Jeep Commando 72 Hemi Swap

Good morning, friends;

Looking at a relatively rust-free 72 Jeep Commando for sale, no engine/transmission but otherwise the body is complete.
4x4, was a 6 cylinder/manual but, as stated, those units are gone.

Looking at this project for a potential 5.7L Hemi upgrade. Any issues with a 72 Commando that I should know about?
I've worked on '70s Dodge trucks for most of my life, and a few Jeeps but not the Commando specifically.

Any advice appreciated, thank you!

JS

Back when I was a teen, my boss had an early 70s Jeep Commando 4xr with the 6 in it. He used it as a service truck and plowed snow with it. As I remember, that inline 6 barely fit under the hood, the space under that hood is pretty tight. I'd have sericeous doubt a 5.7 is going to fit. I know the modern Jeeps with a 5.7 have a lot of specialty designed parts like exhaust manifolds, and intakes to squeeze in the 5.7, and those were much larger engine compartments then a 72 Commander would be. The 4.0 inline 6 was the largest motor AMC put into the Commander. The engine compartment might be deep enough for the 5.7, but its no way near wide enough, and I believe AMC shifted the heater core towards the right side to gain enough length for the 258 & 4.0.

This is coming from a guy that has shoved a lot of big motors into small places. A 5.7 has a large foot print, both in width and length.

They also had a GM v-6 and the 304 AMC v-8

OK, thanks!

Would you have any suggestions on a drivetrain to utilize for this project? With no eng/trans in the vehicle now (nor included in the sale), it's open to possibilities.
My first thought was 5.7L Hemi (of course, I have 4 of them), but open to other ideas (not LS).

Thanks!

JS

what about a 3.9 or 5.2 out of a Dakota with trans and transfer case? Birdtracker

I had an 80 J 10 Jeep pickup. Completely different critter then a Commando, but I put a 318 in it. It already had an AMC 727 (that didn't bolt up to the 318). I had to put a Mopar 727 in it to match the 318. Then I hung a snow plow on the front end. I didn't keep it very long, the 318 motor along with the 7' plow (plow and brackets came off a J 10) made the 80 nose heavy. It was pretty worthless! I got caught in a minor snow (really, just barely covered the road, maybe a 1/2") but I had to put it in 4x4 just to get up a hill. I pulled the plow, and sold the J 10 off, bought a "real" truck to mount the plow on.

That Commando was designed to have the inline 6, or according to someone above, A gm V6 or an AMC V8 (both pretty light), a 3.9 might work if you can still find one. A 72 Jeep Commando was built nearly 15 years before Jeep became a Mopar, Don't assume a Mopar drive train swap is going to be easy.

Depending on how new you want to go drive train wise, I might consider a modern V6, or maybe even a modern 4 cylinder (turbo?). Both are light weight and probably have more power then the original inline 6, and would probably be an easier swap, space wise.

Makes we wonder about an XJ Cherokee 4.0L/Auto/Selec-Trac setup, or Grand Cherokee Quadra-Drive setup (4L, auto, transfer case pkg).
Would any of those work, in any opinions? Could be made to look like a stock but modernized setup (inline 6, at least).

Thank you!

JS

Its pretty hard to say what could work, without looking at your Commander. Those AMC Jeeps had a wide variety of parts from different manufacturers as the years passed. Stuff that worked a year or two before or after may not work at all on the Jeep sitting in front of you.

As an example, I had a 78 Jeep J 10 pickup and an 80 Jeep J 10 at the same time. The 78 had an AMC 360, a GM trans, and the front axle had the drive shaft on the right side of the motor. The 80 AMC Jeep J 10 had a 304(?) AMC V8, a 727 trans, and the front axle had the drive shaft on the left side of the motor. When parked side by side, both trucks looked nearly the same (different grilles), many body panels were interchangeable, even the wheels would swap, but nothing drive train wise would interchange (except maybe the motor, the 80 motor was dead, and the 78 was a rust bucket I had other plans for). The original intention was to put a 318 I already had into the 80. It already had a 727, so I thought I was good to go, I had no idea the AMC bell bolt pattern was different then the 318 bell bolt pattern.

With that said, I would probably look into the drive trains you thought about, but I would probably like to park one of the potential donor rides side by side with the Commander and do lots of measurements and comparing. Don't over look, or simply write off things like suspension changes and wheel track measurements, they could mess with you bad, or it may be a simple bolt up deal. As a general rule, I go with the plan that most modern stuff doesn't inter mix with older stuff, so you use one process or the other and join them at the most simple place. Then anything that actually does work is a huge plus and a pleasant surprise.

As a side note, I put an 85 Dodge D 50 (Mitsubishi truck) sheet metal on that rusty 78 J 10 chassis, 360 4 bbl and all! I had to extend the front fenders and hood 6" to get the wheel base close. It was suppose to be a beater for the old railroad back wood swamp near my shop. That D 50 body was way lighter then even the rusty J 10 body. With it in drive, from a stop, opening the 4bble made the entire truck jump off the ground! My son, his buddies and myself had a blast with it for a few weeks. Every time we took it into the woods, something broke off, fell off, or got knocked off. You had to wear a helmet and the seat belt to keep from banging your head on the roof. Then some guy stopped by and handed me $500 for the D 50, and he took our toy away. That probably as a good thing, he told me he killed the D 50 about a month or so after he bought it, with a smile on his face.

Then there was the day we put a 318 into a friends Pontiac dirt track car, or the 318 into a 63 Chevy pickup. There have been a few where I just couldn't think far enough outside of the box to make them work within some form of reason and I had to give up.