haha if you want it to sound like a boat throw a 4.0 jeep straight six in it with no exhaust trust me my old xj sounded like that when i cut the muffler off once...you could even get a turbo for it if only it wasn't $5k http://www.jpmagazine.com/techarticl...rbo/index.html

 

yeah i actually love those motors. i had an 87 XJ with 220,000 miles that was my first car. i bought it for $400. i really miss the old girl.

 

haha nice i made my sister take mine so that i didnt have to get rid of it its still runnin stronger with 188k on it than my dads 98 with 122k im hopin she wants to get something else soon so i can get it back.

 

looks like a fun project, and pitkanen i dont know if i would have been able to part with it

 

I'm gonna cast my vote for the 4.0L Jeep motor.

I'm probably gonna get the b.s. flag thrown at me on this one, but I'm gonna say it anyway:
A buddy of mine had an '89 XJ. He was living in Connecticut at the time, and was taking the Jeep down to Florida with his bike in tow. Well, as luck would have it, when he was in New Jersey, he heard the Jeep make a loud BANG! and noticed it was smoking considerably. He pulled off to the side of the road and inspected the engine compartment, didn't find anything immediately, and decided to drive home to Connecticut from New Jersey.

He continued to drive the Jeep, and another friend, who had been riding in the Jeep said it felt like a diesel engine was under the hood of that thing. Jose (the owner of the Jeep) continued to drive it for about a year, but decided to park it until he could get it fixed. Well, one day after he parked it, we bring it into my garage and set out to tune it up, replacing the cap, roto, plugs, wires, and the oil. We finish the job and decide to drive it on down to a nearby gas station to fill it up. It still ran rough, and smoked like a chimney. We drive down a block, turn around, and head back to my garage, where I have him pop the hood. I get a flashlight, look in the engine bay, and I notice there is a rather large amount of oil pooled up on the driver's side of the engine. We remove the airbox, look around a bit, and find the source of the oil leak - a 1" x 2" hole in the block, going through one of the cylinder walls. This Jeep had been running on 5 cylinders ever since that loud bang he heard in New Jersey.

So, yeah, I'm gonna say go with the 4.0L. If you get to racing and it throws a rod, you'll at least be able to drive the thing home still.

Or, you could get really froggy, and go with a 225 Slant-6.

If you want to get really crazy, go to a junkyard and get a 195 c.i.d. Pontiac four-cylinder! It'll shake the car, but that's the idea, right?