Jeep LS swap for the LJ

[Gravy]

I might have a heavy duty push pull cable if you want to build your own t case shifter. You should be able to build a mount off the stock Jeep t case shifter.
I had bought a few to build a triple stick shifter for my setup but ended up buying JB fabs kit instead

 

[glockman]

My wife just told me that the credit union she works for is in the process of repoing a 2012 Rubicon with a blown motor. After watching @zmotorsports build and seeing what you are doing, I am seriously considering trying to pick it up if the price is right and the condition of the rest of the jeep is reasonable.

And you have no emissions to deal with so a swap would be much simpler. Do it!

 

[glockman]

Well, came to the weekend and I got the flu so not much has happened. I did complete the thinning of the 3/4's of the jeep harness. PCM C3 on the Jeep is mostly it's own leg so it didn't come out with C1, C2 and C4 to the C102, 103 and 109 connectors.
Here is what the thinned harness looks like.



And here is what I removed.




It's basically, Oil pressure and coolant temp sensors, grounds, Locker engage and sense wires and fuel pump wires. Not much else retained.
I decided I am not going to maintain A/C. There just isn't much use for it in this rig and the OBA will be so much more useful in it's place.
I also decided to let the GM PCM run the starter and fuel pump relays. So I will power the GM PCM off an KO hot and let it control all that it can. I removed the output from the ASD relay so it is still powered but doesn't control anything. I'm going to run my cooling fan with that relay circuit. I think I only have 50 hours of reading wiring diagrams and changing my spreadsheet

I picked up some C6 Corvette Cats off ebay for a smoking $250 shipped. Seller said they were pulled from a totalled vette with 30k miles. They look clean. They also have rear O2's so I don't have to buy them. Score.
I sold the 4.0 and recouped some more money.

I hope to place the engine this week and tack in the mounts. I am torn on the trans mount. The Teraflex long arm uses the belly skid as a trans mount. It would be easy to just build a bracket that would connect the existing holes to the new trans location but. It's a pain in the ass to have the back mount for the drive train be the skid plate. Every time you need to service anything under that plate you have to finagle the plate out while supporting the trans. I may build a stand alone support so the skid is just that.

I think I am going to try and modify the gates on the Jeep Trans shifter to retain the OEM look and feel.

 

[mbryson]

Well, came to the weekend and I got the flu so not much has happened. I did complete the thinning of the 3/4's of the jeep harness. PCM C3 on the Jeep is mostly it's own leg so it didn't come out with C1, C2 and C4 to the C102, 103 and 109 connectors.
Here is what the thinned harness looks like.
View attachment 124911


And here is what I removed.

View attachment 124912


It's basically, Oil pressure and coolant temp sensors, grounds, Locker engage and sense wires and fuel pump wires. Not much else retained.
I decided I am not going to maintain A/C. There just isn't much use for it in this rig and the OBA will be so much more useful in it's place.
I also decided to let the GM PCM run the starter and fuel pump relays. So I will power the GM PCM off an KO hot and let it control all that it can. I removed the output from the ASD relay so it is still powered but doesn't control anything. I'm going to run my cooling fan with that relay circuit. I think I only have 50 hours of reading wiring diagrams and changing my spreadsheet

I picked up some C6 Corvette Cats off ebay for a smoking $250 shipped. Seller said they were pulled from a totalled vette with 30k miles. They look clean. They also have rear O2's so I don't have to buy them. Score.
I sold the 4.0 and recouped some more money.

I hope to place the engine this week and tack in the mounts. I am torn on the trans mount. The Teraflex long arm uses the belly skid as a trans mount. It would be easy to just build a bracket that would connect the existing holes to the new trans location but. It's a pain in the ass to have the back mount for the drive train be the skid plate. Every time you need to service anything under that plate you have to finagle the plate out while supporting the trans. I may build a stand alone support so the skid is just that.

