I've been thinking about this for a bit now, but would this be any better off road than the torquey and reliable 4.0 straight six it has right now. i haven't really thought about what diesel engine would be swapped in but any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated

 

There were a few years that Chrysler actually put decent diesels in Cherokees starting in 99. They were not that popular, probably because of the price of fuel. Here's a good article on swapping.

http://www.dieselpowermag.com/tech/0...el_conversion/

 

thanks for the article cutlass, good stuff.