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25 years ago Dodge made some of the best cars on the road. Then in 95 for some reason the company got board making quality good products and decided to make the absolute worst vehicles.
Same thing happened to Peugeot. Used to make super reliable vehicles (most still crawling around N. Africa). And the racing cars they had you couldn't shake a stick at. But then they started making crap for some reason.
America is the ONLY country that makes trucks. And they make them well.
Ray,I feel ya on the YJ. I know you’ve had several wrestling matches with it,apparently haven’t tapped out-yet,lol. Having worked in Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep dealer for a fair stint,if it’s any consolation, you should be glad you’re wrenching on a YJ. The TJ,JX,JK suck exponentially worse and aren’t as hardy as what you have.
James,the change at Dodge,specifically the trucks was when 2nd gen production came to a close in 1993. Stuff produced after that was garbage,car line too.
Best thing that came from the 2nd gen era was magnum engine that powered all trucks,Jeeps til 2001 and magnum engine got further upgrades til 2000 upping hp/tq. Restoring a Ramcharger and repowering it with a magnum from a 2000 Durango that when torn down for evaluation at 106k had cylinder bore readings of 4.002 on a 4” bore. Perfect crosshatch pattern on cyl walls.
Better flowing aftermarket heads,upgraded roller cam,roller rockers,stand-alone FI,headers,custom exhaust will have me at about 445 ft lbs tq/385 hp. Plans among other things are tie rig for my car/trailer.
Worked at a Fiat/Lancia/Peugeot/Saab/Volvo dealer for 15 yrs. Italian cars were a pos.Peugots were unique,kinda wonky to work on,built like tanks and were underpowered,especially the diesels.Driving one was like riding your couch,they had the comfiest seats.
Seeing one of them on the roads anymore is rarer than seeing a1st gen around here
That 4.0 inline 6 engine in the jeep is one of my all time favorite engines. So hardy and so reliable and so easy to fix. Why they got rid of it for the 3.8, 3.7, 3.6 I'll never know.
I loved all the Mitsubishi love dodge got in the 80s and early 90s as well. I mean the Dodge kie cars like the Aries, and le-baron were some of the best rock solid cars you could find, but nope Dodge said "Chrysler 300 that'll solve this reliability thing".
And farther back I am not too fond of the challengers but the Dart with the slant 6.... oh man I think that car looks cool and ran well.
I owned A 68 Valiant.. 225 Slant Six. Nothing fancy, rubber flooring. Army green (uckin fugly).. paid $500 sold it for $500. Same with my 73 Civic.. paid $900 sold for $900Reliable all year round. Neither of them a chick magnet. I drove my dads 70 Dart w/a slant in it between bugs. Again reliable as all get out and long lasting.
That 4.0 inline 6 engine in the jeep is one of my all time favorite engines. So hardy and so reliable and so easy to fix. Why they got rid of it for the 3.8, 3.7, 3.6 I'll never know.
I loved all the Mitsubishi love dodge got in the 80s and early 90s as well. I mean the Dodge kie cars like the Aries, and le-baron were some of the best rock solid cars you could find, but nope Dodge said "Chrysler 300 that'll solve this reliability thing".
And farther back I am not too fond of the challengers but the Dart with the slant 6.... oh man I think that car looks cool and ran well.
4.0 engine was decommisioned as it was not able to meet next round of emissions reductions forthcoming. It and the 4.2 preceding it were a tough torquey engine. My brother,the family "car killer" tortured several til death. I built a couple of 4.6 stroker engines,with proper cam,fuel injector selection,adjustable fuel pressure regulator,tube header they had more grunt an hp than 5.0 Ford engine. Had one in my 88YJ and built another for the parts manager in dealership i worked at. He had a 93TJ he ran at local drag strip every weekend,good driver,very successful. Embarrassed a lot of dedicated track cars and their drivers.
His engine survived intact for several years,driveline,not so much. trans,transfer case u joints,driveshafts, ripped teeth off ring gear/pinion....He was a pro at getting parts replaced under warranty,lol.
