Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six - Jalopnik Comments

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

prndl — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:44:53 EDT

@2006Jeeptj: 2005 Sport Dana 44's with lockers. Neighbor was working on early prototype. Knew it was time to buy.

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

2006Jeeptj — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:18:14 EDT

The engine is truly great and just one reason I purchased an 06 TJ versus an 07 "mini-van hearted" Jeep. Our Cherokee, I still miss it, had the same engine. Drove stong even on the day we traded it in.

Wife started the 06 TJ the other day and I thought, wow, the 4.0 in the Ford Explorer sounds pretty good, then saw my yellow (yes, yellow) monument to the off-road world go down the street and realized it was my Jeep. Love the vehicle, love the engine, and the sound is just right.

2006Jeeptj

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

smokyburnout — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 00:05:55 EDT

@ranwhenparked: i've though about that, but i don't think i could strap a 50 pound toolbox to a bike...
maybe i could just cut some weight out of the Jeep (i remember seeing an aluminum head for the six that saves like 90 pounds).

smokyburnout

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

jcz1978 — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 00:04:14 EDT

Hell yes! I have a 258 in my YJ, I plan to drop the 4.0 head and MPFI setup onto it soon. Certainly one of the best engine families ever built.

jcz1978

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

DerKublewagen53 — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 23:06:20 EDT

What Crap! Is that a chrysler engine? I never realized how shitty cars got in the 70's.

DerKublewagen53

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

tomic — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:49:45 EDT

It's a fine motor, wonderfully compatible year by year (the 90's - 00's EFI head bolts onto all motors back to '64 with few if any changes), 'brick shithouse' strong. Barney Navarro made 750 hp out of a twin-turbo 199, sleeved down to 181ci. (At his shop auction in 2005 I bought one of the previous, 550hp single-turbo 199's for $300 see 4th URL at [wps.com]).

I've got a mildly cammed 258 w/Weber in my 70 Hornet, fast as a small V8; an LPG-only 232 in my 63 Classic wagon (200K miles, 21 years); a 258 1bbl in a 72 Hornet.

Pope Dearthair -- the AMC motor with the side covers is the previous motor, the 195.6, which is a Nash motor with a long and distinguished lineage back to the 1920's! It's old-fashioned today, where the 199/232/258/4.0 is modern (still, though pushrod/flat tappet). I've got one in a 63 American, it's got torque at 1000 rpm!

The AMC six is a real sleeper, overlooked by hotrodders. AMC used various Borg Warner and Ford transmissions over the years; there's adapters for dozens of current transmissions to it, including Chevy trannies, plus T5's, T10's, whatever, it's cheap, plentiful, strong as a rock and easy to work on and easy to get parts.

There's the Chrysler EFI, Howell aftermarket TBI, Weber kits for jeeps. V-belt and serpentine belt systems. Very AMC -- everything fits everything else.

I was wondering when this motor would show up here.... :-)

tomic

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

cgarison — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 21:50:53 EDT

Two days in a row, my favorite motors have been profiled. I still have this motor in my 1998 Grand Cherokee. I also had it in my 1991 and 1992.

Other than the fact that these motors burned more oil when new than my 4.6L Ford does with 100K on the odometer is the only reason I do not call this the best motor ever. But what do you expect from a tractor motor modified for use in automobile.

cgarison

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

scottcom36 — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 21:19:48 EDT

The 258 plastic valve covers weren't the greatest idea ever.

scottcom36

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

ranwhenparked — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 20:47:38 EDT

@smokyburnout:

Just get a motorcycle and leave the Jeep at home on nice days. Something in the 250-500cc range should get you 50+ mpg.

ranwhenparked

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

smokyburnout — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 19:28:19 EDT

i like just about everything about the 4.0 in my Jeep... the sound, the power, the reliability... but with regular unleaded at $3.79 a gallon, i must admit i was looking in the classifieds for a 4-cylinder fiero or a VW TDI today...

smokyburnout

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

LaughingAtFate — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 19:10:55 EDT

almost as long lasting as the inline six that's in the Aussie Falcon (at least for now, Times a runnin out on that baby)

Updated with twin cams, vvt, and turbo, makes one FIIIINE engine

Even a similar displacement too!