I think I am going to try and modify the gates on the Jeep Trans shifter to retain the OEM look and feel.

man flu sucks!!! I’m in the same boat. I guess you just do what you can as you can? Need to finish a little wiring in my basement and a plug in my garage this weekend. Be nice if I could finish up the doors on my shed and maybe get the window in there. We‘ll see how the man flu goes tomorro/Sunday. I had to fly home yesterday from Kansas City with full on man flu after being up since 3:45 am. That was a long day. I watched the flight tracker for half the flight counting down the miles to home . Long flight for me

 

[glockman]

man flu sucks!!! I’m in the same boat. I guess you just do what you can as you can? Need to finish a little wiring in my basement and a plug in my garage this weekend. Be nice if I could finish up the doors on my shed and maybe get the window in there. We‘ll see how the man flu goes tomorro/Sunday. I had to fly home yesterday from Kansas City with full on man flu after being up since 3:45 am. That was a long day. I watched the flight tracker for half the flight counting down the miles to home . Long flight for me

Last week was my last week of night shifts (hopefully for ever). I slept about 3 hours a day so I could work on the Jeep. I think that did me in . Being sick on your weekend or worse, taking vacation time because your sick is the pits. I'm pretty ADD and having this project sitting in the garage with a to do list while I sit in the house has been torture. I'll bet your feeling the same way about that super sweet garage, the house.

Fortunately, my wife has been awesome. Over the last 15 years she has come to realize, I don't slow down much unless something is really wrong so when I stay in bed all day, she takes pretty good care of me.

Tomorrow the engine will be sitting in the frame rails!

 

[glockman]

Big day. Got out in the shop early and finished cleaning the Jeep engine mounts off. Several people told me to mount the Dave's mounts 1/2" farther forward than the instructions, which turned out to be good advice. So I cut the locating tab and tacked them in.


My son got there about this time and we set the engine in. Measured a few things and found the passenger side mount was 1/4" too far forward. So we cut the tacks and moved it back. That did the trick and it was square within 1/8".

Good clearance on the firewall on both sides.



I didn't need to clearance the trans tunnel or the firewall however the York mount was contacting the spring tower so I nipped the corner but still retained the outer mount hole if it's needed.
I flipped the trans and changed the filter, then we mounted the trans to the engine and found I'm missing a torque converter bolt. Also found I have an 8 bolt bell housing and I only had 6 bolts. So we slapped together what we had and will have to make a parts run tomorrow.
With the two bolted mostly together we set the whole drive train in place.


I put a jackstand under the trans and with the engine at 4 degrees of tilt I think I can tuck a transmission crossmember enough the clear the skid.
With that done I cleaned and painted the slightly rusty headers so they can be mocked up tomorrow with the cats.
While I waited for paint to dry I tackled this mess for the headlights and turn signals. This was left after the high lined fenders deleted the factory fogs and turn signals.

I cut the unnecessary wires out, put a weather pack on the turn signal and loomed them. Much cleaner now.

That's it for tonight hopefully more progress tomorrow.

 

[Bart]

That is coming along nicely.

 

[glockman]

The small stuff is the bigger job. Got the manifolds on for mock up yesterday and found they dump right on the uca mount.

Bummer. I'm know there are numerous people running this setup, I'm now wondering if they are all running 3 links.
I grabbed the truck manifolds and they might fit. They aren't as tight to the block but there might be enough room to make them work.

Worst part is they are 3 bolt flanges and my vette cats are 2 so if I can make them work, it will require new flanges.
Moved on to the steering. The pillow bearing was removed to place the engine mount.
Mocked up the old mount with some material added back in.

And welded into place. Lots of stuff in the way here for pictures and welding it in.

I'm a mediocre welder to begin with. Out of position (back side of this mount) , I'm a terrible welder, but I'm confident it will hold the steering shaft, mostly because of the decent weld on the front side .

Someone on Facebook told me they had issues with the York mount lining up with the other pulleys so I checked that, looks like I have the same issue. Will have to shim it out a bit.

Small steps.

 

[Greg]

This is where it gets tedious!

 

[zmotorsports]

Great job so far.

The devil is in the details and the details take much more time than the meat & potatoes of the job for sure.

As for the exhaust manifolds, look at the mid-2000's Trailblazer manifolds as they hug nicely to the block and exit to the rear of the head and angled downward to the rear which may clear your UCA mount. They are a 3-bolt flange however.

