Topic: Looking for opinions and advice

[enginethatcould]

I would like you guys to give me your opinion on a choice I'm trying to make. The little four banger is lacking the power since I added 33" SS TSL's and didn't re-gear. This is my second four banger in this jeep. I hydro locked the first one with 52,000 miles on it and blew a rod thru the block! I really wanted a bigger engine but due to time and running across another amazing deal on eBay I got a got a brand new, not rebuilt, motor for $1200. The more mods I do to my jeep the more I start wanting a little more power, not to mention this is a DD right now. My dilemma is;

A) Should I artificially aspirate the engine to get a little more power due to the fact that it has less then 8000 miles on it?

B) Or just do an engine swap? I'm thinking an inline 6 or a mild V8

TIA for your input.

[Jesse-James]

Regear.

[enginethatcould]

Regear.

The d35 or wait until I get a d44 rear?

[willbacker45]

The d35 or wait until I get a d44 rear?

well that depends on you how soon are you gonna swap if its soon id most definetly wait if its not youll have to decide how long you can handle your lack of power if i was you id swap sooner then id put the new gears in a tranny your gonna get rid of soon...jmho 

but how do you like your 33's? are they 12.50's or smaller pizza cutters?

[Bounty Hunter]

What about a v6 like the 4.3L?

I'd throw in a Ford 8.8 and regear.  Mine runs strong with 5.38 gears, better than stock.

[aw12345]

If you can do the regear your self just do it a set of gears is cheap doesn't matter what axle. Even for your D35 a set of gears and some bearings won't kill you cost wise and will make a world of difference

[jcsanders79]

Agree, D35 or 44, a regear is the best power improvement.  Droping a new engine in is expensive (obviously a lot more involved than a motor, entire drivetrain), if your not going to put a high horse power motor in you might as well sell the 4 and buy a stock 6.

[enginethatcould]

The 8.8 would be more atainable right now. The deal is I have a new job that requires me to drive 40 miles instead of the 16 miles I used to drive. When I bought the jeep it orinally had 31" tires on it so I really don't know what kind of power it should have. I have put wheelin' on the side right now to get adjusted to the new job. I'm thinking of just biting the bullet and just re-gear just the d35 and work towards the new axle later. I figure that taking it easy I could get away with just the rear for now?? I just hate doing things that I will end up getting rid of but I have a bad habbit of buying things that are cheap.

well that depends on you how soon are you gonna swap if its soon id most definetly wait if its not youll have to decide how long you can handle your lack of power if i was you id swap sooner then id put the new gears in a tranny your gonna get rid of soon...jmho 

but how do you like your 33's? are they 12.50's or smaller pizza cutters?

Well the transmission will be taken care of by next weekend. I'm doing an NV3550 swap, it took me about six months to get everything together but I finally did it The tires are the 12.50 and I like them. They hum a lil bit but nothing I can't live with. I actually bought them for a case of natural lite.

[Castr8r]

Don't sell the D-35 short; it's not as bad as most people want you to believe.  Regear it and use it!  It will hold up very well under the banger- my '89 is still running the original axle shafts, and my banger has been seriously tweaked.  I went with 4.88's and I'm satisfies with them- I can run acceptably well on the road, and really do well on the trail.

[enginethatcould]

Don't sell the D-35 short; it's not as bad as most people want you to believe.  Regear it and use it!  It will hold up very well under the banger- my '89 is still running the original axle shafts, and my banger has been seriously tweaked.  I went with 4.88's and I'm satisfies with them- I can run acceptably well on the road, and really do well on the trail.

See, I have heard this before as well. I guess all in all I can get by with it for now. Just re-gear the d35 and focus on getting my axles and SOA/SUA together.

[willbacker45]

I figure that taking it easy I could get away with just the rear for now??

wait dont you have to do both front and rear

[jfrabat]

wait dont you have to do both front and rear

If you dont use 4WD, then no...  You can get away with only the rear.

But if you dont do both and put it in 4WD, you can break something, so careful!

[jcsanders79]

If you dont use 4WD, then no...  You can get away with only the rear.

But if you dont do both and put it in 4WD, you can break something, so careful!

Not true on the TJ.  Front drive shaft spins all the time so unless you remove it you got to regear both axles.

[jfrabat]

Not true on the TJ.  Front drive shaft spins all the time so unless you remove it you got to regear both axles.

I was thinking about my YJ...  I dont know about the TJ, so this is a good observation.

[Jesse-James]

It's still disconnected at the T-case, shouldn't matter.