LaughingAtFate

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

ranwhenparked — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 18:16:05 EDT

@Maymar:

Chrysler discontinued their XJ Jeeps in China in 2006, but the tooling and IPRs went to their joint venture partner, Beiqi Foton Motor Company, which still *supposedly* builds the XJs and AMC straight 6s under their own brand name.

ranwhenparked

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

M0L0TOV — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 18:12:28 EDT

@P161911:
If I remember correctly, NASA lost the Mars orbiter due to not converting the imperial system into metric. [www.cnn.com]
Am I the only one who remembers driving through the Carolina's in the 80's and seeing all the road signs in kilometers?

M0L0TOV

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

Phaedrus — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:57:52 EDT

I love this engine, I have it in my CJ7. Its a 258 with a HO 4.0 head (breathes much better than the old 258 head) and with the recent addition of fuel injection kit, it hauls ass

Phaedrus

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

streetpirate — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:52:57 EDT

best engine in the world, maybe not but its up there. A healthy 4.7 stroker with an Eaton M90 should make around 400 ft-lbs from 2k to 5.5k at 5psi.

streetpirate

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

Armand Bengle — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:48:17 EDT

You know, the dimensions of AMC's family of straight sixes remained so constant that a 190-horse Jeep 4.0 motor will fit right into the hole left when you took the flathead six out of your '40 Nash. I kinda want to get an early '60s Rambler American, drop in a late Jeep motor and throw the Clifford catalog at it. The only thing weirder than an old Rambler is an old Rambler with a 300-horsepower inline six.

Armand Bengle

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

bjones2004 — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:35:16 EDT

Im on my fourth jeep vehicle with a 258 and ive never been dissapointed by them my first two wranglers had good power and torque my last one with the 4.0 was very strong(performance chip) and now my scrambler has one and I love it. I wouldn't mind Having a little more top speed though.

bjones2004

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

P161911 — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:29:32 EDT

@Mad_Science: Most engineering in the US is a mix. If you do sheet metal you pretty much have to use english gage at least. Standard hardware is still MUCH more common, and cheaper than metric.

In a previous job I did bill of materials for rebuilt brake calipers. GM had a very common design with two variations one with a metric bleeder screw and one with standard. real fun to figure out which one it is and rebuild it right.

US cars have to be the worst for mixing. One bolt is standard, the next metric. At least with imports you know that everything is metric (except for maybe old British stuff).

P161911

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

Mad_Science — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:27:59 EDT

@UDMan: Of course the 3.8 gets better mileage, it's smaller and newer. So would a 1.8L 4 banger...but that doesn't make it a good idea.

Most engines make noise. The 4.0L has a voice.

Mad_Science

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

elwood — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:23:22 EDT

@WheatKing: That sounds like a no-brainer purchase for anyone serious about building up a Jeep engine, but the problem with that is a lot of the 4 wheelers who'd put any money in their Jeep engine just go ahead and swap in a V8.

elwood

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

Caffiend — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:22:38 EDT

@smalleyxb122:

As do I. My Cherokee was a '91 4.0 with the 5 speed. Sweet, sweet car.

Caffiend

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

Bumblebee — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:56:04 EDT

[jalopnik.com]

Bumblebee

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

Bumblebee — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:55:14 EDT

Hey, did his Rayness ever get that Cherokee he was talking about a few weeks ago?

Bumblebee

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

OldElvis — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:49:51 EDT

Pulled an engine out a Hornet with 130K miles in it to put it in my AMX ( with the wrong crossmember) and drive it another 85K before I pulled it out to put in a proper V8. Actually wore thru a rocker arm and picked another up out of a junk yard and put it in. Worked great. Best engine in the world next to the Dodge 225 Slant 6.

