Death of a 5.9

Elliott

Elliott

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2005
Location
San Diego, CA
So I was perusing craigslist a couple weeks ago and found a 1998 Grand Cherokee 5.9L with 120K miles on it for dirt cheap. Upon further investigation, I learned it had been wrecked and had done damage to the front bumper, fender, pass side doors, and rear glass. I was going to get it, fix it, and turn it into a daily driver but now have made different plans for it.

I picked it up this weekend with the help of a buddys truck and CYJKrawlers trailer (thanks John!). Here are pics of it when I picked it up.

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I am stripping it COMPLETELY of every part on it and swapping the 5.9L 360 c.i. motor and 46RH tranny into my rig which currently has a gutless 4.0 and 42RE. Any parts you may want from it, check the for sale forum.
 
I got started on the interior tonight. I am not doing this at my house because my parents weren't thrilled about a jeep carcus sitting in the driveway for a month. I have a nice little 10x25 building setup with a couple work lamps and a space heater. Alot better than a cold driveway! Here are some pics of what got done tonight.

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personally, i'd rather do a motor/trans swap vs. transferring all the suspenion work, etc. i've seen on his current rig.
 
I have things on my jeep that would not transfer to this one. My entire subframe, skids, etc. Along with a lot of body work on my wheeling rig. Swapping a motor and tranny into mine is 100x easier than transferring axles, transfer case, doors, building another suspension, etc. into this one.
 
oh yea i forgot you did the whole sub frame with the long arm kit. you won't be able to tell much difference between yours and a 'real' 5.9 when your done anyway.

i'll keep an eye out for it at URE.
 
Elliot, glad to see your going to ditch the 4.0 and put a real motor in it!!! You'll have a really nice rig once the motor swap is complete.

BTW, I have a Mopar performance ECU I'll sell ya cheap. It came from Kolak and changes all the shift points, the timing of the engine, and raises the top speed of the jeep. (not that you would drive it to 149mph) Only drawback is you have to run premium gas. PM me if your interested.

Gary
 
i would say that on the basis of being a proffesional mechanic that sees these come in all the time with mucho problems the one i like the best is when the power steering pump rips away taking the bracket with it. and the bolt still in the head those are fun to drill out plenty of room in there......
 
Cperry said:
i would say that on the basis of being a proffesional mechanic
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Funny thing I am to,
how many have you seen the power steering pump do this on? First time I have ever heard of it happening on a magnum motor. Not to start a brand loyalty war here. But don't spout out something unless you have concrete evidence of something that happens all the time. Yes I will admit that there are problems on some with the heads cracking and the plenum gaskets leaking, But overall they are great motors. I can pick a motor from just about any manufactuer and pick out problems they have, nothing is perfect, but the magnum motor is far from junk.
 
since your parting it out, how much for the shifter setup ? (Its shifts a 4 speed right ? )

I'm looking for a low budget shifter for my heep.
 
Hopefully reliability will not be an issue because I am rebuilding the majority of this motor. Its also getting some aftermarket stuff to help it out, FIPK, headers, PCM, beefier internals. Consdiering my jeep sees about 300 miles a month, I don't see reliability being a big issue.
 
i've owned and worked on MANY magnum and LA 318's/360's. they are tried/true/proven motors. right there with the 305/350 and 302/351.

i've probably had my hands in and on more pushrod mopar engines than anything else combined, even after spending a couple of years at a gm dealer.

like Lee said, they have some minor issues here and there, but so does everything. i've also never heard of any bracketry failures.

the main issues with the magnum motors are plenum gasket failure and pre detonation. pre detonation was generally the cause of the spotty head failures. it was mostly an issue with poor pcm programming due to government regulations imo. reprogramming and/or a couple of other small tweaks to get cylinder temps down almost always fixes it. some people speculated it was poor head casting due to aged tooling. i've never seen any that looked that bad though.

Elliot, what kind of internal upgrades are you planning? imo, that's money wasted unless you're planning to make some pretty big power. if you're set on going into spending money on the bottom end, i'd go ahead and do a stroker motor.
 
If I did anything I would do a 408 stroker with all the goodies but the more I think about it, I think it would be pointless in a trail rig. I want to make torque not horsepower.
 
Lee said:
Funny thing I am to,
how many have you seen the power steering pump do this on? First time I have ever heard of it happening on a magnum motor. Not to start a brand loyalty war here. But don't spout out something unless you have concrete evidence of something that happens all the time. Yes I will admit that there are problems on some with the heads cracking and the plenum gaskets leaking, But overall they are great motors. I can pick a motor from just about any manufactuer and pick out problems they have, nothing is perfect, but the magnum motor is far from junk.
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allow my spout to continue, they are oil burners, oil leakers, i have seen a quite a few w/ sludged up oil screens(although may be a ownership issue) the chrysler trannies had problems. I knew you worked at monroe muffler, you just asked on what basis so i told you. i am not hating on jeep i think the 4.0 is a very well built motor. I just think the 5.9 is problematic. And i have seen 3 PS pumps come off seems like alot to me as i have never seen that with anything else. But its an opinion and opinions are like............ well you know. for a trail rig probably not a bad choice.
 
if treated carefully, the auto transmissions aren't that bad either. they're just alot pickier than others. DON'T use dexron in them, and they have to have frequent fluid/filter changes. the stock trans cooler is also sub par. they're not the greatest units made, but they're not as bad as their reputation has gotten due to owner neglect. imo, none of the big 3 have made a decent auto for years.

i do agree the 5.9 in the gc's seem to have more trouble than in other vehicles in my experience. i have no idea why that is, or if it could even be considered fact.

I think it would be pointless in a trail rig
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actually, quite the opposite. stroker motors are known much more for their low rpm torque over hp. i'll be happy to give you a relatively cheap 408 recipe if you like, it's a perfect truck setup.
 
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