DJ's TJ: Low and Slow

I've been quiet on here because a lot of things came up to where I had to step back from the jeep. I've been dealing with other truck projects and a big paintball event. I also have some big news. Our Rubicon trip had to be canceled because I'll be moving in a few months so the jeep definitely won't be done by July. It's a bummer but something that's a huge plus is I'm moving close to home which means I'll be able to get some help on the jeep when I need it. I've been a one man team since I started all of this so it'll be a nice change.

Although my momentum slowed way down I still got a few things done since my last post. I finished my trans/steering cooler frame and got all my lines hooked up. This was one of those big items that felt great to check off the list.

As mentioned above this frame is made of two parts and sandwiches the cooler, with one side attached to the ABS tray and the other attaches to the shock hoop by an arm. To assemble, the cooler mounts in the frame first and the whole thing slides down in place and gets secured by 3 bolts. Simple, simple.
I love the location of this cooler so far. The idea is the fan will pull cold air from outside instead of the engine bay. But I'll be honest I haven't been able to flex out the axle and turn the wheel full lock to test clearances yet so we'll have to see how it all clears later.










Here's what I did for the trans lines. Since the factory trans line routes to the factory radiator location it runs right next to the exhaust header. By mounting the cooler by the firewall I'm able to shorten the line for better flow and route it away from the exhaust for heat prevention.
I cut the hardline and used an AN hardline-to-hose fitting to attach new 3/8" hose. On the other end I used standard 90* -8 AN fittings on the cooler side. I also bought some heat shielding that goes around this 3/8" hose to prevent any possible chafing on the firewall that I'll install later.









I don't have any current pictures of the hoses routed with the cooler frame finished but here's an older pic of the trans and steering hoses connected before.






Let's mount a radiator!

There are a ton of ways to mount aluminum rads. Most people build a cradle to hold the bottom which the rad rests on and use a similar cradle to sandwich the top which then mounts to the frame with rubber bushings. I kind of painted myself into a corner with how I already designed everything else which made mounting my rad unusual. Here's what I came up with. I welded on some radiator pucks to the top and bottom of the rad tanks to use as mounting locations. These are just 3/8" aluminum "pucks" that are tapped for 3/8" hardware in the center and are round to prevent stress cracks. For rubber bushings I'm using these (see below). These are used by the HVAC trade and can be found on the roofs of almost all apartment or commercial complexes. I've "acquired" a small pile of these while working in the elevator trade over the years. If I ever need to replace these in the future they're very easy to find. I cut them in half to work for my application and stack them together for additional bushing-ness.








For the bottom of the rad I made 90* tabs that mount to the pucks. These tabs rest on the bushings which sit on other tabs that are welded to my front crossmember.

For the upper mounts I had to get creative. I wanted the mounts attached to the frame instead of the grille. I also didn't want them to be built off of the shock hoop support for ease of accessibility. I hopped on Fusion and came up with these.







I also used some 90* tabs up here just like the bottom.














And some additional tabs that come off of the shock hoop support gussets to prevent torsional movement. All made out of 3/16 plate.

I designed some gussets for my shock tabs and again got them cut by SCS. No way in hell can I be this clean with my plasma cutter by hand.










Let's finally fill in the massive hole in the shock hoop support gusset on the passenger side by fabbing up a coolant overflow tank. I used the same process as the power steering res but without an internal baffle. I also welded a 1/4" hose fitting bung on the bottom. The hose will come from the rad cap on the driver side to the bottom of this overflow tank- a long run but there isn't room on the drivers side for this to sit.









Here you can see the tube polishing tool I use. This tool has been really nice to have for any type of tube work.

Welcome back to the shit show!

Since I'm moving in a few months I have the sudden urge to make as much progress as possible. I declined all my plans for today so I can get some work done. The plan for the day was to make a roller out of the jeep and I successfully made it happen! With it being a roller I'd be able to load it onto a flatbed for the move. But at this point it looks like I might be able to get it drivable in time which is massive news for me.

I started by adding that heat wrap to the lower section of the trans line I talked about previously. The trans lines are officially done. I'll have to add an inline therm switch when I'm ready for the electrical step.