OldElvis

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

WheatKing — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:33:43 EDT

Hesco makes an aluminum head for em now too (has for a while).. [www.hesco.us]

just changing the head to a more modern design gives the 4.0L another 30hp..

WheatKing

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

TexanIdiot25: Flavor enhanced with A.D.D. — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:32:15 EDT

My friend has a 95(?) Jeep with the 4.0. 5-speed stick too. Though, he drives like a mad-man, I am surprised at that little thing's pick up. Great low-end on that thing. Noisey as hell, but in a good mechanical way too.

Next up, his 4.0 Straight six, vs. the grocery getter 4.3 V6. Jeep vs. Jimmy.

HOOORAAA

TexanIdiot25: Flavor enhanced with A.D.D.

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

UDMan — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:22:08 EDT

@Mad_Science: @Bumblebee: The reason why the 4.0L six was finally dropped was because of it's rather poor fuel economy, and because it really couldn't be cleaned up any further without a major engineering overhaul (i.e. better breathing, cylinder de-activation, multiple valve heads, etc.). The 3.8L actually gets better fuel mileage that the 4.0L did.

UDMan

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

killamike — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:06:40 EDT

My first car was my mom's 99 Grand Cherokee (I'm only 19). I absolutely love the engine though, its got plenty of torque, and the best thing is that when you're towing anything behind you, it gets the same gas mileage as it would if it weren't towing anything.

killamike

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

killamike — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:04:04 EDT

I absolutely love this engine, my first car was a 99 Grand Cherokee. Tons of torque. No matter what kind of driving you put that thing through it always keeps a straight faced 20 MPG, and that's towing a motorcycle or two at 70mph.

killamike

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

buttons — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:56:38 EDT

Got one of these noisy, beautiful brutes in my daily driver. Time to take the hardtop off so I can hear it better.

buttons

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

Mr4speed — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:51:33 EDT

A buddy of mine put 400K on his 4.0 Cherokee.

And Barney Navarro qualified one at Indy- great engine!

Mr4speed

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

danio3834 — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:45:42 EDT

@Mad_Science: @JB_Jeep: To be fair the 3.8l thats currently in the Wrangler is based off the 3.3L which was originally based off the good ole 318 V8.

So its not all bad.

danio3834

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

mattEGTR has sodium-filled exhaust valves for extra flavor! — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:40:30 EDT

I think the only thing I didn't like about the 4.0 in my Cherokee was the IM/EM being on the same side when the exhaust manifold developed a gigantic crack between the 5/6 cylinder runners and needed to be replaced. Great truck for hooning though, automagic tranny and all.

mattEGTR has sodium-filled exhaust valves for extra flavor!

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

Charles_Barrett — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:36:37 EDT

We bought a brand-new '95 Cherokee with the 4.0L engine. Never got a chance to get a feel for long-term reliability, though... Randy totaled it in a horrific accident in '97. Nothing like coming home to an empty house and seeing your partner's car a mangled wreck on the noon-time local news (from the helicopter shot, I could see the rainbow sticker on the tailgate glass, and knew that it had to be him).

Thanks to airbags and seatbelts, he suffered only bruises.

Charles_Barrett

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

Gabroxy — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:32:20 EDT

Great engine, lots of power & realiability, your car will die before this engine.

Stupid Chryco coud have been better just with an upgraded head & EFI

Gabroxy

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

Hot_Carl — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:31:25 EDT

Now that I think about it, I've had 2.5 of these engines. 1992 Cherokee, 2004 Grand, 1999 Wrangler (but subtract two of the cylinders)

Hot_Carl

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

Hot_Carl — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:29:13 EDT

Jeep 258/4.0: 50 years of torquey goodness.

