- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
Story Time...
Around 1995-96 I was introduced to 'rockcrawling' & Jeeps... I had a few local friends that were building their CJ's and I got interested. At the time my DD was my '71 SS Camaro with a full roller 355, making around 400 HP. I decided to look for a Jeep to buy so I could wheel with my friends and ended up finding a 1980 CJ5 that a surveyor has used for much of his career. It had something crazy like 220k miles on it, was pretty rough with the soft top falling apart, seats were beat up, had some rust in the rear quarters, etc. I made a deal to buy it, having no clue where this purchase would lead years later. It was Grey with a white soft top and blue seats.
It had a 4 cyl engine, which was quite anemic even on tiny 30" tires. I didn't know at the time of buying it, but it was assembled with a GM Iron Duke 151 engine, SR4 4 speed manual transmission and Dana 300 t-case with a factory short output shaft. The Iron Duke was only used for 2 years, so they're somewhat rare. What's neat about them is the bellhousing is a standard Chevy bolt pattern!! These CJ's had 4.10 gears from the factory to help spin the little 151.
After I got the CJ5 home, I tore the soft top off, added a Bestop bikini top and drove it as my DD... the Camaro was having transmission issues. Working at a tire shop, I was able to pick up a set of old-school Goodyear bias ply tires... I think they called them 31x14.5x15's? They were mounted on hideous Yellow wagon wheels, which I quickly painted Black. The tires were awesome, but really strained the little Iron Duke. After a few trips up AF Canyon and less than 3 months into my ownership, the Iron Duke expired and wouldn't run anymore.
After some research, I decided to put the 355 Camaro engine into the CJ5. I had to use a 10.5" clutch assembly from an 80's Camaro and fenderwell headers that ran under the rocker panel and turned out before the rear tires. I swapped the cam for more of a torque curve friendly one, but it's RPM range was still 1500-6000 RPM. I upgraded the radiator to a heavy duty 4 core as well.
The CJ ran incredible with the built SBC, it could pull the driver front tire off the ground in every gear and was faster than the Camaro was! I ended up painting it Military Green with Zolatone. It wasn't great on the freeway, not having OD and equipped with 4.10 gears, so I never took the CJ5 to Moab... just tore around the hills of Utah County.
I ended up selling the Jeep, but not before pulling the built 355 and selling it separate and stabbing in a stock SBC 350. I even tried finding my old CJ5 again, but didn't haven any luck.
Around 1995-96 I was introduced to 'rockcrawling' & Jeeps... I had a few local friends that were building their CJ's and I got interested. At the time my DD was my '71 SS Camaro with a full roller 355, making around 400 HP. I decided to look for a Jeep to buy so I could wheel with my friends and ended up finding a 1980 CJ5 that a surveyor has used for much of his career. It had something crazy like 220k miles on it, was pretty rough with the soft top falling apart, seats were beat up, had some rust in the rear quarters, etc. I made a deal to buy it, having no clue where this purchase would lead years later. It was Grey with a white soft top and blue seats.
It had a 4 cyl engine, which was quite anemic even on tiny 30" tires. I didn't know at the time of buying it, but it was assembled with a GM Iron Duke 151 engine, SR4 4 speed manual transmission and Dana 300 t-case with a factory short output shaft. The Iron Duke was only used for 2 years, so they're somewhat rare. What's neat about them is the bellhousing is a standard Chevy bolt pattern!! These CJ's had 4.10 gears from the factory to help spin the little 151.
After I got the CJ5 home, I tore the soft top off, added a Bestop bikini top and drove it as my DD... the Camaro was having transmission issues. Working at a tire shop, I was able to pick up a set of old-school Goodyear bias ply tires... I think they called them 31x14.5x15's? They were mounted on hideous Yellow wagon wheels, which I quickly painted Black. The tires were awesome, but really strained the little Iron Duke. After a few trips up AF Canyon and less than 3 months into my ownership, the Iron Duke expired and wouldn't run anymore.
After some research, I decided to put the 355 Camaro engine into the CJ5. I had to use a 10.5" clutch assembly from an 80's Camaro and fenderwell headers that ran under the rocker panel and turned out before the rear tires. I swapped the cam for more of a torque curve friendly one, but it's RPM range was still 1500-6000 RPM. I upgraded the radiator to a heavy duty 4 core as well.
The CJ ran incredible with the built SBC, it could pull the driver front tire off the ground in every gear and was faster than the Camaro was! I ended up painting it Military Green with Zolatone. It wasn't great on the freeway, not having OD and equipped with 4.10 gears, so I never took the CJ5 to Moab... just tore around the hills of Utah County.
I ended up selling the Jeep, but not before pulling the built 355 and selling it separate and stabbing in a stock SBC 350. I even tried finding my old CJ5 again, but didn't haven any luck.
