My Reunited Jeep Build

XCRN

TJ Enthusiast
Supporting Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2020
Messages
467
Location
Springfield OH
Somehow this became a build beyond me just fixing it up and making it nice and fun to drive for 3 of the OH seasons. No, I cant just leave it alone now. But it has memorys and I want to keep that going.

I consider this my first car, even though I have only owned it since Spring this year. This was originally my Aunt’s Jeep from Seattle. I moved there from St. Louis when I was 11 and she took us out in it a lot. First expereince snow boarding out to the mountains was in this, learned to drive in this, made many memories with it going around the beautiful lakes and mountains of the PNW. I did not own it, but my Aunt let me take it out a lot and had to depend on it alot since I was learning to “fix” my daily throughout my teenage years with no guidance. My mom bought it off of her 6 years ago before she moved from WA to AL and at the time I was going to school in OH. So I flew back for summer vacation and helped pack and I drove across country with this Jeep. That was a hell of a trip since I took it from Seattle and took it past my Mom’s new house to Miami to visit a friend. Got caught in Typhoon like weather with the top in Panama City. So like I said, many adventures and memories with out ever owning it.

Fast foward to the last year, my Mom has now moved in with me, with the Jeep. It is tired at this point. Interior was rough, as well as the body. Lots of other issues, HVAC did not work, brakes going out, poor shift quality, miscllanious electrical issues, bald tires, you get the idea. My Mom did not want to try and fix it so she gave me the opportunity to take over and finally own it. Took me some time to get to it, but this year after selling my 16 Mustang got rid of a monthly payment and netted me a few thousand dollars after loan payoff. So the TJ is now mine and I want to keep the adventure going. But will take some work.

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So first thing was to start cleaning. This has been a dog car all its life so there was hair everywhere. The carpet was torn and the soft top had holes. I took all the interior out and thoroughly vaccumed the interior. I also went ahead and painted the floor boards.

With that I got new carpet as well, since there was maybe 2 pieces left of the old carpet.

After that I learned from my Seattle to Miami trip to always have a top with me, but the original one was torn so I got a new Rampage top. I kept it folded down most of the summer but was prepared.

So that was the easy stuff to get me started.

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Now was time to get to other mechanical bits. The tires were bald and were sketchy in the rain. So instead of getting new tires I got some 17” Pro Comp wheels and 31” Wrangler Good Year Trail Runners. I will not be using this as a dedicated trail toy, I have a jacked up Fiero on a CJ chassis for that stuff so this combo works for me.

I also tried my hand at wetsanding and paint correction with all the scratches. It helped but the paint is pretty far weathered so I did what I could and figured I would get it painted later.

After that I had to turn my attention to the brakes. The big thing I did here was a rear disc conversion. I absoultly HATE drums with all my heart, so it was worth going this route. I have also done this on one of my XJs so it was no big deal. I got new calipers, rotors, pads, and lines all 4 corners. Braking drasticly improved, mostly because how bad things were.

I at this point started getting parts for paint. According to the body shop, I was better off getting a new hood and passenger fender so I found thoes pieces. I went ahead a sprayed rubberized coating on the bottom side while it was off.

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I turned my attention back towards the interior. Though it was clean, the colors certainly faded and I still have yet to fix the HVAC, which that is a long painful story in it self where it turns out I am just stupid. But regardless I take the dash out and get that figured out as well as removing the dash skin and all the interior and I re-color it flat black. I used Duplicolor Vinyl Fabric paint and it comes out very nice. I find the trick is to wait for it to dry for maybe 20 minutes then vigorously rub it dowm with a microfiber to make it feel soft and not course. I also got a set of half doors during my body panel hunt, but painted thoes door panels as well.

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So with all that said, how is this a build? Its just me fixing things and nothing real custom.

Well this past weekend I got the funds freed up to paint the Jeep, $2500. So to minimize labor I was going to strip all the parts off so they only had to focus on body work. The shop is 1/2 mile from my house, so I planned on driving there with no front body at all.

