TR1's Stroker Build

[TR1Hemi]

First I guess I should intro myself. My name is Tony, grew up mostly in Chicagoland, near Joliet, Illinois. Joined the Air Force in Jan 1987, retired in Jan 2011, now currently a locomotive electrician with Union Pacific Railroad in North Platte, Nebraska. I picked up my FIRST 4x4 in Dec 2009, an eBay score of a 1987 Cherokee Chief, 4.0, with a Dana 44! For $1200. Put a 4.5" lift on it, some 31x10.50's MT's and dual lockers, and had a blast with it. While I did ALL the work on that, and all my vehicles, with the exception of Auto tranny's, A/C, and alignments, I tackled the rebuild of the Dana 44, which turned out just fine. When I heard of the 4.6 stroker, I KNEW one day I would try it.

When I retired from the Air Force, they will only ship 2 vehicles to where you retire to, and me and the wife could only "Drive" 2 vehicles from Florida to Nebraska. That meant putting the Jeep on a trailer at my expense and pull it to Nebraska, with my 2004 Hemi Ram and the wife drive her 2006 Accord Coupe V6, or I could sell it, and pull a U-Haul trailer with household goods that the govt would pay me 95% of govt cost to self move. So it was sold. The guy who bought it sends me pics of him wheeling it. So the rear end I rebuilt is holding up!

We get to Nebraska and buy a place outside of town, so I can hunt and shoot in my back yard. But that came with a price, by the time they plow the road the snow is packed into ice. My Hemi is 2WD, and the ball and chains Accord, while FWD is not going very far in deep snow due to ground clearance. Enter my excuse for another Cherokee 4x4! To my amazement she agrees (so i can get to work in the winter). I find a white 1997 Cherokee 4x4, 4.0 on eBay that was owned by the State of Colorado Dept. of Natural Resources (regular maint), and it doesn't have ABS, so I get the much better 1997+ 29 spline 8 1/4 rear axle, rather than the Dana 35.

Now to the stroker part.
Here is what I have obtained:
1998 569 casting 4.0 block for accessory compatibility and the stud gridle
1980 723 casting 12wt 4.2 crank that has never been turned and is in good shape, should clean up in .010/.010
1980 707 casting 4.2 rods that were on the above crank
1995 7120 casting 4.0 HO head
1999+ Intake Manifold
All new Speed Pro valves, locks, stem seals, and factory retainers
Victor/Reinz MLS head gasket
Victor/Reinz manifold gasket

[TR1Hemi]

Here is what I have done so far:
Thanks to this forum, I removed the oil pump mounting surface machining lip, so the HV oil pump will sit flat. Removed the cam, lifters, cam bearings, main bearings, oil dipstick tube, oil pressure sender, oil filter adapter, freeze plugs, and oil galley plugs. I will be doing assembly, and I didn't want too send the galley plugs to the machinist so they could lose them.

I cleaned up the ports and bowls in the head and gasket matched the intake ports.

I also opened the chamber to 64cc by removing the small quench surface, by starting at the plug and laying that surface back all the way to the gasket circle. I know quench is a good thing but I plan to zero deck the block and have a .041 or is it .043, Victor MLS head gasket. The steel layers measure .039 according to my mic. Of course that does take into account the blue sealing compound. This way the bigger quench surface is at min spec, AND I have the low compression that I want in a DD. I came to this revelation when I noticed how small the corresponding flat on the available pistons was. The machinist and I decided it was not really accomplishing much and the added chamber cc's would more than make up for the ping reducing affects of that small quench surface and alleviate the need for piston dishing. He said maybe the factory did it to increase the compression ratio in stock form?

I know pic requests will be coming and I plan to document the build with pics, right now the head is at the machinist, getting blasted, new SpeedPro valves put in, and having the valve spring seats set up for a 1.800" valve spring installed height. Like others, I found some metal fatigue crack rings on 5 valve retainers, so I got some new ones, from the stealership, for $11 EACH! They wanted $110 for the head gasket, that I got at CarQuest for $38!

[TR1Hemi]

Depending on how the valve job (sinking of new valves a bit, to help get to 1.800" valve spring installed height)(The one cylinder I measured so far was 64cc, I may get it back at 65 or 66cc!) I will either get KB/Silvolite or SpeedPro HyperIcantspellits (<That is funny Oletshot). The biggest decision will be cam. Gotta be OBDII compatible, not fall on its face just before the A/T shifts due to being under cammed, smooth idle (it will be a DD), not have too low of comp ratio due to being over cammed. I think I have narrowed it down to the 2 smallest Lunati VooDoo's (the 500/7000, or the 501/7001), or the Comp 235-4 which falls in between the 2 VooDoo's. I think the Crane is just going to lower my DCR too much, I live at 2800 feet elevation.

[TR1Hemi]

Got the oil pump mounting surface smoothed out...

[TR1Hemi]

Infamous #3 cam bearing journal in the block with strange circular discoloration, from factory bearing.

[TR1Hemi]

Was the factory thinking of going retention plate, long before they did? Looks like all you have to do is drill and tap some holes for it.

[TR1Hemi]

Wanna see some 68cc chambers?

[SilverXJ]

Infamous #3 cam bearing journal in the block with strange circular discoloration, from factory bearing.

Thats the housing or tunnel (or what I have always heard it called). The journal is on the cam.

[SilverXJ]

Was the factory thinking of going retention plate, long before they did?

I noticed on one of the blocks I have as well. The "ears" are there, but not drilled or tapped. I wonder how far back they were present

[amcinstaller]

looking at my pictures, i dont seem them on either my 92 or 93 blocks.

[TR1Hemi]

So somewhere between 93 and 98...

[shawnxj]

which speed pro valves are those and what do the bowls in them measure?

[TR1Hemi]

Factory replacement from Rock Auto. Good question on the bowls, have to measure them.

[TR1Hemi]

More chamber shots.

[TR1Hemi]

More chamber shots.