Jeep Wrangler Engine Swap - page 2 · Why Do an Engine Swap · What Engine To Swap Into A Jeep · Choosing a Venue for Your Jeep Project

V-8 Power for Our Jeep Wrangler YJ

Welcome to our Jeep "Wrangler With An Attitude" Power Up Project. Follow along with us as we convert our 1995 Jeep Wrangler YJ from a 2.5 liter weakling into a Throttle Body Injected 5.7 Liter Chevy V8 powered Beast with an attitude that will get us up and down the road at a rate of speed more suitable to our liking ( a favorite Tim Allen quote would fit nicely here ).

This portion of the Nor Cal Outdoor Website will be devoted to this project. We will be documenting all of our progress here with articles, pictures, links and information that we hope will be at least some help and guidance to other "do it yourselfers" who may be considering a V8 swap in their own Jeeps.

Before we get started, you should know a little more about our project vehicle history and the motivation that has inspired us to take on a project of this magnatude.

Or, you can Skip ahead to Project "Wrangler With Attitude" page 2 where we get past the introduction and a little further along to talk about the "What", "Why", and "How" of the project.

We Need Your Help With Our Engine Swap Project

This may seem a bit unorthodox, but with the the power of the internet at our fingertips, and by what we have seen accomplished through social and viral networking, we figure why not give it a shot. We are just normal, honest, everyday people trying to get something accomplished with a little help from our friends. Anyway, we are looking for a little help in getting the Wrangler Project done right, and everyone reading this has an opportunity to be added to our list of heros.

The simplist way for visitors to give us their "free" two cents worth is by just visiting this website regularly and sharing our URL with all your friends, relatives and acquaintances who might be interested in our content, services or products. Another way you could help us out would be by visiting the affiliate links for the outdoor gear promoted on the Outdoor Gear pages (there is lots of great stuff there).

A third way to help us get this project done right is through sponsorship. If you have a business related to the outdoor recreation industry, we would love to offer you some advertising and promotional space in exchange for sponsorship of part or all of this project. Anyone interested can click on the Contact Us link at the bottom of any page to send us a message.

Before We Get Started With Our Engine Swap Project

Introduction: Where it all begins

Our project Jeep is a 1995 Wrangler YJ that I purchased six years ago. Over the years, this Jeep has been a daily driver for work and around town as well as a week-end cruiser, and all around fun machine. It has served as transportation on all of our Hunting, Fishing, Abalone Diving and Campig trips. Because of the lack of cargo space when carrying more than one pasenger, I built a sweet little Utillity Trailer that we use to haul around all of our gear, and until about three weeks ago, my Jeep has never failed to get us to and from wherever we needed to go.

As soon as I drove my Jeep home from the used car lot, I started having these uncontrollable urges to do things to my Jeep that would make it better. Things like adding a few inches to it's height, larger tires, custom exhaust, lockers, more power, and a wide range of other wild and of course, "unaffordable" modifications. Some things would need to get done as soon as possible, others would need to wait until the right time and opportunity. I will go over all the modifications I've made so far in another section, for now just suffice to say that in the past six years, I have spent a lot of money and many hours getting my Jeep to where it is now. Which is still far from perfect, but a whole lot different than it was when I brought it home from the car lot.

Diagnosis: "The JEEP Bug"

It is safe to say that, over the past several years, I have been bitten by what has come to be known as "The Jeep Bug". I don't know that I would necessarily call this affliction a bad thing, but I do know that there is no known "cure" for it. Only treatments that must be administered on a regular basis and in doses that provide a short term relief of the symptoms. I guess you could liken it to having an uncurable Disease. You know you have it, there's nothing you can do to get rid of it, so you just treat it, and learn to live with it. The only difference is that instead of keeping all to yourself, you hope to be able to transmit it to others that you come into contact with. Chances are, that if you are here, you too have probably been bitten by this bug. Keep reading to find out for sure and learn about the treatments we have utillized in keeping this disease and its' symptoms in check (well, sort of anyway).

Shop 4Wheel Drive Hardware For All Your Jeep Needs

Symptoms /Treatments for the Jeep Bug

Below is a list of symptoms that, if you are a Jeep owner you will probably already recognize. You may already suffer from many of these and quite possibly some that aren't listed here. Don't worry though, all of the symptoms are treatable as long as you can afford it.

