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Yeah, wow they could have thought about that sensor a little more...Not very user friendly...The fuse box issue is a tough one.. Looks like a typical mopar box.. You'd be in deep with the firewall connectors for every sub harness on the vehicle if the change is made..Those old style firewall connections usually get packed full of dielectric grease to keep the moisture out and that still doesn't do the trick every time even with new foam gaskets between the two..
That dash looks SWEET !!!
Taking a little break on the wire harness while i do a bit more research into adapting the donor trucks harness for the LS swap. This also got me thinking about the fuel system and its components and what that should be looking like. Now to start i was ditching the original gas tank right out the gate, it was a side saddle tank and i absolutely planned to setup a tank where a factory spare tire would be no matter what. While an S10 tank is fairly common for FSJ tank swaps in this swap i wanted something different. I got this steel ford bronco tank from my coworker for free and while its got a 20g capacity, its lacking in a catch tray in the tank. Now i know that could be changed but its had me re-considering tank options.
I also happen to have a couple of these 96 and older XJ steel gas tanks which arent the 20 gallons that ford bronco tank was BUT they do have a catch tray to help keep that fuel pump fed. I also happen to know a person or two running this setup with some mods to accommodate the LS engines fuel needs.
With some test fitting i was liking the fitment, the tank is butted right up to the bottom of the truck bed. My plan is to fab up a gas tank cradle that mounts to the frame - this will also incorporate a gas tank skid. Now the bottom of this bed could use some trimming. I could gain some ground clearance for the tank if i just cut out some of this bed crossmember and then cap off the remainder.
After mulling this over with some buddies of mine i got the confidence to go ahead and cut this up!
And its gone! Took out 1.5" of material
With some 2x4's in place to represent the space i have to work with under this bed i got a start on positioning the gas tank and also ideas on how i'm going to mount the tank in place.
Now for the goodies! This pump adapts to the jeeps sending unit with ease
Add to that some steel braided fuel lines and an assortment of AN fittings. Also pictured is the common Corvette fuel filter/regulator that basically completes the system, Now i just have to get busy with it!
Last edited by That Jeep Guy XJMJ; Jan 14, 2023 at 09:18 PM.
I got a little time in the garage today and made fairly quick work of capping this bed crossmember. Even flap disc'd the weld smooth for a very clean finished look. This has gotten me thinking about potentially wire wheeling the underside of this bed clean and then coating it with some POR15 or bedliner. We'll see how ambitious i get this next week/weekend.
just a little angle shot to show tank ground clearance which I'm really happy with. Still considering mounting setup and i've got a few ideas now after tinkering with some scraps. I'll dive into that a little more once i've gotten something mocked up as its a little hard to explain without some materials on hand.
It turns out the inside of the tank was rusting out, don't it figure, grabbed the last one I had and thankfully this one was still really nice inside. Cleaned up the exterior and hit it with a couple coats of semi gloss engine enamel. Made a little frame for the gas tank to sit on top of/in that wraps around the tank snug so the tank is technically resting on the pinch seam. This frame bolts to the bottom side of the truck frame and while it's functional - I'm not soo big a fan of it all said and done. It's not very sleek and looks a bit out of place soo for now it's fine but I will eventually figure out a different way to hang this tank.
You can barely see the filler holer for the tank but its lined up nicely for the hose clear the frame rail and make it just under the large hole in the bed.
And once again back to this Jerry can turned fuel filler.
Well it's only been a year and a half since I really intentionally looked at this truck... Thankfully I can't bring myself to sell the thing though I've recognized I absolutely struggle to finish projects.
I cant even begin to count how many wishful jeep projects have come and gone through this garage space in the time I've owned this truck - it's a little sad.
So here we go, current motivated goal: just make that engine run before the end of the year. Im hoping what follows hearing this truck making vroom noises is the actual progression of the build.
Recently aquired a pre-flashed "performance" pcm which settles one of the little hurdles I've been slacking on addressing. With this in hand it really is just the task of slapping all the right wiring into ok shape and it should turn over!
However this comes at the recognizing this engine needs a laundry list of parts to do soo. Begin compiling the rockauto shopping cart now!
A lovely little surprise was in store for me when I decided to bolt the starter in place. The flexplate is basically rubbing the oil pan and at the same time making it impossible to mount the starter itself. As i learned from several internet sources and a phone call to my local trans guy, this 05 6.0 and flat flexplate needs a spacer between it and the crank - great add it to the list.
Spending the week tinkering through what I can to devise a big parts list to hopefully hear this engine fire up! As I said before what follows I hope is the excitement and motivation to really get somewhere with this truck
flex plate spacer was absolutely the missing part of the equation here. Now have the proper alignment for the starter to bolt up
Though next came a roughly 3 hr setback of fighting the torque converter into a near fully seated measurement.
