Sinking Creek 4WD Association

Big announcement. thanks to Uncle sam giving me some money back, its time to get the ball rolling. My little ole Lj's 4.0 liter are numbered. Got my eyes set on a 5.9 magnum and likely an nv 3550 or nv 4500. Working on a parts list and research right now, but its set in stone its gonna happen.

Hell yeah! thats gonna be badass

Thats badass, good ol mopar pushrod engines!

I looked into doing that a while back and came to 2000k for everything and pretty easy swap overall. Hardest part is connecting the wiring harness to each other to make the computers happy. But it might be easier to do it with manual jeep than an auto as well

Sweet! So much torque from that motor!

I think I may just spend the cash to get the harness made. So it's just plug and play and no headache

Oh yeah. And when the time comes I'm gonna need someone to weld in the motor mounts

Any performance upgrades planned? $2000 and the labor involved is not worth it for 240 HP. Why the Magnums, because it is Chrysler?

If you do not have brand loyalty, a Gen III SBC is the best bang for your buck. 300+HP stock(ish) and can be had for less than $1000 with everything ready to run. A cam, LS3 manifolds, and a tune is 350HP.

I'm not up on what's available to do on those engines, it could be just as easy; but don't do a foreign engine swap for less than 300 HP.

It will likely get at least a new cam likely a manifold maybe heads. Just depends on the $$$$. I'm going mopar because mopar, and the electronics and drive train stuff all mesh a little easier with the jeep since it's staying in the Chrysler family.

BadAssEddie wrote:Any performance upgrades planned? $2000 and the labor involved is not worth it for 240 HP. Why the Magnums, because it is Chrysler?

If you do not have brand loyalty, a Gen III SBC is the best bang for your buck. 300+HP stock(ish) and can be had for less than $1000 with everything ready to run. A cam, LS3 manifolds, and a tune is 350HP.

I'm not up on what's available to do on those engines, it could be just as easy; but don't do a foreign engine swap for less than 300 HP.

My understanding is that the 5.9l is one of the more "compatible" swaps on the TJ, even for a Chrysler engine, but I don't know the specifics. Some guys do go the route you are talking though.

You can push 300-350hp out of a cammed/tuned 5.9. Motors are fairly cheap.

All things considered I think it's the best route for the $ and relative ease. Not to mention the near bullet proof bottom end on the 318 and 360. If I play my cards right I can get away with a fully functional stock cluster, 4wd shifter and drive shafts. And it won't have any Chevy parts, that's always a plus

Chevies are very economical but...


Magnums get a lot of shit. Especially the 360. No they aren't that powerful stock compared to some things. But they have a pretty much bullet proof bottom end and will almost literally run forever like the 4.0. 240k rolling on mine. Just did heads and a cam.

You can get an easy 20 hp and tq just with a tune to remove the very conservative timing from the factory aka the "death flash". Plus they are torquey as hell.

No swaps for less than 300hp is a fine idea really. But I'd lose 40 hp and no torque on a stock engine to keep a Mopar under the hood and no f****** bow tie. But that's just me.

Plus it's a jeep so torque>>>hp.


Want to stroke it to a 408 torque monster? Easy you basically just need a crank and new pistons with higher wrist pins. No block carving needed

Mayday!! I've got a hitch in the giddy'up for my little project. Issue 1. I have a security key (SKIM) Issue 2. Apparently there is a difference in the computers between 05-06 tj's and all previous tjs.
The first issue I'm absolutely clueless about, and the guy im gonna have build my wiring harness and flash the donor pcm says the simplest fix is to replace the dash and ecm on the jeep to basically convert it to an 04 or older a jeep, but come on? there has to be a way around this. Issue 2, hopefully isnt gonna cause an issue as Evan at Backwoods Offroad is working on an 05 as we speak and i should know more by friday. Anyone have any kind of knwoledge on the SKIM key system? Tips? Maybe found something on a forum somwhere? HALP!!!

I believe this is a job for our resident Jeep Forum God, Mr. WJ. Im sure he'll chime in shortly.