Nashville TJ's Build - Continued

I have the great fortune of having a wonderful wife who also enjoys wheelin', especially out in Moab. She loves the scenery, and really enjoys getting to know other folks during the Safari's. But, she's a little afraid of heights so Moab Rim is not one of here favorite trails - and I can't even think about doing Cliff Hanger...

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My GF hates heights, Cliffhanger had her in tears.
 
I've been pretty happy with how the suspension turned out, and she can stretch her legs when called upon. This is my son Ben, who is about 6'2. It will easily drive right off the end of this ramp.

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Do you ever wheel locally? I tried going to AOP, exposed engine issues and then went home.

I do. AOP, Wooly's, Choccollocco, WIndrock, Golden Mountain...

AOP is a nice park, not huge but lots of hardcore stuff. And Winrock is just gigantic...
 
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I do. AOP, Wooly's, Choccollocco, WIndrock, Golden Mountain...

AOP is a nice park, not huge but lots of hardcore stuff. And Winrock is just gigantic...
Cool, I want to take mine out more but being a rookie all I do now is try and then report back what went wrong and get guidance for the next trip.
 
When I first began building the rig, I was running a 44 / 30 axle combo with 35's. At that time the lowest gear available for the 30 was the 4.88. No surprise, driving all that with the 42RLE was less than stellar. I considered an engine swap back then, but instead decided on doing a Kenne-Bell twin screw supercharger. That supercharged / intercooled I6 made about 300 horse and 400 torque, and made all the difference in the world in drivability.

Here it is with everything squeezed between the high lines:

Jeep Super Charger 11-21-17 005.jpg


It would literally smoke those 35's, and even turned the combo with the 42RLE overdrive into a descent driveline. That mill followed me up through 37's and 40's on HP Pro-Rock 60's running 5.38's. It would certainly not smoke the 40's, but it was still a very well powered driver.

The absolute best thing about that engine combo was its reliability and consistency. Absolutely smooth, never, ever stumbled, and completely reliable off road in any circumstance. You did not know the 'charger was there until you hit the loud pedal. I absolutely loved that engine.
 
When I first began building the rig, I was running a 44 / 30 axle combo with 35's. At that time the lowest gear available for the 30 was the 4.88. No surprise, driving all that with the 42RLE was less than stellar. I considered an engine swap back then, but instead decided on doing a Kenne-Bell twin screw supercharger. That supercharged / intercooled I6 made about 300 horse and 400 torque, and made all the difference in the world in drivability.

Here it is with everything squeezed between the high lines:

View attachment 197411

It would literally smoke those 35's, and even turned the combo with the 42RLE overdrive into a descent driveline. That mill followed me up through 37's and 40's on HP Pro-Rock 60's running 5.38's. It would certainly not smoke the 40's, but it was still a very well powered driver.

The absolute best thing about that engine combo was its reliability and consistency. Absolutely smooth, never, ever stumbled, and completely reliable off road in any circumstance. You did not know the 'charger was there until you hit the loud pedal. I absolutely loved that engine.
Are those Kenne-Bell systems still available? Who did the tuning?
 
Are those Kenne-Bell systems still available? Who did the tuning?
No, KB stopped making that kit for the TJ I6 years ago. But it was absolutely the best combo on the market. I've heard many horror stories about guys trying to run a SC on the I6 (just ask Toximus...), but this one ran like a top. The key was that KB flashed the stock ECU with a tune they had developed. In fact, you had to have your ECU flashed by them BEFORE they would ship you the supercharger. Installed it, fired it right up, and never had a single issue.

I actually sold that KB SC, along with the ECU, to a moderator over at the other place. I've never heard whether or not he had installed it.
 
Well, the rig was running great, but it's an ongoing project which has always helped me to burn off stress, and so after hitting the Jeep Safari in 2018, I was ready for another big project. Selecting the next project was easy - who doesn't like more power?

So I looked deeply into doing a Hemi or some version of an LS. I'm a Mopar guy from way back, so that drew me toward a Hemi mill. In terms of fitment and electrical system compatibility in my '04 TJ, the best choice was a Gen 3 out of a Dodge Ram pickup. You can do a Gen4 - such as a 6.2 or a 6.4 Hemi - but because of the way the accessories are mounted (horizontally) on the engine, it requires a bunch of modification to the frame to get it to fit, and there are additional challenges with the electrical. I strongly considered doing a new crate Hemi, but for this reason decided against it.

So the Gen3 5.7 Hemi, with it's vertical stack of accessories, in front of a 545RFE, seemed like the best choice. But that mill stock makes something like 345 horse power and 375 torque. As I noted above, the SC I6 made 300hp and 400 torque - no way was I going through all the trouble for a swap for a little more HP and a little LESS TORQUE! If I was going to invest the time and money, it would need to knock my socks off...

Long story short - after a bunch of research I decided I could stroke a Ram Gen 3 5.7 Hemi to 6.4 (392 cubes), and build something north of 500 hp and 500 torque. Nothing crazy, and if done right it would still have a good idle for wheelin'.

So, I picked up this out of a 2006 Dodge Ram 3500:

Jeep - 5.7 Hemi 7-7-2017 008.jpg


Yeah, I know. It was ugly.
 
Well I pulled the beast all apart and sent the block and heads down to Tytek Performance in TN, not too far from me. The owner, Tyree Smith, is a well respected engine builder down here. He bored it .020 over and added a complete Molnar forged rotating assembly to accomplish the 392 stroke. After installing a custom cut cam and doing some head work, he assembled the short block for me.

Anyway, after getting the block back I assembled the mill with all new accessories, and a few performance parts. Not quite so ugly as before:

Jeep - 5.7 Hemi 7-7-2017 359.jpg


Concurrently, I sent the tranny off to ATS in Colorado, who did what they call a Stage 4 build on the 545RFE which will handle up to about 700 hp. And...they painted it purple (kind of their thing). I previously had them rebuild the 42RLE which I ran behind the supercharged I6, and have always been very happy with their work.

..and here is the purple tranny, complete with a custom reinforcing bracket on top:

Jeep - 5.7 Hemi 7-7-2017 618.jpg
 
Now that the engine and tranny were done, it was time to dig into the challenging stuff. So off came the front clip, and out came the I6:

Jeep - 5.7 Hemi 7-7-2017 446.jpg


And another long story short, after custom motor and tranny mounts in (and out, and in and out, and in....) went the engine and tranny.

Jeep - 5.7 Hemi 7-7-2017 553.jpg
 
Among the many fabrication tasks which made up the project, the exhaust was the most challenging. Not a lot of room under the rig to say the least. Clearing the 3-link and front driveshaft, and stuffing two cats in there was a challenge to put it mildly.

So, I started with a bunch of stainless steel tubing:

Jeep - 5.7 Hemi 7-7-2017 1231.jpg


And after a lot of trail and error, and several unfortunate redos, I wound up with this:

Jeep - 5.7 Hemi 7-7-2017 812.jpg


Crazy tight to the tranny on the drivers side to clear the driveshaft and upper control arm at full stuff. I actually had to cut a tab off of the tranny to make it fit...

Jeep - 5.7 Hemi 7-7-2017 843.jpg


And out the back...

Jeep - 5.7 Hemi 7-7-2017 834.jpg