1977 Jeep 401 Wagoneer (Wedding Wagon)

[Wagoneer Taylor]

This is a picture from when I was about half way done, but the valves are cleaned and all lapped. Which for any of you who have lapped your own valves, you know how time consuming and boring that is! Remind me to not do that again I even had a drill attachment tool for doing it and it was still painful. After that and the paint which I love, these are ready for reassembly! Then they sit until the block goes back together.
[IMG]IMG-2325 by Taylor Poppitz, on Flickr[/IMG]
[IMG]IMG-2326 by Taylor Poppitz, on Flickr[/IMG]
[IMG]IMG-2402 by Taylor Poppitz, on Flickr[/IMG]
[IMG]IMG-2404 by Taylor Poppitz, on Flickr[/IMG]

[Wagoneer Taylor]

Last post from this weekend! This is just a beauty shot from after camping, the wife and I with our two dogs went to South Beach, near/in Newport OR and camped the weekend. Wedding Wagon made the 100 mile there and 100 mile back trip with no issues had a lovely time and cant wait to use this thing even more when we get the rest of the rig done (401 in, rust repair, full under carriage go through, paint, interior, and etc, etc, etc...) but are enjoying the heck out of our Wagon until we get there!
[IMG]92DCCCC4-213E-4A51-9F45-9B9EDFDB77D4 by Taylor Poppitz, on Flickr[/IMG]

[72jeeperjoe]

No Way!! Where were you? I didnt know there was another FSJer so close.

I live just south of Salem, you don’t see many wagoneers out there! It’s going to be sweet to see that 401 in it!

[Kaiserjeeps]

That clean up work is looking great. It should run strong and pull hard.
Be sure to run high zinc and phos (ZDDP) oil for your cam to live a good long time. If you run a CAT equipped exhaust system, never mind. ZDDP kills cats and that is why they reduced it to near nothing in the 80's.
Again looking super!

[Wagoneer Taylor]

Hey all, don't have pictures but the heads are put back together. Valves, springs and seals. Ready to be put on the engine when i get that far.

Now to the pictures below, I was about to sand blast the timing cover when I saw the breakage.
Is the 360 timing cover the same as the 401?
I am thinking I will just steal the timing cover off my 401 when i do the swap??
IMG-2438 by Taylor Poppitz, on Flickr
IMG-2437 by Taylor Poppitz, on Flickr

[asphaltrockdweller]

360/401 cover will work Same/Same.
Really just the lower end was different for the most part.




PS
That cover "kinda" looks rebuild able. Don't throw it away!

[Wagoneer Taylor]

360/401 cover will work Same/Same.
Really just the lower end was different for the most part.




PS
That cover "kinda" looks rebuild able. Don't throw it away!

Thank you!
I will keep it, other then the broken area it is in good shape. May try to repair it and put in the 360 assuming it is in good shape haha

[Wagoneer Taylor]

No pictures, but I believe I got the last of the engine parts ordered today. Piston rings, main bearings, and connecting rod bearings! Should all be here by the weekend, hoping to spend Saturday putting it together.

Just remembered I still need a timing chain and sprockets but that can wait awhile as I my cover is not in good shape.

As I am writing this I am realizing all the other stuff I need...intake manifold, headers, most of my sensors (water temp, oil pressure), fuel pump, water pump, etc... But as far as engine internals I think i am done!

[rws31]

No pictures, but I believe I got the last of the engine parts ordered today. Piston rings, main bearings, and connecting rod bearings! Should all be here by the weekend, hoping to spend Saturday putting it together.

Just remembered I still need a timing chain and sprockets but that can wait awhile as I my cover is not in good shape.

As I am writing this I am realizing all the other stuff I need...intake manifold, headers, most of my sensors (water temp, oil pressure), fuel pump, water pump, etc... But as far as engine internals I think i am done!

Isn't it amazing how no matter how much stuff you order and you just know that should be everything, it isn't. You say, yep that's it. Then it hits you after your done ordering, of coarse, that you forgot half your stuff.

[Wagoneer Taylor]

Exactly!!

