I'm thinking of doing a V-8 swap into my cj7, anybody got any pointers or suggesions on a fairly easy swap?
'84 cj7 with full width dana 44's front and rear with 5.38 gears. detroit locker in the rear. warn winch, wrangler rollbar, I-6 with offenhauser intake, and holley 390 cfm 4 barrel, borla header and exhaust. spring over conversion with wrangler 2.5" lift springs, total of 8". rancho shocks, 36X12.50 swamper sx's. on 15X10 rockcrawler rims. various other doodads like hi-lift jacks, rock bumpers.
I have an 85 CJ that I ended up putting an AMC 360 in. One of the nice thing about this swap is that you can use stock parts. There aren't as many performance add ons for the 360, but there are enough to be able to make a screamer ifn that's what you want.
I ended up using a T-18 tranny, adapter connecting to my Dana 300 Xfer case. Using a stock bellhousing (the one off my 258). Had to change out my motor mount tower and mounts. Still using standard radiator with shroud. Not a dificult swaop at all.
304,360, or 401 is going to be your easiest swap. Like CJ7nvrstk said, useing stock parts is going to be an advantage. Those powerplants will have the same bell houseing bolt pattern as the 258. What tranny are you running now? The T176 will hold up "all right" unless your heavy on the throttle. I went with a T18a and used my old T5 bell housing with a couple extra holes drilled into it.
A lot of guys end up doing a 350 swap because the blocks are (or used to be) so abundant and cheap. But then you have to start dealing with adapters and accesories which end up costing more then the engine.
You can build up a 360 rather nicely with MPI or better yet, find a 401 and build it up.....save a little extra cash for a Dana 60/14bolt conversion
"hook yer seatbelt....i saw this in a cartoon once, but im pretty sure i can do it"
