Jeep Modifications The American Way - Tax Dollars At Work

Hazel-Built Grand Cherokee

Chances are I will have paid more than $10K for my preferred '01 Grand Cherokee Overland with a 4.7L H.O. V-8, so I won't be too eager to mess it up. I'm of the opinion that the WJ is the most ergonomically perfect and comfortable Jeep ever made. It just fits me. So you'll understand why I wouldn't want to mess up a good thing by modifying the snot out of it and changing all the factory engineering. An '01 would be getting up there in mileage by now, so I'd probably have a few mechanical issues to address and the interior would probably be showing signs of age.

Here's how I'd put my tax return to work:

Trasborg-Built Grand Cherokee

If money were no object, I'd get an '07 or '08 Grand with the CRD diesel, then lift it a bit, add armor and bumpers, tweak the engine for a little more power, and call it done. But if it were a Grand Cherokee, I'd go for a '96-'98 ZJ with the 5.2L V-8 (because the people with the 5.9L Grands are on crack when it comes to resale value).

With the premium to buy in to a 5.9L Grand, you could get a 5.2L, put in a 5.9L engine, do some work inside the transmission to help it live, use whatever t-case you were planning on swapping in anyway, and still be under the 5.9L buy-in price.

But I digress-that is outside our $2,183 budget. For my money, I'd kick as many horses out of that 5.2L V-8 with bolt-on parts, knowing they would all swap over to the 5.9L whenever I got around to it. If there was anything leftover, I'd look at handling and maybe a rear locker.