(Manual) TJ 4 cylinder’s are better than TJ 6 cylinders.
With the exception being maybe highway driving
Feel free to explain. I have a manual 4 cylinder, no, it is not better. The 2.4 sucks for a lot of reasons. On stock axles and 31's or 33's, they use a lot more clutch control than I like to get going from a stop. Blocks are scarce, timing belt, low end torque is pretty non-existent, very little technical support, and just doesn't really belong in a Jeep. PT Cruisers and turbocharged Neons, sure. Not a steel brick that protests against headwinds.
The 2.5 on the other hand, is much more robust. I've driven a 2.5 once in an '02 TJ and it was okay, as is the 2.4 in my '03. The AMC 2.5 (properly geared) is a decent engine. That said, if people are willing to pay much more for a 6 cylinder than a very similar engine with minus 2 cylinders, I think that's all you need to know.
Interesting bait though. There are some "pros". There's more room to work. Radiator replacement is easier, belt-driven components are easier to replace, etc. You do get an extra 1-2 MPG. The issue is when people run 33's or 35's on stock axles and a 4 banger and is worthless above 45 MPH and has to be kept at 2800 RPM to maintain road speed. I bought my 2.4 with 33's on it and it made almost no sense to me and wasn't good for anything except going down the driveway and back
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Properly geared, there's a lot of people who have fun with 4 cylinder TJ's/YJ's that don't mind a bit less low end torque and giving up the freeway. Personally, if I were to have done it all over again, I would've waited for prices to fall in October and bought a rust free 4.0. I wasn't looking long enough or hard enough for the right one and now I block up traffic lol.
In my honest and conclusive opinion, all 3 of the TJ motors can last the life of the vehicle. But two of them are slow as shit, and people like the 3rd for many reasons.