So I am looking at an '85 Trooper II 4spd, 1.9L. It has zero rust, and is in great shape. But when I do my research, everything says the 1.9L is a dog, super slow, cant run anything bigger then stock wheels, etc.,.

The one I'm looking at has a Weber carb upgrade, but not the Pacesetter headers, so I could add those for some extra power. Its unclear what the Weber + headers gets me HP-wise? 90? 95? frm the stock 86 hp?

What is confusing is how could this SUV leave the factory with such a low power engine? Is it capable of any real off-road rock crawling? Can it climb a 8-10% grade over rocky terrain in 1st gear 4-LOW?

I dont mind slow city driving, its mostly a fun car for daily grocery runs, but i will go camping in the state forests, and those gravel forest roads sometimes require 4WD and sometimes have a steep grade.

I like that the 1.9L is a timing chain, the 2.3L engine swap is a diretc bolt, but I believe the 2.3L went to a timing belt? And also has some reliability issues?

 

I had an 87 with the 2.3 so, if the 1.9 is weaker than that I wouldn't mess with it. I also installed the weber 32-36 progressive hoping for more power and didn't see enough. I started thinking about the 2.6 but didn't think it was worth it. As far as climbing a hill, I found that spending too much time in low gear (2nd) and not getting enough air flow through the radiator would cause the motor to overheat even though the radiators are decent quality copper and brass. I now have a 94 with a 3.1 turbo diesel and it will climb a wall towing a boat.