I picked up a rebuilt 89 or 92 highway patrol 5.0 HO 302 to a 347 stroker with about 500 miles on it. It's a beast and sits in a 87 wrangler. I've put maybe 600-800 miles on the jeep it since i bought it. I know this may not be the best home for a jeep post, but it carries the 5.0 badge and I can't get enough of it. I'm ready to try to run dual exhaust and give it a real good sound. The downfall to this, is the jeep runs an old F100 (listed as NP435) 4 speed manual transmission. The engine is loud and strong, but the 4 speed has a crawl gear in first and at about 65 mph is running about 2900 rpms. The jeep is wound up at hwy speeds and feels like it would love to run a lower rpm, but its a 4 speed... no more gears left. I would love to switch out the transmission, but not sure were to go with that at this point. The jeep was really built for rock crawling, but I couldn't pass it up. I bought it for the engine, and can't get enough of it in the jeep.
Now my worry...
I was headed to the shop the other day to get a transfer case seal replaced and a rear differential looked at for a leak. One the way there I came around to an entrance ramp from one highway exit to another highway entrance on about a 270 degree circular exit ramp (if that makes since..) head on west hwy exiting to a heading south hwy 30 mph exit. I came around the corner to a busy 3 lane exits entrance combo and a cop had a guy pulled over on the southbound exit. Of course the police car was halfway out in the entrance exit lanes. I was doing about 30-35 and dropped the jeep from 4th to 3rd to power into traffic and get around the cop and the car he had pulled over. I had cars exiting around and in front of me and the police car and its stop and cars on my tail entering with me. When I dropped the 5.0 in 3rd I had a very odd hard drop of power and then jerk, the jeep then seemed to come back and find itself. I could see this if I was doing 55 or 60 or more, but I was maybe doing 40 tops (lifted jeep on 33's). I thought of crap what was that...... I pulled it out of 3rd and put it back into 4th after getting into traffic and got on down the road
I took the jeep onto the shop and dropped it off for the seals to be looked at. I had a transfer case seal replaced along with a rear pinion seal replaced. When i got the jeep out of the shop it feels like its lost some of its power and torque. It even sounds a little different. Our temperatures here have been mild 70-mid 80s so far this year until around the day I took it to the shop. Now we are pushing 95-100 with heat index over 100.
I'm worried I may have pushed the engine to hard entering traffic during an engine break in period. I also don't like dropping the thing off at the shop while there may be a break in period and its a 347 stroker in a jeep! After fixes the cars always go on a test drive. I've had the thing in the shop with minor look overs and repairs to alignment, brakes and the above mentioned seals.
Is it possible I may have caused an issue with the engine during the shift transition. Can warmer temperatures make it run a little lighter? It just feels like I don't have the same power and engine muscle sound. I haven't been pushing it much past 3K rpms tops 4K-4200 (not sure I've even got it that high except entering the hwy on the above mentioned detail). Can things slow down/loosen up as the engine breaks in? I probably have somewhere around 1200-1500 miles on it now since it was rebuilt. I have a few other cars running 300-390 hp or so, so I'm used to this type of horsepower, but the jeep seems like its having issues since I drove it into the shop that day, experienced that power drop/jerk and then got it back.
Thanks for reading all that and any responses!
Now my worry...
I was headed to the shop the other day to get a transfer case seal replaced and a rear differential looked at for a leak. One the way there I came around to an entrance ramp from one highway exit to another highway entrance on about a 270 degree circular exit ramp (if that makes since..) head on west hwy exiting to a heading south hwy 30 mph exit. I came around the corner to a busy 3 lane exits entrance combo and a cop had a guy pulled over on the southbound exit. Of course the police car was halfway out in the entrance exit lanes. I was doing about 30-35 and dropped the jeep from 4th to 3rd to power into traffic and get around the cop and the car he had pulled over. I had cars exiting around and in front of me and the police car and its stop and cars on my tail entering with me. When I dropped the 5.0 in 3rd I had a very odd hard drop of power and then jerk, the jeep then seemed to come back and find itself. I could see this if I was doing 55 or 60 or more, but I was maybe doing 40 tops (lifted jeep on 33's). I thought of crap what was that...... I pulled it out of 3rd and put it back into 4th after getting into traffic and got on down the road
I took the jeep onto the shop and dropped it off for the seals to be looked at. I had a transfer case seal replaced along with a rear pinion seal replaced. When i got the jeep out of the shop it feels like its lost some of its power and torque. It even sounds a little different. Our temperatures here have been mild 70-mid 80s so far this year until around the day I took it to the shop. Now we are pushing 95-100 with heat index over 100.
I'm worried I may have pushed the engine to hard entering traffic during an engine break in period. I also don't like dropping the thing off at the shop while there may be a break in period and its a 347 stroker in a jeep! After fixes the cars always go on a test drive. I've had the thing in the shop with minor look overs and repairs to alignment, brakes and the above mentioned seals.
Is it possible I may have caused an issue with the engine during the shift transition. Can warmer temperatures make it run a little lighter? It just feels like I don't have the same power and engine muscle sound. I haven't been pushing it much past 3K rpms tops 4K-4200 (not sure I've even got it that high except entering the hwy on the above mentioned detail). Can things slow down/loosen up as the engine breaks in? I probably have somewhere around 1200-1500 miles on it now since it was rebuilt. I have a few other cars running 300-390 hp or so, so I'm used to this type of horsepower, but the jeep seems like its having issues since I drove it into the shop that day, experienced that power drop/jerk and then got it back.
Thanks for reading all that and any responses!