In with the new engine

With the old engine out (anyone need a boat anchor?) we were able to start figuring out how to mount the “new” engine.  One thing that was immediately clear, no matter how far forward we brought the engine it was about as likely to work as your pot head brother in-law.  The stock turbo/manifold just wasn’t going to clear the firewall.  Upon doing some research we discovered that there are adapters that will allow you to flip the SRT4 turbo manifold upside down on the jeep 2.4L and that would have worked great….except the PT Cruiser GT and SRT4 version of the engine that we are using have the alternator at a different spot than the jeep. Instead of being on the intake side of the engine like the Jeep 2.4L our alternator is on the exhaust side right where the turbo would be if we flipped the manifold upside down.  After a little while I was able to convince dad that making our own custom turbo manifold would be a lot of “fun”, something I have always wanted to do anyway.  Since the SRT4 turbo is integrated with the manifold this also means we have to source a different turbo, a bigger one of course!

After the tears dried over the turbo\firewall issue it was time to start sizing up the motor mount situation.   In order for the “back” of the engine to clear the firewall it had to be moved forward 3.25” from where the old junker sat.  Moving the engine forward meant that we needed to build a new transmission mount and we would need custom drive shafts, but that is why they call it a Jeep and a project right?  You can also see in the pictures that we had to adjust a couple of the bosses on the block to allow for the adapter bolts and modify the bracket for the power steering tensioner.  With some custom brackets we were able to fasten the SRT4 engine to the existing Jeep mounts.  Keeping the existing mounts with the rubber inserts help keep the Jeep from feeling like you are driving a turbo powered vibrator.  Dad gets all the credit for the engineering and fabrication on the mounts and when I complimented him on how well they turned out he informed me.  “I will make it fit, you get to make it work”.