Pick your MOTOR & Choose your TRANY

Look at a baby Nailhead, those suckers are narrow! Plenty of go for a truck and could pull the earth of axis with the torque.

 

What sort of baby did you have in mind? My '54 BUICK has a 322 an I LOVE it. Except the part about only the Dynaflow 2sp bolting up to it.

 

I Like the idea of a 235 I had One In my 1950 Chevy Truck And was Awesome........It is a cheap and easy way of Getting You on the road....and the sound really cool...If you Decide to Go full Kustom With The truck then spend the time and Money on A 350 bolted to a Turbo 4
It's All about what you can Afford And Bitting Of more than you Can Chew And HAving A half fineshed truck You can't put on the road.....Build Wise Build Once and Stay In Your Budget......


(235 Pro's)
235 are great fun and Cheap
It will Drop Right In
You can fing cool old Speed Equipment for them
They Are Good on Gas $
Lowrider's Love Them
It Bolts Up to what you Have Now

 

The Jeep 4.0L isn't a bad idea. I have a bored and stroked one in my 63 Rambler wagon. It's decent on power and economy, but stick with the original 4.0L and don't stroke it! 190 hp was more than adequate for my cruiser wagon, had plenty power, but when the 4.0L needed rebuilding I was given a 258 to use for parts. The 258 crank fits and has a longer stroke, that's how you stroke a 4.0L to 4.5L (with standard bore, mine is 0.030" over which comes up to 280 inches/4.6L). You gain about 60 hp, but don't really need it! It's nice to have, but I lost 2 mpg in the process. So unless it's going to be a tow vehicle keep the 4.0L stock.

Easy enough to buy a whole Cherokee and swap the motor, they still run well with 200-250K on them. If you can find a 2WD model that's so much better! Swap tranny and all in. I have an AW4 auto OD, it's good on gas too. The five speed models get 2-3 mpg more. Cherokees have coil springs in back, you can either weld up brackets for the Chero springs and locating arms or cut the brackets and weld a spring seat to the axle and use leafs. If you find a Jeep Commanche pickup it uses leaf springs in back and may be easier to work with.

Wiring the EFI is easy enough, just pull everything from under the Jeep hood and lay in about the same position under the Chevy hood. There are only 3-4 wires that must be spliced to run.