Unfortunately you are dealing with previous owner screwery. For one thing, you have an XJ engine, that is determined by the oil filter pointing rearwards since it is mounted to an oil filter adapter. Only the XJ (and maybe the 91-92 MJ) uses the oil filter adapter on the high output 4.0L (91-95 4.0).
YJ filter positioned below. You can fix this easily by unthreading the oil filter adapter bolt (either 9/16 Allen or T60 torx), and then removing the leftover roll pin from the block. Then after that you can unthread the oil filter hookup on the adapter and thread it into the block. Torque it to 50 ft lbs or so. The oil filter adapter is notorious for leaking, so I’d remove it for sure.
The fact that it is an XJ engine doesn’t mean much else (ultimately the same engine as a YJ) except XJs had different left side engine block brackets. XJs being unibody had less clearance and so the left side bracket had the thru-bolt hole closer to the block. YJ had it further out. You can see this by my aftermarket StinkyFab block bracket which has two holes drilled, one for XJ and one for YJ. I am using the YJ hole, obviously.
Now, why your motor mount is so far forward is not so clear. My guess is they couldn’t reach the frame with the XJ left side bracket and so they moved it further and further forward until they could fab up something and then welded new stuff on. Or, maybe it was a 4 cylinder before and they just did a terrible job of adapting the 6 cyl. I really don’t know. The proper fix would be a YJ left side bracket (or new aftermarket stronger brackets like stinkyfab or brown dog), and rewelding new perches in the right location on the frame. Clearly, whatever they did led to the engine being too far forward and so they mounted a crappy fan on the front of the radiator to “fix” the now screwed up fan clutch location. Gotta hate POs.
I can’t help you with a measurement from radiator to fan clutch unfortunately, as I have my grille out. Someone else probably can.
Bet you have a longer than stock rear driveshaft too…
YJ filter positioned below. You can fix this easily by unthreading the oil filter adapter bolt (either 9/16 Allen or T60 torx), and then removing the leftover roll pin from the block. Then after that you can unthread the oil filter hookup on the adapter and thread it into the block. Torque it to 50 ft lbs or so. The oil filter adapter is notorious for leaking, so I’d remove it for sure.
The fact that it is an XJ engine doesn’t mean much else (ultimately the same engine as a YJ) except XJs had different left side engine block brackets. XJs being unibody had less clearance and so the left side bracket had the thru-bolt hole closer to the block. YJ had it further out. You can see this by my aftermarket StinkyFab block bracket which has two holes drilled, one for XJ and one for YJ. I am using the YJ hole, obviously.
Now, why your motor mount is so far forward is not so clear. My guess is they couldn’t reach the frame with the XJ left side bracket and so they moved it further and further forward until they could fab up something and then welded new stuff on. Or, maybe it was a 4 cylinder before and they just did a terrible job of adapting the 6 cyl. I really don’t know. The proper fix would be a YJ left side bracket (or new aftermarket stronger brackets like stinkyfab or brown dog), and rewelding new perches in the right location on the frame. Clearly, whatever they did led to the engine being too far forward and so they mounted a crappy fan on the front of the radiator to “fix” the now screwed up fan clutch location. Gotta hate POs.
I can’t help you with a measurement from radiator to fan clutch unfortunately, as I have my grille out. Someone else probably can.
Bet you have a longer than stock rear driveshaft too…
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Wow, just realized also that they didn’t bother to convert the belt drive back to YJ style. XJ has some different alternator, compressor, and fan clutch mounting. That won’t help the fan clearance situation, but I would want to put it back to stock YJ as well. I am curious if this jeep was originally a 4 cylinder or if it was always a 6 cylinder, needed a new motor, and got the laziest motor swap ever.
It originally was a 4cyl. I’ve found lots of crappy work on it so far, the entire wiring harness was a mess, I’ve had to order a new one for a YJ now I’m wondering what issues I’m going to run into with that…. Ugh.
It’s been a while, so I could be wrong but I don’t think so, I want to say the 2.5L YJs use the front set of slots on the t-case skid for the transmission mount studs. I’m not sure if the 2.5 skid even has the rearward slots that the 6 cylinder uses, but I wonder if they see the engine where they did in order to drop the studs in the front skid locations thinking that’s where they needed to go?
