Davemayn13's 2004 LJ Hemi Swap Project
- Thread starter davemayn13
- Start date
Well a few updates as we get close the the weekend and the next wrenching session....
I was able to get the DEF out of my front yard. As much as I would love to flip 50 gallons of MOPAR DEF, somebody, somewhere was missing that shipment and I couldn't hang onto that in good conscience....somebody was missing that shipment. The crazy part of it all is, I really had to force the issue with UPS. Obviously the driver wouldn't take it, and two calls to UPS before they setup a pickup. Maybe their loss insurance is that good? Who knows...all I know is my 06 cummins doesn't need DEF, and I'm not sad about it
.
Body stuff:
While I got a lot of my aluminum painted last weekend, I still need to do the metal cloak front fenders, which I've decided to do in the OEM patriot blue. While it won't be a perfect match with my little rattle cans of oem match paint, it'll be good enough. I've used it on the rear quarter panels to cover up some rub spots and the match is close but not perfect. Again, good enough.
I'm going to do the rear corners and rear fender flares in satin black as well. I assume it'll be after the holidays before I see the replacement corner, and rear flares from Nemesis.
Depending on the weather, I may take a crack at getting the passenger corner and front fenders painted. We'll see.
Atlas Case:
Today was supposed to be the ship date on my transfer case, and as many others on the forum recently have found, it got delayed to 1/10. I'm not stressed about it, but I'm sure glad I placed that order earlier than I initially planned. I'll check back in on that date after new years.
Transmission:
I've been working (tinkering is a better description honestly) at night to finish the 545rfe. I won't lie, I've been dragging my feet there a bit, partially because it cold, partially because my garage is a mess with all the crap on the floor, and partially because I ran out of steam a bit. The positive that came out of dragging my feet showed itself this week though. I discovered that one of the new bearings in the input shaft assembly that was noticeably dragging, so I broke that back down and ended up cleaning the edge of the bearing with some emory cloth. I must have lipped it slightly when I installed it. After some elbow grease and time on that leading edge (plus a very thorough cleanup), it was spinning like butter. Glad I took a minute to check everything. Now I just need to assemble the case. I'll probably tackle that one evening this weekend so it's ready to go. I may activate plan B as well, there's a local guy selling a pulled 545rfe with 40k on the clock for $400 bucks. I've been eying that for a while, so we'll see how confident I'm feeling in my rebuild skills after this weekend...
Red Rock Kit:
Now that the kit is here, I'm going to get after installing the fuel pump and tank skid assembly. I'm really antsy to see how my clearance changes with the Savvy skid on the high setting vs the OEM on the Rockjock 60. I also need to replace the rubber before I slam the tank back in. The nice thing about Nevada is the lack of salt and rust...but this climate plays hell on rubber parts. There's worse problems to have though...
I'll also go after my OEM mounts and get the frame ready for the new brackets. I don't have a plasma cutter or anything, so it'll be a chop and grind show for sure.
I haven't heard back from Jim yet on the ETA of the book and missing parts. The mounts are standard Atlas mounts, so thankfully I don't need a book to get that install right. Had a couple other questions/observations related to the parts included in the kit, but I'll save those for another post.
Interior
I've been considering what to do on the interior of the rig. I scored a deal on a set of bestop bedtred carpet kits for the front and back, which is great. The rear carpet was completely gone when I bought the jeep, the front was in shit shape. I've also been looking at the possibility of doing some soundproofing, or possibly going the Line-x route inside. My biggest concern is that with the Nevada dust and sand, I'd really prefer to not lose my ability to comfortably hose out the inside. I'll keep lurking on the forums and pondering that one.
I also need to drill my firewall for the SPOD while everything's out of the engine bay. As you saw in the pics, the bay could also use a good cleanup/hose down. At some point, I'd like to install the center console as well, but it won't do me much good until I'm ready to solve the winter/545 cable routing and attachment. If the book ends up taking a while, I'll likely switch gears and really get into the interior while I wait.
I'll post up at the end of the weekend on how progress went.
