84 cherokee 2.5L, engine swap?

[soudorio]

I have a 1984 cherokee 2.5L, what would be a good engine for an "easy" swap, (if there is such...).

Love the little car but it needs POWER!!

Thanks

[Wolf]

I had an 85 2.5L. The easiest swap with the most gains that I came up with would be to swap in the motor mounts and crossmember from a 2.8L XJ, then install either a 3.1 or 3.4L GM V6.

To put a 4.0L in a pre-87 XJ requires some firewall modifications.

[b1gfella]

I have seen several of these early XJ's at the local yards with Buick 350's in them...you can tell it's the Buick 350 when you see the distrib in the front. If you could find one of those you could get all the necessary parts (mounts, etc) and install just about any 350 in there...

[soudorio]

Yeah, I figure the cash and effort to try to put a 4.0 motor on a 2.5 XJ, wuold probably be better to sell the thing and buy a 4.0 anyway. They are not too expensive. Once I saw a V8 conversion, but I believe it was a 302 Ford. It was front heavy as per the ownwer, and very "busy" inside that bay.

[b1gfella]

The Buick 350 was an engine option in an XJ for the first few years, came right from Jeep that way :-) If you can fit an in-line six in there then you know that a V-8 will fit! It is a full engine bay...your probably right about cost though...the 4.0l inline 6 is a excellent engine and you can find the older XJ's all over with that engine in them for a decent price...

[soudorio]

Wow! I didn't know they offered an XJ V8 from the factory. Never seen one!

[b1gfella]

I've seen two old ones in the yards in San Diego my last two trips that had the Buick 350 in them...few people realized they were Buick 350's except the Buick folks :-) I also think this was XJ's prior to them being called a Cherokee but I'm not sure of the exacts...

[MagicRat]

Originally Posted by b1gfella

I've seen two old ones in the yards in San Diego my last two trips that had the Buick 350 in them...few people realized they were Buick 350's except the Buick folks :-) I also think this was XJ's prior to them being called a Cherokee but I'm not sure of the exacts...

You are talking about the Jeepster Commando of the late '60's and early 70's , which is completely different than the XJ.

Those Commandos came with the Buick 3.8 V6, so a Buick 350 would be a straightforward bolt in.

[soudorio]

That's what I sort of was thinking about when b1gfella mentioned prior XJs, but I was not sure either. I do know that buick was an extremely common swap on CJs, I once had a CJ2A that I was going to rebuild (lived for 8 years in my garage but never happened...), and the 350 was the motor I was considering.