It is a little bit weird it was a 4 cylinder before, because the SE trim in 1994 was 4.0 only. Have any VINs for the tub or windshield to confirm things? I once had a friend who thought his 93 was a 95 because it had a 95 windshield on it. Once I realized his tub had a different VIN, it made since that he simply had a 93 with a new windshield frame on it.
Peek underneath the skid and see which set of slots your Trans mount is sitting in. Or who knows maybe they made new holes for that lol.
As for the wiring, hopefully the new harness fixes you up there. Just have to wait and see. The 4.0 and 2.5 are mostly the same besides injector quantity and a power steering wiring hookup for 2.5s to sense when power steering is used so it can bump the idle when you steer at low engine speed.
It is a little bit weird it was a 4 cylinder before, because the SE trim in 1994 was 4.0 only. Have any VINs for the tub or windshield to confirm things? I once had a friend who thought his 93 was a 95 because it had a 95 windshield on it. Once I realized his tub had a different VIN, it made since that he simply had a 93 with a new windshield frame on it.
Peek underneath the skid and see which set of slots your Trans mount is sitting in. Or who knows maybe they made new holes for that lol.
As for the wiring, hopefully the new harness fixes you up there. Just have to wait and see. The 4.0 and 2.5 are mostly the same besides injector quantity and a power steering wiring hookup for 2.5s to sense when power steering is used so it can bump the idle when you steer at low engine speed.
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I could see that it must have been a 2.5 before I read that in the post. Besides the welding marks on the frame that shows where the old motor mounts were the clearance between the firewall and the engine/valve cover is further than what you normally see with a 4.0. Typically the valve cover is a lot closer to the firewall and the pic of yours looks strange to me because the gap back there is definitely wider.
You can see how much closer my 4.0 sits to the firewall here
I just grabbed a couple pics in the garage of the clearance between the fan clutch and the radiator. Your radiator looks to me to be sitting just as it should be with the proper brackets, etc..
I can stick a tape measure in there if you want the actual distance.
My previous YJ had an XJ 4.0 in it form a previous owner. The power steering was cobbled together to make it work and was a mess. As Macho mentioned, the oil filter adaptor is a dead giveaway.
You can see how much closer my 4.0 sits to the firewall here
I just grabbed a couple pics in the garage of the clearance between the fan clutch and the radiator. Your radiator looks to me to be sitting just as it should be with the proper brackets, etc..
I can stick a tape measure in there if you want the actual distance.
My previous YJ had an XJ 4.0 in it form a previous owner. The power steering was cobbled together to make it work and was a mess. As Macho mentioned, the oil filter adaptor is a dead giveaway.
I would be curious about this. It would make sense if they used that as the guide to where the engine mounts should be based on the prior 4cyl engine.
It's actually pretty difficult to tell if it was 2.5L before or not. There are a lot of variables into where things land and why, so it's not super cut and dry, but for the most part, the rear of the 2.5L ends up pretty close to where the 4.0L does, relative to the firewall. The 2.5L is probably just slightly forward, like an inch or less. The motor mount brackets are under cylinder 2 on the 2.5L, and 3 on the 4.0L, which means the mounts on the 4.0L would end up further forward on the frame comparatively if the engines stopped at the exact same point. The AX5 is shorter by 7/8", and the driveshaft is right at 2" longer in stock form, so the 2.5L is probably 1" - 1-1/8" further from the firewall than the 4.0L. Still, because the engine is so much shorter, the engine is very far from the radiator, requiring the long fan shroud. And the mounts are still a lot closer to the rear of the engine than the 4.0s mounts, so they end up further rear on the frame.
The AX5 does use the forward slots in the skid plate, but this is not due to engine placement or transmission length, it is due to the bracket they used. The AX5 uses the narrow bracket that places the mount immediately below, whereas the AX15 uses the larger bracket that has the step in it and relocates the mount further rear, utilizing the rear slots in the skid. Why they did the mounts this way? No clue. I do know the transmission shifter has to end up in the right spots in order to shift correctly, so a lot comes from that. Doesn't explain why the difference in trans mounts though.
2.5L AX5
4.0L AX15
The fact that it is an SE makes me think it was not originally a 2.5L....that or maybe the SE is wrong and it's actually an S, or isn't a 1994. All 1994 SE had the 4.0L; that's precisely what mine is and every time I have selected SE on a website or anywehre else, it immediately weeds out the 2.5L. I think in 1995 SE could be either/or, so that a 2.5L could be optioned with nicer options without being forced to go larger engine.