Like in previous post where i said 1993 last year for solid Dodge trucks,was same year for downturn in Jeep products. Next generation suffers from weak suspension,bodys,transmissions,differentials and lame *** pair of V6 engines. In stock configuration,can't match offroad ability of their predecessors. There are superchargers available to up hp/tq on these engines but they do nothing for engine longevity. Majority of these gen Jeeps,lifted,big tires are mall crawlers,never been offroad.
A lot of modern Jeep offerings are not much more than a mini SUV and not so much meant for offroad as a mild snowstorm. Sad to see what they've become compared to the CJ,YJ,XJ,TJ.
During the early 70's I had a Plymouth Valiant Signet 2 door with the slant six and push button transmission.
Completely reliable, one of the best cars I ever had.
I was poor, didn't have a penny to spend on it, never saw an oil change but it never died.
A tan one, It looked like this:
Other than the 1938 Chevy pickup I had during the 80's it was the last American car I owned till Cathy's Jeep came along.
I finally gave it to my sister when I got the 1970 VW bug.
And yeah, we've got the 4.0 liter 6 cylinder in the Jeep, no complaints at all about that engine other than being a gas hog.
And I concur with Mike, my Peugeot 404 wagon was like riding on air, hummed like a sewing machine.
And rusted like an old tin bucket.
A lot of reasons for the "poor"fuel mileage is the brick shaped body of the Jeep it lived in. I know a guy that shoehorned a 4.0 into a Datsun 510 sedan,lowered,handling goodies,1st gen GSL differential. That car averaged @20 mpg,never treated civilly and was the scourge of local autocross competitions.
I,ve owned several Ramchargers and Dodge W150 4wd pickups and it's ironic that with a larger engine and Ramcharger weighing 6400lbs,they matched the fuel mileage of Jeeps like yours and my 84 Ramcharger with 5.2l carbureted V8 and 4 speed gets 14-15 mpg consistently with its brick body aerodynamics.It will soon have a handbuilt 3rd gen 5.9L magnum engine under its hood that will double hp/tq of engine that came in it and looking to get same mileage or better. Mix and match of new technology to freshen up an old dog,lol.
Never seen a 4.2, but first hand experience with the 4.0 is good enough for me.
I have never owned a 4.0 but all of my friends at one time or another have (and I'm like the communal mechanic so I know there engines). One guy I knew bought a Cherokee. I did the head gasket after he bought it. Broke the engine in and changed the oil. The owner NEVER did an oil change after that. NEVER because he complained that it took 6 quarts of oil and the lube place charged him an extra $10 for the extra quart. So he said he wouldn't change the oil under principal. Well 5 years 50k miles latter he sold the car still running off of probably less than a quart of oil. I was sold after that.
My buddy had a Camanchi with the 4 low option, and wide wheels (I don't know why he thought they would be cool). They were like 275 width tires or something stupid like that. He would dump the clutch in 4 low and it could slam you in the back of the seat. He didn't own it long enough to shatter any driveline stuff, but I'm sure it would have happened eventually.
Never seen a 4.2, but first hand experience with the 4.0 is good enough for me.
I have never owned a 4.0 but all of my friends at one time or another have (and I'm like the communal mechanic so I know there engines). One guy I knew bought a Cherokee. I did the head gasket after he bought it. Broke the engine in and changed the oil. The owner NEVER did an oil change after that. NEVER because he complained that it took 6 quarts of oil and the lube place charged him an extra $10 for the extra quart. So he said he wouldn't change the oil under principal. Well 5 years 50k miles latter he sold the car still running off of probably less than a quart of oil. I was sold after that.
My buddy had a Camanchi with the 4 low option, and wide wheels (I don't know why he thought they would be cool). They were like 275 width tires or something stupid like that. He would dump the clutch in 4 low and it could slam you in the back of the seat. He didn't own it long enough to shatter any driveline stuff, but I'm sure it would have happened eventually.
