Anyone know the difference between 80 and 81, 258 motor around the intake manifold / head area? I have seen a few parts like valve covers and Offenhouser intakes that list 81-86 year models. The 76-80 years must have a different head?
CJ-7 80 vs 81
Feb 11, 2005
3 Replies
Somewhere in there they changed the head bolt size and I 'think' the 81 to 86 has the valve cover that bolts down to the head. The older heads like I in now have no bolt holes for the valve cover, it is only held on with two center bolts to the rocker bridges. They also went from a 1 bbl carb and intake to a 2 bbl one somewhere right around that time.
Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT'sJimG wrote:
IIRC, there were quite a few changes between 82 and 83. Two that I know about are the change to a plastic valve cover and removal of the belt driven air pump. 83's came with a 2 bbl Carter carb (don't know about other years).
I have an '81. If you want to talk about what you have, I'll either confirm or deny that mine is the same.
I did have a belt driven smog pump and a 2bbl carburator. (These were replaced in favor of the Mopar MPFI Kit.) I have a steel valve cover with screws around the edge to hold it on. The intake manifold had a heater in it that didn't work. What else?
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