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Project CRD MJ is born:

Wiring work continues on the main engine harness:

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Auto trans stuff removed:
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I gotta start sitting down the with the Xj wiring diagrams and the KJ wiring diagrams to see what I can adapt from one to the other, and what I need to add, like glow plug relays. etc.
 
Bought this NV3550 for my MJ today for $550:
As you can see the bellhousing is broken so I got him down by $50, its the wrong bellhousing for me anyways, pictured next to it is the correct bellhousing for the CRD engine.
What bellhousing is the correct one? I assume its the bellhousing from the 2.5 that the europeans got, but I was hoping there would be a better option for sourcing one in the states. I also was curious what you're doing for a clutch if it is a 2.5 bellhousing would you use the 2.5 clutch and flywheel and hope the flywheel bolt pattern didn't change when they changed the stroke to get the extra displacement or would you go for the 2.8 and be pretty sure that the starter meshes properly? On that note do you know if the starter from the auto compatible with the NV3550?
 
So this project took a 180, or a 90, or a 270, something. I decided just to get the damm thing running, so I pulled the CRD out and went 4L to get it on the road........heres whats been happening with it this year:

With everything going on these days I decided to remove the Diesel engine from the MJ and just do the conversion as a 2000 4L/Aw4.

So I went to the junkyard because there were a couple of fresh newer 4ls I could pick from that were put out Thursday, I went the Saturday after and a couple were gone, but one was left that looked good. Engine wasn’t a greasy lump, interior was clean, and it was driving when wrecked so you know it at least ran.

So I pulled the engine and trans together. A few weeks later finally had a warm enough day to pressure wash it off, and then next weekend got the engine separated from the trans and onto an engine stand.

Well once the grease was off it turns out the bell housing is cracked. Dammit, so I need to deal with that.

So I get the engine on the stand, I was planning to reseal and clean it up. I had to replace the oil pan since they punch holes in them to drain them........dikks. So I have the pan off and I decide to check the bearings........ya they are scored, both rods and mains. Dammit.

I pull the head since my gasket kit came with a new head gasket. The cylinder walls are fairly polished, and have some vertical scoring. There is not a ridge at the top of the cylinder compression stole, but the scoring from the piston skirt isn’t great.

So after debating what to do, from honing cylinder walls myself, new rings, and then assembly to rebuild options, to just getting another engine, I decided on stroker.

Doing the stroker research you can see guys who get big power out of a 4L, but it comes with all sorts of other issues, knock, engine management, stand-alone engine management. Etc. most of the big power increases come from increasing the compression ratio, but with no knock sensor and no ability to adjust timing this is problematic on the stock controls.

After doing some research it turns out that some custom pistons were release in about the 2016 time frame. The combination of 258(4.2) crank, 4L rods, and custom pistons gives a 4.6-4.7, with a 9.3 compression ratio. Stock is 8.8. The “poor mans stroker” which has been the most common one I have heard of for years used the 258 crank and rods with the 4L pistons, to give a 4.6-.7 with a 9.6 compression ratio. The poor mans stroker uses the 258 rods which are about 5.825 inches, the 4L rods are 6.125. The longer rods give more favorable rod angles, and with the custom piston you can run the longer rods.

So I Decided on a kit from clegg, I have been trying to price out everything separately, but it doesn’t seem I can beat the price on the kit, and shipping is $75 for everything together which I’d likely go over shipping it all separate.

https://www.cleggengine.com/stroker-kits/jeep-4-0-stroker-kits.html

So I’m going to take the block to the machine shop next week, have them check the notes to see what size pistons I should go with, the smallest
Overbore I can do is .030 over.

Since I’m getting a new crank and recon rods the only machine work I need is the bored honed, and then the thing hot tanked to clean it up. I am debating if I should get it decked to clean up the surface for the head gasket, but am leaning towards not. Shop wants $40 to install the new cam bearings, which I am on the fence about, slightly trickery being down the long bore, I could probably manage, but maybe it’s better just to let them do it.

I am also debating the mildest cam I can buy, I don’t know how bad mine is worn, and since I want new lifters anyways the cam becomes a little more cost effective.

So that’s the plan for the stroker bit. From my research this should give something about like 220-230 hp, and keep me away from higher octane gas and the exponential effort of going for more HP.

Once I get the engine, trans, and transfer case together I am going to install them, and then start digging through my boxes of parts for all the other junk to figure out where it needs to go, and then start seeing what I am missing.
 
Feb 11 2020:

Stripped the block down to a block and main caps. Dropped it off at machine shop. Getting bored, cleaned, and cam bearings installed.

