XJ: Upgrading the engine

[pauld2817]

I have a 96 XJ Cherokee and would love to one day put a v6 a v8 or possibly a diesel in it if I was to drop in a diesel a v6 or v8 what apart from the diesel 4 cylinder from the XJ's or what v6 or v8 can I put in and what will I need to change (taking engine mounts and radiator into account) and strengthen mechanically and body wise if I were to do the conversion? I would also want to do the usual mods to get the most out of my XJ and get out there and have fun!

[Dustbowl]

G'day mate. And welcome to the madness


There have been a few threads like this lately, but we will call this one completely diesel conversion, the common conversions are converting it to a Cummins 4bt (very lovely motor) and there is a Merck motor they use but apparently it gets some bad feed back.
The ultimate diesel for power to weight, and will fit for size is the 3.5 V6 Ecoboost, but over here... They are quite rare.

What you will need to upgrade often depends on the weight of the new motor and your fabrication skills, adapting the engine mounts, adapting the motor to your gearbox and upgrading your suspension is one thing, but it would be a nightmare trying to get that AW4 to make friends with your new motor... You would probably have to go a manual Transmission too.

Would love to see where this goes.

Cheers

Dan

[pauld2817]

I just read another forum people were talking about dropping in a 5.2 or 5.9 litre (318 or 360ci) Magnum and mating it with the transfer case and trans from either the Dodge Ram or Grand Cherokee but then the problem is making sure the running gear can handle the power with the diesel I know the little 2 and a 1/2 litre in some XJ's mated with the manual gearbox are a good option and have good torque to pull you out of trouble but I would like to maybe go with something bigger I thought the Cummings 5.9 i6 from the Dodge Ram would be too big if they can be squeezed in then that engine would be a good candidate I also did a search online and I saw that later model Jeeps have the 3.8 litre from the Chrysler vans or the 6g74/75 from the Mitsubishi Pajero/Shogun/Montero as the earlier 6g72/73 are in a number of Chrysler and Dodge models I was hoping that could be fitted with an adapter
not sure on the engine configuration of the 6g74/75 if it can be positioned correctly under the bonnet of the xj but again finding a trans/gearbox to mate it with the adapter that can be easily fitted