Jeep Project "Culpepper" 5.2L V8 Swap

[Slangy]

Project "Culpepper" 2.5L to 5.2L V8 Swap

So all year I have told myself I wouldn't spend any money on the TJ in 2011. Well we can blame my wife for telling me she has had it with the four angry squirrels under the hood. Today I picked up a 99 Durango with a 5.2 V8 and auto trans. In the next week I will be pulling all the parts needed off the Durango and getting ready to tear into "Culpepper". I am not good at documenting my work so let's keep our fingers crossed that I can provide a nice write-up so others don't make all the same mistakes as me.
Wish me luck.

Here is a picture of said Durangoand a pic of Culpepper, if your wondering why I named him Culpepper it's because of my buddy "Fat Brett" he used to call it Sgt. Culpepper and the name just stuck.

 

[Bart]

Looking forward to seeing this build. Funny thing, I have a Jeeping buddy in California named Brett Culpepper.

 

[sixstringsteve]

that's a good lookin jeep

 

[rholbrook]

Chaz, keep Fat Brett out and you wouldnt need the V8

 

[RockChucker]

that is a sweet jeep and will be fun project for sure. i'm gathering parts to put a 5.3 ls1 into my TJ. where is that pic? is it on the pickle?

 

[GOAT]

looking forward to this build

 

[4554x4]

How is the tires on the Durango? For sale?

 

[Slangy]

Thanks guys, hopefully it will turn out well. I have done a lot of research and am fairly confident I will do a good job. Doing the swap in my father-in-laws garage because he is gonna let me park the donor their while we do it, since I don't have much room. So it starts today, I am going to head to his house and clean up the garage and get it ready to start tearing things apart. i will keep you all posted.
Yeah the tires are in great shape and will be for sale as soon as I have the parts off it I need, it would be kind of hard to maneuver a vehicle around with no tires, unless you had wheels and tires to swap. I will let you know as soon as they are ready.

Off I go

 

[4554x4]

My daughter has a durango with the same wheels and worn tires. perhaps a trade and cash?

 

[Slangy]

My daughter has a durango with the same wheels and worn tires. perhaps a trade and cash?

Yeah that works. The tires are 31x10.5 R15. Can't remember the brand off the top of my head. Have good amount of tread left though. Feel free to give me a call.
Chaz 801-458-6012, if I don't answer just leave a message and I will for sure call you back.

 

[Slangy]

Got must of the garage cleaned out, there was so much clutter I didn't know what to do with half the shi*. Have a friends daughters 1 year b-day party so I have to call it a day.
This is what I was up against...

 

[rholbrook]

Sweet, nice old Yamaha Trials bike. Don't let RotBox see it, he will want to add it to his vintage colection.

 

[Slangy]

Not much happening yet, the battery on the Durango crapped out so I have been giving it a good charge while the snow was falling. Loosend up the bolts on the radiator and pushed the radiator forward so the fan doesn't hit it when the engine is running. By tonight she will be sitting in the garage getting warm and getting ready to take inventory on all the parts that are coming off, and then the work will begin. I promise I will try my hardest to keep this interesting with a good amount of pictures, even if some of them are crappy cell phone pics.

 

[Slangy]

Been working on tearing into the Donorango and been selling of a few parts to help fund the swap. Yesterday I was using my father-in-laws ratchet to get a few stubborn bolts off and then I remembered why I don't buy that JapCrap on a regular basis. So long Mr. Ratchet

 

[Slangy]

Well things have been moving at a glacial pace around here, our office was burglarized and we have been working on getting all our s*** reorganized. So now that we are back on our feet it looks like the Donorango will be getting some attention. I have started rounding up all the stuff that I know I will need.

Things I will be keeping from the Donorango
-Engine
-Auto-transmission
-Throttle cable
-Fuel line
-Transfer Case, I will be swapping parts between my transfer case and the 231 from the Durango
-PCM
-Wiring harness
-Leak detection pump
-Wiring Harness, I am going to attempt to combine the Durango wiring harness to the TJ's harness, to do this I will be using schematics from both vehicles found at alldatadiy.com and if all else fails I will ship it over to
Evan at backwoodsoffroad and have him do it for me.