Symptom #1 - You are embarrassed by the fact that you can reach out the door and touch the ground.
- Treatment: 4.5" Rubicon Express Extreme Duty lift

Symptom #2 - You get frustrated because your tires spin at the slightest increase in pressure to the go pedal (even with a 4 banger).
- Treatment: 35" Toyo Open Country Mud Terrain tires

Symptom #3 - You wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat because Barbie Dolls in pink Jeeps just whizzed by you as you sat there at the bottom of a hill you were thinking about trying to climb in your dreams.
- Treatment: Better get up and start searching the internet for Lockers and get them on so you can get your rest at night.

Symptom #4 - You find yourself visiting websites, forums and blogs in search of answers to curing all of the above.
- Treatment: Visit as many as you like, join a few forums and maybe even start your own blog so you can document and share all the things you do to your Jeep in an effort to help others who share your affliction.

Symtom #5 - You subscribe to several magazines like Four Wheeler, Four Wheel and Off Road and others, and you read them cover to cover looking for ideas for your next Jeep Improvement Project.
- Treatment: Subscribing to few of these mags is a good treatment. You'll find good solutions to some of your questions and maybe get some ideas to try out on your own.

Symptom #6 - (Probably the one symptom that confirms your affliction). When your bank account is empty and your credit cards are maxed out, you still manage to find a way to purchase that "critical" gadget, gizmo,or widget that will make your Jeep stand out from the crowd.
- Treatment: Don't worry about it. There's nothing you can do to stop this from happening. Besides, money grows on trees, right? Go here to find those cool Jeep Parts .

There are many other symptoms that will become more pronounced as you get further into the full onslaught of this disease. The form and dose of treatment will most likely be varried according to your budget, but rest assured, unless you are completely immune (unlikely if you are reading this), you will be well advised to just follow yor insticts and do what ever you need to do to keep the symptoms treated as they appear, or you face a certain risk of deep depression and uncontrollable iritabillity.

We're almost ready to get started. Hang in here for a bit longer while we cover just a few more things that are pertinent to this project.

I bought my Wrangler back in 2001 from a local dealer for what I thought was a pretty good deal. I still think I got a good deal, and nobody's going to convince me otherwise. It was completely stock and the only thing on it that it didn't come from the factory with was some funky looking alluminum wheels. It had about 80,000 miles on it, so it was well broken in, but far from worn out.

The first thing that I had to do was put some bigger tires on it. I went to the local Les Schwab and had them install some 33" Wild Cat EXT Radials. These were pretty good tires and they looked really good too. Only, they were a bit too big for my "stock" set up, so I started looking into what I could do to keep my tires from hitting the fenders. After extensive research, I decided on the Rubicon Express 4.5" Extreme Duty lift kit with all of the necessary options to make sure that what I was doing to my Jeep was the best I could afford. Of course this first project required that I install a Slip Yoke Eliminator, Extended Drive Shaft from Tom Woods, new Boomerang Shackles, Sway Bar Quick Disconnects and Old Man Emu Shocks. You can see pictures of the project at Car Domain by following this link ( 1995 Wrangler - 4.5" RE Extreme Duty Lift Kit Instalation ).

Of course, the taller stance now meant I could go to an even "Bigger Tire", so the next move was another trip to Les Schwab where they put a set of 35" EXT's on my Jeep. Now we are talkin'! The taller stance and much bigger tires were a great improvement to the Jeep. Now I was getting my Jeep to look like it could have a little "Attitude". Which it did. One in which it didn't want to go anywhere fast. These "improvements" took their toll out on the poor little 4 cylinder engine and marginally acceptable AX-5 transmission. It still got around okay, but it was in third gear any time there was any kind of up hill slope.

This lack of power to turn the 35's at any kind of speed and the impossibillity to pass "Anyone" in less than 60 seconds, left me wanting to swap in a 350 Chevy Small Block as soon as " I could afford it". and low and behold, the time has come to do just that. Not because "now I can afford it", but because now I have lost third gear, and instead of replacing or repairing the transmission (at a cost of about half of this project I'm taking on), I would much rather go ahead and do what I have really wanted to do to my Jeep ever since I brought it home. So anybody want to buy a 2.5 L 4 cylinder engine with lots of "poop" still left in it, and an AX-5 Tranny with 1st, 2nd, 4th, and vitually unused 5th gear? (pictures comming soon).

Project "Wrangler With Attitude" continues on next page

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