Jeep: give us a new power plant!

[ShadowsPapa]

Yep. Anyhoo, I remember when a 15 second car was considered fast. Some of those Wranglers are knocking on 14's. (Ignoring the 392)

Oh heck yes. And this speaks to what WXMan has been trying hard to get across -
Look at the Jeep times I posted, then look at this -
SERIOUSLY??

1973 AMC Javelin AMX
0-60 mph 7.6
Quarter mile 15.3

My TRUCK almost matches those numbers

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[Wheelin98TJ]

My 2020 F150 4x4 Super Crew with the 5.0 runs low-mid 14s.

And that's not even fast compared to some of the other trucks today.

I would've never thought we'd have trucks this quick, but I'm sure glad we do. ?

 

[ACAD_Cowboy]

The worst one was the "plastic" valve covers used on the early 80s 258. To make things worse, owners would crank down on the nuts to try to stop the leak, stress the cover, bulge it out at the sides and they had the Niagara falls of oil on the side of the engine.

So back in the day I was helping a buddy at his shop and one of the regulars motored in with one of the few hornets I've ever seen not either 1000 point diamond restoration or with a tree growing through it. She said it smelled funny and was making a weird noise.

A quick peek showed the water pump was going south fast. Okay ma'am, needs a water pump and I can do it monday morning. She asked could she still drive it if she needed to, I said in a pinch to the corner store probably yes.

Monday morning comes and it's a rainy day and she calls and says she will be a little late because of the rain.

Welp... she rolls up a little later and says it was running rough in the rain. Yeah because there is no insulation on the plug wires and the cap is saggy because it got so hot the valve cover melted... she apparently heard me say she could drive it everywhere all weekend despite the heat.

Cooked all the coolant out, cooked the oil to sludge, cooked every plastic/rubber thing on the engine. But it was still turning.

After buying a heap of parts and a few runs to the salavge yard it was all back together for crank up at lunch on friday, filled it and fired it and you honestly wouldn't know anything was wrong. And then she drove it for years more.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

So back in the day I was helping a buddy at his shop and one of the regulars motored in with one of the few hornets I've ever seen not either 1000 point diamond restoration or with a tree growing through it. She said it smelled funny and was making a weird noise.

A quick peek showed the water pump was going south fast. Okay ma'am, needs a water pump and I can do it monday morning. She asked could she still drive it if she needed to, I said in a pinch to the corner store probably yes.

Monday morning comes and it's a rainy day and she calls and says she will be a little late because of the rain.

Welp... she rolls up a little later and says it was running rough in the rain. Yeah because there is no insulation on the plug wires and the cap is saggy because it got so hot the valve cover melted... she apparently heard me say she could drive it everywhere all weekend despite the heat.

Cooked all the coolant out, cooked the oil to sludge, cooked every plastic/rubber thing on the engine. But it was still turning.

After buying a heap of parts and a few runs to the salavge yard it was all back together for crank up at lunch on friday, filled it and fired it and you honestly wouldn't know anything was wrong. And then she drove it for years more.

LOL - that sounds like the I6
When I worked at the former dealership shop, most of our customers were AMC or Rambler people. An older couple (keeping in mind I was 16 working at this shop, so 40 was old) I'll guess in their 50s or 60s pull in with their car, a 232 and the guy said "we were coming back from California and half-way through Nebraska it made this noise, a bit of a jump, and from then on it just didn't seem to have the power it used to have".
Andy asked me to check it over for the usual - as I was diagnosing the miss - figuring out which cylinder, I didn't need to look any further when I saw oil running down the side of the block about half-way back on the block. Gee, it looks sort of funny there, there's not supposed to be that bulge, and that looks like a crack, not flashing from the casting.
Sure enough - oil was coming out through a crack in the side of the block.
It was a little low on the stick but not even half-way down to add.
Blew a rod in the middle of Nebraska. Keep in mind, The shop I worked at then was in central Iowa. How many hours would that be? Probably 5 or more.
They didn't want to sink any money into the car even though we could have easily gotten a good used 6 to put back in it and they were simple to do engine swaps on.
So they gave us the car for the diagnosis fee.
Andy wanted to have some fun - so we backed the car into the far corner of the shop. He opened the hood, got in and started it, put a block on the throttle and got out and we stood back. It screamed and screamed and..... screamed....... and we got bored. Andy decided to shut it down after a couple of minutes of full throttle, no load, running with a thrown rod and cracked block. You just couldn't kill that thing. We parted the car, used a number of parts off it.

