OP
Darn. One day when I don’t live in an apartment, only have a flux welder, and have 3k to spend I’ll be more than happy to go mid arm but I think I’m stuck on the short arms for now even if it hops a bit.
4-cylinder cross country crawler build
- Thread starter The4bangertj
- Start date
Darn. One day when I don’t live in an apartment, only have a flux welder, and have 3k to spend I’ll be more than happy to go mid arm but I think I’m stuck on the short arms for now even if it hops a bit.
OP
If you are going to swap don't do a 4.0 as it isn't worth the time or effort.
I ran 35's with 4.88 gears because that was the lowest you could get at the time. With 5.13 gears now available if I was doing a gear swap for 35" tires it'd be 5.13 for sure.
Now as for engine swaps go it depends on how much you're planning on spending and what your ultimate goal is. The cheaper way to go is a Dodge magnum V-8. Then next is either a Hemi or LS but they are more spendy. I've known guys to do the magnum swaps for under $1K after selling off the donor rig.
I ran the 4cyl for 4 years before I swapped in a magnum 5.2 and drove it for 6 years before I had engine issues. Now I've got a magnum 5.9 with a stroker kit making it a 6.7 that is going into mine.
Great job on the rig so far.
OP
Thanks, I like the idea of keeping the 4cyl as it’s super simple, reliable and I get 20mpg as it sits. The appeal to a 4.0 was to keep all the stock ish parts and maybe cheaper if I could find the whole jeep and swap everything I need but I’ve always said with the 4cyl it would be easier to ls swap. If I did ls I wouldn’t want to push power just reliability and make things as simple as I can. Who knows when it how much I’d have as that’s a way down the road thing.
While the 4 cyl isn't a power house as you've learned it can get you there and back. I use to commute over Snoqualmie pass weekly in mine. As others will tell you gearing is the #1 thing to running a 4 cyl. The only reason I'd swapped to the V-8 was I'd originally planned on towing a trailer and wanted the power. My rig sort of morphed after that.
If you ever get to the point of deciding to do a swap and want to keep it simple then look into the Dodge magnum V-8. Yes they aren't newer tech like the LS but what's nice is blending the two wiring harnesses together is easy and the V-8 PCM will talk to your stock dash. When done right they can look like they came from the factory that way. I've a got a 97 Ram pickup with a 5.2 in it with 238,000 miles on it.
OP
Finally got time to finish up some jeep stuff. First being my rear bump stops and shocks. After a long day of having the wrong bolts and biking to my hardware store I was able to get them in. The upper bumps were fine but they were a different thread pattern since I did the spring relocation, thus the bike to ace for new bolts. For the lower bumps I had to weld on a nut to the top side of the pad. The lower pad was also cut out and had a new pad welded on when I did the relocations on top, the only problem was the pads on the bottom had a giant hole in the middle where I was suppose to drill and tap for the bolts. Just big enough to not be able to tap threads in but not big enough to recess a 1/2in thread nut into. Thank fully the added height of a .25in nut balanced out my bumps perfectly for the height loss of putting new lower pads on that were not stock. As they sit, I have 4in of space to the tip of bump to bump with 4.5in of shock shaft in the rear. After more measuring my front end sits .5in higher than my back so they have exactly the same amount of bump with the back sitting a half inch lower than the front. Super happy with the travel number as both are set very close to 50/50 travel split. Rear: 4.5in of up travel and 4.5in of down for an exact 50/50 on the 9in travel shock. Front: 5in of up travel and 5.75 of down travel which is very good with the limits of not out boarding the shocks and keeping the front and back very level. Second being my transmission output shaft seal. I did it once this past Tuesday and immediately it started to leak again so I think the outer part of the seal that is pressed into the housing was leaking so I took the time again today to pull it back out and put a small bead of rtv on it. It’s currently curing as I type this before I test it out. Some small things: ordered new horns since mine didn’t work. Come to learn that my rusted old horns were fine and isn’t the source of my problems so maybe my clock spring or something. I also ordered a new mopar iac sensor as my idle has been very high and inconsistent but rock auto sent me the wrong part that was also already opened and had swapped the new screws with rusted ones. Not excited about returning that but I’m not letting a 115 dollar sensor be not used by charged ti my account. Really hoping this seal is fixed so I can get out and wheel before the snow starts.
OP
Little late but was able to get out and test the new shocks and bump and man are they good. Gas charged ride much better than what ever non gas Ranchos I had on before. Flexed out amazing with about .25in of shock shaft showing left once on the bumps. The fronts stuff decently in the fenders with prob another inch of down travel that isn’t being used bc of the stock control arms. The rears have more room for when I finally get some currie springs and do an outboard to get a little bit more travel in both directions. Thankfully the metalcloak coils in the rear don’t bind at full bump with these shocks and bumps but they will be replaced with currie coils at some point non the less. As far as capability goes the flex is enough to keep all the tires on the ground for all the obstacles so I only had one instance of wheel spin in the rear climbing a pretty steep undercut. Sadly I found out my front drive shaft has a decent amount of play at the double cardan joint. Pretty tempted to get a toms woods after reading about the 33s vs 35s build thread where it should be a good time to replace it while it’s bad. So a drive shaft is on the priority with control arms and swayloc being behind it.
