Posted by budda There is nothing worse than a post 2000 mopar engine.

I've worked on a few post 2000 Mopar engines and its no more hard than anything else post 2000...but I am sure I will beaten up for that...

Anyways, yeah, the 2.5 is a motor is tough, but it can't take heat as well as the 4.0 due to several reasons...I'm siding with Dave it was a severe overheating issue that FUBAR'd the valves.

And Samarai, the Dakota used the same AMC 2.5L from 1996 to 2002. It was also used in a few other vehicles but one thing to watch out for on the Wrangler is that the motor was "detuned" a bit due to restrictive exhaust, but the computer can correct for that.

And remember too, you need a 2.5L with fuel injection....pre-1991, they used either TBI or carbs...

The saga continues: Went camping with the scouts over the weekend, and one of the dads offered up his shop for the engine swap, as well as his connections with the local junkyards.

Posted by splumer The saga continues: Went camping with the scouts over the weekend, and one of the dads offered up his shop for the engine swap, as well as his connections with the local junkyards.

Can't go wrong with that, Splumer... at least it's something somewhat normal to work on.