Those painless kits are not in my budget right now haha so you're saying I'd end up with two computers in my car? What if I very different ecm cause mines carburated? Do think that might cause some issues? This jeep is my daily driver right now and I go to college in the fall so I don't wanna jump in there, get halfway done, and find out I'm out of money and time.

 

First your short on money...
You want to swap a SB into the XJ, another
Have you looked at gas mileage of SB Chevys?
The bell housing on the 2.8 is SMALL, hope you like replacing clutches more than an SHO taurus. Assuming its not automatic.
Have you all the posts about the 4.0 overheating, I can just imagine the trouble your going to run into with a SB in there.

I got an 88 S15 Jimmy with a 2.8 in it. But its fuel injected. That engine is bulletproof. Gutless non pulling engine, but it will run forever. We used it to haul dirt bikes around Arkansas for a year or more. IT was slower than my Tractor Trailer with 80,000 lbs in the Ozark mountains when the trailer was hooked up.

You would be much happier if you was just to drive it as is and save your pennies and find an XJ with a 4.0 in it, then you get the added benefit of better MPG and decent torque and HP.

A SB swap is not a cheap solution to more HP.

 

I appreciate you pointing out all the obvious problems but it is auto (i kinda stated that in the beginning) and I can't afford a newer XJ right now. I am good friends with a guy who owns a junkyard and if hes got the engine, he'll probably let it go real cheap

 

Well I missed the Automatic part in the beginning. My mistake.
Well just get right after it. swap that engine right out. You've got a friend in a junkyard, he can give you everything to do the swap. Just think of the money you'll be saving walking everywhere while the Jeep is torn down and your scratching your head.
I've done lots of engine swaps in my arrogant youth , just like you no one could tell me anything either.
So get after it. Be sure to check back in and let us know how the 0-60 time is in those sneakers.

Being 43 now, I can remember my dad telling me the same things when I pulled the engine out of an Opel Cadet and was going to drop in a SB Ford. That car went to the Junk yard 2 months later and dad just smiled. There was successes like the Big Block Ford swap into the Pickup, the Big Block Powered Dodge Dart I built.

I wish you the best of luck and we'll all be waiting with baited breath to hear how it runs, or if your buddy with a salvage yard now has Jeep there to part out.

 

You can use the stock wiring. You just have to separate out what is non engine related. If it doesn't hook up to it, you don't use it. You will only have one computer, the GM module

 

Well your problem was wanting an opel engine hahaha I do appreciate the concern and I can borrow the 'rents extra car for a while. And I can't find a job so I don't have to drive anywhere once I get everything I need so I'll look into it. I'm not the kind of guy who will jump head first into something without looking into it first hence the thread. You and 4.3l XJ have really helped thanks alot! I'm sure I'm gonna have more questions haha I'll go to that junkyard tomorrow and see about that engine. My uncle has a 4.0 xj sitting behind his garage. The body is entirely rusted but the engine has less than 40,000 miles on it. Is that worth swapping? It's a 5 speed which I would prefer but I know it's harder swapping from an auto to a 5 speed.

 

If you don't have much money, a V8 swap into an xj is not the low-buck option. It is a huge project full of expenses that are hard to predict. And the torque will twist your existing transmission into a pretzel.

Sometimes it's best just to move on.

 

MMMMMM i like pretzels haha

 

I'm still laughing. BTDT. I'm still too feebleminded to quit...got a Wrangler in the barn with 305/TH350 in it, got two 258's on engine stands living in fear of donating their cranks/rods to my 4.0.

Worse...I had an Opel Cadet, too. My dad's best friend offered to "buy it from me" after it had been sideswiped and never fixed. Gave me $250. I'm sure it was my dad's money...couldn't wait to see that thing out of the driveway. They probably celebrated the tow truck hauling it off with a couple beers. Still makes me laugh at how dumb I was.

Even worse...I took the $250 and another $350 and bought a 1966 Chevy half ton with, get this, a service body on it. Straight six, three on the tree, painted highway stripe yellow with rust accents. Imagine my dad's surprise when I brought that sucker home.

 

I'm only 17 and I bought a 1964 volkswagen beetle that I had to save for months for. I got it to run well and bought a good amount of stuff for it and ran out of money and now I'm stick with it haha no one wants to buy it and I'm out of money for anything haha

 

So that guy at the junkyard has a 3.4l engine from a chevy venture van. I can have the engine and computer and everything else for 400 but I think I can talk him down to 400. Should I do it? and the intake manifold and carb from my engine should bolt straight on right? if it's the same block it should be fine right?

 

It should bolt. But bear in mind that that intake and carb is what makes the 2.8 such a dog. If you can get everything, use it. You will be much happier in the end.

 

I do not understand something here. is the jeep trany you have from the 2.8 chev engine different in the us? here in canada its a chev tranny and a 350 bolts up to it no problem I know all kinds of people that have done it and have no problems at all. not jsut that but they drive the crap out of them.. always on the gas... anyway just wanted to ask...
nothing wrong with the v6 to v6 I am jsut asking..

 

In the US it is a Chrysler 904 auto that is used. The 2.8 uses a smaller bell housing than the other small blocks.

 

yes same tranny as here and yes same bell housing
well I wounder why we can bolt them up but you cant.. have you tryed or just read you could not so did not do it.