I was able to get the DEF out of my front yard. As much as I would love to flip 50 gallons of MOPAR DEF, somebody, somewhere was missing that shipment and I couldn't hang onto that in good conscience....somebody was missing that shipment. The crazy part of it all is, I really had to force the issue with UPS. Obviously the driver wouldn't take it, and two calls to UPS before they setup a pickup. Maybe their loss insurance is that good? Who knows...all I know is my 06 cummins doesn't need DEF, and I'm not sad about it
.Body stuff:
While I got a lot of my aluminum painted last weekend, I still need to do the metal cloak front fenders, which I've decided to do in the OEM patriot blue. While it won't be a perfect match with my little rattle cans of oem match paint, it'll be good enough. I've used it on the rear quarter panels to cover up some rub spots and the match is close but not perfect. Again, good enough.
I'm going to do the rear corners and rear fender flares in satin black as well. I assume it'll be after the holidays before I see the replacement corner, and rear flares from Nemesis.
Depending on the weather, I may take a crack at getting the passenger corner and front fenders painted. We'll see.
Atlas Case:
Today was supposed to be the ship date on my transfer case, and as many others on the forum recently have found, it got delayed to 1/10. I'm not stressed about it, but I'm sure glad I placed that order earlier than I initially planned. I'll check back in on that date after new years.
Transmission:
I've been working (tinkering is a better description honestly) at night to finish the 545rfe. I won't lie, I've been dragging my feet there a bit, partially because it cold, partially because my garage is a mess with all the crap on the floor, and partially because I ran out of steam a bit. The positive that came out of dragging my feet showed itself this week though. I discovered that one of the new bearings in the input shaft assembly that was noticeably dragging, so I broke that back down and ended up cleaning the edge of the bearing with some emory cloth. I must have lipped it slightly when I installed it. After some elbow grease and time on that leading edge (plus a very thorough cleanup), it was spinning like butter. Glad I took a minute to check everything. Now I just need to assemble the case. I'll probably tackle that one evening this weekend so it's ready to go. I may activate plan B as well, there's a local guy selling a pulled 545rfe with 40k on the clock for $400 bucks. I've been eying that for a while, so we'll see how confident I'm feeling in my rebuild skills after this weekend...
Red Rock Kit:
Now that the kit is here, I'm going to get after installing the fuel pump and tank skid assembly. I'm really antsy to see how my clearance changes with the Savvy skid on the high setting vs the OEM on the Rockjock 60. I also need to replace the rubber before I slam the tank back in. The nice thing about Nevada is the lack of salt and rust...but this climate plays hell on rubber parts. There's worse problems to have though...
I'll also go after my OEM mounts and get the frame ready for the new brackets. I don't have a plasma cutter or anything, so it'll be a chop and grind show for sure.
I haven't heard back from Jim yet on the ETA of the book and missing parts. The mounts are standard Atlas mounts, so thankfully I don't need a book to get that install right. Had a couple other questions/observations related to the parts included in the kit, but I'll save those for another post.
Interior
I've been considering what to do on the interior of the rig. I scored a deal on a set of bestop bedtred carpet kits for the front and back, which is great. The rear carpet was completely gone when I bought the jeep, the front was in shit shape. I've also been looking at the possibility of doing some soundproofing, or possibly going the Line-x route inside. My biggest concern is that with the Nevada dust and sand, I'd really prefer to not lose my ability to comfortably hose out the inside. I'll keep lurking on the forums and pondering that one.
I also need to drill my firewall for the SPOD while everything's out of the engine bay. As you saw in the pics, the bay could also use a good cleanup/hose down. At some point, I'd like to install the center console as well, but it won't do me much good until I'm ready to solve the winter/545 cable routing and attachment. If the book ends up taking a while, I'll likely switch gears and really get into the interior while I wait.
I'll post up at the end of the weekend on how progress went.
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WOW it's crazy that you had to fight with UPS about that DEF. I go thru about 5 gallons of DEF every 5K miles. I hated going to the newer diesel rig as I had a 06 also but I wanted the added towing ability. 50 gallons would have go a fair bit for me but I understand and agree with what you did.
Good catch on that bearing and sounds like a easy fix.
