Eaglefreek
Eagleless
It's been done with both the 4bt and 6bt in a FSJ.
Theoretical questions on a Grand Wagoneer
- Thread starter Black Dog
- Start date
It's been done with both the 4bt and 6bt in a FSJ.
Root Moose
Expedition Leader
If you completely re-engineer the Jeep it could do it. Adding a Cummins 6BT and one ton axles and such would likely add at least 600-700lbs to the vehicle so it'll probably cover the weight thing.
If you want a Wagoneer anyway, and are looking for a cool project rig then get the Jeep. In the end it may or may not work with the trailer... but it may not matter. You'll have a really cool Jeep and by the time it's done you may be at the stage of life where you can just go out and buy another truck for the trailer anyway.
There are a bunch of threads on ifsja.org that show engine swaps. Warm up the search button.
If you want a Wagoneer anyway, and are looking for a cool project rig then get the Jeep. In the end it may or may not work with the trailer... but it may not matter. You'll have a really cool Jeep and by the time it's done you may be at the stage of life where you can just go out and buy another truck for the trailer anyway.
There are a bunch of threads on ifsja.org that show engine swaps. Warm up the search button.
Black Dog
Makin' Beer.
I'll create an account on IFSJA and lurk around there and see what I come up with. The Waggy would just be awesome in front of the Airstream and you can never go wrong with jeeps. And I'm going to look into the 6bt, I've never worked on diesels before and never done an engine swap but I'm willing to learn. Thanks for the advise!
Root Moose
Expedition Leader
There is a guy at IFSJA (might even be cross posted here) that dropped his Wag onto a full size Blazer (IIRC).
Root Moose
Expedition Leader
That truck was for sale recently. Created buzz on a few forums.
I used to post over there on the FSJ forum, there was a guy in Toledo that grafted an FSJ Cherokee rear onto a Waggy body w/ a Caddy 500 under the hood. It looked to be just a bit bigger than an Excursion, but he said it'd pass anything but a gas station w/ the 500 under the hood!
Root Moose
Expedition Leader
With the FSJ stuff it is not that big a deal. They came both ways: the Wagoneers had roughly Jeep width axles (i.e. narrow track) at around ~61" while the Cherokees* and J-Trucks used standard full size width axles (wide track). IIRC the full size stuff was something like 65" - 67" wide. Mr. N's Dana 44 pages should be pretty accurate. There is a WMS table in the tech/faq section of the IFSJA web site (not forum) as well.
The Cherokee and J-Trucks were able to accomodate the wider axles through the use of flared front fenders (integral, all one piece) and flares in the back (again, integral and the PUs had different wheel wells I think).
Worst case get different offset wheels if the Dana 60 knuckle swing is into the wheel wells (doubt it will be if you're smart about it). The rear may need some metal massage. There was an outfit in California back in the 70s-80s that cut up the back to graft a steel metal flare to mimic the Cherokees.
I wouldn't stress about that part of the swap... make it work. People have been swapping axles around forever.
*Cherokee = two door wagon FSJ as opposed to four door Wagoneer.
Black Dog
Makin' Beer.
Thats what I was thinking was that if they were only a couple inches different I could use more or less back spacing on the wheels to make it the same. Really the hardest part of the axle swap would be making sure that spring and shock mounts are level and in the right places.