Hot_Carl

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

Bumblebee — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:27:40 EDT

@Mad_Science: You haven't heard that story? I think it was Nixon who had the plan of doing the changeover in one fell swoop, literally overnight. Suddenly, gas was sold in liters!... for like a week. The changeover didn't take and everyone went back to gallons and inches.

I think 2L bottles of soda are one of the remnants of that attempt.

Bumblebee

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

Bumblebee — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:20:59 EDT

@elwood: Talk to Abe Simpson. (I'd throw you a link to a video, but someone on youtube has gone and polticized it, dammit).

Bumblebee

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

muleshoe — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:12:02 EDT

@AmishJohn: Then it's a sin I had a home built Holly 450 CFM on the one I built...

muleshoe

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

Mike the Dog — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:11:43 EDT

Murilee, thanks for running this one again. This is truly a great motor.

Mike the Dog

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

Mike the Dog — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:10:13 EDT

@AmishJohn:
@Mike the Dog:
One caveat, though. Since the intake and exhaust manifolds are both on the same side you have to go with a header to use a side-draft carb setup.

Mike the Dog

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

muleshoe — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:10:09 EDT

@junkman: it won't run pump gas at 12 to 1 but the dog will Hunt

muleshoe

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

Mike the Dog — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:08:21 EDT

@AmishJohn: Not at all, Clifford even sells a kit....

Clifford Performance (where 6=8) is an excellent source of parts and know-how for getting max bang for the buck from these engines.

Mike the Dog

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

Maymar - future Suzuki booth babe — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:05:48 EDT

@VW_SollteMichAnstellen: That's actually accurate - Chrysler still sells the XJ Cherokee as the Jeep 2500 and Jeep 4000 (that's almost as impressive as the engine itself, that the same basic truck's been built for almost 25 years).

Maymar - future Suzuki booth babe

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

Mike the Dog — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:05:29 EDT

The best plan I've seen so far with this motor starts with a 1980 258 block (before they lightened it, but after they added the front diff-mount bosses for the Eagle), add a 4.0 head conversion (including the fuel injection), then add turbo- or super-charging. You can get 500 horsepower fairly easily with a cam that will still allow idling.

Mike the Dog

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

AmishJohn — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:01:00 EDT

Is it wrong to want to stick 3 Weber sidedrafts on the side of that block?

AmishJohn

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

Zandr — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:59:04 EDT

Great motor. I had a DJ-5D (yes, Postal Jeep) with a 232 in it. 100hp on a good day, but enough torque to climb a telephone pole.

The Chrysler electronic ignition was another story.

But with a 232, 727 TorqueFlite, and a Dana 44, there wasn't much you could do to hurt that driveline.

Zandr

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

junkman — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:58:09 EDT

@muleshoe: Sounds like just what my Pacer needs...

junkman

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

Mad_Science — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:53:12 EDT

@elwood: Funny, I still get stuck using a mix of standard and metric.

Most of the tooling vendors I work with still use standard (80 mil wall thickness), but b/c it's a medical device I end up having to use a lot of dual dimensions.

Someone told me the US "officially" switched to the metric system some time in the 70s.

Mad_Science

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

79TA — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:51:18 EDT

This engine was already featured once as a "workhorse" engine of the day. But, it's a pretty good one, so i have no problem with it being featured twice.

79TA

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

SundaySunday — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:51:00 EDT

"One engine to run them all"
Thinking of all the vehicles the family has had that were propelled by this 6-cylinder.

Dad's 1982 CJ7 and 1995 Grand Cherokee
Mom's 2000 Wrangler (Which we still have.)
Sister's 2000 Cherokee

What a great workhorse of an engine.

SundaySunday

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

STR8SIX — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:48:17 EDT

I've got the 4.0L I6 (i.e. STR8SIX) in my 2001 Cherokee. The engine is rock solid. It's also freakishly large for a six cylinder and barely fits longitudinally in the engine compartment. Stuffing a 4.0L engine in a small 3,000 lb vehicle may have been a little overkill, but some engineers just do things right. AMC had those engineers.