Mike

 

[glockman]

Great job so far.

The devil is in the details and the details take much more time than the meat & potatoes of the job for sure.

As for the exhaust manifolds, look at the mid-2000's Trailblazer manifolds as they hug nicely to the block and exit to the rear of the head and angled downward to the rear which may clear your UCA mount. They are a 3-bolt flange however.

Mike

I'll take a look at them. Thanks for the info. There are a bunch of block huggers on the market too. I'm not too worried just yet. Exhaust will be the last thing on the list to get checked off.

 

[LJTim]

You have confirmed that I will not be doing my own LS swap. Thank you for documenting all this.

 

[glockman]

You have confirmed that I will not be doing my own LS swap. Thank you for documenting all this.

If I can do it, anyone can. It's just eating a whale a bite at a time.

 

[UNSTUCK]

I have these manifolds I'd sale for $200. You could try them out to see if they fit, first. They are brand new, but were test fit....

JEGS 30142: Exhaust Manifolds for 2002-2012 GM LS [Silver Ceramic Coated Cast Iron] - JEGS

Get the Best Performance with JEGS Exhaust Manifolds for 2002-2012 GM LS [Silver Ceramic Coated Cast Iron] 30142 parts at JEGS. Shop Now at the Guaranteed Lowest Price!

www.jegs.com

Also, those parts I was telling you about are for the early TJ's, like 97-02ish. I don't think they will work with your computer.

 

[RockChucker]

I have these manifolds I'd sale for $200. You could try them out to see if they fit, first. They are brand new, but were test fit....

JEGS 30142: Exhaust Manifolds for 2002-2012 GM LS [Silver Ceramic Coated Cast Iron] - JEGS

Get the Best Performance with JEGS Exhaust Manifolds for 2002-2012 GM LS [Silver Ceramic Coated Cast Iron] 30142 parts at JEGS. Shop Now at the Guaranteed Lowest Price!

www.jegs.com

I think those are the same manifolds that came in the camaros with LS3s. I'm 99% sure that is what my cousin used on his TJ he put a 6.0 in.

 

[LJTim]

If I can do it, anyone can. It's just eating a whale a bite at a time.

I'm sure I can, but I have no desire to tackle the things you're having to deal with. I'm confident I'll be sticking with a 4.0. That I just MIGHT do myself. Even that is questionable.

 

[DaveB]

On my CJ LS swap I am using the Patriot LS manifolds which are very similar to the ones Unstuck has above. I had to modify my upper long arms to get things to clear. My CJ frame is very narrow and makes for some tight fits on everything. The tightest fit for me is going to be getting the exhaust to not contact the driveline at full axle stuff. I looked at the center dump block huggers but routing the exhaust under the pan and back would have made getting to the starter nearly impossible.
One thing I figured out this week that is helping me on power steering is that the high pressure output on the pump can be swapped with older GM pumps so it comes off the back of the pump rather than the front. This allowed me to use my stock Jeep power steering hose without making a custom hose.

 

[zmotorsports]

I'm fairly certain the ones Rockchucker posted are Gen IV LS3 manifolds. The Gen IV truck/SUV manifolds exit a little further forward and the 2008~ish Trailblazer exit at the rear like the LS3 ones but angled slightly rearward and are a 3-bolt flange. I ended up using the 2008 Trailblazer manifolds and heat shields on mine and they would have barely cleared a factory right side upper control arm bracket if I still had them but that is on the JK/JKU platform and not the TJ/LJ chassis.

Mike

 

[Gravy]

I have a York in place of my AC on my current DD TJ and can say that I didn't mind it as long as the top was off all summer. In traffic with the top on was pretty unpleasant.

If you have york questions I can help.

 

[RockChucker]

Another option, that I don't know the viability of, would be to consider going to a longer upper arm that sits further back on the frame? Might be enough room to make the Vette manifolds work? It looks to me like you have the LCG enduro kit from tera? long lowers and short uppers?

I am running Sanderson center dump block huggers. They work well, but changing the starter isn't ideal. I did build my exhaust in multiple pieces with v band clamps so I can easily access the starter if needed.