Consistently only getting a 5/8" set depth from trans mounting surface to flex plate mounting surface when it should really be about 1". Came to the conclusion this set of splines on the stem cap of the pump housing weren't seating - those old slap some grease on the splines and see if they smear trick. No smear here.
with a little frustration and the trans vertical again and some "technical taps" the converter finally seated enough for trans install
Though the saturday thrash ended with some intentionally hacked wire splicing and some eventual near catastrophic failure of ground wires almost catching fire - i did get the motor to turn over. It did not fire though and the defeated sensation was strong!
Then we arrive at today - a Monday with nothing at work to do but reconsider my approach.
So i sucked it up and did the thing - called painless performance and ordered a complete harness togetover this wiring nightmare hump that has plagued for years
I'm gonna try to get into this again this weekend so hopefully I have progress to share next week
Now that I've blown my excess spending budget in the last 2 weeks (~$1k) I'm gonna try and relax and little and still progress but just tiptoe through some of these more menial tasks. Clean routing and re looming the harnesses, then setup the dakota digital dash.
Working 2 jobs during the week and 70+ hrs leaves little time to sneak away but fortunately i have an open weekend.
engine bay still in full on "make it fire" mode so wires were lazily everywhere.
With some organizing, new wire loom and a few nutzerts in the firewall i have the factory harness secured and looking very Nice!
On a side note, i can jokingly say this $880 83 cherokee solved my fuse box hardware issue. Fwiw the 2 bolts that secure it to the inside of the fire wall are m10x24x3". There may be a build thread in this ones future - we shall see. For now it's JTruck time!
Soo its been a while... Decided to poke around this truck some and try to get a couple things done while ive been on vacation. Simple thing first - throttle cable Bottom one is a universal 36" cable from the Amazon. Top is the factory cable. Robbed the plastic retainer for the factory gas pedal and then re slung the cable through the sleeve.
Next came the bracket for the intake manifold and too my surprise 2 of the 3 retaining threaded inserts were missing! This I'm sure is because this intake was originally from drive by wire truck. To resolve this i did what I think anyone else would do - canabalize the other intake I have to rob the inserts from and then heat and install them offcourse.
Behold! Throttle cable installed!
Next I set my eyes on the Dakota digital dash cluster which installs simply enough, thought its the wiring and the wire routing that makes this challenging.
The overall interface design is very simplified, just finding a good spot for this little box was not. I wanted it clean mounted and accessible, I'll tell you now there isnt a great amount of real-estate for that inside the cab. Either footwell was off limits for my taste and mounting it to the inside of the firewall and bottom of the dash itself was not gonna fly. It fits well enough in the glove box soo I'm sold.
The remainder of my time on this was spent painstakingly routing wires and then looming everything together making sure I avoid making wire nests that entangle the other harness(s). May formulate another itemized list of things needed to buy and also the things I still need to do and potentially make some consistent progress on this, we shall see
Did some tinkering with these turbo charge tubes.
Rough idea on filter placement
Soo this is where i left it, the hood support ends up contacting the filter where I had it originally soo reaching a little deaper towards the firewall gets it out of the way.
Will need to modify the tube again once I settle on the routing to accommodate a MAF into the system. The other option I see would be to open up the inner fender and and run the filter into the fender well. There would be some work to be done on making an enclosure to keep the road debris from kicking up into the filter itself though. In the mean time I'm going to see this configuration through a bit more before I start making big holes to then plug back up.
Did some tinkering with these turbo charge tubes.
Rough idea on filter placement
Soo this is where i left it, the hood support ends up contacting the filter where I had it originally soo reaching a little deaper towards the firewall gets it out of the way.
Will need to modify the tube again once I settle on the routing to accommodate a MAF into the system. The other option I see would be to open up the inner fender and and run the filter into the fender well. There would be some work to be done on making an enclosure to keep the road debris from kicking up into the filter itself though. In the mean time I'm going to see this configuration through a bit more before I start making big holes to then plug back up.
since you are running the red/blue ecu, have you considered just ditching the MAF and going speed density? Most tuners prefer to do it that way. Much easier to just weld on a bung for air temp and call it a day. All you have to do is steal 2 wires out of the MAF and put a new connector on them. Any questions on the LS swap side of things, just let me know as that’s what I do for a living.
since you are running the red/blue ecu, have you considered just ditching the MAF and going speed density? Most tuners prefer to do it that way. Much easier to just weld on a bung for air temp and call it a day. All you have to do is steal 2 wires out of the MAF and put a new connector on them. Any questions on the LS swap side of things, just let me know as that’s what I do for a living.
Have not been made aware of doing that, interesting...
I've become rather jaded on reaching out to anyone/anywhere on custom tuning. Several bad experiences and a few thousand dollars wasted doesn't leave a lasting impression on the tuning community around me.
My expectation is soo long as it runs fine then I'm satisfied. I do suppose though if I have complications with the MAF I could consider what your describing soo thanks very much for that
