Scout II 4.0 w/ hydraulic clutch swap

[SCscoutguy]

Fantastic job Carl! Is that a remote power steering resivour in the upper left hand portion of the picture. Also how did you go about doing the serpentine belt without the A/C compressor present? Do they make just a shorter belt you can use without it? I was always under the impression you had to get one of those factory delete pulleys to run in pace of the compressor on a 4.0.

[Mt Hood Carl]

Thanks guys!

John, yes that is the remote PS reservoir that came with the YJ engine. There is an idler pulley in the alternator/AC bracket right next to the thermostat housing. In the pic the pulley is obscurred by the radiator hose. The belt routing is similar to TJ w/o AC.

I had forgotten what a can of worms that was. I got the shortest belt (Dayco 5060790) that would fit but still had to trim the nub on the timing chain cover near the timing marks for belt clearance. To make the YJ pump work with the TJ intake manifold and PS bracket the threaded mounting holes in the pump were drilled out, and a TJ pulley had to be used because of offset. But I was pleased to find that I could re-use the high pressure hose from the 258 pump. The steering seems to work fine too.

[SCscoutguy]

Carl did you ever consider getting a AX-15 5 speed from a Jeep? With it you would have friendly gears and overdrive and you could get a Dana 300 from any 80's model Jeep CJ and bolt it on the back and go.

[Mt Hood Carl]

I did consider an AX15. Some things that affected my decision to keep the T18 were cost, custom drive shafts, length of the ax15, strength, and my preference to retain the original "feel" of the Scout.

I think the idea has merrit and I understand how others might consider including the AX15 in the swap to be a better option than what I chose.

On a related note I have an AX15 disassembled in my garage. Holding the countershaft cluster gear next to the T18 cluster gear makes it really clear that these two transmissions were intended for very different applications.

[orodos]

Awesome build, Carl! Surprised I missed it while you were posting. Any updates, how does she run? What do you have for axle ratios?

[Mt Hood Carl]

I have been working out of state and so not getting much done on my Scout and not visiting BP as often. The only update is I shortened up the air inlet tube and mounted the air box to the unused AC bracket. I am still happy with the result in general, although I have a little oil leak at rear main or maybe a galley plug, that I will have to pull the engine to fix. I think a 1" diameter clutch master cylinder would have worked out better too. The axles are 3.73 and tires are 31" which the 4.0 has no trouble with on the road.

[SCscoutguy]

Carl one thing I thought of the other day to ask you in this thread was what motor mounts did you use? Just by looking at it I don't think the stock 4.0 mounts would work where the 232 mounts up in my little Scout.

[Mt Hood Carl]

I bought new rubber mounts for a 258 (fits Scout and other vehicles too). I reused the engine mount brackets from the 258. One of the holes has to be enlarged. Other than that it was a bolt up, although some later model 4.0 blocks have different boss locations.

For the trans mount, I pulled the original apart, cleaned up the metal parts, then re-cast the polyurethane. I posted a brief write up here on PB a while back with some pics. It seems to be holding up well so far.