But I discovered something, there are freeze plugs on the back of a 4.0 block, and mine were leaking. Usually this is no big deal, drop the trans, fix the plugs and go. But I got to thinking. I was about to drop a large amount of momey into a paint job, maybe instead drop it into the drive train, make it reliable. Its worth it after all. But I like driving doors off everywhere including the highway and the 4.0 just seems to struggle to push this brick at thoes speeds. So I come down to 4.7 stroker, or put this 5.3 that I have been rebuilding in it. Well been pricing the LS swap and I can make it work. For me it makes sense over the cheaper stroker option. This is not my first LS rodeo and I think it will be better for me and the long road trips I do as opposed to the low torque strokers.

I parted a truck out years ago and made profit that would pay for 75% of this so I can justify this easily. Especially no wife or kids, that will make the decision easier.

I am just planning now and the 4.0 is still in there, but tonight I worked on clearing the garage for this. Still could use more cleaning but it will do.

I already been working on the 5.3 for awhile for another project that can be put on hold. The block and crank are at machine shop and I am hoping to have thoes back soon. But in the mean time Ihave been cleaning the pistons and upper end. This motor had 190k miles of sludge and it was CAKED on there. But oven cleaner did the trick on the heads.

I plan to purchase in stages, first being mating the LS to the NV3550 and dropping it in the Jeep.

But this is where I am at currently and plan to get it driving before Spring. I do powdercoating at home so there will be a lot of that going on too. Takes time but is well worth it. I already did other TJ exterior parts.

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Began to work on the LS harness. I have a bit of a collection of harnesses lying around, one of them being a harness from a LS swapped XJ I bought. That is a project best left to aftermarket setup like Holley Terminator since that is a race car. So I decided to use this harness as the basis since on the XJ the gauges worked except the tach.

This was a good start but the harness was not trimmed of its fat. Went through the diagrams of LT1swap.net and cleaned up. There was a lot of questionable things done, but the one that concermed me was all the pinks (keyed hots) were all just twisted togather and “spliced” in the middle to a blue/white wire that went from Jeep PCM black plug A2 I belive. That blue/white wire went to what I think is a connector that goes to C103. I am trying to find the pinout to the 2 chassis plugs on the fire wall that list thier functions and not just the wire color.

But that is all I got for now. Its not orginized yet but I am going to start on that soon. I have another standalone fuse block I could probably find and use for this harness I made awhile ago to get the pinks properly wires. Still waiting on engine block and crank so I can get on with the rebuild.

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Its the most glorious mullet weilding Busch drinking glorious shitbox I have ever come across. I only bought into this life style so I can’t say I am the crazy white trash mad scientest behind it. But I can make it better with a rear mounted turbo LS just cuz.

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I got to looking at this harness a little more and I do not think this is the one I want to use. Its rigged too much with the Jeep plugs and I am thinking XJ plug pinout on the C103 is different than the TJ since none of it lines up right. Not scrapping this harness, but I have 2 more harnesses lying around to use instead, but now I will NEED to use the TJ harness or a parts TJ harness to do this. Now I am not 100% dedicated to an LS at this point, so I do not want to make permanant modifications just yet to the chassis. I know at some point I will but I do not even have the block back yet so its not set in stone.

I am almost half tempted due to timing, finding someone to marry the 2 harnesses together depending on price. So if any of you guys that LS swapped your TJ and want to make some side money, PM me.

Since there is not much to show, I will just show some rebuild pictures. I parted this truck in my backyard from late 2017 to Spring of 2018 and got the motor for another project. That fell through so it sat in the corner of my garage for a time. It was a great running motor but had 190K miles. Sludge was bad every where, the cam bearings had a lot of burnt oil it looked like. The rotating assembly bearings looked fine but decided to have the crank polished and cleaned anyways. The tray was $15 and is real nice for keeping things orginized so I do not mix up component placement.

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Both cylinder heads are now cleaned and all the valves are grinded. Was going to assemble them today, but forgot I never ordered valve stem seals when I got the full gasket set for this last year since I did not know which version of seal I had. So now I just have to wait for them to come in then they should be ready to be assembled. In some of the runners I had to use a pick to scrape out the crud. You can see in the pics on how thick it built up even after being cleaned. Same with the valve after sitting in parts cleaner over night. Because this is not getting any wild cam I will not bother with the trunion upgrade.

