Re: 304/290/200R4

["Jim Blair" <carnuck@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

A: I'm still debating whether to put in a Mopar A500 ('94 up Grand Cherokee 
4.0L trans with hydraulic valve body added for O/D and lockup) or AW4 (I 
don't want to hook up the controller though I can get the trans cheap) or 
just overhaul the switchpitch TH400 now in my '73 J4000 to go with the Chev 
NP208C or Dodge NP208 I'm getting this week (I hope).


From: fljab@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: 304/290/200R4
To: mail@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Message-ID: <ADVANCES62NXRPmcarc00000118@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

On May 5, 2005 mail@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> One there is a guy on the Forum who did the 200R4 in his AMX or Javelin. 
> Look for that thread

OK, I'll search for that;

> If your interested in fuel econmy and price is not a big concern.
> EFI may be easiext way to get optimum economy although you can do well 
> with a >properly tuned small 4 barrel.

I'm actually interested in TBI since reading the Megasquirt site.  Doesn't 
look all that hard using GM parts and fully programmable control box.  I 
believe it could be put together quite reasonably using Ebay or JY parts. 
For that matter, you can probably buy them reconditioned/new at 
Kragen's/Autozone/Advance Auto easily and within budget as well.

>I'd suggest aluminum heads

I'd stay with stock, just maybe clean them up some; If I spend the money on 
aluminum heads, they'd go on that 390 of mine, not this project.

>  I'd think that for the ease of things I'd probably just go with the 304 
> and not >worry about the crank issue.

Yes, 304's are easier for a number of reasons, but good 290's pop up from 
time to time, including one I know about now from a club member, so just 
thought I'd throw that out there, plus being a little bit smaller engine, 
you might get a little bit better mileage, altho I'm sure not enough to 
justify making big changes.

>  If your thinking economy what about LPG???  :] your building from scratch 
> here. >You can't do much better then a cutom built for LPG rig. High 
> compression is >needed, but not much else is different.

Don't know enough about LPG; I guess you could run multifuel with TBI and a 
controller as you could dial in different states of tune depending on the 
fuel you're using, but, is LPG that much cheaper to run?  Is there anyone 
running it on a converted vehicle that can answer that?  We have dual-fuel 
vehicles here at work (gas + LPG)that you switch back and forth with a 
switch on the dashboard, but I don't pay the bills on those, plus no one 
that I know really keeps track of economy as there's multiple driver's for 
any vehicle in our shop.  It seems to me that the tanks are fairly big for 
what you get.  I mean, we have them in the bed of pickup trucks up near the 
cab, and it seems that the range on the tank isn't all that great for the 
size, know what I mean?

I also took Bruce Hevner's advice and started reading up on Ethanol.  That's 
interesting as well, plus, if you could get the raw materials easy/cheap 
enough, you could "brew your own" with a permit from the Fed Gov't from what 
I read.  There's lots I DON'T know about all this, but it is food for 
thought!

>  If you put it in the wagon you can get a fairly larg tank in there by 
> reworking >the trunk floor to use the storage area. It does have a storage 
> area?

It does have the storage area, but I'd really have to think about that.  I'm 
leaning more toward the '65 440 for this project.  It's lighter, has a trunk 
IF I wanted to multifuel it, plus I really like the wagon the way it is for 
the most part, altho I'm not a strict stock person.

Anyone got a complete 304? I have a 360 I'd trade.  It would be hard for me 
to sneak in another engine past Mama, but if one left, and one took it's 
place, well, that's different!

Jim Boone

Mims, FL