My father and I are considering replacing the drivetrain in our 1970 CJ6 and are trying to figure out the best route to go. The jeep lives on our ranch and actually only has 29,000 miles on it. It will never see the street so road worthiness isn't a great consideration. However, the original buick V6 is starting to be more of a hastle than its worth. We are considering a 4.3 V6 but don't know what tranny, transfer case to go with. Also would like power steering and possibly power brakes. While were at it we may swap axles if there are some readily available that can be canabilized from another model. I know some of you have older CJs and would be curious to know what combos yall run.

4.3 would be a nice replacement for the buick motor, any tranny you would run behind the buick will work good with the 4.3. Personally i favor the SM420 since thats what i run behind mine, but an SM 465, TH 350, 700r4 are all good choices since you have a longer wheelbase. Waggoneer axles( I think 1979 and earlier) are a good fit if you retain the dana 18 t-case. Scout axles and later model CJ axles are also a little stronger (as far as the front is concerned). Being a 1970 you should have the desirable 30 spline flanged dana 44 rear axle, if so, I would leave it be and put a locker in it if you dont plan on running wider axles.

If your jeep were mine i would change over to a swinging pedal setup and dithc the "through the floor" one. If you plan on any type of rock crawling chassis flex makes the pedals that go through the floor bind up on the sheet metal (real pain in the ass). I used a swinging pedal set up out of an XJ cherokee and built a firewall plate to mount it to.

Its funny you should mention the pedal setup because that is one of our biggest gripes currently. We were thinking it was the linkage that was hanging up but ill have to check out if its binding at the floor next time im up there.

If keeping the pedals through the floor, Advanced Adapters makes a nice kit to remove the barrel linkage and replaces it with a chain and pulley block. So far it has removed any binding I would have had. I will be switching to the swinging pedals with the motor swap. This is on an 66 CJ6.

Where ya from?

sorry, I haven't updated my profile yet. I live in seabrook, tx (houston) and the ranch is in gonzales, tx.

cool, i seen the aggie in your screen name, so i figured you were from somewhere in TX

will the 4.3 bolt directly up to the t-86? and if not is there an adapter out there?

your t-86 (I think you should have a t-84??) should have a factory adaptor to mate it to the buick bellhousing. If it does have the factory adapter, a SBC bellhousing should bolt right up to it so that your 4.3 will work. You need to remember that if you use any other bellhousing for the 4.3 other than an early cast iron one, your bearing retainer will be a little bit to small to properly align your bellhousing on the tranny. Novak adapters makes an adapter that is basicly just a small ring the takes up the space between your bearing retainer and the larger bore in the 4.3 bellhousing. The adapter is only about $45 or so.

If this were strickly a swap because you need a motor, then stick with the V6 that way you don't have any modification issues.. If you want more power go v8 its not that hard to swap.