Rebuild my spare 32RH for a stroker upgrade?

Bammo68

Bammo68

TJ Enthusiast
Joined
Dec 27, 2021
Messages
170
Location
Western Australia
Hi Guys,

My long held dream of building a stroker for my '99 is getting closer to reality. Current 4.0L motor and 3 speed are both in really good working order (80K miles only) - I don't know all the history of them but they run just fine. I'd like a little more power out of the motor but no real complaints . I have now picked up a donor motor and 3 speed from the same year with 150K miles on it. I'm going to go all-out on the stroker motor build mostly because I can and don't want my kids inheriting any money :)

Should I rebuild the 150K 32RH at the same time and put it in with the stroker so I know they are both "new" or am I wasting money and should just run the 80K 32RH as-is? Will a refreshed 32RH give me any benefit in other words?
 
The transmission needs the Sonnax upgrades to make sure it holds up and fixes the inherent problems of this transmission. I have a 32rh behind my current stroker, had a 727 behind it before in the cj. I put the stroker in a few different jeeps. The 32 didn’t hold up and had to be rebuilt after a year. It was high mileage and started slipping. So it’s your call as to how many time you want to pull one.
 
OK hold the fort - turns out the engine isn't a 99 at all. Its a May 2002 motor with a 32RH attached. So that's both good news and bad - I can pop the 32RH in my back shed for a rainy day but I need to decide now if the 02 motor is worth putting into my 99. Dumb question but hoping its an easy answer: Can I retrofit the 02 block with a distributor so that its a simple drop-in back into my 99?
 
Bammo68 said:
Should I rebuild the 150K 32RH at the same time and put it in with the stroker so I know they are both "new" or am I wasting money and should just run the 80K 32RH as-is? Will a refreshed 32RH give me any benefit in other words?
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I realize you said to stand down on the rebuild question, but it's a slow morning for me so I'm gonna jump on a transmission thread even if you don't want me to. :)

Would you be doing the rebuild yourself? You can do it yourself for ~$150 USD + a new torque converter; it's not terribly hard. Rebuilding it isn't going to make it markedly stronger unless you go nuts and put in upgraded planetaries from a shop that specializes in that stuff. The upgraded clutches are generally all you're going to get in terms of improvement there. There are a few things you can do in the valve body to improve some operation. Shift kits, etc, but there is also a replacement manual valve that will charge the torque converter while the thing is in Park.
 
hear said:
I realize you said to stand down on the rebuild question, but it's a slow morning for me so I'm gonna jump on a transmission thread even if you don't want me to. :)

Would you be doing the rebuild yourself? You can do it yourself for ~$150 USD + a new torque converter; it's not terribly hard. Rebuilding it isn't going to make it markedly stronger unless you go nuts and put in upgraded planetaries from a shop that specializes in that stuff. The upgraded clutches are generally all you're going to get in terms of improvement there. There are a few things you can do in the valve body to improve some operation. Shift kits, etc, but there is also a replacement manual valve that will charge the torque converter while the thing is in Park.
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The thinner kolene steels and redline clutches does help by adding more layers along with bands to increase strength
 
Bammo68 said:
I'm going to go all-out on the stroker motor build
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If youre going all out on a stroker you should contact russ pottenger for parts. His forged pistons and aftermarket connecting rods are the best. Not to mention his ported heads and custom ground cams.

He builds these into race motors.

Get a cherokee or grand cherokee block to build.the block,caps and misc hardware are the only parts you'll need to reuse.I used one in my 97's stroker. My main regret is not having him port my edelbrock head and run the larger cam he suggested.
 
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Rickyd said:
If youre going all out on a stroker you should contact russ pottenger for parts. His forged pistons and aftermarket connecting rods are the best. Not to mention his ported heads and custom ground cams.

He builds these into race motors.

Get a cherokee or grand cherokee block to build.the block,caps and misc hardware are the only parts you'll need to reuse.I used one in my 97's stroker. My main regret is not having him port my edelbrock head and run the larger cam he suggested.
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Overkill for a 250-275 hp motor, I built mine over 25 years ago and it’s not a 400+ hp with a turbo
 
astjp2 said:
Overkill for a 250-275 hp motor, I built mine over 25 years ago and it’s not a 400+ hp with a turbo
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Strokers can definitely be built cheap if you are willing to compromise on quench,compression ratio and power.

He said all out though.so I'm pointing him at the best. I doubt I'm anywhere near 275 hp and i still wouldn't run a cheap stroker kit. Jeep heads flow for shit and their cams are tiny. Its the next step chasing hp. Big valves,porting and bigger cam are the next step for mine.

Turbo is something else entirely.you can force air and hp down the throat of the shittiest heads with boost.
 
I was building them before most suppliers were coming up with kits, I have original oleshot cnc milled pistons if you go back that far on jeepstrokers.com so knowing what works and built vs bought is what we were doing 25 years ago
 
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