Didn’t bother to ask when they will get to it, I’m out next week and the week after for work, if they can tell me the cylinder status I can get the kit ordered while I’m out then I need to get the new pistons to them for the final hone.
 
March 2, 2020:

Machine shop had the block for about 2.5 weeks, got a call last Friday that they had checked it and it was good, and that they were hot tanking and shot peening the block. I told him I would get the pistons ordered so he could do the final hone. “Oh we didn’t know that, it’s already getting cleaned” so I guess that got missed. So I told them it would be 0.030 over so they would get close and then do a final bore once pistons come in.

Ordered the kit this afternoon, so i wait for shipping info now. I ordered the 9.3 kit and the stage 1 cam.

Looking forward to getting it back and building it.
 
Mar 13, 2020:

Got a call yesterday that the block is ready, but they need a cam to check final fit of cam bearings.

So I grabbed the new cam and it’s in the back of the Rover, I’ll swing by after work and grab the block. Should be able to do some bottom end assembly this weekend, cleanup some ancillaries. I want to sandblast things like the timing chain cover, ac bracket, intake, so they all look new.
 
Mar 18, 2020:
Got the crank in and the freeze plugs on the side. I’m going to take it off the stand to do the rear two in the block and then put it back and go for the cam install. Still need to press the rod onto piston/wrist pen. Then install rings, then install to block/crank.

Just working a little bit here and there on it.
 
Mar 31, 2020:

Building a 4.6 stroker for the MJ to move the project along.



Starting with a 2000 XJ engine and trans combo, I pulled this thinking it was a good to run engine since the XJ it came from was fairly clean and low mileage, and the engine its self was fairly clean. Turns out it had been replaced before and thats why it was clean, but the bottom end was fairly scored/worn, particularly the rod bearings which even had galled a bit from wear. Internally the engine was fairly dirty. Piston walls were fairly glazed but also had some significant scoring on the walls from the pistons. I debated some refresh options but ultimately decided to go with a bottom end rebuild into a stroker. I had the machine shop bore/hone the cylinder walls to .030 over for the stroker, install new cam bearings, and clean the block up. ~$360. Later I gave up pressing the piston wrist pins into the new rods and paid them $50 to do it(better than me destroying anything).



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Cam lobe wear:
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Bearing scoring, this is one of the better ones:
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I didnt get a picture of the worst of them unfortuneatly.

Teardown continues:
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New Jeep 258 stroker crank arrives:
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New forged pistons:
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Box of parts:
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Block back from machine shop:
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Pulled it into the sun to try and help it warm up before painting:
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Ended up putting a box over it with a small heater to get it good and warm overnight.
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Painted:
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Pressing in freeze plugs:
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Started blasting all the aluminum stuff to make it pretty again:
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Some RTV before oil pan goes on:
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Pan installed, missing a few bolts:
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Getting more builtup:
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Painted head:
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Ready for head:
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Valve cover on:
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Got the CRD engine out last night:

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I have the NV3550, I keep tossing around the idea of using it in the MJ..........but right now I'm more interested in getting this thing running and sticking with the AW4 is the fastest and easiest way to do that for now.

So then I pressure washed the engine bay, it got heavily degreased and cleaned years back, but there was a fair bit of accumulated dirt in the engine bay.

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Apr 23, 2020:

Ok, so it almost looks like I have gone back a step, but not really. I removed the hood, doors, steering box and steering shaft, these were all installed to get them out of the backyard/way, or so I could at least steer the bastard.

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So with these out of the way I could get back into finishing up the firewall modifications.
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I found the engine harness, and kinda set it in place to check things out:
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And I found some other random stuff that I had been saving for this, seatbelts, wiper assembly, etc.

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So then I got back to the firewall mods. I had cut the section of firewall out of my donor jeep years back, so what I did was use a spot weld cutter to remove the outer thick bit of steel, and leave the thinner inner piece, I'm placing this on the inside and will use the couple of old bolt holes that held the rubber around the steering column, and the brake booster, to hold it in place. I will put some seam sealer around on it before putting it up, get it aligned, bolt it in place, and let it cure. This gives me what I need on the firewall for the newer steering column. I did a similar thing for the C101 plug area. Cut out the bit of metal it sealed to, and bolt it in place on the inside, then the rubber seal just pushes into the old hole with the newer adapter. Round peg in a square hole. It will also be seam sealed and bolted on.

