My YJ
Posted: Thu Oct 04, 2012 2:45 pm
I have 1990 YJ that my wife and I picked up over a year ago. It was supposed to be my "toy". It was also supposed to have a nicely rebuilt 4.2L. It made it home alright, but it ran a little rich (just a carb tune, right?)
Here's the picture of it when I first brought it home:
Opened the hood to scratch my head at "rebuilt".
Where we lived at the time it needed to be inspected, so I tried to adjust the carb a bit and lean it out a bit... It "seemed" to help, but I failed emissions. Once for a gas cap (had to get a new one) and once for actual emissions. I can't remember the exact numbers, but I was way off. I didn't have a garage at the time so i took it down to a shop to have them look at it. I was given the spiel that "all the emissions stuff has been lopped off, so we'd have to put it back to stock and that'd run you about $3K". So I laughed in their face and drove off and parked it. Wasn't sure what I was going to do.
Then we moved. In talking to the neighbor I mentioned having to maybe swap an engine in when he mentioned "they don't do emissions testing here". Well, I went down right away and paid my fine (I was unable to register the vehicle until it passed emissions in my last place, so I got hit with the max registration fees and whatnot) and started driving it around. That's when things got a little interesting. There was a little tapping at first, something I attributed to valves--I'm not a great engine expert, but usually my guesses are near. This time, things got worse and the last time I fired it up I heard some definite knocking. Not the lifter-is-bad noise, but full on knock. Now, again, I could be wrong, but I had already had my doubts about the rebuild. And since I had a garage, i thought it was fitting I had one on-the-go project.
I was just going to tear the engine down a bit:
But, then I said "aww, what the heck", and got carried away:
I had a J4000 in the meantime that I decided was too far gone to do a restoration with, and so I pulled the nice AMC 360, TH400, and D20 out of it in preparation for a swap.
And then things got a little hectic. I had purchased (before, during, and after) an M715 and a Grand Wagoneer, and traded my ZJ in on a used WK--that developed its own problems--and then my CJ7.
So now I was stuck with too many projects and not enough engines. I decided that with everything else running a V8 (aside from the M715 that doesn't start now, but when it does it runs an old Tornado 230), I needed a nice fuel efficient (well, as fuel efficient as I can get) rig
So I picked up an old '97 XJ engine, complete with wiring harness, computer, alternator, and starter:
A couple of months ago I stuffed the 4.0L in there:
So now, I'm in the process of cleaning up the valve cover, waiting for some parts on order, and sourcing a new inline fuel pump and lines. Then I'll try and wrap this all up and get her running again.
The trick is going to be whether or not I get a Hesco CPS relocation kit or go with some alternative. I'm still researching that. Thing is, I need to try and get this done in the next month... HA!
)
Here's the picture of it when I first brought it home:
Opened the hood to scratch my head at "rebuilt".
Where we lived at the time it needed to be inspected, so I tried to adjust the carb a bit and lean it out a bit... It "seemed" to help, but I failed emissions. Once for a gas cap (had to get a new one) and once for actual emissions. I can't remember the exact numbers, but I was way off. I didn't have a garage at the time so i took it down to a shop to have them look at it. I was given the spiel that "all the emissions stuff has been lopped off, so we'd have to put it back to stock and that'd run you about $3K". So I laughed in their face and drove off and parked it. Wasn't sure what I was going to do.
Then we moved. In talking to the neighbor I mentioned having to maybe swap an engine in when he mentioned "they don't do emissions testing here". Well, I went down right away and paid my fine (I was unable to register the vehicle until it passed emissions in my last place, so I got hit with the max registration fees and whatnot) and started driving it around. That's when things got a little interesting. There was a little tapping at first, something I attributed to valves--I'm not a great engine expert, but usually my guesses are near. This time, things got worse and the last time I fired it up I heard some definite knocking. Not the lifter-is-bad noise, but full on knock. Now, again, I could be wrong, but I had already had my doubts about the rebuild. And since I had a garage, i thought it was fitting I had one on-the-go project.
I was just going to tear the engine down a bit:
But, then I said "aww, what the heck", and got carried away:
I had a J4000 in the meantime that I decided was too far gone to do a restoration with, and so I pulled the nice AMC 360, TH400, and D20 out of it in preparation for a swap.
And then things got a little hectic. I had purchased (before, during, and after) an M715 and a Grand Wagoneer, and traded my ZJ in on a used WK--that developed its own problems--and then my CJ7.
So now I was stuck with too many projects and not enough engines. I decided that with everything else running a V8 (aside from the M715 that doesn't start now, but when it does it runs an old Tornado 230), I needed a nice fuel efficient (well, as fuel efficient as I can get) rig
So I picked up an old '97 XJ engine, complete with wiring harness, computer, alternator, and starter:
A couple of months ago I stuffed the 4.0L in there:
So now, I'm in the process of cleaning up the valve cover, waiting for some parts on order, and sourcing a new inline fuel pump and lines. Then I'll try and wrap this all up and get her running again.
The trick is going to be whether or not I get a Hesco CPS relocation kit or go with some alternative. I'm still researching that. Thing is, I need to try and get this done in the next month... HA!
)