4.2 used in CJ series from early 80s. in 86 they got the new and improved feedback carb=suck!. Worked ok at best when dialed in but didn't stay that way. My 88 YJ had a 4.2 feedback carb,worked ok,i sold the engine complete when i put the 4.6 and swapped in complete Mopar FI setup from a wrcked TJ. Last year for 4.2 in 1989 YJ.
Those late 80s carbs for meeting emissions that manufactures used instead of biting the bullet for EFI really sucked. I reconditioned my nieces 89 GW with the 360 V8 and that carb sucked. I rebuilt it and did some mods to the ignition and got it from 12 mpg to 17 mpg mixed driving, almost 19 on the highway. What a tank. It only fit in my garage diagonally.
Here is how far dodge has gone to make their line awful.
This is the PCM on top of the alternator. Yeah a computer on top of a hot vibrating alternator... That's real fine work dodge.
If anybody was wondering.... The RX9 is gonna look like a BMW Z4 (Aka Toyota Supra). Or Mazda is gonna make a strait six powered MX7 (i'm guessing because the last "Motor eXperiment" was MX6).
A remarkable example of incompetence, those Jeep Chryslers.
Did you know you might find most any metric of nut or bolt on a 93 Jeep?
Hex, phillips, torx, metric, SAE and some unknown measurement I'm still trying to figure out, probably Chrysler priority or Martian metrics.
You gotta take one bolt at a time, search through your tools to see if you might have something to fit, then sigh when you don't.
And this is how they came straight out of the factory. Who was drunk, the floor chief or the chief engineer?
If the 93 Wrangler was the high point of the Jeep Chrysler industry, woe is American manufacturing.
Only way you can get people to buy the American stuff is put prohibitive tariffs on the good stuff.
All for the good of the 1%.
Woah, buddy. I'm a Chevy guy... 93 Wrangler might be high point for Dodge, but they have a long way to make up for the LS block. Probably the MOST swapped engine on the planet.
Not many engines can have 400k miles be purchased ANYWHERE toss a cam in add turbo and make 800+ hp all for under $2k.
Now Chevy has problems, but as far as engines you can't shake a stick at the LS.
I just did an oil pan gasket on a 6.0 the other day 400k miles and you could shake the connecting rods on the crank. The owner said "oh well, trying to make 500 000 miles". The truck drove off, no problems. Amazing.
Chevy has its problems all companies do. Trying to make cars (dumb idea). Trying to pay employees more than they are worth. Making the poorest quality interior, paint, trim and everything else on the car is most likely the biggest reasons why GM sucks.
But I gotta say I was pretty indifferent on domestics until I bought my Cheyanne. Then after owning it for a few years I know what all the fuss is about. Parts availability. You can walk into any store anywhere on the planet and buy anything you need to fix any part because there are MILLIONS of these stupid engines out there.
Ford is good, not gonna lie. The RX7 is a ford product 100%, but sometimes fords are more of a pain in the *** to work on than GM.
All three truck manufacturers will last equal arguing which one is best (dodge is by far the worst) is silly. It all has to do with the owner maintaining the vehicle, but GM has the aftermarket on lockdown. Build a 1000hp GM engine costs a fifth of what it would cost to make a Dodge or Ford engine do the same.
Let me put on my shocked face,not!-regarding the ecm location shot.
Love me a Grand Wagoneer! Tough m effin tanks,only thing takes them out is rust...That one looks in pretty good condition,how long ago is that shot?
Ray,1993 was the zenith for all things dodge/Jeep. The hardware mish/mash on your Jeep you seem to have a particular affinity to began back in days of CJ5-CJ7 in mid eighties,appreciate your plight. You need to appreciate how lucky you are-yes lucky. If that Jeep of yours had come from my area of east coast,even though you had correct sockets and bits to remove them,they would,choose one:break bit off in Torx Fastener,Hex head,snap off like a breakaway bolt or round off like you had put wrong size socket on for removal.Common denominator in all the fasteners...you're drilling out the remains,hoping to preserve the threads. Feel lucky? Well do ya?