Called the machine shop and the block and crank should be ready early next week. I also looked into hotwireauto to see if they will do a harness setup like thier Hemi plug and play harness but for an LS since they do standalone LS as well.

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Finished up the heads today so that is done. Not too bad of job compressing the springs. I did not have the tool but had lots of 17mm wrenches so I made it work!

I also got to cleaning and painting the oil pan. Was half tempted to powdercoat it since it would fit in the oven but cast aluminum is a pain to powdercoat since it is so porus and likes to trap oils in. I would probably be fighting contamination issues for awhile with as bad as it was.

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Machine shop called and said he would like me to come by, there are a few cylinders he is worried about. So I get there and a few were pitted enough to where honing it out would not fix it, so now its going to get bored out .030 to .040 over. So extra cost in machining and parts. Oh well. The way I see it ill be $750 over all into a fully rebuilt 5.3 LS. With that said the block looked brand new so im excited about that. Don’t know what color to paint it, silver black or orange is something I am even considering.

Also reached out to Hotwire Auto to do the wire harness like thier Hemi harmess where its plug and play for the LS to TJ. Should be roughly $1300 which is steep but I know I will be into just the harness more time than its worth, and they will supply a brand new GM harness and mate it to the TJ harness.

Also bought a YJ to flip for parts funding and this little 4 banger crap can is fun as hell! Would not hurt my feelings if it stayed a little longer. Though I sold the hard top to this and a BMW hood yesterday which will more than cover the extra maching cost so there is that I guess. This whole LS swap is going to be funded entirely by parts money I have accumulated this year which I think is well over what I need to finish this.

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Today I ordered some LS stuff and Jeep stuff to get as much done before it gets too cold. I have replaced floor boards in snow before so I will work in it. I just want to be done with all the dissassembly, mostly dealing with old grease and fluids before it gets cold. I still want to pressure wash the engine bay and paint it, wash and paint the transmission, other things like that.

Tonight I just decided to drop the transfer case and get it ready for rebuild which the SKF kit was ordered today. I am also looking into SYE kits, mostly “hack and tap” kits. I know most go with the HD kit, but realisticly, I do not think I will be anywhere near the limit of the stock 27 spline shaft. That little YJ I got probably has the NP231 and all I have been doing is 5K clutch drops on pavement and it seems to be just fiiiiine. But the nice benefit I have is access to alot of machines at work so I can just throw the shaft in the lathe and cut it off straight then drill tap in the exact center. Plus the extra $150 saved can be used elsewhere.

Also the skid plate looks soo much bigglier when out of the Jeep. Was a little rusted but bolts came out clean no struggle so that was nice. Probably will take it to a local sand blaster and will paint at home.
 

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Made more progress this weekend.

First thing is taking apart the NP231. I ended up getting an actual SYE since I did not lile how much the output shaft stuck out un-supported. I put way more time than really needed into “purdying” up the case. I powdercoated the case halves with this silver that I like the color of, it just sprays random clumps at times so I just use it for hidden parts. I coated a thick second layer of clear coat to help keep it “purdy” though it will never be seen. Did not finish it up but will be working on it this week. Just as a side note when I pre-baked the housings in the oven to off-gas for coating, the one blind hole bearing that I could not get out with tools dropped out so that was nice not having to deal with that!

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I finally got around to pulling the motor and trans as well this weekend. Not too bad with the transfer case pulled and no body at the front at all. While it is still warm out I pressure washed the engine bay and painted it body color. Just a rattle can job but will be good enough. Probably will wetsand and buff. Next weekend, I hope to start on prepping and painting this section of frame.

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What can I say, I got an addiction to poor life decisions!

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Got more done this weekend and spent a lot too.

So first thing, though no real pictures block got done being bored out .020 over and pistons are oredered and should be here tomorrow. When I get thoes in I will take to the machine shop for them to hone to size. Crank is done being polished, though did have some pitting on one of the journals. He said as well as another former auto machinest co-worker of mine said it was good to go and turning it would not be neccessary so only needed to order standard bearings.

