Engine swap

Greeting from Djibouti, Africa!! Yes deployed....AGAIN!

Anyway, I have a 305 and a TH350 that I will be swapping in to my 1997 Wrangler. I have been looking at Advanced Adapters and Novak for the conversion stuff. I have the AA engine mount already and kinda torn between the AA and Novak trans to TC adapter. Any suggestions? I know i'll need a new radiator. Can someone talk to me about drive shaft length, will I need a new one? I talked to Quadrtec a few days ago, and this guy told me I need to change out my axles, which doesnt sound right at all but I thought Id ask.

What else am I going to need to buy, while I am deployed, so when I get home, I can get right to work on my jeep and get the swap done. Is the swap a "difficult process"? Do's and don'ts. Any bit of info will be greatly appreciated and cherished from my fellow Jeepers.

More than likely you will need to upgrade your rear axle. the Dana 35 is barely adequate with 33" tires, but add the power of a V-8 and kaboom.

Sounds like this is turning into one of those things where I am going to need to change out the seats and headlights in order to be able to get the engine to properly fit in my jeep. Im about to abandon this idea.

Skipwingo07 wrote:

Sounds like this is turning into one of those things where I am going to need to change out the seats and headlights in order to be able to get the engine to properly fit in my jeep. Im about to abandon this idea.

You are about right. It will be a big project

Ehh, screw it then. Im overseas, no one is starting or driving the jeep. There will be families of cats living it when I get home so there goes the Matercraft front and rear Baja Rs that I put in. F it.

as long as you don;t rock climb it or drag race, your d35 rear end will be fine. i have a d35 in mine with a stroker and and 31s and i have zero trouble. i have a 302 to swap in with associated trans and t-case too and i will run the d35 until i have a reason to swap it out.

you will need a new rear drive shaft, for sure. the front will depend on where you line up your powertrain.

and actually, what kind of t-case do you have? if you use your stock t-case and put your engine in where your t-case lines up like it used to, you can keep your drive shafts too.

i am lining mine up so i can try and keep as much stock as possible. i would like to only swap the motor, trans, and t-case is i can.

Just curious why you want a v8. What axles do you have. In my opinion you should build your axles first before spending all that time and money on v8 conversion. I know a few guys with 4 bangers and built axles doing hardcore crawling. I also know guys that have been working on there v8 conversion for years and several hundred dollars more than they planned to spend. And still have stock axles and have to baby it if they ever get them done. Axles first the power.

SuperJ, I have the NP231 Tcase.

Im SUPPOSE to be having a house built while I am deployed. If this does not happen then new axles are on the menu of things to buy for my jeep. And since I will be VERY pissed that my house wasnt built, I'll use that as an excuse to get dana 60's, a long arm suspension as well. i'll also get a poison spyder roll cage, hard top, remove the back seat to make room for a gas tank or a turret so that I can mount a M2 .50 cal and have a place to put ammo cans.

I do have the 4 banger. My jeep is a daily driver. I rarely take it HARCORE wheeling. The reason I want the V8 is becasue, my step dad is wanting to get rid of the truck the motor and tranny is in. Its a solid motor and solid transmission and its free, so why not do it since I have the pieces there. Even if I did replace the axles with Dana 60's, I still would not wheel it any harder than what I do now which is basically driving down to my shooting range and driving back to the house. I will eventually swap out the axles, that is in plan. As I stated above, it may come sooner than later and if it does come sooner, its gonna be balls to the wall. Depending on my level of anger I MIGHT get portals for my Dana 60's as well, just because.

you can also find a cheap 14 bolt to swap in. If the truck is a 4x4 you could have a D44 front and 10 bolt rear to get you around until you're ready to drop the cash for d60s. Just a thought. I mean, you already need new driveshafts anyways.

Honestly, If you are not going to be doing any hardcore wheeling, 60's are way overkill and a waste of money, the front Dana 30 will be fine, but maybe some alloy shafts to be on the safe side. For the rear, just put in an explorer 8.8.

a good set of 44s is all you need. And the 35s that are in it will handle it. I use to run a S10 pick up with a 350/TH350 on the BONE STOCK 7.5 rearend and with a set of 30x10.5 slicks. Ran low 11s and I'm talking 11.10-11.12 ALL DAY and never blew the rearend out. AND I tried!!!!

I do have new alloy axle shafts from Yukon from and rear, I JUST remembered that.

If you want it to do this with

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUkG9AYysn8&feature=youtube_gdata_player

I think you will be ok with 30/35 axles that are built alittle. But if you ever wanna do this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHvXi_HejnI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Your gonna need better axles for all that power and extra weight.

Ehh, I wont be racing any Ferrari's and I seriously doubt i'll be doing any rock crawling like that or hardly any for that matter. This is my baby here. It's not much, but its mine and its paid for so I wanna keep it looking good and running good to get me from A to B even if I MIGHT have to get to B by taking the long way around. Once I get home from this deployment i'll post pics of my progress. Of course, if there is anyone that lives in the Killeen/Copperas Cove area that is extremely bored and would like to help out, i'd love the company and assistance.