81 cj7 rebuild by nixer600

6 minute(s) of a 67 minute read

Made some minor progress today. Pulled the trany/case and set the body on it it was nice to see the wheel offset and axle combo wasn't too wide for my liking. And I was mocking up the cuts around the rear wheel well, and looking at the gas tank lift.
It will be painted yellow.

10-21-2013

Wife working


11-3-2013

So the brand new smitybuilt corner guards powder coating striped easily in about an hour. The 6 year old poison spider rock sliders took about 6 hours to strip.

I'm not saying poison spider had better powder coating I'm just saying the chemical I used destroyed the smitybuilt coating way faster than the PSpiders.

Also smitybuilt is metric steel and poison is standard. So smitty is slightly thicker than 3/16 it may cause issues if your working with it.

Mocked up the corner guards, drilled all the holes. The smitybuilt corners fit pretty good as far as radius goes, but as far as gas tank and accessories like the tire stop and hinges, I have no idea because I'm using a YJ tub and CJ corner guards.

We traced the cut tub onto the corner guards so we can make some cuts, and unbolted the corner guards.

11-4-2013

Keeping the wheel well true and big enough for the tires and the stretched wheel base.

Found center Measured it out made it a 45 to match the front fenders 45 and the made a paper template.

11-7-2013

I used my Eastwood Versa cut 60 today and I loved it, I used a straight edge to help me trace my templates and it worked out great, not cut off wheel dust, way faster, easier, and more enjoyable.

Made work easy and fast.

All the templates are cut and ready to weld in.

11-10-2013

Ordered shocks for the build, 14 inch travel. The Shock mounts have not been built so I have the freedom to build some.

11-13-2013

It didn't turn out as nice as I hoped, however a little body filler will do the trick.

11-20-2013

Since you will be able to see into my rear fender well, more than when it was stock there was some eye sores that needed to be removed. I plan to paint inside the fender wells yellow to give it a clean body color match.

I debated on removing this all together but I thought that I may need it with all the corner guards weight bolted to the side fender.

(Note that my body is not in the correct position, it's slid back for better access)

I decided to cut off the sharp edges and make it rounder and smoother than original.

Used a cut off wheel, a grinder, and a welder.

12-4-2013

AMC360. I had a low compression cylinder, 95lbs the other 7 were 137-145 so I had some hope.

Christine and I pulled the heads, I sat the heads on a board so that I could see the base of the heads. I added water to the intake and the exhaust ports, the low cylinders intake and exhaust leaked instantly.

About 1/2 of the valves leaked water as well. Some one drop a minute, some 1 drop every 10 seconds or so, and 2 flowed out like a stream.

To my knowledge each CID Amc motor has its own fly wheel weight measurement.

As in 232's take a certain weight,
258's their own
304 their own
360 own
390 own
401 own

My donor motor was a auto, with a flex plate, I'm reusing my standard shift t-18, so I need a Amc 360 flywheel.

Problem is all of the Amc's share the same fly wheel bolt pattern. Although they are not directly interchangeable..

Buying a fly wheel for your motor is a gamble. Mine came with my engine it was brand new in the box and the seller told me 3 times it's the correct weight.... I just wasn't sure.

I took the flex plate and the new fly wheel in to verify balance, and sure enough it was I correct.

They rebalanced it for me, to the exact same as the flex plate. 56.87 grams was the counter weighted balance for my Amc 360

They just drilled holes until it was correct.

On a the heads where at the machine shop getting torn down, I cleaned up the head gasket surface on the block, and cleaned up the pistons with a wire wheel on my drill.

TAPE everything up first.

I also deburred the block.

I forgot to get a pic of the completely cleaned pistons.

I watched this about 4 times while my heads where getting torn down and cleaned.

http://www.powerblocktv.com/episodes...r-power-how-to

Then I used one harbor freight part number 96826 my carbide bit set for steel and aluminum. (I have a edlebrock performer intake) I port matched my intake and exhaust.

I did not do as good a job as power block for sure, but for my jeep its fine. Even though my work doesn't look the best, It's amazing how much metal I removed in a few places. Some as much a 1/8 of an inch was removed.

I chose not to mess with the combustion chamber. For fear of messing up a valve seat.

The steel was easier to work with, but took allot longer. The aluminum was harder to work with but was done in 30 minutes. The performer intake to My surprise needed a good bit of porting to match up well.

It was actually hard work, my back got real sore and I was covered in metal and dust from head to toe. I received at least one metal splinter and it took me about 4-5 hours. Eye and ear protection is a must for the die grinder.

I would also like to mention that In some places there was casting boogers in the ports of the Amc.

I reached in and removed these no mater how far in I needed to go. Some where the size of a paper clip.

There was also boogers in the cooling ports so I took care of those as well.

Got my suspension reclining direct bolt in seats today.

A few reasons made me choose these.

They were a little cheaper than the others.
( I won't use smitybuilt seats)

They reclined.

They directly bolt In, no need for an additional expense of a seat bracket adapter.

Memory foam!