I've been trying to decide if I am going to paint my Metal Cloak armor or have it powder coated. I'm not a very good painter even with a spray can. I seem to always get too much or runs or other issues.
Good luck with it as it comes together.
Good catch on that bearing and sounds like a easy fix.
I've been trying to decide if I am going to paint my Metal Cloak armor or have it powder coated. I'm not a very good painter even with a spray can. I seem to always get too much or runs or other issues.
Good luck with it as it comes together.
The appeal to me for paint is being able to do quick rattle can touch ups. Nevada pinstriping is a real thing, as I'm sure you could see on the side views of the jeep. I'll tell you that I've had great luck so far with the rustoleum enamel, as it relates to limiting any runs. That stuff has sprayed on super easy so far. You can't go wrong with powder coating either though, and it'll save you a shit load of your time for sure.
PSA for @Ephry73 and anybody else looking for an OR-Fab carrier...they're back in stock
Yes I have gone back and forth on this paint or powdercoat thing but I know how BAD I am at painting stuff so having it powdercoated just seems the better choice. My plan right now is to have the corner armor and front fenders done in White to match my TJ. And then have the Metal Cloak flares done in Black just like a stock TJ would be. I can always use spray paint to touch up the powercoat when I scratch it up.
It's a trail Jeep so it doesn't stay pretty for long and I have the PNW pinstriping so yes I know. Not the same brush you have but it's more or less the same results.
I picked up a Winters shifter for my 545. I bought the Torqueflight 727 version as I thought it would be he closest since they don’t make one specifically for the 545.
It looks like I’ll have to do a custom mount and shift arm at the tranny to get it to work. I haven’t spent a lot of time looking at it yet, but at first glance it appears that I will have to reverse the shift arm.
Have you worked out how you will get yours to work?
It looks like I’ll have to do a custom mount and shift arm at the tranny to get it to work. I haven’t spent a lot of time looking at it yet, but at first glance it appears that I will have to reverse the shift arm.
Have you worked out how you will get yours to work?
Man the weather SUCKED this weekend. Didn't get nearly as much done as I wanted.
Interior:
Got the center console ripped out and removed the shifter assemblies for both the trans and transfer case. The rubicrawler is out and packaged up, waiting for the same guy that bought the engine/tranny to pay the balance. I started to work the Genright transmission cover plate, but ultimately pulled off for now. It was too damn cold to be banging on aluminum to fit the curve of the tunnel. I'll work on getting that shaped on a better weekend.
Also got the accelerator pedal pulled along with the cables for the trans and pedal. One item I'll have to contemplate is the ignition lock cable/solenoid. Not sure how that's going to work with the Winters shifter, but not sure if I'm going to throw more wrenches in the gears by removing it. We'll have to play with it later and see. For now, I disconnected the cable from the ignition cylinder and left it hanging.
Engine Bay:
I got the steering all disconnected in the bay. The OEM pillow block/bushing was thrashed pretty good. I'm going to have to do a little bit of grinding to get the new steering shaft in the Red Rock kit to fit into the clamp at the firewall. Also not entirely sure how they connect the shaft to the steering box, assume I'm going to have to grind/remove the u-joint coupler at the steering box end of the intermediate shaft. I'm assuming the book will inform me on this process, but we'll see. Still haven't heard back from Jim/Red Rock, which has been pretty par for the course unfortunately.
Northridge had a sale this weekend on PSC stuff, and knowing that my current steering box is getting sloppy, I pulled the trigger on their steering box with ram ports for future expansion. I also grabbed their hemi swap pump kit with remote resevoir. PSC notes you may need to shorten your steering shaft, so I figured I ought to get this now before I measure and chop the new red rock shaft.
Didn't get the engine mounts out yet, that'll be next when the weather clears up.
Started to look at which holes I'll need to plug in the firewall as well.
Fuel Tank:
The tank is now in it's new skid, nice and tucked away. I got the fuel pump installed, but the box didn't have a new screen filter. I put an email into Red Rock to see if there's supposed to be one, apparently it doesn't need it. Super straight forward though...pic for comparison.
