Looking for an engine to swap into my runner. Was thinking about the 4.3, but I believe I can get a jeep auto to bolt up to the back of a 60 degree block and end up with the D300 tcase I want, without $$ adapters. The engine would need to be 1985 or newer and EFI what's out there and what's good/bad about these engines?

the only real bad thing is the fact that the throttle body points towards the firewall. other than that, really cant go wrong. the newer stuff 95 and up is nicer to work on and runs better, but have problems with the plastic intakes. but if you remove the egr and plug the coolant ports in the lower intake, you should be ok. dont know about the earlier models, but the gen II 3.8's 95 and up make 200 hp. they like to spin rod bearings, and toss rods, but only if you run them out of oil or the motor hydrolocks (plastic intake leaking coolant into engine). the pre 95 models have plastic intakes, but dont have coolant problems, only leaking vacuum due to manifold leakage.

the supercharged versions seem to be more reliable. rated at 260-275 hp. the hottest ones are in the 00-02 range.

as plentifull as these engines are, id try to find one in the 95 and up range. seen the engines in salvage yards with very low mileage for less than a grand.


ryan

I have one in my buggy. Nice, small little package. I used the Jeep 998 housing from a cherokee and ripped out all the internals and made it a non lock up 999 so I could run my valve body that I needed.

Here's a guy (Who i think is on here too) that got around the throttle body part with a ford supercharger. He also used an AW4.
http://l67swap.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1320

I doubt the ford charger would work for me with CA emissions, as well as blocking off the egr and coolant ports. Here's a quote from a pm sent to me by DSI regarding this question that I asked him. He was advising to look for '98 and older engines:

you need the 84-86 cherokee XJ auto, it's the only one that works...

the motor's alright, it's going to be a bitch or you for a few reasons.

you will have to re-locate the coil packs, because you have to re-route the alt belt, the oil filter hangs way down low and could possibly get close to the front diff, the upper water neck is on the back of the block, and point's back towards the driver, the air filter and intake are off the back of the block also... and depending on the year mtotor you get, you will need to send the PCM out for a reprogram to get rid of the pass key ststem, the 98-older don't have that crap.

My reply to him was asking how far back do the engines have those components in difficult areas and at what point is enough performance lost from the engine that it is not worth it? In the long run will I just be happeri by doing a 4.3 swap instead? I'm running 5.38's in the difff's and several guys have said that will be too much gearing for a 4.3, even with 40's. I was hoping a little smaller, less torquey V6 may be the answer.

I doubt the ford charger would work for me with CA emissions, as well as blocking off the egr and coolant ports.

i dont see how a car engine in a truck would pass emssions anyway.


ryan

I doubt the ford charger would work for me with CA emissions, as well as blocking off the egr and coolant ports. Here's a quote from a pm sent to me by DSI regarding this question that I asked him. He was advising to look for '98 and older engines:

you need the 84-86 cherokee XJ auto, it's the only one that works...

the motor's alright, it's going to be a bitch or you for a few reasons.

you will have to re-locate the coil packs, because you have to re-route the alt belt, the oil filter hangs way down low and could possibly get close to the front diff, the upper water neck is on the back of the block, and point's back towards the driver, the air filter and intake are off the back of the block also... and depending on the year mtotor you get, you will need to send the PCM out for a reprogram to get rid of the pass key ststem, the 98-older don't have that crap.

My reply to him was asking how far back do the engines have those components in difficult areas and at what point is enough performance lost from the engine that it is not worth it? In the long run will I just be happeri by doing a 4.3 swap instead? I'm running 5.38's in the difff's and several guys have said that will be too much gearing for a 4.3, even with 40's. I was hoping a little smaller, less torquey V6 may be the answer.



I'm not sure why you'd have to reroute the Alt belt? Oil filter was an easy fix (See pic below). DSI's right about the intake and water neck but the link above has a water neck that points straight up. MAybe from a different GM car? So, if you can handle the intake being pointed backwards then you're cool.. The overall length is aroun 20 inches so usually you can cheat the motor forwards to gain some room. As far as the tranny's go, even the current 4 cyl trannys have the 60º pattern but they are electric lock up versions. I bet that they can be converted too but you don't need that I doubt you could pass smog with a converted one anyways. As for using this motro to pass smog, I can't help you there...I own a 64 Scout for a reason:flipoff2:

I forgot the pic for the oil filter;

http://beer.thisdysfunctional.org/kids/album113/DSC02313.jpg

i dont see how a car engine in a truck would pass emssions anyway.


ryan

This is only my understadnign, but should be able to go from a car to truck... but it's written so taht you cannot put a more pollutant engine in place of a lesser one ie; dropping a big block into my light duty toyota. Another way around this is that 4runners are tagged as cars :flipoff2:

It is looking like this may be more work than it is worth, I've got time to think about it, but I've got a brand new, hopped up 22re in a truck with a salvage title that I'm getting pretty well sick of.

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=376653

Greg

the way that the smog laws are written you can install just about any engine thta you want in to said vehicle but you cannot down grade any smog related components , as long as you are upgrading the smog and dealing with the smog referee than it is legal.the only downside to what you want to do is that installing a tranmission was not designed to be run by the computer that controls the engine is going to affect the emmisions because it is not getting proper information feedback from the transmission causing the engine to run in failsafe mode.you must also be able to pull trouble codes from the computer.i spent a lot of time with a customer that was trying to get his jeep that had a tpi corvette motor to pass the referee's requirements.the referee can be a huge pain in the ass if they want to , this customer finally got everything operating properly and then the referee failed him for having a small oil leak:shaking: . this customer ended up having an out of state friend register it for him. california smog laws are a pain in the butt when it comes to installing a different motor than what was factory equipped.

forgot about the camaro v6's.

ryan