XJ Owner from KC!

[Keboh]

Hey everyone! I'm new to the board, but not new to tinkering with Jeeps. I've had a '93 XJ (left it stock, lots of maint.) and a '00 WJ (lifted 3 inches). This is my new project...

1996 Cherokee, basically stock (for the moment). it has ~360,000 miles on it and is running strong!

I'm in the process of fully rebuilding a 4.0 for it that I'll be dropping in with an AW4 with about half the miles that the one in the car has. Come spring time, I'll be lifting it 3.5" with 31x10.5 rubber. I'm in prep mode for a trip down the TAT that me and a couple friends are doing next June, so hopefully I'll have enough time to get her ready. In the meantime, I'll be here, getting good ideas on what to take with me and how best to prepare.

 

[Jake Wettern | iamjake]

Hey everyone! I'm new to the board, but not new to tinkering with Jeeps. I've had a '93 XJ (left it stock, lots of maint.) and a '00 WJ (lifted 3 inches). This is my new project...

1996 Cherokee, basically stock (for the moment). it has ~360,000 miles on it and is running strong!

I'm in the process of fully rebuilding a 4.0 for it that I'll be dropping in with an AW4 with about half the miles that the one in the car has. Come spring time, I'll be lifting it 3.5" with 31x10.5 rubber. I'm in prep mode for a trip down the TAT that me and a couple friends are doing next June, so hopefully I'll have enough time to get her ready. In the meantime, I'll be here, getting good ideas on what to take with me and how best to prepare.

Hi Keboh and welcome to OB! Nice looking Cherokee! Safe travels and enjoy those open roads!

 

[Overland USA]

Hey everyone! I'm new to the board, but not new to tinkering with Jeeps. I've had a '93 XJ (left it stock, lots of maint.) and a '00 WJ (lifted 3 inches). This is my new project...

1996 Cherokee, basically stock (for the moment). it has ~360,000 miles on it and is running strong!

I'm in the process of fully rebuilding a 4.0 for it that I'll be dropping in with an AW4 with about half the miles that the one in the car has. Come spring time, I'll be lifting it 3.5" with 31x10.5 rubber. I'm in prep mode for a trip down the TAT that me and a couple friends are doing next June, so hopefully I'll have enough time to get her ready. In the meantime, I'll be here, getting good ideas on what to take with me and how best to prepare.
Welcome to Overland Bound Keboh! Hope you have lots of fun on the trail. Outfit and Explore!

 

[Chadlyb]

Hey everyone! I'm new to the board, but not new to tinkering with Jeeps. I've had a '93 XJ (left it stock, lots of maint.) and a '00 WJ (lifted 3 inches). This is my new project...

1996 Cherokee, basically stock (for the moment). it has ~360,000 miles on it and is running strong!

I'm in the process of fully rebuilding a 4.0 for it that I'll be dropping in with an AW4 with about half the miles that the one in the car has. Come spring time, I'll be lifting it 3.5" with 31x10.5 rubber. I'm in prep mode for a trip down the TAT that me and a couple friends are doing next June, so hopefully I'll have enough time to get her ready. In the meantime, I'll be here, getting good ideas on what to take with me and how best to prepare.

Hello Keboh and welcome to the OB crew..nice looking jeep and look forward to seeing your adventures

 

[Sebastian Stonum]

Welcome! That xj is looking good!

 

[Stone74]

Welcome from AR and from a fellow XJ owner. Nice looking XJ you have.

Sent from my VS995 using OB Talk mobile app

 

[HEYElliott]

Welcome to OB!

 

[NightCrawler]

Hello Keboh and welcome to OB!!! Check out this OB thread https://www.overlandbound.com/forums/threads/how-many-run-jeep-cherokees-xj.10490/
Some pretty knowledgeable XJ owners are in this group if you ever need a second opinion... Catch ya out on the trails someday brother!

 

[Keboh]

Hello Keboh and welcome to OB!!! Check out this OB thread https://www.overlandbound.com/forums/threads/how-many-run-jeep-cherokees-xj.10490/
Some pretty knowledgeable XJ owners are in this group if you ever need a second opinion... Catch ya out on the trails someday brother!

Already on it! I posted in there a few days ago... Actually before I even made my intro thread, heh.

Always good to have a second opinion on XJ tech. I've rebuilt a couple motors, but never a 4.0. I have it all torn down now, still need to get it bored out and hot tanked (cyl 1 has some scoring in it from a spark plug's ceramic that broke apart), head hot tanked, inspected, and decked. From there, during the reassemble, it's very possible I will run into some dead ends that I'll have questions about.

I got pretty lucky, all things considered. This Jeep I bought came with a TON of parts, including an engine and tranny. Supposedly the spare engine had a headgasket issue but everything else was good on it and the tranny is solid. I did find evidence of oil and coolant mixing (mmm that nice mocha looking mixture in the pan). Also, as mentioned above, there is a bit of scoring in cyl 1 from a spark plug breaking apart. Besides that though, this engine has been very clean. I'm going to grab a master rebuild kit from Titan is my plan so far and replace most of the parts going up (all the bearings, pistons obviously, lifters, push rods, gears and chain, oil pump, all the gaskets...). I want this thing to be super minty when I put it in my Jeep so I can be fully confident in it. Pretty stoked about getting this thing together!