The new pump in the kit was branded Autobest, which I'm not totally thrilled about. Definitely not the brand I would have gone with if I was picking a pump (bosch, delphi, denso), but I'll withhold judgement until I actually put it to use. I am also guessing they might have swapped the pump unit, I'm going to pull the lower cover and investigate, if nothing else to know what I need to replace it when it burns out.
Transmission:
With the weather absolute shit, I went back into the garage and worked on the transmission. I got the 2-4 clutch assembly put back together, and again cursed not owning a real lip seal tool. I got it done with feeler gauges, but damn it would have been easier with a true tool.
With everything put together, I went to assembling the case. I had completely stripped the case and sent it to be hot tanked with all the other trans parts/engine parts. With a little bit of elbow grease and multiple in-and-outs for each module, I got everything in the tunnel put together.
And found this...D'oh!
I forgot to put the shift arm/parking brake lever back in prior to starting...so everything goes back out and back in to get the shifter arm put in. I feel pretty confident in tearing a 545rfe apart and reassembling though! Only took 6 times...
Anyways, of course at the end I ended up tearing one of the scarf rings at the top of the input shaft...so won't be able to totally button this thing up until I get a couple replacement rings later this week. Make sure you fit those damn rings AGAIN prior to putting the pump on. I did get a chance to air check everything and it appears we're all good!
Weather looks crappy for the first half of this week, so I'm going to move some projects into the garage to keep going. I still need to put the finishing touches on the motor, specifically sensors, coils, spark plugs, etc. I'm also considering mounting the harness on there prior to picking and dropping in the frame. I've also got some smaller paint projects I can bring in and work on after work. Hopefully this coming weekend gets a little nicer.
Interior:
Got the center console ripped out and removed the shifter assemblies for both the trans and transfer case. The rubicrawler is out and packaged up, waiting for the same guy that bought the engine/tranny to pay the balance. I started to work the Genright transmission cover plate, but ultimately pulled off for now. It was too damn cold to be banging on aluminum to fit the curve of the tunnel. I'll work on getting that shaped on a better weekend.
Also got the accelerator pedal pulled along with the cables for the trans and pedal. One item I'll have to contemplate is the ignition lock cable/solenoid. Not sure how that's going to work with the Winters shifter, but not sure if I'm going to throw more wrenches in the gears by removing it. We'll have to play with it later and see. For now, I disconnected the cable from the ignition cylinder and left it hanging.
Engine Bay:
I got the steering all disconnected in the bay. The OEM pillow block/bushing was thrashed pretty good. I'm going to have to do a little bit of grinding to get the new steering shaft in the Red Rock kit to fit into the clamp at the firewall. Also not entirely sure how they connect the shaft to the steering box, assume I'm going to have to grind/remove the u-joint coupler at the steering box end of the intermediate shaft. I'm assuming the book will inform me on this process, but we'll see. Still haven't heard back from Jim/Red Rock, which has been pretty par for the course unfortunately.
Northridge had a sale this weekend on PSC stuff, and knowing that my current steering box is getting sloppy, I pulled the trigger on their steering box with ram ports for future expansion. I also grabbed their hemi swap pump kit with remote resevoir. PSC notes you may need to shorten your steering shaft, so I figured I ought to get this now before I measure and chop the new red rock shaft.
Didn't get the engine mounts out yet, that'll be next when the weather clears up.
Started to look at which holes I'll need to plug in the firewall as well.
Fuel Tank:
The tank is now in it's new skid, nice and tucked away. I got the fuel pump installed, but the box didn't have a new screen filter. I put an email into Red Rock to see if there's supposed to be one, apparently it doesn't need it. Super straight forward though...pic for comparison.
The new pump in the kit was branded Autobest, which I'm not totally thrilled about. Definitely not the brand I would have gone with if I was picking a pump (bosch, delphi, denso), but I'll withhold judgement until I actually put it to use. I am also guessing they might have swapped the pump unit, I'm going to pull the lower cover and investigate, if nothing else to know what I need to replace it when it burns out.
Transmission:
With the weather absolute shit, I went back into the garage and worked on the transmission. I got the 2-4 clutch assembly put back together, and again cursed not owning a real lip seal tool. I got it done with feeler gauges, but damn it would have been easier with a true tool.