Since I was in this area I installed a new master cylinder. As some of you might know when you step up to one ton calipers you'll also need to step up your master cylinder to maintain a similar brake pedal throw. My dad had success with a dodge durango MC so I followed suit. It's literally bolt on so this was insanely simple. I bench bled it before I installed it in the ol' yeep.




Please excuse the horrible teenage wiring. I'll tackle that when I get to electical.








My dad was able to help me while I was busy working on something else. He routed new 3/16" brake lines around the front of the frame and terminated at the frame fish plates which I'll later cut to the length and weld on brake line tabs. I welded zip tie tabs onto the frame to hold it all in place. Getting physical help in the garage has been hard to come by living where I do so I'm extremely thankful to get it when I can.










We also tapped the steering gear for hydro assist lines. It took me some time to do research on where to drill and tap on such an old box. It's technically a saginaw box so the fluid channels are identical to any jeep box. One thing that may be different is the pressure side of the ports though. On these old 4x4x2 boxes the front cap is the pressure side for turning DRIVER which I believe is the opposite of a jeep box.

I decided not to take the steering gear apart for this process. The top cap preload adjustment was set correctly by Lares that I didn't want to change. Here's my solution to drilling into it with it all assembled. I used an AN fitting cap that was tapped for a valve stem for the inlet port and a regular AN cap fore the outlet port. This allowed an air chuck to hook up to the valve stem so I can pump constant air pressure into the steering box. All metal shavings flew straight out away from the hole as I drilled and it actually worked very well. Once the hole was drilled I cut off pieces of rags and stuck them in the holes to prevent shavings from entering while I tapped the threads.

For the driver side port I tapped into the channel that flows to the front cap since the front cap of my steering gear is blocked off by my grille. I'll run a 90* AN fitting from this to the ram. Now I want to be transparent on here so I'll include this... Unfortunately I made a big mistake on my first hole that I drilled. I drilled just slightly to the right in the channel which opened into the internal chamber of the box. OOPS! I didn't want to open this hole more to tap it for a plug so I busted out the mig welder and filled in the hole. Because I welded this the ball bearings may have gotten hot and expanded. There's now an obvious tightness in the sector shaft when I move away from center in both directions. I wasn't happy but shit happens and I'm no where near perfect. At the end of the day if it doesn't work out later then it's another $700 for another reman steering box. Life moves on and so do I.
I drilled correctly into the center of the channel and tapped it for 1/4npt.

For the passenger steering port I drilled into the big outside section of the box. Apparently this was where all of the fluid sat because once my drill bit broke through, the air pressure that I had hooked up spat it all over me. This area is very easy to tap though because it's so big, you can choose wherever you want to place your port. I have a 120* AN fitting that will mount to this location and wrap around the front of the box.
















I placed caps on these ports for now until I get a ram.

Here's a closer look at the steering shaft joint I used. Since the steering box sits a lot farther back I had to cut down the shaft in front of the factory joint and go this route. The steering shaft is 3/4" D rod and the steering box shaft is 3/4" 36 spline.










With the steering lines plumbed and fittings tight I started the jeep for the first time in a year and got the steering primed! Almost sounds like a v8 in this thing with no exhaust.








I had to take the pass side hub off again to install new spindle nuts.







I installed the brake calipers and set the preload on my high steer arms. I'm using bronze bushings on these arms instead of the factory kingpin bushing/spring design. It's nice to make room on the floor where all these parts lived for way too long. Now that I think of it all of these parts should be helping me with the rent.

Aaaaand we have an official roller ladies and gents!!!! (sorry no picture)
She steers and rolls but she doesn't stop on her own. It's enough to load on a trailer, that's all that matters.
All she needs to stop is some proper length brake lines so it's flexy flexy time for measurements. I measured a whopping 36" of brake line each side to be safe. time to order.

To end this post, here are some pics of the clearances at full bump. She's tight but this proves she's built RIGHT!


track bar to pass frame rail:



Upper 3rd link to engine mount:

carrotman said:

Sick build! Your fab skills are on another level. I'm excited to see the coming progress updates and the finished product.