OP
Progress this week. First thing was I found a used rd105 arb air locker for a super 35. The spider gears need replaced and the shafts it came with are the alloy brand which arnt the same chromoly as the revolution so the spot where the bearing rides is pretty worn down on one side so I will prob keep those as just a back up. Still for the price it was cheaper to get this than buying a new one. When money allows I’ll be buying a front arb and compressor when they go on sale together and re gearing to 5.13 as I am stock 4.10 now. Super exited to be locked and regear but it’s a lot of money I don’t have since my wife and I are trying to save to buy her a car. Secondly after installing my transmission rear main seal and taking the driveshafts out I noticed the front shaft had a ton of play. It’s my fault too bc my stock front one I rebuilt with spicer joints were greasable and had the grease fittings on the end caps but that wouldn’t fit with the snap rings so highschool me just ended up taking the fittings off so I just had holes right into the caps. It is what it is so I figured this was a great time to get a Tom woods, especially after reading the 33vs35s thread a few weeks back lol. I also thought this would be a good time to swap back to a genuine mopar transmission mount as this past summer I tried a ucf low pro mount in hopes to go to a 1in deep skid before a body mount lift but it was just too much for a daily so I swapped back to stock ( $15 anchor brand mount ) and it still wasn’t as great as I remembered but lived with it till now where temps are much colder and that anchor rubber it rock hard. So new front drive shaft and the mopar mount, it’s a world of a difference better and working great for 4wd now that snow has been coming down almost every day here in eastern idaho.
Things to work on next are my cheap Amazon halo headlights have been giving me problems so it’s time to swap them with truck light Amazon knock offs and get away from the halo ring as well as the clock spring since my airbag light is on and my horn doesn’t work. Also forgot my cheap door handles have given me problems where the lever for the handle it’s self has inverted over the pin to open the door from the outside and I ended up just smashing the lever further down to prevent that as well as the door latch actuator assembly that all the rods connect to broke for the outside latch so I has to use tie wire to tie the rod to the lever on the assembly. It’s opens now but I’ll be replacing the door handles with some that have a better design lever soon just to make sure it doesn’t happen. Wife and I also got out and chopped our Christmas tree this past weekend with no front drive shaft in.
Another side note that doesn’t involve the jeep but my personal skills is my friends fzj80 didn’t have 3rd row seats when he bought it but really wanted some. So after buying some seating that didn’t have brackets and we’re never to be seen to purchase oem brackets or even get photos, we decided to just build a super easy bracket. We designed, built, and installed it in 1.5 days which I thought was pretty good as well as the cost was 55 bucks. I basically designed the whole thing so it’s ok to critique it but I didn’t weld it together. It was a lot of since it got us the confidence to maybe build me a tire carrier soon.
Things to work on next are my cheap Amazon halo headlights have been giving me problems so it’s time to swap them with truck light Amazon knock offs and get away from the halo ring as well as the clock spring since my airbag light is on and my horn doesn’t work. Also forgot my cheap door handles have given me problems where the lever for the handle it’s self has inverted over the pin to open the door from the outside and I ended up just smashing the lever further down to prevent that as well as the door latch actuator assembly that all the rods connect to broke for the outside latch so I has to use tie wire to tie the rod to the lever on the assembly. It’s opens now but I’ll be replacing the door handles with some that have a better design lever soon just to make sure it doesn’t happen. Wife and I also got out and chopped our Christmas tree this past weekend with no front drive shaft in.
Another side note that doesn’t involve the jeep but my personal skills is my friends fzj80 didn’t have 3rd row seats when he bought it but really wanted some. So after buying some seating that didn’t have brackets and we’re never to be seen to purchase oem brackets or even get photos, we decided to just build a super easy bracket. We designed, built, and installed it in 1.5 days which I thought was pretty good as well as the cost was 55 bucks. I basically designed the whole thing so it’s ok to critique it but I didn’t weld it together. It was a lot of since it got us the confidence to maybe build me a tire carrier soon.
The rear axles are most likely 4340 and with the type of bearings used on a Dana 35 you need 1541 instead or you get the results you see. If you do some searching there are some threads about this.
OP
Yup they are. I was expecting that too but hoping I could run them for a bit since the photos he sent they didn’t seem bad but one is for sure pretty bad so some revolution 1541h shafts are on the list.