With everything put together, I went to assembling the case. I had completely stripped the case and sent it to be hot tanked with all the other trans parts/engine parts. With a little bit of elbow grease and multiple in-and-outs for each module, I got everything in the tunnel put together.
And found this...D'oh!
I forgot to put the shift arm/parking brake lever back in prior to starting...so everything goes back out and back in to get the shifter arm put in. I feel pretty confident in tearing a 545rfe apart and reassembling though! Only took 6 times...
Anyways, of course at the end I ended up tearing one of the scarf rings at the top of the input shaft...so won't be able to totally button this thing up until I get a couple replacement rings later this week. Make sure you fit those damn rings AGAIN prior to putting the pump on. I did get a chance to air check everything and it appears we're all good!
Weather looks crappy for the first half of this week, so I'm going to move some projects into the garage to keep going. I still need to put the finishing touches on the motor, specifically sensors, coils, spark plugs, etc. I'm also considering mounting the harness on there prior to picking and dropping in the frame. I've also got some smaller paint projects I can bring in and work on after work. Hopefully this coming weekend gets a little nicer.
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Not yet, now that the trans is back together (almost) and the console is out I can start to play with it. I'll keep you posted.
Alright fellas, I've got to vent a little frustration here about Jim and Red Rock.
Early in the thread, I was asked about how my dealings with Red Rock were. I'm going to post a more complete review of the kit and my thoughts once I get through the install, but I've got to say to date the experience has been less than ideal.
Quick recap:
Order placed 9/6/20, including hemi kit and a book for the swap. Book discussed multiple times via email before the formal order, and listed on the invoice.
Various emails back and forth, exhaust kit added.
9/23: "just waiting on the radiator, bend a few brackets and boxing up"
More emails following up, limited responses
10/9: sorry missed your emails, we're close, just need a couple exhaust parts, should be ready to go in the next few days
More emails, limited responses
11/11: ready to ship
11/24: screwed up the initial shipping quote, need more money, we'll split it with you
12/2 shipped
12/8 received, missing a part or two and the manual, notified them of missing items
12/9: jim forgot the book I'll get it sent out
12/9 i offer to save them the extra shipping and shoot me something digital. No way, don't want it getting out there, don't want to do the job for them, won't do it period. Ok, I get it.
12/15: ask for an update, they need to get the book printed and bound. ETA? Soon.
Look, I get it.
COVID happened. I get it.
We run a local shop. I get it.
Our local shop is busy. I get it.
I'm on vacation. I get it.
These kits aren't on the shelf ready to go all the time. I get it.
Jim takes care of these. I get it.
There aren't many people offering kits for the hemi tj swap. I get it.
You don't want your work getting published on the internet. I get it.
But seriously, the lack of communication (all of this communication was initiated by me) is bewildering. If I didn't poke once in a while, I heard nothing. All communication from them has been reactive, not proactive. It's ok for these things to take time to pull off, but communicating that and setting the expectation early on would certainly help. The lack of any sense of urgency is frankly infuriating. You've known about this order for 3+ months. This book has literally been around for 5+ years (check the other forum, you can find the discussion on it from back in the day). It could have been printed and bound at any point between 9/6 and today. I mean you can literally upload the file to fedex office from your computer and have it printed and bound, even at my local location to save you shipping! There's a thousand ways to skin the cat, solve this problem and fix the error, and yet here we are at "soon". If I'm going to drop $5k on arguably $2k worth of parts and fab plus handling and know-how, I'd expect a little bit better communication/service than what I've seen to date.
Am I out of bounds to be irritated at this point?
Early in the thread, I was asked about how my dealings with Red Rock were. I'm going to post a more complete review of the kit and my thoughts once I get through the install, but I've got to say to date the experience has been less than ideal.
Quick recap:
Order placed 9/6/20, including hemi kit and a book for the swap. Book discussed multiple times via email before the formal order, and listed on the invoice.
Various emails back and forth, exhaust kit added.