STR8SIX

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

muleshoe — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:43:08 EDT

In 1972. Mill 120 thounads off the head and you could out run ever Mustang in town thru the 1/4 mile with a Gremlin..Been there done that.

muleshoe

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

HoubaHouba! — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:40:07 EDT

According to the ever-reliable Wikipedia the 4.0 is still in production in China, so this one lives on!

HoubaHouba!

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

elwood — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:34:58 EDT

@AshMaster78: In engineering classes where we had homework or test problems with English units, I would generally convert everything to metric at the start of the problem, and then convert the answer back to English at the end.

@TurboBrick: Yeah, the technical community in the U.S. has adopted metric anyways. It's everyone else that's behind.

@jack_pine: I really like that car. I especially like that it's not a big-buck buildup, but it still got featured in Hot Rod Magazine.

elwood

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

Mad_Science — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:29:57 EDT

Among my many "quit my real job and become the crazed old coot with a bunch of junk cars" plans is the idea of doing for eagles and assorted AMC I-6 powered vehicles with Lovecraft has done for diesel Mercedes.

Soon all the hipsters will be driving 4.0L powered SX4s. (Avenger supercharger and 4.6L stroker kit optional).

Mad_Science

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

nsjames — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:27:01 EDT

There's nothing wrong with the Renault/Bendix injection, I've got 2 87's.
You've got to be handy with a multimeter, and I carry the fuel injection service manual with me at all times.
We don't need no stinking OBD codes to troubleshoot!
I'm pretty sure the ECM would survive the oncoming nuclear holocaust, damn thing is a brick and weighs about 4 lbs.
Renix FTW!

nsjames

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

TurboBrick — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:25:34 EDT

@elwood: Here's the really stupid part; legally, the definition of a pound is 453.59237 grams, and has been defined thusly in the US since the 1890's.

TurboBrick

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

Ash78 — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:19:44 EDT

Metric is awesome, except for those times when it's used along with English (which, ironically, is fully embraced only by America). England, I'm looking at you: Pick a side, already!

"My car's wheelbase is cm, speed is mph, weight is kg, and economy is mpg."

My car gets 40 rods to the hogshead and that's the way I likes it.

Ash78

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

JB_Jeep — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:17:56 EDT

I think I'll go blow some donuts in my Jeep after work to celebrate the 4.0 goodness within.

It really is the perfect motor for a Wrangler though (excluding a diesel. None of this 3.8 madness. It sounds loud and mechanical with decent performance, as it should.

JB_Jeep

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

jack pine — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:16:43 EDT

Anybody see the Mopacer? This guy modernized his daughter's Pacer with a later-model 4.0L. Fuel injection and all. [mopacer.com]

jack pine

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

brandegee — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:14:48 EDT

Yay, it made the EOTD!

My father bought an AMC with the 232, pre-cats. Kenosha quality control was so bad the motor had a pinhole through the block...the dealership put an additive in and it went another 180K.

Sometimes in my dreams I can still hear the clattering valves.

brandegee

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

jack pine — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:14:46 EDT

inline engines built in modern, thin-wall casting configurations are prone to piston rattle. That's the diesel-like quality that the Jeep I6 has had since they tried to modernize it. The end-of-days coil-on-plug configuration was an insult.

jack pine

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

elwood — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:10:04 EDT

@Bumblebee: Metric is the measurement system of the devil? The entire engineering world must all be a bunch of heathens, then, because we all use it. It's not our fault it's just plain better.

elwood

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

deckard97 — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:08:53 EDT

@Pope Dearthair the Awesometh: good times... good times...

deckard97

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

Dearthair the Totally Uncreative — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:06:01 EDT

The 232 was the first engine I rebuilt, in my '64 Rambler Classic 770. In retrospect, it was a lot of fun, and appallingly simple.

