WHAT ARE THE SPECIAL ISSUES I WILL RUN INTO SWAPPING THE 98 INTO THE 01 ? HAVE SWAPPED A NUMBER OF ENGINES, JUST WOULD LIKE TO KNOW THE UnSUAL... have heard somethin about the ports? What about the distributor? thanks in advance for the advice.

 

You'll remove the distributor and replace it with a 2000-2001 oil pump drive and camshaft position sensor instead.

You'll need a coil rail to provide spark. The 0630 head doesn't have the holes to bolt the coil rail on, so you'll need to make some brackets to hold it on. Alternately you can get a 6 cylinder coil out of a Dodge minivan (AKA the "Viper" coil swap, on which you can find plenty of discussion if you search) and run spark plug wires, but then you have to rig up a bracket to hold the coil.

You'll probably want to use the '01's exhaust manifolds to avoid having to do extra exhaust work. The intake ports on the heads from the '98 and '01 are the same size, but the exhaust ports are larger on the '98. Because of the size mismatch, you may have exhaust leaks. Some people have had leaks, while others have said you don't get a leak if you use the '01 manifold gasket.

If you do get a leak and you're handy with a Dremel, you can make an adapter plate by tracing out the ports from the '01 gasket on thin sheet steel from Home Depot, then use the '98 gasket on one side and the '01 on the other. Or you can pay this guy to make one for you for $120:

https://jeepexhaustadapter.com/

Also, the coil rail motors prefer NGK plugs. Otherwise it should be a pretty straight forward swap.

 

Thanks, getting after it this weekend!