 

[NightCrawler]

Yeah I see you beat me to the thread by a few minutes...lol. I have had conversations with @old_man and he is very knowledgeable on the XJ platform. Hopefully you never run into dead ends...these 4.0 are beasts!!! When I am sure it will be even better once you get it all back together.

 

[Keboh]

Yeah I see you beat me to the thread by a few minutes...lol. I have had conversations with @old_man and he is very knowledgeable on the XJ platform. Hopefully you never run into dead ends...these 4.0 are beasts!!! When I am sure it will be even better once you get it all back together.

Amen! the engine in it right now has 360k on it.. it sounds little diesely (party because of a cracked header and leaky exhaust, partly because of clacky rockers), but it runs great. Once I get the new engine in it, me and my roommate are planning on building a stroker out of the one we pull out for his XJ.

 

[old_man]

Already on it! I posted in there a few days ago... Actually before I even made my intro thread, heh.

Always good to have a second opinion on XJ tech. I've rebuilt a couple motors, but never a 4.0. I have it all torn down now, still need to get it bored out and hot tanked (cyl 1 has some scoring in it from a spark plug's ceramic that broke apart), head hot tanked, inspected, and decked. From there, during the reassemble, it's very possible I will run into some dead ends that I'll have questions about.

I got pretty lucky, all things considered. This Jeep I bought came with a TON of parts, including an engine and tranny. Supposedly the engine had a headgasket issue but everything else was good on it and the tranny is solid. I did find evidence of oil and coolant mixing (mmm that nice mocha looking mixture in the pan). Also, as mentioned above, there is a bit of scoring in cyl 1 from a spark plug breaking apart. Besides that though, this engine has been very clean. I'm going to grab a master rebuild kit from Titan is my plan so far and replace most of the parts going up (all the bearings, pistons obviously, lifters, push rods, gears and chain, oil pump, all the gaskets...). I want this thing to be super minty when I put it in my Jeep so I can be fully confident in it. Pretty stoked about getting this thing together!

Before you go any further give me a call. If you are already buying pistons and such, why not find a used 4.2L crank and rods and build a stroker? I routinely have picked up cranks and rods for around $125. You will gain significantly more torque and power and if you are like me, your mileage will significantly improve. I went from 14mpg to 21mpg. I have over 200k on my motor. While you may not need the power offroad, it is really nice just heading down the freeway. I can guide you through the whole process. It isn't rocket science. I do that for a living.

 

[Keboh]

Before you go any further give me a call. If you are already buying pistons and such, why not find a used 4.2L crank and rods and build a stroker? I routinely have picked up cranks and rods for around $125. You will gain significantly more torque and power and if you are like me, your mileage will significantly improve. I went from 14mpg to 21mpg. I have over 200k on my motor. While you may not need the power offroad, it is really nice just heading down the freeway. I can guide you through the whole process. It isn't rocket science. I do that for a living.

Interesting. I wanted to do a stock rebuild so I wouldn't have to worry about needing to tune or modify the computer (not sure if that's required or not; haven't done a ton of research into it) and because I'm only strapping 31's on it, I wasn't worried about power. Factory they're pretty decent. The MPG though, THAT intrigues me!

Do I just need crank, connecting rods, pistons? Factory cam still work? Any clearance issues with values, etc. that I need to consider, especially considering I'll be having the head decked? Fuel system/computer modifications?

 

[old_man]

Interesting. I wanted to do a stock rebuild so I wouldn't have to worry about needing to tune or modify the computer (not sure if that's required or not; haven't done a ton of research into it) and because I'm only strapping 31's on it, I wasn't worried about power. Factory they're pretty decent. The MPG though, THAT intrigues me!

Do I just need crank, connecting rods, pistons? Factory cam still work? Any clearance issues with values, etc. that I need to consider, especially considering I'll be having the head decked? Fuel system/computer modifications?

Contact me back channel. First off, don't deck the head unless it is warped. If you want to take the compression up, deck the block.

You can do a budget stroker with just the crank, rods. There are no custom mods to clear the valves. You should run the H802CP pistons. Decking the block ups the compression for more power, but more important it reduces the quench height, I run a static compression of 10.4 and still run regular pump gas. The key is getting the right combination of things set up. I have seen tons of strokers destroy themselves because people didn't follow the recipe. Each part has a specific reason. They go and think they can just mix and max and then it goes boom. My stroker is almost 20 years old and still runs great.

While not totally necessary, I run a different cam, one set up for low rpm torque. It optimizes the engine, especially for offroad and highway driving. You give up reving high, but you will love driving when your torque peak is right where you drive the most.