4.0 head on a 232?

Paul Mafinga

Is it possible to put a Jeep 4.0 head on a 232? And would it be a good upgrade?

Paul Mafinga

Anyone ever heard of this? This is what I have been able to gather: 1. In 1971 the 232's deck height was increased and the stroke was lengthened to make the 258. All parts from the 258 and 232 are interchangable. 2. in 1987 the 258 block was slightly widened, bored over and de-stroked to create the 4.0L. All parts from the 258 and 4.0 are interchangeable (post 1987) and only a slight modification is needed to put the 4.0L head on a pre 1987 258. My conclusion: If the 258 and 232 head is the same from 1971 to 1986, and the 4.0L head can be modified to fit the pre 1987 258's, then should it not also fit the 232 with the same modification? Am I right? Is this a smart upgrade for my 232? Has anoyone heard of this being done before?

tufcj

The 4.0 head fits a 258, but some of the water passages are different some port and have to be filled in the 4.0 head. The 4.0 also uses 1/2" head bolts, and the 232 might be 7/16". Should work, since everything else is the same.

A couple of links:

http://www.off-road.com/jeep/new/40conv.html

http://monsterslayer.com/jeep/40Head/40Head.htm

Bob
tufcj

Paul Mafinga

Cool, those are great walkthroughs, thanks for those links. I think my head bolts are 7/16, so it looks like all I will have to mod is the boltholes in the block and the water outlets in the head, and since I cant use the old exhaust manifold, this gives me a good excuse to get a set of headers and got to work on the exhaust upgrade (shucky darn).