9/23: "just waiting on the radiator, bend a few brackets and boxing up"
More emails following up, limited responses
10/9: sorry missed your emails, we're close, just need a couple exhaust parts, should be ready to go in the next few days
More emails, limited responses
11/11: ready to ship
11/24: screwed up the initial shipping quote, need more money, we'll split it with you
12/2 shipped
12/8 received, missing a part or two and the manual, notified them of missing items
12/9: jim forgot the book I'll get it sent out
12/9 i offer to save them the extra shipping and shoot me something digital. No way, don't want it getting out there, don't want to do the job for them, won't do it period. Ok, I get it.
12/15: ask for an update, they need to get the book printed and bound. ETA? Soon.
Look, I get it.
COVID happened. I get it.
We run a local shop. I get it.
Our local shop is busy. I get it.
I'm on vacation. I get it.
These kits aren't on the shelf ready to go all the time. I get it.
Jim takes care of these. I get it.
There aren't many people offering kits for the hemi tj swap. I get it.
You don't want your work getting published on the internet. I get it.
But seriously, the lack of communication (all of this communication was initiated by me) is bewildering. If I didn't poke once in a while, I heard nothing. All communication from them has been reactive, not proactive. It's ok for these things to take time to pull off, but communicating that and setting the expectation early on would certainly help. The lack of any sense of urgency is frankly infuriating. You've known about this order for 3+ months. This book has literally been around for 5+ years (check the other forum, you can find the discussion on it from back in the day). It could have been printed and bound at any point between 9/6 and today. I mean you can literally upload the file to fedex office from your computer and have it printed and bound, even at my local location to save you shipping! There's a thousand ways to skin the cat, solve this problem and fix the error, and yet here we are at "soon". If I'm going to drop $5k on arguably $2k worth of parts and fab plus handling and know-how, I'd expect a little bit better communication/service than what I've seen to date.
Am I out of bounds to be irritated at this point?
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Nope I totally get the frustration. I've emailed them 3-4 times about the steering kit that still hasn't shipped to me. Then there was the month their web site was down 80% of the time. Now I gave them a little bye on the steering kit at first because I'd had an issue with the CC I'd used. Then they finally call me and say that my order had somehow been missed. So I'm cool with that but I'm like why did it take over a month for you to contact me? So then I placed my order over the phone and they've debited my CC. Now 2 weeks later I'm still waiting for it to ship. If there was a production issue you'd have thought they'd have said something the day they called and I ordered it. I'll give them a call this week and see what the deal is. But I'd sure like my steering kit....
And yes I agree that most places don't seem to carry much for the Hemi into a TJ anymore but DAMN shit or get off the pot. And I get not wanting their book out there in a digital version but as you said how long does it take?
And yes I agree that most places don't seem to carry much for the Hemi into a TJ anymore but DAMN shit or get off the pot. And I get not wanting their book out there in a digital version but as you said how long does it take?
I appreciate your candidness about what you are running into. I'm slowly trying to construct most of my own kit, but some things i will source, such as motor mounts. Hearing your issues helps me decide who I will source from. I haven't made up my mind, it will be interesting to see how you like the kit during the install, and I understand the issues that RR has had to overcome, but nonetheless, the feedback does help.
I hate being that guy putting a company on blast, but I like to do my research and I had found mixed reviews, I felt it important to share my current story for just that reason.
I'm going to do a more in-depth post about the kit, what's included, and my observations, possibly as soon as this weekend. Stay tuned for that, it may help you with some of the other parts and pieces you're looking for.
On the motor mounts, the Red Rock kit uses the Advanced Adapters mounts. So if you want to use those, I'd go direct to AA. I've picked up a teraflex transmission mount, in addition to the transmission mount that came in the Red Rock kit, since my Jeep had the teraflex belly skid when I bought it. I'm going to compare both systems and call the ball on which mount to go with. I think I understand how Red Rock's trans mount kit works, but waiting on that damn manual to confirm, especially with locating the brackets correctly.
Thanks for the info about RR using the advance adapters mounts, these are the mounts I planned on using.
Maybe you can answer another question for me: Why is a a 1" body lift required and a suspension (3"? 4"?) recommended? What clearances are an issue with the swap?
I'll be looking forward to your review on the rest of the kit, and hopefully sometime soon seeing that sucker run and drive under hemi power!
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