I started one Saturday afternoon by removing the CJ fenders. Those things were kind of a pain in the butt to get off. They are supported by a myriad of braces from the firewall. Once off, I had decent access to the wiring and accesories.

I tracked and labeled as much of the wiring as possible. I often dream about hunting down the AMC electrical engineers just to see first hand the sick and twisted minds that came up with this nightmare that they try to pass off as an automotive electrical system. I ended up retaining twelve wires from the old engine harness. TWELVE out of the original hundreds!

I stripped the old engine of all its accesories and brackets. I removed the fan shroud and radiator. With all this out of the way I was ready to remove the front grille..... Wrong. The single bolt/body mount holding the grille was frozen. A quick email to the jeep tech lists and even faster reply..."grind the head of the bolt off and deal with the rest later". I did exactly that and with the grill removed I was able to grab the bolt with a pair of large vice grips and  make short work of releasing the bolt.

After struggling for a bit with a nasty bolt on the bellhousing I was able to remove the engine. I felt a great deal of joy come over me as I had done everything all by myself to this point. No turning back now!

Have a look at some pics of the dreaded 258 being removed....

 

Miscellaneous thoughts and tidbits

• In many cases the stock Jeep transmission will not hold up to V8 power. The exceptions are the T18, T176 manual trannies in the CJ models and the AX15 in the YJ and TJ models. I cannot comment on the auto trannies but from what I read, the TF999 is pretty stout.

• Adapters used for mouting the transmission to the engine or transfer case will cost plenty of money. At the time of my purchasem, only Advance Adapters was in the business. Since then, Novak has been revived, JB Conversion has got into the game and Rube Adapters is hopeing to make a name. Note: Never buy direct from Advance Adapters. They prefer not to deal with retail and will gouge you if you let them. You can get the same parts through mailorder from PartsMike or Hicks 4x4 and save lots of money.

• Chevy engines have the radiator inlets/outlets on the opposite side of those found in Jeep vehicles. Also, in many cases the stock Jeep radiator will not be up to the task of cooling the cubic inches of a V8. Here in Arizona, there wasnt even a question about this. You can purchase a radiator specifically made for this conversion as I did. Mepco 4x4 or 4WD Hardware both supply these special radiators. There is another option that is gaining in popularity and that is the use of universal type Aluminum radiators. These are double the price of anything else on the market but do one hell of a job with the cooling duties. JB Conversions should be able to offer some suggestions on part numbers for these.The other option is to have your stock radiator inlet/outlets moved to the proper positions. Many local radiator shops can perform this task for a small price.

• As with the transmissions, many stock rear Jeep axles will not last long behind the power of a V8 engine. The AMC 20 found in most CJ5's and CJ7's can be beefed up quite a bit. 1986 CJ7's often used Dana44 rear axles that shall work fine. 1987-1996 Wranglers use the Dana35 which is very suspect. 1997-current Wranglers used either the Dana35 or Dana44 rear axles. If rockcrawling/mud and larger than 35" tires are in the picture than dont even waste your money on any stock Jeep axle. Dana60 or Ford 9" in the rear along with a Dana44 front axle is the norm.

I once read somewhere that no one ever does just one engine swap. This appears to be true in my case. As Im still working on my first swap, I am already planning the next!

See the swap....