I come before this community for humble advice/opinion. First background, then the situation, and finish with our goals/needs.

I am a new Jeep owner - a few months into the experience and loving it so far! My experience with vehicles has been on the lighter end, mechanically - all basic maint and some simple repairs (oil, filters, spark plugs, rotors, brakes, sensor find/replacement, etc) and some minor body part replacement (mirror and electrical bolt-on). But I am willing and able to learn, and have taken on an older Cherokee to learn more about cars and to get more into off-roading and camping further off the grid.

Our family bought a 1984 Jeep Cherokee (4-door, 4WD) with 223K miles, the carbureted 2.8L gas engine, 4-speed auto tranny, and a 3-4" lift on it. We have thus far made fairly minor repairs on it (tighten bolts, replace rubber bushings with poly bushings, replace a couple suspension parts, etc), trying to get it to pass safety/emissions. But it's not yet passing emissions, the engine is weak and sickly, and the tranny is rough shifting. We got into it with "restoration/improvement project" in mind, so we have decided to give it a newer, more powerful engine and a new transmission to boot. We are willing to put used or new into it, but want to keep the project on the less-expensive side and we want as little/simple of modification/fabrication as possible if it is required.

We are looking for a swap-in engine/tranny(and possible transfer case) swap-in that will fit the following needs:

Engine: Can be a v-6, inline-6, or V-8. Gary (our Jeep) will be a nearly-daily-driver, so good gas mileage is fairly important. We don't care if it's from a junk yard (or Pick-A-Part) or new. We do not want a "stroker" - No thanks.

Tranny: Manual is preferred, but auto would be acceptable if it's easier/cheaper. It should match the engine well. New or used part is fine.

General: I would like to hear what your best combination is for an engine and tranny (and transfer case, if it's required with the combination). Please give pros/cons of your listed combination, so that we can get a better idea of what we should start shopping for. If you have links to places where said parts can be found (including any conversion kits so they fit together), we would GREATLY appreciate them. But we may just take the parts list and hit up local places where we can find used parts. Thank you in advance for any help/advice you offer. I look forward to responses.

 

My first thought is to find a 4L manual parts vehicle and swap everything over to your Cherokee.

 

^^^ this getting a donor will save you alot of time and hassle. pluss the 4.0L AX-15 combo is great.

 

3.4 Camaro V6 is as easy a swap as you can find.

 

Would that be an easier swap than finding a donor Jeep?

 

Does the AX15 come in manual trans Jeeps? I found elsewhere that they are found in '96+ V6 Dodge Dakotas, but I've also heard that older Jeeps are Frankensteins from multiple makes (e.g. Ford, Chevy, etc.).

I have also heard (please correct me if I'm wrong) that it's sometimes easier to swap in a Chevy engine than Jeep engines (but....maybe that was AMC I'm thinking of..not later Jeep engines).

 

Okay. Here's the deal. The 2.8 is a GM engine. A 3.4 GM is darn near a bolt in.

 

84 is the first gen body, unfortunately the engine bay is too small to hold the 4.0L straight six engine that came in the later years. That's why cruiser says another GM V6, its the fastest and simplest swap that fits.

There are some good ones out there. 96-up GM 4.3L used the Vortec heads. Buick 3.8L is supercharged and something special but would need a computer to go with it

 

For clarification purposes (and seriously not trying to troll or offend)..what makes it a "darn near" bolt-in, instead of a direct bolt in for the 3.4? This is my ignorance asking.

And would that be the case for a 4.3L or 3.8L GM engine? I have the 3.8L in my Impala and LOVE that engine..

 

For clarification purposes (and seriously not trying to troll or offend)..what makes it a "darn near" bolt-in, instead of a direct bolt in for the 3.4? This is my ignorance asking.

And would that be the case for a 4.3L or 3.8L GM engine? I have the 3.8L in my Impala and LOVE that engine..

 

It's the same engine family as the 2.8 whereas the 3.8 and 4.3 are not.

There are write-ups on how to do the 3.4 swap.

 

x2 I would do the 3.4 swap if I had a 2.8 in the jeep.

 

If you got a lot of money to burn you can swap in a gm v8 from a old school small block to any of the ls family.novak adapt makes the swap parts but its not a cheap swap at all.A easier and budget swap is the gm 3.4 like they said.Honestly if it was me i would sell the jeep and find a 88 and newer with the 4.0 in it.

 

Awesome! Taking y'all's advice, I searched for one of the write-ups and found this one linked from this forum in a different discussion: http://www.lunghd.com/Tech_Articles/...Project_XJ.htm.

When looking at how this guy did it, he said the following with this picture:

"2.8L flywheel showing the weight that must be machined down when flywheel is neutrally balanced. You MUST have this done! Do NOT attempt to use old flywheel w/o doing this! Have friction side resurfaced while it's at the machine shop. Total cost for was $90 for machine work."

He then said "About 75% of the weight (shown at left) was machined off and reliefs were drilled to neutrally balance the flywheel. While they had it & since a new clutch assembly was going in we had them resurface the friction side too."

My question, is how to even go about finding someone capable of doing such work? And do they basically put the flywheel on some spinning device and grind off the weight (and/or drill holes) until the flywheel is balanced neutrally? I also have another question about another pic, but it's late for me. I'll post that Q with a pic tomorrow..

Again - thank you everyone for your advice and help. I feel a little anxious about taking on this work, but I'm excited at the prospects and challenge

 

3800 is same bolt pattern, can do non-SC with carb. Also some of the transmission bellhousings are interchangeable. Dunno about motor mounts.

I used to have a bookmark for an Isuzu build with the GM 2.8L, he swapped in a Cadillac 4.9 V8, same bolt pattern. edit--found it https://web.archive.org/web/20121022...c/cadillac.htm