87 troooper engine rebuild--suggestions wanted

My 87 Trooper (gas engine) has 170,000 miles, and the clutch is starting to slip, so I'm considering pulling the engine and doing a rebuild. If any of you have experience doing one of these, I'd really appreciate any advice or suggestions you have. For instance, when I've rebuilt engines before (Triumph Spitfire, VW Bug, Volvo 140), I always started out with a kit that included most of what I needed: gaskets, bearings, rings. Just now, however, looking on the web, I'm not finding anything quite like that. Anyway, if you have any ideas that might help me out, I would greatly appreciate it. Keith

Wow! Thanks, Colin, I hadn't even considered such a thing. The TOY cases you mention are Toyota transfer cases? You still end up with 4wd? How about instruments like tachometer and speedometer? You have a hydraulic clutch on your 88, right. I have a mechanical clutch on the 87. Is that a further complication, getting the clutch linkage to work?

In case anyone is inerested, I took the easy way out. I'm just having the clutch replaced.