 

[DAVECS1]

I am chomping at the bit to run my Jeep down the track. I know it is not killer fast, but I am interested to see where it lands. It is a whoot on the street.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I am chomping at the bit to run my Jeep down the track. I know it is not killer fast, but I am interested to see where it lands. It is a whoot on the street.

Come over to Cordova (the race track) on the 10th
Seeing how these little engines in the heavy truck are stock - it would be real interesting.
From Peoria it would be an hour and 30 or 40 minutes - maybe an hour and 10 for you.

 

[DAVECS1]

Come over to Cordova (the race track) on the 10th
Seeing how these little engines in the heavy truck are stock - it would be real interesting.
From Peoria it would be an hour and 30 or 40 minutes - maybe an hour and 10 for you.

I know that track Very Very well. Used to be a second home in high school. Arnie the Farmer Beswick's mechanic helped me build my pontiac firebird engine. And we ran the poo out of it. Here is my vette running at test and tune Saturday. 383ci, weiand 177, with throttle body EFI, and a 200R4

 

[Zilla]

Does great for me! I can't imagine needing more power from the engine.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I know that track Very Very well. Used to be a second home in high school. Arnie the Farmer Beswick's mechanic helped me build my pontiac firebird engine. And we ran the poo out of it. Here is my vette running at test and tune Saturday. 383ci, weiand 177, with throttle body EFI, and a 200R4

I'll be there there with my 4.0 powered Eagle. Likely won't take it on the track - Eagle and "fast" should never be used in the same sentence.

Hopefully my Javelin will be put back together before next year.

Shannon, the guy who has taken over putting this on, is a big-time Jeep guy.

 

[TroutFishingInAmerica]

The Pentastar bottom end has 6 bolt main caps, 4 bolts down and 2 across. Chrysler at one time was considering a twin turbo Pentastar @ 420 hp. It has potential.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

The Pentastar bottom end has 6 bolt main caps, 4 bolts down and 2 across. Chrysler at one time was considering a twin turbo Pentastar @ 420 hp. It has potential.

That's why I'd not be too concerned about giving one a bit of boost with a turbo. I don't care about gaining 50 hp. Just enough to make it more gutsy and not shift so much, especially with a load.

 

[DAVECS1]

The Magnuson really makes it a new ball game. The tuning I have had to do to get here though is pretty intense. If they would of went with an electric proportional controlled bypass valve it would of been much easier. That being said the manual valve caused me to dive deep into the throttle body and variable valve cam timing. It pulls from 1500 rpm all the way to 6000. I run between 8-12 lbs of boost most of the time. The engine seems very happy and it pulls like a small 8 cylinder. Getting the boost surge out was like balancing an egg on end, but it is done now, and thanks to modern controls it will always be there

 

[TheSolarWizard]

If you’re interested in a truck going ridiculously fast, check out Rivian R1T!
I got to ride along in one last week. I changed my order to the R1S which is the SUV so I won’t have it to April or so but man I’m excited to get it. it’s as fast as I ever would care to go in any vehicle

 

[redriderjf87]

I know that track Very Very well. Used to be a second home in high school. Arnie the Farmer Beswick's mechanic helped me build my pontiac firebird engine. And we ran the poo out of it. Here is my vette running at test and tune Saturday. 383ci, weiand 177, with throttle body EFI, and a 200R4

Cool that there's some others around the QC that may be there. I hope to take my Camaro down, I'll watch for a Gladiator on the track and see what she runs.

Used to live in Port Byron so I had not excuse not to go. Now I have to at least cross the river

 

[ShadowsPapa]

If I wan to GO FAST, I have a car for that.
I just wish the JT 3.6 had a bit more grunt, towing power, ability to get to speed better without using full throttle to do it. It's not a huge deal, but if the TCs were in my price range, I'd be taking a look. For normal driving it's perfect, nothing wrong with it just as it is. But for hauling loads, towing, or driving in the hills it could be a bit better.
It's one of those things - I don't NEED more, not a must-have, and 90% of the time it's just fine.
It would be nice to flip a switch and add 25 more HP and a bit more torque on the days when needed.
Oddly, my wife's Grand Cherokee is of similar weight, in fact within a few pounds of my JT - and yet it does feel like it's got a bit more. Maybe I shouldn't have driven HER Jeep! (that and it's got a higher towing capacity and the same payload)

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