It took about 6 months to rebuild the engine. Probably was at the machine shop 4-6 weeks alone. Then, as I was building it up, I had a lot of questions, problems, and parts to buy. Finally, it was time to swap it out.
Starting to remove the front clip
Used a come along to pull the engine
With the old engine out of the way, I took the opportunity to clean up the firewall, something that always bugged me.
I also took this opportunity to install a heater under the dash
OK, enough stalling! Time to install the new engine
Also put a alternator on at this time
It was finally in and ready to test! This was somewhere around the week of Thanksgiving, 2012.
I had some issues upon start up. I cranked her some with the coil wire removed to get some oil pumping. After I connected the coil wire back up and tried to start it, it just cranked and cranked and cranked. Even to the point that the battery go a bit low. I blame that on the choke, the choke cable is hard to move sometimes and I think that I didn't have the choke pulled all the way out. Anyway, I boosted the battery with my truck, jumped back in the Jeep, pulled on the choke, and the cable came out further than it had the previous time. Hit the key and it almost started. Hit it again and it was running.
However, there was a terrible rattle. The only reason I didn't shut down the engine immediately was that I could tell it wasn't something major, and I was busy looking for the source. Turns out that I had forgot to tighten the 4 fan bolts into the water pump. That was an easy fix.
After some timing and idle adjustments, I was pretty much in awe at how quiet and smooth the engine ran. The old engine was starting to sound like a diesel.
Here is video of the first time the engine started after the rebuild:
https://youtu.be/Vrslwag8_A0