List of parts I will be purchasing, keep in mind this is what I KNOW I will have to buy.
-Aluminum radiator to swap the inlet and outlets to the correct sides
-Flex-a-lite Black Magic Xtreme 180 electric fan
-Advanced Adapters engine mounts
-Transmission cooler
-Block hugger headers so that I can push the engine back closer towards the firewall and keep my drivelines in their stock location and also make it possible to use an electric fan
-I will also be making a run to the local junk yards to find a 97-01 Cherokee so that I can get the automatic shifter and necessary parts for the manual to auto swap.

Evan over at backwoodsoffroad has been a great help, he is very willing to talk on the phone with you and help you figure out all the necessary parts and things needed to make this swap successful. The owner of JRTOffroad has also been very helpful in pointing me in the right direction. I want to thank these guys for their time and answering all of my stupid ass questions.

This is how the Donorango looks right now, I know it looks pretty skanky but I will work on making it look a lot better once it is pulled. I am in the process of labeling all wiring and taking pictures to help me when it comes time to create 1 wiring harness from 2 seperate harnesses from 2 seperate vehicles.

 

[Slangy]

Well things have not been going as fast as I would like but I finally got the engine and tranny out of the Donorango. So now this week I will work on getting the 4 popper and tranny out of Culpepper and getting them sold so that I can buy some of the parts needed to get the 5.2 in the TJ.
To save a little bit of money I bought the natural steel block hugger headers from Summit Racing. Was a total cost of $155 with shipping. But to make them look a little bit nicer I went to Auto Zone and bought an $8 can of Rust-O-Leum 2000 degree engine paint. I got to work Sunday by sanding them down and cleaning them off with soap and water, hung them from my pergola in the backyard and got down to business. After they were all coated I let them dry for an hour or so and then told my wife Shay it was time to do some baking. We heated the oven to 250 degrees and baked them for a half an hour. Then let them cool, cranked the oven to 400 degrees and baked foran hour and a half. Before they were done we finished them off by baking them on 500 degrees for 45 minutes. I must say they do not smell as good as baking cookies or ribs but beats the hell out of spending an extra $150 for them to look nice.
This is waht they looked like to start with and this is how they look now. How do they look?

 

[Slangy]

Well the engine is finall out of the Donorango. Yesterday I finished all the labeling of the engine harness and got it completely pulled off the engine. It is going to be a chore to combine both harnesses together, but I am determined to do it myself. I have had a super busy week and won't be getting into the Jeep until thursday night, but from the looks of it it seems like it will be a little more straight forward than the Durango, man that thing was a pig. Sorry for the crappy pics, I left my camera at work so all you get is some crappy cell phone pics.

 

[LonnieC]

Glad your doing this... make sure to keep detailed info on the wire harness, i am getting read to do the same swap but with a 5.9 into my yj
Good Luck

 

[Slangy]

So we started tearing apart the Jeep this weekend. I must say it went a lot faster than the Durango did. We took off the grill, and both fenders so we had a little bit more room to work. I can't believe how small that 4 popper looks in the engine bay, it almost looks like it should be in a golf cart
Picked up my new radiator which switches the inlet and outlets to the opposite sides to work witht the V8. A buddy picked it up for me from Rocky Mountain Radiator in Orem, they gave me a great price and I was supporting a local business and didn't have to pay for overpriced shipping.
All I need to do now is mark where my transfer case sits so I can adjust the motor mounts so that when I put in the 5.2 and the automatic it will go back into the exact same position so that I don't have to adjust my drivelines. After that is marked I can tear the squirrel cage out and start on the wiring and get ready for the 5.2 to be dropped in. But before I get ahead of myself I have to swap my SYE and a piece out of my 231 transfer case into that of the 231 from the Durango so that I don't have to buy a 23 spline shaft to match my transfer case to the automatic. Should save me a few dollars.
I am hoping this goes along smooth because I still have to outboard my rear shocks before I go to EJS, I don't think I can take another beating like I did last year. After I dropped the ride height down a few inches I have had major bottoming out issues. Wish me luck

Don't worry, we are not pissing in a bottle, even though the last picture may appear that way, it is just a powerade or some crap like that.

 

[LonnieC]

So does the radiator you got have a built in trans cooler or are you going with a separate cooler?
The project is looking good though... now on to the pesky wiring