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Got around to cutting off the 4.0 frame horns and steering support. With it still being warm out I was able to wire wheel and primer and paint the front section of frame before the engine goes in. Though I know I will be sanding the paint away where the mounts are going, its better to touchup in the cold than to do the whole thing. The first round of Novak parts will be here tomorrow including the weld on mounts.

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Today I was able to finish the transfercase rebuild with SYE after A LOT of 4 letter words trying to put some of the lock rings on. I did order the actual lockring pliars instead pf using snap ring pliars like I did on dissassembly but they would not open all the way to put the new ring on the in put shaft. I have not torqued the yokes yet since I dont have a torque wrench capable of going as high as it needs and I still want to powdercoat the rear yoke. One thing I noticed the rear yoke does not have a dust shield, I feel like it should like the front.

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But thats all for this weekend. This week I hope to have the mounts welded in, and I am debating on doing all the front suspension and steering, as well as rebuilding the axle now since everything is so easy to get too. All the parts to rebuild the axle entirely, new steering, and suspension is about $850 so I might just go ahead and spend the money now. I learned incomplete projects I do happen because of no parts coming in because I get too cheap. I spend the money now I have no excuses to not finish.

Also I am considering getting some buddies and buying Pizza and taking the tub off simce I got my self unknowiny to where its only 8 bolts holding the tub on.
 
Mounts are tacked in waiting for the engine to mock up which I am still waiting for. But while I cannot really go any further with LS related bits I just got more done with the chassis. I took a half day on Thursday and had Friday off (4 10s has been my work schedual lately) to utilize probably the last warm days of the year. The under side is painted back to the rear control arms. I am thinking if I want to do the rear section right it will need to be tub off which is my plan after the engine is mocked in place and mounts are welded.

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I also discoverd that you can buy rebuild components for the GM power steering pump, so I bought that kit with the steering box kit. Being only $20 overall into the steering hydraulics rebuild is not bad and if it fails I wont be too dissapointed so we shall see how this goes. I also decided to go ahead and powdercoat the steering box and pump housings. So right now they are sandblasted and I will maybe knock those out this week. The innards of the Jeep box were pretty nasty and had some brown staining. So cleaned thoes up. The pump was not bad but I might meed to replace the resivoir since the mounting holes are a little wallard out and need to be able to hold a oil tight seal.

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I am ready to really knock things out fast, I just need the engine block. And there are still more parts on there way than what is shown here. When I get the block back I can make more progress and this trunk will get emptied quick.

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Finally got the block and crank back! So after its all said and done I am maybe $1000 into the rebuilt engine overall which the engine being free, or techincly it put alot more in my pocket from parting out the truck really helps keep the cost of this swap down. Only thing that will not be new or rebuilt is the cam, and though I do not need any rowdy cam, I do have an LS1 cam I got for $20 awhile ago I might just polish up and use that. Got a thick coat of primer on it tonight and will get a few coats of black tomorrow during the day time when it might not be so cold and we out. Annoyingly I could not get any tape to stick to the oil pan surface so I just used the oil pan it self that I already painted. I am partially tempted to get a new low profile pan, especially since I sold a bumper for $100 from a F150 that I got for $2 at an auction today.

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With that said I also got the headers, Novak fuel module cap thing with out regulator and the Savvy tramsfercase cable shifter. I will get the headers cermaic coated later since I did not want to wait the lead time to get the already cermic coated headers. I want to get things mocked up NOW! And when thats done I can send them out while I do other things. Though I really wish these were offered in stainless, oh well.

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With the fueling I will use a fuel rail with regulator at the rail. Since I plan on buying new pre-bent fuel lines from a supplier near Akron, I might get an extra pressure line and use that as the return and route the new return hard line the same way as the supply hard line since the plastic clips have a few more empty notches. Ill mess around with that when I get the tub off.
 
Progress! Block is painted and made its way to the engine bay. Pretty happy with the placement. But some stuff will need adjustment. Going to move it foward one notch since the head sit close to the fire wall. Put the radiator in with water pump since that is what sticks out the furthest. Plenty of space up front. Got the Novak trans mount positioned and will drill out the holes.

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So with that done, next steps are to weld the mounts in for good and will work on taking the tub off.