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Put back in the heater box to check fitment out, everything seems fine with it still. Been years but I did recall getting that part taken care of.
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I have one more hole I need to cut here. Not sure the size but its just a round ~1.5" hole that needs to be drilled in the upper corner.
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So I should be done with the firewall mods tomorrow night and have those in place, I have a few more mounting things in the engine bay I want to figure out before paint, like the fusebox/PDC, cruise control actuator, ECU bracket........ Who knows what else, I'll need to take a gander at the yellow XJ and see what else might be bolted down that I need to deal with.

Then the engine bay, cowl, and the windshield A pillars will get paint prepped and sprayed at the same time. It's tempting to want to do more at once since once you have paint out its easy to spray, but I need to pull back on the scope right now. Painting the engine bay now was a compromise I was willing to make since I know what color I wanted to paint it, and this way I wouldn't need to pull everything out in the future to paint it.

I have a couple of nutserts to put inside the cab for the center dash supports, the transmission tunnel to figure out what I need to modify for the newer console and ebrake setup.

I dont think I have anything funky to do for the 4wd shifter, just drill out the dimples where the bolts go through for the bracket......

Seat brackets are already in place, but the rear bolt will need to be marked and drilled.

Some electrical stuff will need to happen to get the windows to work without the rear windows plugged in. And something else will need to happen for the rear interior lights since there is no rear door switch.

I need to find headliner material so I can recover my headliner in the correct color.

Need to pull a D30HP, find my ZJ brake stuff, and get it converted. I need to buy some offset 1 ton TRES and such to get my HD steering going with the higher steer WJ knuckle.....but ruffstuff was out of the TREs for the kit I want, so that will need to wait.

So still lots to do. But I'm moving forward.
 
New gas tanks and new gas tank straps:

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Using an eraser wheel to remove the pinstriping that needs to come off for paint.

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Got the last firewall mod done, cut a 1.5" hole here for the wiring to pass through:
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Had to spot weld this corner, haven't used the spot welder in at least 5 years, and it sort of refused to work for me....that was annoying, But finally got it.

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Diesel Chilling with me:
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apr 25 2020:

I went down to the junkyard today to start grabbing some random stuff I was missing. When I had my parts car I didn't bother keeping certain things because they would not be needed with the manual trans and diesel. So I had to grab those things. Lots of random little stuff I'm having to track down and grab again.

Saw this on the way down while stopped at a gas station to get some drinks:
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That shed has been some ****.


Grabbed the dash sound deadening mat, initially I thought I would do some different stuff, but decided I should just stick with the stock mat:
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Grabbed a master cylinder, ZJ prop valve to work with the KJ rear disk setup. Cruise control actuator, vac lines. Trans kickdown cable that got broken when pulling the engine, auto shifter, shift cables, gas pedal/cable, and power steering pump.

Got lucky and scored a short overhead console from a 5.9 ZJ, which is perfect for the MJ since the XJ overhead console is too long for the MJ.

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Short console from ZJ, and the mirror is an auto dimming mirror with outside temperature. There are other versions of this that also include courtesy lights and homelink garage door openers, plus a compass and temp, and the autodim, I need to figure out what vehicles to search for for those.
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New Paint Gun!
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That engine is just dying to be installed;

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Did some cleaning, getting things ready to install:

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So nice and clean!

Got the fuse box mount figured out after comparing to the Yellow jeep a few times:
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Thought I was done drilling holes, turns out I needed to drill another for the auto shifter cable.
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Got the shifter assembly mocked up, looks like its all good to go, just need to screw it down.
 
Pressure washed more parts last night, I keep finding parts to pressure wash and cleanup. It's nice to work on not greasy and not dirty stuff all the time, but it does take away from functional work time.

That being said, even though I compromised on the diesel part of this project, I don't want to compromise on the rest of it. I really just want to do it once and do it right, whatever that means........though its all a balancing act at this point.

I'm really looking forward to having a freshly painted engine bay, with all sorts of super clean new looking parts in it, clean engine, wiring, etc.

Replacement bellhousing arrived. The one that came on the trans was cracked, which I couldn't see under the grease.

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Bellhousing on:
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So that's it for yesterday. Still need to do a few things in the engine bay, then paint prep starts! Also need to buy paint supplies again.


So I got the spot welder out to crimp back part of the firewall to cowl pinch seam that opened up a little when I modified it to clear the CRD intake.

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Then I got to seam sealing where I was putting in the newer firewall bits that I cut out for the steering column and C101 plug and bolted those up to cure.

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Put some new seam sealer in where the old stuff had cracked/shrunk:
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Mounted on the inside:
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So firewall is complete. 2 remaining modifications I know of in the engine bay, washer tank filler neck/mounts, and mount for evap solenoid. I will get those done tonight, review anything else by looking at the Yellow Jeep, and then start on primer for the engine bay.
 
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