Since the last post, there's been more distractions and I haven't touched the Jeepster. But there's still some neat stuff going on:
Pirate Jeep Jamboree:
Chase and I did the Pirate Jeep Jamboree in Llano in early October with many other AJE folks. The YJ did well. (There was a small problem with the crankshaft position sensor, but that was rectified fairly quickly with some help from other attendees!)
Chevy 350 Disassembly
When I started disassembling the Chevy 350 for the 1988 YJ, I noticed some concerning things like leaves in the valley pan.
It had also been stored for 15 years in his garage, and did not have spark plugs installed. So I was also worried about corrosion in the cylinders. In the end, I just decided to remove everything, hone the cylinders and replace the rings.
I cleaned up the intake manifold. Uncleaned on top, and cleaned on the bottom. It's not perfect, but looks better:
I also cleaned and painted all of the pieces like the oil pan:
 |
| Before |
 |
| Cleaned |
 |
| Primed |
 |
| Chevy Orange, of course! |
The Block received the same treatment:
 |
| Cleaned and Primed |
 |
| Chevy Orange! |
Some more disassembly:
When the engine is torn down this far, it's hard to put back in old parts...so I bought a new higher performance cam and much better aluminum cylinder heads. I'm expecting 300HP or so, which will be fun
 |
| The new heads bump up the compression to 9.5:1 and flow much better than the stock cast iron heads |
 |
| Cam Card - it's the most aggressive cam for the stock torque converter |
Chevy 350 Reassembly!
Install all the front engine accessories, hook up the transmission, and get the motor mounts and crossmember welded into the Jeep.
Before the final drivetrain installation, I'm also going to add some insulation to the firewall/transmission tunnel to cut down on heat. I'm curious to see how effective it will be. It'll look something like this:
