I keep reading that the OM617 can be tuned to 200hp/300tq but then that costs money and you have to know what you are doing to do that.
Agreed. See my prior post.
Why bother with the Al head? To run a touch more compression? I'd rather keep robustness under pear shaped overheat conditions. An insurance policy of sorts.
Actually both. The AL head allows for more compression and less need for the ECU to retard timing due to knock, both of which results in better efficiency (more power/less fuel) As to the robustness issue, in overheat conditions the long I-6 cylinder head is known to warp almost as easily as an AL head. It is not an insurance policy, IMO. I have driven and raced many different configurations of engines with dissimilar metal components (including rotary engines) and to damage one catastrophically takes some effort or really bad luck. BTW - the Hesco ACH has a 5/8" thick deck, almost twice that of the stock cast iron head. Pretty robust design.
I keep entertaining a GM swap or a Om617 swap for my MJ but I always come back to the I6 just because it isn't a PITA. Anyone that costs out an engine swap based on just a kit price and the price of the new drivetrain is kidding themselves in order to justify a swap. Got your numbers? Multiply by two and you might be in the ball park and that is saying nothing of the time involved.
Agreed 110%. I like my 4.0 very much. It's power is adequate for a stock truck weighing 3800#. Load it, add an RTT, get a good head wind, and start climing a decent hill, and the word "adequate" no longer applies! I have a good handle on the costs for the V8 swap into my Jeep, but it still comes in at $5-6k. The biggest PITA with that swap is the electrical, unless you are OK with a constant CEL, no odometer, partially functioning guage cluster, etc. The stroker (even a cheaper, lower compression version) will give me the additional power to handle the additional loads of longer trips. I like everything else about the truck (except the fuel consumption).
IMO swapping an engine into a vehicle that is to be used as a tool as opposed to a plaything doesn't make sense. If you are unhappy with the vehicle enough to be entertaining extreme measures like an engine swap I feel it's time to trade over to something else.
Agreed again. In fact, I looked into the more current offerings in a variety of configurations, and came away with nothing that was better "enough" to justify the significant cost to change vehicles.
