Basslicks

Any idea on what the weight difference in the two motors are? I'm interested to see what it is going from an inline 6 iron block and head to a v8 aluminum block and head.

cleenrob

The truck motors have iron block with aluminum heads, i wasnt lucky enought to find an l33

I dont remember the exact difference but the 5.3 and trans is around 100lbs lighter i belive

Basslicks

Ah ok... I was under the misconception that all the LS series were AL. Hey, still, 100 lbs lighter is good anyway!

cleenrob

Some of the truck motor wer all aluminum as well as car motors, but pretty much all truck motors are iron block/aluminum heads

Basslicks

Good to know.

cleenrob

finally got the steering straighten out today, the jks draglink for the wj swap is about 1/2" too long (probably less but i have the durango steering box which is bigger and spaced out from the frame farther than the stock box)

luckily the tube is threaded about 3/4" deeper on each side than it needs to be so i pulled it off and cut each side about down about 1/4"-3/8" and now i have the proper turning radius to each side and the steering wheel is finally straight!!

also while it was apart a swapped out the passenger side drag link TRE with a WJ RHD TRE (the bend in the TRE goes the opisite direction so that wheen flipped it will clear the raised sway link mounts)
- part# Crown Automotive 52088512 (unfortunatly i could not find a moog version, i will be buying a second one in the near future so i have a spare on hand since this TRE isnt a common part at any parts store.)



speaking of raised sway links i also got the old sway links completely removed (not hacked just enough for clearance like i did initially) and got the new JKS raised sway bar link mounts al welded up today and the sway bar reinstalled. the jeep drive so uch better with a sway bar, i highly recommend driving on the street with out one, especially with long arms

this is probably the smoothest my jeep has drivien since i swapped this axle in( aside from unbalanced tires and the worlds worst pinion angle, i havent fixed that cause the ls swap will locate the t-case farther forward and affect what the pinion angle needs to be)

tonight i plan on getting the transmission bolted up tonight as well as getting started on the 5.3 harness

Basslicks

From what I've been hearing lately about Moog, don't worry yourself about going with Crown. It seems as though Moog's quality has become questionable as of late, so the Crown part you have is probably of equal or better quality.

I can't personally vouch for that, just what I've been hearing (from several Moog part users).

cleenrob

wow i havent updated this enough

the trans it bolted up, the 231 adapter its bolted up and rtv'ed, the gm harnes is roughly 65% done, the fuse block is built, all wires labled, 40% of re-routing all wires to pretty up the harness id done. ive ordered all the exhaust parts and gotten the pcm flashed by lt1swap.com

im on a 4 day weekend so im really hoping to have some stuff done by sunday

Basslicks

I really admire your determination with this. Just the harness alone is enough to make me wanna go take a nap.

cleenrob

yea its a lot of soldering...i mean a lot.

i made the mistake of shortening the main trunk of it first, which turned out to be a big waste of time since i had to shorten/lengthen all the sensor wires to rout them properly any ways..

oh well theres always next time...when someone else will do the harness for me haha

Lickwid46_zj

Clean build bro

cleenrob

thanx man!

went to the junkyard today for some injector connectors and picked up a throttle cable, driverside kickpanel, and a better woodgrain dash bezel

still have some gm harness work left but i should be done with it soon

cleenrob

also been thinking a lot on what i want to do with the axles

ideally id like to throw a sleeved/trussed, gusseted, set of jk 44s under it with some factory jk wheels/4.10 gears/lockers and 35s but people want a gagillion dollars for them

or

a narowwed to waggy length HP ford d44 with a tnt truss 4.10s some sort of selectable locker/ rear 8.8 with iro truss, c-clip eliminator kit with dual drilled shafts, and a detroit

im mostly worried about the d30 handling the 5.3 power

Basslicks

Yeah, I think if I ever did a swap of this magnitude, I'd contact painless performance and see if they could do a custom harness for me. I can do wiring, and I'm pretty decent at it, it's just really time consuming.

So, you're wanting to stick with the narrow track of the XJ, huh?

cleenrob

more or less, i want to keep everything tucked under the jeep. i plan on keeping daily driveable, and beable to handle moderated wheeling+ camping/overlanding she wont be some crazy rockcrawler with d60s hangin way out