Okay, it would have been appallingly simple except for one little detail. The previous rebuilder had never degrimed the engine completely before repainting it. Now, if you were to flip that picture around, on the opposite side there are two flat, square panels that remove with a single nut each. These are there to make it easy to seat the pushrods when you're (re)building the engine, and boy, do they work perfectly.

If you know they're there. We, on the other hand had an engine block that had two decades of grime built up OVER the bolts, creating these two little breast-shaped mounds on the side of the block. That grime was then PAINTED OVER by the previous person who rebuilt it, making it look like it was part of the block.

As a result, I spent two days doing nothing but trying to seat the pushrods by feel from the top of the block. Insert, wiggle, tap tap, set... slide. Try again. Insert, wiggle...

Oh keep your minds out of the gutter. Honestly.

After two days, I had climbed up into the engine bay, one foot on either side of the block, and was peering down with a flashlight into the block. I happened to kick the block in the appropriate spot, and this large chunk of painted gunk came off onto my shoe... revealing the access panels behind.

I used language that day my parents had never heard before. And when I showed them the reason, they understood completely.

Dearthair the Totally Uncreative

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

theeastbaykid — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:04:54 EDT

Leave it to Chrysler/Jeep to be blessed with one of the most bulletproof engines of all time, and saddle it with crap interior, wiring, etc. It's not like 4x4 Toyotas were luxury cars, and if Jeeps weren't so relatively crappy (outside of the motor/off road underpinnings), then the 199/232/258/4.0 would have the same rep as motors like the 22R-E. Underrated for sure. I'm waiting for the right 232-powered postal jeep to turn into a LeMon.

theeastbaykid

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

deckard97 — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:00:42 EDT

As my second car I have a 94 Jeep Cherokee with the 4.0 liter. What trooper it is. I'd buy another one in a second. Is it just me or it sounds like a diesel when idling?

deckard97

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

Mysterious Utility Bento — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:57:43 EDT

One of the best engines I ever had in a car, well jeep. Sold my Cherokee to a friend and it still runs today...when I sold it it had 313,000 miles on it. 4.0L FTW!

Mysterious Utility Bento

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

graverobber- It says Loud Pipes Save Lives — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:55:54 EDT

My father in law has one of these (or a derivation thereof) sitting in his '96 Jeep. Good motor, pretty rock solid. The Jeep has had issues with the front axle, and the interior is slowly fossilizing, but that 4.0 keeps on ticking over day in and day out.

graverobber- It says Loud Pipes Save Lives

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

Bumblebee — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:55:29 EDT

I had the 258 in my CJ-7 that hit on all 6 cylinders if you just revved it a little, and the 4.0 in a Cherokee (remind me again why Jeep dropped that model?).

The 258 was the worse of the two in every way, so I unsurprisingly have much fonder memories of it than the 4.0 (also, the latter uses the measuring system of the devil).

Bumblebee

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

Mad_Science — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:53:43 EDT

The absence of the 4.0L keeps me from fully appreciating the newest generation of Wranglers.

They could've updated the engine with better fuel management or forced induction, but noOOooo, they had to drop in the stupid 3.8L minivan engine.

Fools.

Mad_Science

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

Feds — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:53:26 EDT

The only experience I have with these motors is in my off-road-only $500 cherokee. It makes me smile every time I turn the key. It just sounds so mechanical, like starting up an ocean liner.

Feds

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

DrJeffie — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:49:31 EDT

Wonderful engine - had one in a '79 Jeep that I sold to a buddy - body's shot, but the Jeep still runs.

DrJeffie

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

smalleyxb122 — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:49:03 EDT

Finally an engine of the day that I've had on one of my vehicles. 4.0 FTW!

I miss my Cherokee sometimes.

smalleyxb122

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

diskreet — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:47:52 EDT

Renault should stick to euro-chic design and let ze germans do the mechanicals.

diskreet