Jeep Comanche Build

A storage place won't have 220 outlet, I'll have to also bring my generator for the Lincoln.... Definitely doable tho.

Most likely going to just pick up that 2.5 and replace gaskets and stuff and drop it in, that'll work for now and shouldn't take as long as a full on swap, I definitely have to do something about my dash, either fix my dummy lights that don't work at all, or put real gauges in there, I'm not a fan of dummy lights, especially when they don't even work, I'll let you guys know when I start the work

So I'm gonna have to get started on this even sooner than I intended, last night I was driving home and overheated, coolant all over my engine bay, smoking like cheech and chong.. I could not pinpoint where the coolant had been coming from once I got home because there was no more leaking out. I know it wasn't just boiling over from my overflow, it seemed either to be coming from my head gasket or water pump that's my guess. Anyways, I am picking up a motor on Wednesday night, it's got about 82k on it, only difference is that it's MPI not TBI, I've been researching and I am able to swap over parts to make it TBI which is what I plan on doing because time is a factor and I don't feel like putting in a new fuel pump and all the other required work to swap the truck to MPI. Does anybody have info about all the parts I will have to swap over to the "new" motor to go TBI? here's what I know I need to swap:

Intake
Exhaust manifold
Flywheel
Distributor
Alternator
? Z Belt and pulleys ?
Motor mounts
Water pump
I'm not sure if I'm missing anything else, I've been searching on jeep forum with mixed results.

Rob Cote wrote:Hahahaha also don't confuse me with the other R. Cote.

This is what's gonna get me...

I'm not going to pretend like I know all that's involved, but I actually don't think you'll have to change the motor mounts (at least in regards to welding on new ones), especially if it's coming out of a fellow Comanche. If you're talking about replacing worn out ones then that's a different story.

I actually just saw a listing for a 1997 Cherokee for sale on one of the Facebook pages I'm apart of. They were looking for $350 for the whole thing, there wasn't any info about what's wrong with it though. You immediately came to mind when I saw the listing.

THOOPY3 wrote:I'm not going to pretend like I know all that's involved, but I actually don't think you'll have to change the motor mounts (at least in regards to welding on new ones), especially if it's coming out of a fellow Comanche. If you're talking about replacing worn out ones then that's a different story.

I actually just saw a listing for a 1997 Cherokee for sale on one of the Facebook pages I'm apart of. They were looking for $350 for the whole thing, there wasn't any info about what's wrong with it though. You immediately came to mind when I saw the listing.

Motor is coming from a 94 YJ and what group was that in? I may look into that if it runs well

I think it was New England Jeep Trader, but don't quote me on that.

Anybody know of a place that will rent out some space so I can do this motor swap? My parents put the house up for sale and said I cant do it in my garage, or even in my driveway. So, storage facilities shooting me down, if anybody knows of a place let me know, I have the money for rent. Maybe I'll drive into the woods and work on it there..

Picked up the motor tonight after work, went down to CT for it, it's from a 94 Jeep YJ PO says the motor has 74k on it. Dropped it off at a buddy's place, shoutout to NvincibleTorque (Dave) for hooking it up with a place to do the swap! Going to try and get the Comanche over there Saturday after the club run, I'll be copiloting in Daves jeep.

The guy I got the motor from gave me a bunch of miscellaneous engine parts so if anybody with a 2.5l needs anything let me know, looking to get rid of some stuff cheap and make a couple bucks back off the cost of my motor. I have two good 2.5l heads, some Pistons, a water pump, 2 MPI intakes, timing chain, and a bunch of other stuff. I'll post up some pictures tomorrow so it's not too boring of a thread

Dont worry..
Its never boring when youre involved.

Aww it's cute reading your guyses bromance <3

I hate him. I hate him everyday, just somedays I hate him slightly less.

Don't have any pictures right now, busy day yesterday though, club run was great. Finally got back and started to work on pulling the motor, I think there are 8 bolts left to remove then I can pull the motor out, swap over the TBI parts to the new one and put the new one in. Next update Monday night hopefully with a picture of the motor out

Bell housing, alternator and starter should be all thats left. Good start!

Well, got the motor out last night, it wasn't all that bad to pull, tranny bolts were a PITA but that's always how it is. I removed the Throttle body, manifold, and thermostat housing, and clutch from the old motor, going to be swapping them over to the new one. I still have to find out if I need to swap my distributor, by the looks of it I have a serpentine belt on the old motor so no need to swap the belt and pulleys, on other forums people said that the Comanche has a "V" belt but maybe mine had been swapped previously. Anyways, going to get some more work done tonight after classes, and tomorrow it should start to be put back in.
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Not really familiar at all with the 2.5, or with what your budget is like, so take this with a grain of sand.

It might be a good time now to do some basic maintenance stuff, like the serpentine belt, plugs, distributor cap, water pump, etc. Most are not terribly difficult to do with the engine in the vehicle, but sometimes it's just simpler with it out; you have better access and such. I'm sure you've considered this, but just a friendly reminder.

Rob Cote wrote:Not really familiar at all with the 2.5, or with what your budget is like, so take this with a grain of sand.

It might be a good time now to do some basic maintenance stuff, like the serpentine belt, plugs, distributor cap, water pump, etc. Most are not terribly difficult to do with the engine in the vehicle, but sometimes it's just simpler with it out; you have better access and such. I'm sure you've considered this, but just a friendly reminder.

Thanks for the reminder, should be picking up all those maintenance parts today before heading over so I can get them done

Word. Don't forget the supercharger, too. I forgot that in my list initially.

Rob Cote wrote:Word. Don't forget the supercharger, too. I forgot that in my list initially.

Don't tempt me

The "new" motor is in the truck, bolted it up to the tranny and the motor mounts. I had to swap over the driver side motor mount bracket from my old motor to this new one as the YJ motor mount bracket is VERY different. After about 30 minutes of trying to get the other motor mount lined up I decided to remove that mount and take off the spacer behind it, which worked great because it lined up perfectly after that. I started putting the rest of it back together, I got the rest of the throttle body together, alternator back in, power steering pump, hooked up almost all of the plugs and vacuum lines, still searching for where some of them go... but I'll find them. While the motor was out I replaced the valve cover gasket, water pump, thermostat, I have a new serpentine belt, and I bought an oil pressure sender, and coolant temp sender. I'm hoping to put a new cluster in that will read the proper levels, not just dummy lights. Truck should be good to go tomorrow late afternoon, I can't work on it today unfortunately.

Still not sure if I will have to swap distributors, the one on the new motor has a plug for it, the old one had the extra wire coming off the distributor to the mess of wires on the wheel well. I'll take a picture tomorrow of it

Sick progress dude. Lately it seems I get about an hour a day of free time at most. I couldn't possibly do an engine swap in any reasonable amount of time.

Rob Cote wrote:Sick progress dude. Lately it seems I get about an hour a day of free time at most. I couldn't possibly do an engine swap in any reasonable amount of time.

Been going every chance I get to work on it, the girlfriend isn't too happy about me disappearing this past week but when I get it running again she'll be happy, until I tell her my plans of throwing more money into it

Yea...well...any chick that goes out on the trail is a trooper. So don't try to piss her off too much!

Shes a trooper to deal with Rob Cinelli lol.
Side note, had some issues starting the engine after it was in... Swapping the flywheel over today and then Rob will let us all know if it starts haha. Hopefully he tells me he needs a ride over to swap up the car he borrows to do this