4.0 overhaul kit prices?

[volaredon]

I have not signed in in a while. Have lurked a bit, just been super swamped and busy....
I got stuck with an engine rebuild that I wasnt looking for. '02 GCherokee (2WD even, boooo)
ungrateful nephew that runs every vehicle he gets his hands on into the ground, then drops it in someone else's lap Cracked the head, scorched 3 pistons, ran a month w/ bad water pump "topping off" daily or so he claimed during that time before he sought assistance to get it replaced.
found good, replacement head via CL (yeah it's an 0331) verified good at machine shop already.
NO scoring in cylinders that catch a fingernail, no ring ridge at top/ but remnants of melted piston where you would expect a "ring ridge" on #1,2 and 5 cylinders. looked like someone dropped solder on the top edges of these holes. and these mentioned cylinders have a black "heat mark" about 1/2" wide that goes the length of the ring travel, looks like someone took a extra wide Sharpie and drew a line down the cylinder for lack of a better way to describe,

Waiting to hear back from machine shop right now on whether block is salvageable..... (I have a replacement on hand just in case, much better looking)

Not looking for "cheap" per say, but best bang for buck; dont want to spend $600 on the same exact thing I may be able to get for $500 elsewhere; same brand and grade of parts, you get what I mean....

The local parts stores, (Oreillys, Advance etc and even Summit, etc nobody seems to want to sell a complete "master" kit for our 4.0's.... everyone wants to sell "piece meal" (always costs more that way) need pistons, rings, rod/main/cam bearings, oil pump, (std will do for this application) all gaskets, freeze plugs (prefer brass), timing chain set, lifters (reusing original stock cam, he dont deserve an upgrade)
Have not heard from machine shop yet but as of now, I am thinking std/std on crank (that did look like new) and .30" o/s on bore. I have seen some ,20 o/s available like on Feebay but from past exp with this machine shop they don't like "only" going 20-over for some reason... I have requested that from them on past units and always wind up at .30-over when I get the block back. I am wanting hypereuctic, coated, stock CR, pistons.

So who have you guys gotten your internal engine stuff from and what kind of deals are out there? I do much prefer known, old school name brands to "no-name" ones. I don't want to do this same engine twice.

 

[JPNinPA]

Check hesco for complete kits.

 

[volaredon]

ok thanks (never heard of them) so I'll have to check them out.
At the moment it's between 3 Ebay sellers, I have questions out to all 3 to see exactly what I would get for my $$$
I havent bought a kit yet. Did find out the block will survive with a 0.030 overbore......

 

[volaredon]

Well I have a kit coming via Ebay. I went with a middle of the road kit price wise. The cheaper kits had no mention of brand names, or new up n coming brand names that I have never heard of, and their ads left more Qs than answers about the quality of parts included.
I still need to get lifters (reusing stock cam, and original lifters slid out and fell into my truck bed, getting all mixed up before I could pull them and mark them as to which lobe they originally ran with) but I found kits with same parts (different brands in the various kits) from right around $400 to nearly $700. This kit I got is not quite $500. I Emailed another seller asking for these parts and specifying "NOTHING FROM CHINA" to be included, and they came back with $570 for the same stuff....

I wound up going with a kit from "Falcon Global" a company I have bought from before.
Includes coated, hypereuctic pistons which I was wanting. I wont know totally for sure until it gets here but hopefully I get the brands of parts shown in their pix of "a" kit that they used in their listing.
No sense spending $200 more for the same exact stuff elsewhere.
The machine shop asked me when they called to tell me that the block work was done, if I had parts yet/ I told them that I'd been shopping but had yet to buy as I was waiting to see what over/undersizes I'd need; they had said that they'd recently done another 4.0 and sold a kit to that customer and wanted to charge me $735 for an overhaul kit.
I have a neighbor that works at OReillys and with "alot of help" and having to get everything individually they were at $540 and he forgot to look up the gasket set and timing chain....
on the "reusing stock cam"; it is my nephew's ride, is just a 2wd WJ, and he runs things into the ground instead of maintaining and taking care of anything, and is quite the unappreciative type when dumping his problems onto others, so he don't deserve anything besides a stock rebuild.....
when I build up my 4.6 for my own TJ though it will be a somewhat different story....