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Thanks! I CANNOT wait to wheel with it. But the build process is also very enjoyable. I'm already planning my next truck build

NashvilleTJ said:

You and your dad do great work. Thanks for continuing to post your build. I am enjoying it.

The greatest skill you can have as a maker is the ability to correct your mistakes. Hope the steering gear holds up. Nice recovery.

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At least there's peace of mind knowing the ram will take a lot of the steering force. I feel pretty good about it.

Yesterday was aluminum day. I haven't spent this much time welding aluminum in a single sitting since I was in college.

I'm finally able to share with you what I'm using for my fan setup. A little while back when my dad turned his 4.0 into a stroker he got rid of his aluminum Northern branded radiator and electric fan and went back to a factory rad and clutch fan. I took ownership of his old parts. The electric fan he gave me is a 15" FlexaLite fan and shroud all in one unit that was built for the Northern radiator he had. After some research it looks like this fan is rated for an insane 3000CFM and is priced at $400. 3000CFM is massive for a 6 cylinder. Ideally, running 2 electric fans is the way to go but since my custom radiator is only 15", I wouldn't be able to use two small fans with a good enough CFM rating. With that said I was determined to make this 15" fan work with my 15" rad.

This fan shroud is all plastic and is set to a certain size which is too big for my radiator. Afterall a 15" fan is unheard of with a 15" radiator. So here's what I came up with..

I designed an aluminum fan shroud that would fit my fan with no room to spare and got it cut and bent by SendCutSend. I designed two 45* angles on each hoirzontal side to promote good airflow. Then I designed some brackets that would bolt onto and sandwich the plastic frame that the fan motor sits in. This would allow me to cut out the plastic frame from the shroud so that the fan motor had something to mount to. Then the brackets that hold the frame would be welded to the fan shroud. I'm sure this sounds confusing. Here are some pics.








The brackets get bolted onto the frame with 1/4x20 through bolts.










I don't have long enough hardware for these so that's on the shopping list. They'll also be getting washers because the holes are slotted.









The fan motor can be easily unbolted for replacement. Even the frame can be easily removed and replaced if I wanted to. The back of the motor sits about 1/4" away from flush of the shroud (where the radiator would sit). And the fan itself sits directly in the fan cutout or the best airflow pressures and tightest possible fitment.


Because the fan needs room to sit in the shroud I had to design it to be 16" tall . this made the shroud sit 1" above the top of the radiator so I had a couple more pieces made to fill this area in.
I made this section tapered inward towards the front of the rad to give me room around the fill cap.






I wasn't set on how I wanted to mount the shroud to the radiator yet so I designed two different mounts to see what would work. I ended up going with the 90* ones. Since I designed these at work I didn't have the proper measurements on me so they ended up being a little long. Not the prettiest reveal ever but they'll work so I'll burn them in.
I designed a slot on them to accept 1/4x20 hardware which allows adjustment to the fan shroud. Ideally I would use rivnuts on the shroud so I can unbolt it from the outside but I don't have a rivnut tool or hardware so I through-bolted it for now. I can access the nuts on the inside by taking the single fan clip off and removing the fan. If it proves to be a pain in the future I can easily drop the rivnuts in.










And for the big reveal!

Of course I had to add my little FIDI spin on it like the power steering baffle. The small personal things make this build my own and I'm all here for it.












Here's how tight everything is.
The power steering pump is the closest item to the back of the fan shroud but there's plenty of room for the engine to dance around.






I ground down this bottom corner to make just a little more room for the track bar.




It gets TIGHT down here. I have about 3/8" of room to move the radiator up before the rad cap contacts my hood. I'm not liking the 1/16" of clearance to the track bar so I'll have to make some adjustments. It all fits great if I remove the upper rad mount bushings but I obviously very much need those so I think my BFH and I will do some persuading to the bushing mounts instead.

Once that gets done, everything should clear at full bump unless my ORIs break in half.








