available? You like Toyotas?

This is a gasoline engine that came in Toyota cars like the Supra. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_JZ_engine

Toyota makes some excellent engines, but this seems to be a modest sized engine with a modest power output (200hp?).

The 2JZ in stock form was bound by the "300hp rule" that Japan had at the time. But its really very easy to get 500hp out of them, and you can make 1000hp reliably with some forged internals.

[Yeller]

I’m excited to see where this goes. I like things that are different. As for the sacrilege, your going to have to try really hard to beat my LS powered 74 bronco atleast according to some circles lol

[SJohn]

Interesting choice of engines. What's your reasoning behind this choice? It was available? You like Toyotas?

This is a gasoline engine that came in Toyota cars like the Supra. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_JZ_engine

Toyota makes some excellent engines, but this seems to be a modest sized engine with a modest power output (200hp?). I also note that Toyota 4x4 vehicles comparable to our FSJs don't get great mileage. I would contend that the Jeep chassis will have way more drag than a modern vehicle, and a gasoline engine transplant isn't going to change efficiency very much. If economy is the target, I would expect a Toyota engine in a Cherokee would not see any remarkable improvement over the factory equipment. Maybe.

I decided 2JZ because I wanted to try something new and challenging that's a bit off the beaten path. I already have a LS swapped J20 that I absolutely love but I didn't want to do the same thing over again. The concept here is a street rod style build so 4x4 and economy can be thrown out the door. The 2JZ is also such a popular motor in the JDM world that there's plenty of swap parts and information out there to make it a little bit easier.

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[SJohn]

Picked up the new engine for the Cherokee last night, Toyota 2JZGE VVTI 3.0L inline 6. When I said this project was gonna be sacrilegious I meant it! Plan is to build it for a turbo and run a 6 speed manual. The transmission will be the tricky part as the typical Toyota 6 speed found behind these engines aren't cheap. Current thoughts are find a tremec T56 magnum or Tr6060 at a decent price and use an adapter. I've got alot of learning to do on these engines!

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FSJ's are one of the few vehicles where you can't really be sacrilegious when it comes to drive trains. I love nice AMC build. But lets be frank, AMC has not existed for 35 years. Parts are getting harder to find, and their prices are going up.

To your advantage, FSJ's were designed to come with i6 engines, so they have a good mount of space for such a long engine.

The 2J is a fantastic engine. Though its also known for very little torque, so drivability may suffer a bit. I know Mike Finnigan has made comments about having to rev the 2J in his Charger to the moon so that he doesn't stall it. And as heavy as a '68 Charger is, its lighter than an FSJ.

But I like the idea of being different than every LS swapped Jeep out there!

Interesting choice of engines. What's your reasoning behind this choice? It was available? You like Toyotas?

This is a gasoline engine that came in Toyota cars like the Supra. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_JZ_engine

Toyota makes some excellent engines, but this seems to be a modest sized engine with a modest power output (200hp?).

The 2JZ in stock form was bound by the "300hp rule" that Japan had at the time. But its really very easy to get 500hp out of them, and you can make 1000hp reliably with some forged internals.

Right, weight reduction is something I do plan to address. Ditching the four-wheel drive components and front axle should net a good amount of savings. Inner fenders and most of the core support are also in the list for the chopping block. A quick Google search shows 3560 curb weight for the 1994 Toyota supra. I think the Cherokee is somewhere around 6500 so I have quite a challenge ahead of me!

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[letank]

curb weight is in the 4800 lbs for the wags... chero could be a bit less, doors with hinges are quite heavy

a quick random search -sorry I put my YM- list for less at 4500lbs

https://www.automobile-catalog.com/car/ ... #gsc.tab=0

and for the 81 Chero, a bit under 4100lbs with the V8 -scroll down, the first list is for the 4.2-

https://www.automobile-catalog.com/make ... #gsc.tab=0

You probably have the GVWR which is about 6200lbs

[SJohn]

curb weight is in the 4800 lbs for the wags... chero could be a bit less, doors with hinges are quite heavy

a quick random search -sorry I put my YM- list for less at 4500lbs

https://www.automobile-catalog.com/car/ ... #gsc.tab=0

and for the 81 Chero, a bit under 4100lbs with the V8 -scroll down, the first list is for the 4.2-

https://www.automobile-catalog.com/make ... #gsc.tab=0

You probably have the GVWR which is about 6200lbs

Yep probably saw the GVWR and was thrown off. Well that's good to know!

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[Mopar_guy]

I decided 2JZ because I wanted to try something new and challenging that's a bit off the beaten path. I already have a LS swapped J20 that I absolutely love but I didn't want to do the same thing over again. The concept here is a street rod style build so 4x4 and economy can be thrown out the door. The 2JZ is also such a popular motor in the JDM world that there's plenty of swap parts and information out there to make it a little bit easier.

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This is a really cool build. Like you, I like different swaps as well. I did a Gen 3 Hemi swap on my 73 Javelin and it sure gets a lot of attention. I drive my car a lot and parts availability is a big issue for me so having a modern driveline is the best way to go IMO. It also makes it more re saleable in the future because most younger people don't want to mess with carburetors and old engines that don't make much power without spending a ton of money on it. With so much aftermarket parts being crap these days doesn't help the situation either. LS swaps are like belly buttons now just like small block Chevy swaps were 20 years ago. Good luck on this, I'll be following.

[SJohn]

Pulled the AMC drive train out this weekend and set the 2J "in" the jeep. I don't plan to work on the mounts until I get the front suspension mocked up and can get an idea of oil pan clearance to the vic sub frame. Plan is to pick up an engine stand and start tearing the engine down and gathering parts for build-back. The AMC stuff is for sale, engine seized but transmission and tcase are good.

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[SJohn]

No major updates, steadily stripping the body in preparation for rust repair. Dash, steering column, brake pedal and bracket and everything else on the firewall removed. Continue to find more rust, not surprising but also not an exciting find.




The most concerning rust is around the windshield on the pinch welds. What is the best method for repairing this? I am contemplating gutting the body entirely for media blasting and starting the rust repair knowing for sure where all the issues are.

[Yeller]

If you can, that is the best way, media blast, epoxy prime to control flash rust and start fixing. I know a lot of guys forgo doing the priming step but they spend hours cleaning the flash rust.

[rocklaurence]

OK, just thinking out loud. These FSJ wind shield [WS] frames rot and leak. Partly because of the trim screw. Partly because of the old gasket design. Has anyone modified the WS frame to allow a bonded/glued in WS? I know they do it on Hot Rods etc--what's involved in mounting the glass without the BIG Rubber gasket?

[Yeller]

Been there done that....LOL not on a FSJ but still had curved glass.

I made a new window box that fit the windshield, took forever..... looked great but literally took me weeks and a bunch of hours. The issue is the windshield is curved, so a custom piece of glass really isn't an option, so material has to be added to match the windsheild within 1/4 - 3/16", all the way around the outside a. doable, just takes some dedication to make happen.