It's been a month and a half long process between working, being sick on my days off, and waiting for parts.... Still waiting on the new intermediate pipe to show up, so the OE one, with the blown out cat, went back in temporarily...
Here's what sparked the engine transplant to begin with.
#3 exhaust valve lifter collapsed and caused all sorts of loud unpleasant popping out the intake.
Still not quite sure how the intake push rod managed to end up bent, but I pretty much know when it bent... That was when the popping back through thte intake quit, while I was nursing it home.
This sparked a whole bunch of different ideas as to what I wanted to do to "fix" the problem.
1. Pull the head send it off to have it cleaned, checked, and machined if need be. Pull the cam and lifters and most likely need to replace them as well.... Dollar signs kept going up with the potentials... So I looked at prices of remanned and not surprisingly it would be cheaper to drop a long block in than to have all the machine work done on my engine...
2. Buy Golen stroker to help overcome the poor ability to hold 65 with a headwind without dropping out of overdrive with the 42rle..... Cough!!!
3. Stock reman and ditch the 42rle for a 5 speed. (pretty close to the price of a Golen after buying everything to do the swap.
Just about the time I decided I would go with a stock reman and slowly gather the stuff for a manual swap, up pops an add on facebook marketplace. 2001 TJ sport with a 5 speed, and 231 t-case with slip yoke eliminator... and drive shafts for $2500... Everything but the 2003 PCM and harness I would need for the swap for the same price as a reman. Bonus points that this engine only has 1700 miles on it. Road trip time.
Day 1 things went pretty well... I started thinking this was going to be a breeze....... (mistake!!)
3 days later it's finally out of the Jeep. If it could go wrong... it did!
Including having to grind the head off of one of the top bellhousing bolts because one of the E-torx litterally just twisted off and left the shoulder of the bolt.
Next up, pulled the intake and exhaust manifolds off. Looks like there'd been some leakiing going...
All cleaned up and mounted on the "new" engine.
Got the A/C pump and flex plate on and it's ready to drop back in the Jeep. Teto was insisting it was time to call it a night!!
Next day...
From this point on there were plenty of angry slurs tossed towards Jeep engineers and not may pictures taken.
Fast forward to yesterday... I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!!
Just a few more things to button up, like the heater hoses, transmission cooler hoses, and intermediate pipe.
All buttoned up, oil changed, headlights in, and the new to me bumper I got from
@Wildman .
....a nice quality beadlock too!