I don't think I'm anyone to give out advice but if you would like some, I have some. If you want to improve your range of garage skill effectiveness get yourself a TIG machine that's capable of welding aluminum. It will definitely humble you. When you got your straight, T joint on the table dialed in, try welding a project like this where you're standing, using the pedal with your left foot because you have a cluttered garage like I do, and your torch hand is free in the air unsupported and you can't place your filler rod n the puddle because your weld is so far deep into your workpiece being blocked by other things. It definitely challenges your motor skills as much as it does your mentality and problem solving. I sure have a lot of finishing to do on this fan shroud to correct some aesthetic mistakes. My aluminum welds aren't as sexy as I'd like but I think that's what gives this jeep character. I can look back on all of this and appreciate all of the long lonely garage days with just my poor jeep and I. Overall, I'm happy with it.

DJ out.

NashvilleTJ said:

That is just beautiful fab work, Dude. I’ve always wanted to get into aluminum TIG. You inspire me in that regard.

One thing to be aware of is that the CFM ratings on some electric fans can be deceiving. Many cheaper fan manufacturers advertise big CFM, but are rated at zero static pressure - meaning sitting in open air. Put them in front of a radiator, or more-so in front of a radiator and an a/c condensor, and the number falls off quickly.

A better indicator is to look at the amps drawn by the motor. When I first did the Hemi I put in a fan that was rated at 2700 CFM, but only 10 amps. It did not come close to cooling the beast. I went through 2 more fans and ended up with a Spal 16” brushless fan which is also rated at 2700 CFM. But the motor draws 41 amps. Same CFM rating as the first fan, but this one actually moves that amount sitting in front of the radiator, condenser, tranny and hydro coolers. Works like a charm.

Just some food for thought.

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Thanks for the kind words!

As for the fan, this one draws 18 amps and the research I did when I was planning my build says fan blade design makes the biggest difference in actual CFM numbers. I don't have any real world experience with this fan yet but as my dad just mentioned it worked well with his setup. My radiator is about as thick as his aftermarket rad was and I'm also not puling through a condenser or any other cooler so it should work well.

carrotman said:

Awesome work, as always. I've been wishing for an AC tig machine for a while. I'm probably going to have to do something similar with my radiator and push it forward at the bottom. My drag link is very close like your track bar. I'm worried about the top of the fan hitting the engine, but it looks like you were able to tuck it in and make it work.

How far pushed into the grille is the bottom of the radiator? Are you going to still run the A/C condenser in front?

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Take a look at one of my older posts talking about exactly this. The factory style radiator is way too tall to make my low COG build work the way it should. My trackbar and drag link sit about half way where the factory radiator would be so I went with one that's only 15" tall. I cut the entire bottom of the grille out to make room for everything to sit and because of this I had to hard mount my grille. As far as leaning the top of the rad back there wouldn't be much room unless you ditch the clutch fan.

I spent most of my day designing this and maaany hours coming up with the idea. Can anyone guess what it is?
I just placed the order through SCS so it should hopefully be arriving at the end of next week.

I got the radiator/fan shroud completed over the weekend.

All fan shroud mounts welded, electrical ran through a grommet and I welded in a bung for the thermostatic switch. I'm using a Derale 190-on/175-off switch.
I ended up getting a rivnut tool afterall so I can replace the through-bolts for the fan shroud mounting. Now I can access the bolts just from the outside.
I also installed some aluminum plugs to block off the trans cooler ports on this radiator. Probably not needed because those ports never touch coolant but it's peace of mind.














Radiator installed, plumbed and coolant flushed and filled!






















Here are the official clearances..














I hooked up my fan to a temporary relay and switch so I can properly get all the air out of the system and I must say this fan absolutely PULLS!

After the thermostat opened, the coolant temp gauge stayed exactly where it needs to be. The amount of heat dissipated from the radiator is insane.

I took some pics of the temp of both radiator hoses. ~150* on radiator inlet and ~102 on the outlet. Pretty impressive how effective this radiator is and it's only a single pass.












I actually found a tiny pinhole in one of my welds which was leaking a little coolant. That'll be fun to fix because I'm not taking the radiator back out.