88 YJ 350 FINAL TOUCHES

At this point, I'm down to the finishing touches on the engine:

Oil Pressure Sender:


Valve Covers:

Juan gave me a nice set of valve covers from his stash of parts, and they worked great.  I used a high end Fel Pro gasket that I hope won't leak:


Engine Frame Mounts

The previous owner had a Chevy 4.3L V6 installed, so the motor mounts on the frame side could be used, but they were in the wrong position.  

So, I had to cut them off, clean up all the old bits of metal and paint the clean metal:




Primed and Painted:



Bolted to the Engine:



Spark Plug Wires and Heat Shields:

With the Rams Horn Exhaust Manifolds, you typically see the spark plug wires routed up and underneath. The 70s Corvettes had nice heat shields, so I bought a set of the heat shields along with a set of Corvette spark plug wires to get the correct length.

On the Driver's Side, everything bolted up very nicely:


On the Passenger Side, everything is similar, but there were issues - I was missing a tapped hole in the block, and the two brackets didn't line up at all.  And the dip stick tube was in the way.  


After convincing myself that there was adequate metal in the block...I drilled and tapped a hole and massaged the upper heat shield to align with the new hole.  



And the Driver's Side was done: (also shown is the support bracket on the rear of the starter - it was trivial to install, but took a ton of research to identify the correct part!).  


The distributor is just set in place right now for wire routing. 


Temperature Sensor

Since nothing is ever easy...there is a port in the head for the coolant temperature sensor.  It wasn't 
tapped deep enough.  It's a 3/8 NPT thread, and I could only get 1 thread before it tightened up.  



After convincing myself that the hole was the issue, and not the sensor threads...I bought a 3/8 NPT tap and deepened the threads. (grease on the tap to catch the chips)



And sensor is installed:


Thermostat Housing

I installed my third thermostat housing - hopefully the last one!

The first housing came with the engine, but it wasn't compatible with the serpentine drive.  
The second one was compatible with the serpentine drive, but the hose diameter was wrong.
I'm hoping for better luck with the third one.

And you'll see that I'm starting to mock up the Sniper EFI installation too


Still To Do:

In no particular order:
  1. Install cooling fan - a factory style thermal clutch/fan is ordered and on the way.  This is needed to check engine fit with the radiator shroud.
  2. Figure out wiring - the factory harness is completely missing, but I got a new universal harness kit with the Jeep.  I have to marry the new universal harness with the Sniper EFI harness and the rest of the vehicle.
  3. Add heat shielding to the firewall and tunnel.  This must be done before final installation of the engine and transmission.
  4. Test fit engine and weld in the frame mounts.  Fab rear crossmember.  
  5. Finish up the Serpentine Belt installation and check fit of all the pieces