It helps to pay attention

I drove down to Denver last Saturday to look for a Chrysler 360LA engine, 1975 or earlier.  While I was there, I figured I’d look for a Jeep Cherokee to pull u-joint front axles from as the Cherokee and Grand Cherokee both have the Dana 30 front axle.  What I didn’t count on is that depending on age, Jeep used one of two u-joint sizes, a 1 1/16″ cap on early models and a 1 3/16″ cap on later models.  Turns out, I pulled axles with the smaller u-joint. Not the best choice if I want to be able to depend on the vehicle, especially off road.

I’m told that if something is going to break, a shaft with a smaller u-joint is going to break the u-joint before the ears of the joint, while a shaft with a larger u-joint is going to break an ear off the joint.  So it’s a question of which is cheaper to fix.  A u-joint should be cheaper than replacing an inner or outer shaft, so I’m building the axles up as spares.  I can get the correct u-joint axles from Brush, Colorado for $65 each.

Planning out the build.

At some point, I want to either rebuild the 4.0L engine in my Jeep or put a rebuilt engine in the Jeep, but it can’t be my daily driver while I do it.  I still need a way to get back and forth to work.  I’m planning to buy a used engine to rebuild and use in a custom-built car chassis.  I’ve not settled on a finished body design yet, as I need to get a drivetrain mocked up first.  March 19th, I’m going over to Colorado to pick up a 360ci engine out of a 1984 Dodge 150 series pickup.  Initially, I thought I would build it out to a 408, which could produce 550-600hp, but that’s really more than I need, so I’m scaling back a bit to 368ci.  It should produce 475-525hp.

• Mopar Small Block 360ci (5.9L)
• 4.000″ – 4.030″ bore
• 3.58″ stroke
• 2.810″ main journals
• 6.123″ connecting rods
• Mechanical roller lifters
• Single plane intake manifold
• 850cfm Holley carburetor