barn find 1968 rambler american eco project!!

[night9]

Originally Posted by slownugly

this things torque band will start right off idle haha.

You not kidding about the torque at idle! My 1998 jeep wrangler 4.0L inline 6 could auto start in first gear (by accident mind you) and it would manage to overcome the parking break and drive its self up a curb and keep going at idle.

I was like oh crud my car is driving away from me by its self!

[slownugly]

hahaha sounds like it had gremlins (pun intended)

i remember in high school my friend used to put his 5 speed cherokee in 4 wheel low and walk next to it while noone was in the driver seat. then just hop in it and go

[zjrog]

Originally Posted by slownugly

HAHA itll still be slow but maybe slownclassy??

zjrog- the only thing im really taking advantage of when it comes to the 4.0 is the head. im getting a 4.0 head for free from a 95 grand cherokee. these are supposed to be the best flowing factory 4.0 head. of course im not really looking for power just efficiency. this things torque band will start right off idle haha. that coupled with the highway gears and the 5 speed should be a home run. ive heard of guys doing the strokers. i think they even sell aftermarket cranks for even more cubes. i think theres a 5.0 stroker kit out there.

I only mentioned the stroker as an after thought. I keep thinking I might do that, but I expect to replace my ZJ next year perhaps. While its still decent, its age and wheeling miles are showing. And yes, there are plenty of stroker 5.0 kits out there.

My Grand Cherokee does good, I've managed better than 20 MPG for a period, but after some tire changes and more miles on it, that has gone. I had a 90 Cherokee that felt like a hotrod compared to my Jeep, and got consistent 20 MPG despite 200,000+ miles. But it was stock and rarely saw even gravel roads, so it wore P series tires.

I really do admire this project!

[slownugly]

20 mpg really isn't bad. The newer jeeps (99+) have incredible low end torque with smaller smooth flowing ports. Frank on the amc forum recommended I get that head because of the smaller ports but half of them have cracking issues so I'm playing it safe with the 95 head.

[night9]

I guess its better to be walking beside your jeep having planned it then having a heart attack as your car drives away.

I haven't had any issues with my jeep's head after 80,000 miles operation (knock on wood).

I did however, destroy my Borla headers. I managed to crack almost all the welds on it after ~10,000 miles. I gave up sold the new one they sent me and put the original one back on. Its been fine for almost 70,000 miles.

I have considered driving the jeep around just to see what I could do mpg wise. Although, its kinda a brick. Not the best vehicle to start with when trying to conserve gas.

[slownugly]

Yea ghost riding my vehicle would not be fun!!

The stock headers are prone to cracking enough, it sucks the aftermarket was worse!! I'm getting a factory style header with the head I'm getting. As well as the valve cover and entire valvetrain. Since I have to use the 4.0 valve cover I want to make it look like the old valve cover so it will get some modifications. It's the aluminum one with fins on top. I'm going to shave the fins smooth and round the corners to make it look like the old steel ones.

[slownugly]

Ok heres the pictures back that got lost.

[slownugly]

[California98Civic]

Way cool progress. Looks clean and ready now. The shifter knob is fun.

[slownugly]

More pics to come this week. Hoping to have the backrest done that I started