chipmaker

Hells yeah!!!

LS XJ

Baked me some headers!


Got a grease smudge on them from the pot holders!

Not too concerned though, I just want to preserve them for as long as I can.

Got the engine cleaned, sealed up and painted! Looks pretty sweet.






Hanging the engine front and rear, much more stable to work on.


Just when I thought I could get a flywheel holder locally I discovered nobody around here has one, not even the speedshop that's been here for decades. I'd have to wait a week to get one in, so I made one.




Installed the XJ temp sender in the water pump spacer.


With the engine done I can now move on to finishing cleaning and painting the engine bay.

Photojared

The XJ sensor in the spacer is such a great idea! I kind of wish I did that!

What intake is that??

LS XJ

It's an LS1, painted. It was the cheapest intake that I could fit under the hood. That shiny paint makes it go faster.

LS XJ

A little setback

Put the Cherokee up on the hoist again to clean up the underside before the engine goes in. I knew it had some rust under the driver's floor but didn't think it was through. If I can see carpet, that's not good.


Scrapped off the under coating on the passenger side to find this.


I wasn't really looking forward to fixing floors, but I've got all winter to get this finished. Just that my shop is so full with other crap that to pull seats and carpets out and make a big mess is not the best working conditions. The weather is getting new freezing now and even though my shop is heated, I can't be moving stuff outside while I do this. I really hate working in a mess!

LS XJ

Oh how I hate rust repairs!

Well the floor is done and I'm almost ready to move forward again.



One more coat of paint in the engine bay and the engine goes in this Saturday.

From then on I hope that the momentum picks up, I want to have this move under it's own power by Christmas.

LS XJ

Well there she be.


Not as easy as I thought to drop in. I had to unbolt the mount plates from the engine and poke them into the frame adapters, then lower the engine onto them, jiggle the engine around to reinstall the bolts.

Discovered that the DBW throttle body hits the hood.

I think I can trim the hood reinforcement to clear.

Now onward and upward.

Photojared

^ I had to trim the hood as well.

LS XJ

Did you also have to deal with the rear coil on the passenger side nearly touching the heater pipe?

cleenrob

i did, i just stuck a socket on it an bent it up and to the passenger side

LS XJ

So today I finished tacking my Y-pipe together.


The exhaust is pretty straightforward, 2-1/4" from the collectors to the Y-pipe and then 3" from there back. I'm installing a cutout for the track. Using a cheapo generic Walker muffler, nothing special - 35 bucks.

The right side is tight coming off the collector. I've got a 1/2" on either side of the pipe.


Scads of room on the left side. Good thing, I've got my fuel lines on that side.


Cross member was a breeze. I could have just used some box tubing and drilled a hole for the mount and welded it onto the Jeep cross member. I built a box to the dimensions I needed because I'm installing a driveshaft hoop.




So now I'm starting the wiring.

LS XJ

Got my cold air intake almost done. Box is built behind the left headlight. Just needs some paint and it's done.




The PCM is can be removed to quickly to check the status of the air filter.

LS XJ

Small update

I've been working on lots of little bits of this and that.

Welded my O2 bungs on my Y-pipe.
Welded my exhaust cutout in place.
Welded a flange on my muffler to attach to the Y-pipe
Plumbed in my engine oil primer. Pump and tubing mounted. Still needs to be wired to a switch.

Painted my CAI box.
New front shocks installed.
Line-lock plumbed but needs to be wired in.


Working on my shifter linkage now. I'm wanting to keep the stock Jeep console shifter so that requires a reworking of the linkage, from a 3 speed auto linkage to a 4 speed auto. I'll have to do some work with the geometry to get it right for the travel of the cable.

The weather has got so cold that my minimally insulated garage will not warm up to the point my old body is comfortable. My daily hit a curb when I was out on the ice, bent the front suspension so it's out of commission until I can clear the ice and snow in the driveway to get it into my shop. Have to wait till the weather warms up.

Redhawk

Nice swap, planning on doing this swap next summer/whenever my buddies truck's frame rots out, he's hooking me up with the engine. Looking forward to seeing how it shapes up. Just curious, what has your cost been so far?

LS XJ

Total expenses so far = 5,755 (likely a few hundred more then this), this includes the purchase of the XJ and trailer rental to bring it home and the purchase of the full size Chevy donor.

So far I've sold 1,240 in unneeded parts from the full size Chevy, still a few hundred in unsold parts left.

So that leaves me with a cash outlay of about $4,515

I'm near the end of the spending, hoping that I've got the bulk of the necessary parts. This is Canadian $$$, in U.S. funds that would be around $3,300

My target cost for this project was 3,500-4,000. As expected costs were more than expected. A few things I would have done differently. I lost about $250 by trying to find OEM exhaust manifolds instead of buying the swap kit. The swap kit was much more than I expected, nearly $900. I had planned to build my own mounts and use OEM manifolds, but when I realized that I was flogging a dead horse I bit the bullet and bought mounts and headers. That accounts for about $1,000 I hadn't planned on spending, but I was just to damn frustrated after the whole exhaust manifold fiasco to build mounts. I wanted to just get this thing done.