James this has been the case for @ 65 years since advent of small block Chevy. Ford cost more to build/modify. Dodge always cost the most. This example showcases your thoughts exactly. When sourcing parts for my magnum engine build,the cyl heads that came on my engine that are prone to cracking had none. I could have used them but the cracking issue would always be in the back of my mind as towing will be among duties on this truck. I chose instead to buy aftermarket higher flowing heads. What i paid for one bare head would have bought me two loaded vortec heads,how's that?
I sold my original bare heads for $100 to offset cost of new heads. All the stainless valves from original heads went into the new ones. They were in great shape,requiring just a light touch up on my valve grinding machine. I have seen these valves with excess of 300k reused on an engine build with no adverse effects. New heads got a bit of porting and bowl blending and light touch up on valve seats,new springs,retainers,locks to accommodate cam going in.These goodies more than 2 x cost of same LS performance stuff.
Valves are an archaic technology from prehistoric times used in inferior engines before the Great Prophet Felix Wankel bestowed the engine of the gods on humanity.
As much as I uptalk the LS; I am planning on doing a 4.3 swap in my Porsche... For about 4 grand I can have a NICE supercharged (eaton 112) with headers and all new accessories and TBI. That's wiseco pistons, 270 cam, rods, and 3* valves. Sum it up and that's over 400#s of torque for pennies. Crank up the boost and I might hit 450#s.
I just can't squeeze those extra two pistons in the engine bay... and I don't want to have to tube the chassis.
Although part of me wants to put a Honda 2.4 engine with a roots supercharger on it in the Porsche. That will REALLY make the purists angry. But the 4.3 will make them just as mad and all the accessories are in the same spot as the metzler engine.
As much as I uptalk the LS; I am planning on doing a 4.3 swap in my Porsche... For about 4 grand I can have a NICE supercharged (eaton 112) with headers and all new accessories and TBI. That's wiseco pistons, 270 cam, rods, and 3* valves. Sum it up and that's over 400#s of torque for pennies. Crank up the boost and I might hit 450#s.
I just can't squeeze those extra two pistons in the engine bay... and I don't want to have to tube the chassis.
Although part of me wants to put a Honda 2.4 engine with a roots supercharger on it in the Porsche. That will REALLY make the purists angry. But the 4.3 will make them just as mad and all the accessories are in the same spot as the metzler engine.
What are you going to do with the transaxle,with that much hp/tq it'll eventually explode like a pinyata.
What are you going to do with the transaxle,with that much hp/tq it'll eventually explode like a pinyata.
The base model is supposed to hold up to 500#s the "S" model (the 6 speed) can take up to 600. That's another reason I'm staying away from the LS. Cause the whole point is to have a roots blower behind my head while I drive. And a whipple charger on a 4.8 would make over 500 de-tuned. I'd rather have a nice choppy built up engine that can stretch the trans over a limited engine that is still going to break the trans.
I have experienced too much power for the drive line. My RX is probably putting well over 2 times the stock power to the road. Not what Mazda intended for that transmission. I think the Porsche will be safe with just at 2 times the oe power levels.
And I won't put sticky tires on the Porsche. I really blame those RE-71's for tearing my RX7's trans up.
Let me put on my shocked face,not!-regarding the ecm location shot.
Love me a Grand Wagoneer! Tough m effin tanks,only thing takes them out is rust...That one looks in pretty good condition,how long ago is that shot?
That was from Oct 2008 and its still running strong today. Very little rust even though it originally was bought and lived over on the NC coast. Was actually a breeze to work on, no issues with frozen fasteners or anything. My niece always wanted one of these and she's the second owner. Her husband takes it for duck hunting with his buddies dogs and towing a boat and all the gear. Never fear!
The only downside is that the headliner needs to be completely replaced as it looks kind of worn and worn out but its still hanging in there.
Man that sounds great to bad I’m all the way in Miami us old rotary guys can show them a thing or 2. I’m 57 and bought my first one when I was 15 love those rotaries still drive one today a 84 GSL with a big streetport daily driver
06-06-19, 01:17 PM
But the 4.3 will make them just as mad and all the accessories are in the same spot as the metzler engine.