[Wagoneer Taylor]

This weekend was a doozy!!
First the good:
The sand blaster at my work is not working right now so I went the old route of paint stripper, couple of shots of it bubbling away.
[IMG]IMG-2442 by Taylor Poppitz, on Flickr[/IMG]
[IMG]IMG-2444 by Taylor Poppitz, on Flickr[/IMG]

Some more good:
Got the wife to help out, she de-ringed and cleaned up the pistons!
This is were the bad started, to no fault of my wife's I will add!
[IMG]IMG-2449 by Taylor Poppitz, on Flickr[/IMG]
[IMG]IMG-2453 by Taylor Poppitz, on Flickr[/IMG]

[Wagoneer Taylor]

Okay, here we go on the bad from the weekend:
I had ordered all the internal parts of the engine this last week and got them on Friday to install. I would have been able to install the crank, pistons, cam, and heads HAD all gone well. Previously I had measured everything and was surprised that none of the engine had been machined before and bought parts accordingly...some of you may already see where this is going, but don't spoil it for the other viewers
As mentioned above my wife cleaned up the pistons (which I wish we had done earlier) as when she did this we saw on the top of the pistons a little number reading 0.030"!!! Which after re-measuring my block bore, obviously checked out, it had been bored! So that means piston rings need to get returned, no biggy I can still make good progress and do the crank and cam...but for giggles I should measure them the crank again to make sure the main bearings and connecting rod bearing are correct.
WAS I HIGH when I measured last time!(Spoiler alert I was not) They are not standard either! Needless to say all the parts I ordered for this weekend were wrong and will need to be returned and re-ordered.

This sadly is not where the bad luck stops. Trying to salvage what I could do that day with no parts, I decided to hone the block and flat sand the head surfaces to prepare.
The pics below show the before and after, what they don't show is that I am pretty sure I have a crack in one cylinder!!! I will be contacting some engine places to check it for me and then go from there, but again needless to say this is a major set back, and if I end up having to do a full machine job on this block it will have to be put on hold because me and the wife are buying a house on Nov. 1st and don't have it in the budget!
[IMG]IMG-2454 by Taylor Poppitz, on Flickr[/IMG]
[IMG]IMG-2455 by Taylor Poppitz, on Flickr[/IMG]

[Wagoneer Taylor]

Last bit of rant!
To top it off I got a flat tire on my daily driver this morning on the way to work.

[rang-a-stang]

A) Change your signature, Should say "Soon to be a 407!"
B) Know that .030 bumps your compression up a tiny bit. Not enough to require a change in fuel but should give you a little more HP. I paid $495 to have my block .030 over/honed, so you just saved that much $$.
C) I paid a lot for my .030 over pistons: you saved that, too. I want to say they were $300...?
D) Why do you think there is a crack? do you see it? Better to find it now than when you put it all together, fire it up, and make brown chocolate milk shake while torching all your new bearings.
E) Yes, this sucks but you got a smoking deal on that engine. That was a horrible weekend, but its better than torching a cam lobe or having low oil pressure after a fresh rebuild.
F) How did the valve covers turn out?
G) On your last picture, at the bottom right of the block (Maybe #8's hole?), there is, what looks like a long dent that travels right next to the cooling passage... that looks like it might leak.... you might want to clean that crease out, fill it with JB weld and file/sand it flat...?

[Wagoneer Taylor]

A) Change your signature, Should say "Soon to be a 407!"
B) Know that .030 bumps your compression up a tiny bit. Not enough to require a change in fuel but should give you a little more HP. I paid $495 to have my block .030 over/honed, so you just saved that much $$.
C) I paid a lot for my .030 over pistons: you saved that, too. I want to say they were $300...?
D) Why do you think there is a crack? do you see it? Better to find it now than when you put it all together, fire it up, and make brown chocolate milk shake while torching all your new bearings.
E) Yes, this sucks but you got a smoking deal on that engine. That was a horrible weekend, but its better than torching a cam lobe or having low oil pressure after a fresh rebuild.
F) How did the valve covers turn out?
G) On your last picture, at the bottom right of the block (Maybe #8's hole?), there is, what looks like a long dent that travels right next to the cooling passage... that looks like it might leak.... you might want to clean that crease out, fill it with JB weld and file/sand it flat...?

A) hahaha I will have to change it for sure!
B) C) That is a good point, Thanks for pointing out some silver lining cuz I was definitely not a happy camper on Saturday.
D)There is this rough patch that I couldnt hone away, along with what appear to be line coming from either side of it. I am going by the engine tonight i will try to get a picture to post!
E)I agree, that was the silver lining Saturday was I found it now rather then ruining the engine, for a little while i wasnt even going to take it apart glad i did now.
F) They were mostly stripped, since i have time now i can wait for the sand blaster at my work to get fixed
G) That mark is from old RTV that I tried to flat sand, I scrapped it off now its as clean as a whistle, I will get a pic of that tonight too.