ZmOz said:
In a vehicle worth less than $1500? Why would you want to do that? For 3 grand you could go out and buy a newer running XJ, plus sell the engineless one...
Actually, I just went through that thought process for my '92. The "new" engine (long block) AND clutch (and slave) AND a bunch other stuff will set me back about $2400. With a good friend doing most of the work, and me filling in the rest of the blanks, at least I have no labor charge.
It certainly was tempting to spend the $2500 on a "newer" XJ and save the hassle. But, then you get an unknown situation (history and internal condition) with the replacement. Plus, all the rest of the stuff (gears, lift, other mods, etc.) would have to be swapped over to the replacement to get back to even.
By just replacing the powerplant and clutch, I get to start over for the next 215,000 miles with an XJ already set up and already known what it can do.
The key is if you can avoid a shop labor charge - if another $1000-1500 was added to the top of this, then I might have looked harder at a replacement truck and used the current one (gulp) for parts.
Actually, so far I'm surprised how "simple" and straightforward it is to just pull out the old engine and swap stuff over onto the new one (headers, intake, pan, high flow water pump, etc.) Granted, I splurged a bit and decided that, as long as the main block is new, I might as well treat it to other new stuff as well (like distributor, wires, coil, fan clutch, hoses, injectors, engine mounts, etc.).
For the record, the reason I "needed" replacement is that after 215K and 12 years, #2 cylinder compression was low and I was starting to use some oil which probably wouldn't have gotten me through NJ inspection this time around - and the slave started to leak a bit. I can't complain about getting my money's worth though - I look forward to the next 12 years with the "new" one.
It's damn difficult to kill a 4.0
Mike in NJ
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