Soon to be owner (again)

I'm a former YJ owner, I bought my 1995 Wrangler Sport brand new in March of '95 and put (I think) 170k miles on it until I traded it in January 2002. Second most fun vehicle I've owned. It was my second car and now I'm soon to be in the market for another daily driver, now seems like the right time to look for another Wrangler. I'm pretty sure I've narrowed it down to a JK with the 3.6L V6, and have found several in my area within my price range (max $18k). My must-haves are: hard top, power windows, automatic (I hate automatics, but my wife needs to be able to drive it). Nice-to-haves are: larger wheels/tires and/or lift, leather seats (these seem to be extremely rare). I suppose if there was a JL available I'd consider it, but I haven't found many under $20k.

Here's my YJ the day I brought it home.

 

Welcome @Vater i started down the Jeep path with an ‘89 YJ

 

COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

My 12 year experiment with a 3.6 JKUR for a daily driver/trail rig was a bit of a disappointment to say the least. Electrical issues aside (and there were a WHOLE lot of those), the 3.6 is absolutely a gutless wonder at low rpm with no really usable torque below about 2000rpms. Sort of made a mockery of that flouted 76:1 crawl ratio. You also need a clear highway for a half a mile if you plan to pass anything at, say, 70 mph. In the end, the JK didn't shine well on or off road. All of that can be easily rectified with an engine/transmission/suspension/axle swap. And maybe a completely new wiring harness.

 

As much as I'd like, an engine swap is out of the question, I'm not buying a daily that needs major work right away. Interesting that the 3.6L is gutless, I've been narrowing my searches to 2012 and newer specifically to avoid the even-more-gutless-on-paper 3.8L found in the 2007-2011. Frankly, I don't think I'll have too much of an issue with the 3.6L considering I drove a YJ with the 2.5L I4 for 7 years, and even (somehow) hauled my band's equipment trailer with it. Talk about underpowered.

 

Similar experience with my ‘89 YJ 2.5 which could never win off the line but it was only $8995 new and my first Jeep for 5 years. Compared to the 4.0 inline six the 3.6 lacks some balls down low in comparison but when geared & driven within the power band things can get done.

 

Wow, my '95 was almost twice that 6 years later, $16,500 (was $15,000 but AC was a $1500 add-on).

 

Welp, my 1955 CJ 3B has been over a hundred twice, the first time 52 years ago with a solid lifter 327 under the hood that would easily wind to 7k rpm's in third gear (116 mph) and the second time with a warmed over 1970 LT1 under the hood. The LT1 easily pined the 90 mpg SW speedometer on the back side of the zero pin and it's full potential in that regard was never tested. Way faster than I wanted to be in it. And it definitely hasn't gotten any slower with the subsequent 381 and especially the present 441. In its present state it should make 10 sec 1/4 mile times if you could actually launch it. But that was never a consideration of the 441 build. The 400+ft-lbs off idle was the goal of the build and the absolute polar opposite of the 3.6. And oh, it gets better mileage than the 3.6, not to mention it ALWAYS puts a WAY bigger smile on my face---

 

you do like shiny stuff for sure...

 

Almost all of that shinny stuff is my own creation and just polished aluminum. I think the only chrome in that entire vehicle consists of the SW gauge bezels and the spokes of the Grant steering wheel. The air cleaner lid was just plain stamped aluminum when I purchased it. If you did unto a JK what I did to the 3B, you could have a nice Jeep. The Willys has all of two unaltered or replaced parts it left Toledo with-the Dana 18 output shafts. Tub and fenders are fiberglass, hood and grill aluminum. The Dana 18 transfercase is the only major semi stock driveline component left and it is built using a Dana 20 case and the TeraLow 3.15:1 aftermarket gears. I have another of those Dana 20 cases which is going to be home to Jeff Petrowich's Super X98 5.07:1 gear set in the near future.

Another polar opposite of a JK: there is virtually zero aftermarket support left for the early flat fender Willys once you depart from stock. You get to design/build all of it. Even putting that 441 together was a bit of a challenge. All sorts of go-fast high rpm pieces are available for the world's most popular engine platform, but like the Willys, if low end torque is the goal, you are largely left to yourself. That was put together after a multitude of runs through Comp Cams DynoSim 5 trying different components/cam profiles. It could be significantly improved upon with a different induction. The ProFlo4's Victor Jr based intake leaves a lot to be desired for producing bottom end torque. I'm completely sold on port injection for low rpm performance but high flow version of GM's TPI system would be the proverbial cat's meow on this. Even the aftermarket versions of GM TPI would run out of air on this well before 4k rpms. I had some conversations with Wilson about that when I was starting to put the engine together and that may still happen. But you definitely posted the correct emoji for that.