coheed

As @ghetdjc320 mentioned the general spring metric ton replacements are an option for that amount of lift. My truck has the metric ton replacements from them, a very small lift shackle (I think maybe 1/2" or there abouts of lift), and some old sagging rubicon express 3.5" on the front. It worked out to 3.25" in the front and a little taller in the rear unloaded. With the right shackle you could get it to 4". It's still on short arms from CORE4x4 and the ride is fine. It just rides like an old truck.

No huge update for now, been on a 12 day trip starting in Detroit to get my mom's new rv to her current place in Florence, OR. Replaced the O2 sensors with some Bosch ones I got on closeout from rockauto because when they were up to temp the left bank flat lined on voltage and threw a check engine light. Seems to have fixed that. Also had a DTC 80 code (transmission component slipping) come up on the first few drives. I'm hoping that was caused by over filling the transmission. I had assumed that having the trans apart aside from the valve body that almost all of the fluid would've gotten out somehow or another. Well, you know what they say about assuming. I had put 8 quarts in, and after pulling some out with a syphon today it seems like I put in about 1.25 qts too much. Drove it a few miles today and the code didn't pop back up, but I didn't get much faster than 45mph so we'll see. Welding a nut to the brake pedal bracket didn't give the brake switch enough tension for it to not back out just a bit and leave the brake lights on all the time. I'm thinking I'll spin the switch out a bit and put some blue loctite on it and put it back in position. This might also be contributing to the DTC 80 code because the PCM uses brake input voltage to regulate the TCC The alternator isn't charging at idle, and I don't know if it's the alternator, my wiring job, or a dying battery yet. It charges fine when I use scan9495 to set the idle at 1200rpm, so I'm hoping the battery just got deeply discharged sitting for so long. It's also throwing multiple EGR codes. This computer checks if the EGR is operational by opening 3 different valves while coasting above a certain speed and measuring the difference in the MAP sensor. Seems like a decent enough way to check if it's operational, unless there are vacuum leaks in the system. Enter this guy This is a rubber molded vacuum tee that splits vacuum to the PCV and EVAP valve via plastic hard tubes. And as you can hopefully see, there is a massive crack from the base all the way to the side for the PCV. So, I just replace this right? Well, these motors are just old enough to not have any factory replacements and young enough to not have any aftermarket support for being classics. I've ordered a no name, no motor or brand specific PCV elbow that may be able to replace this and take the PCV line on the motor, but I would need to route the vacuum for the EVAP to a different source. If the elbow works, I'm thinking I can route the EVAP to the back of the manifold where the HVAC controls and the vacuum reservoir hook up. If that doesn't pan out, I'm thinking I'll pull the upper manifold off the engine, remove the press fit pipe and tap the manifold to accept threaded fittings.

Bump, $1600obo. My truck is drivable again, so I could meet within a few hours of Fort Mill SC for the right deal.

If I remember correctly the one on my 86 is 90" long and it has a few inches of excess. As long as the one you have is around that length it should reach.

Very surprised recently how quick Summit racing get parts to me. Also surprised how different the 50 series Flowmaster sounds compared to the 80. On their website the 80 is supposed to be more aggressive and louder than the 50, but with the 50 on the truck it's significantly deeper and louder Either way I'm, happy with it

3D printed some PCM brackets I found online and threw together a mount out of some scrap angle iron I had, I'd like to redo it with some better materials at some point, but I want this back on the road. Decently tidy engine bay. The shifter positions didn't need to be changed with the cable adjusted, aside from taking some material off of the rear and cutting a larger notch for second. Unfortunately, the newer shifter doesn't line up with the mount tabs for the older center console, but I found an older one for $15 on eBay. Comparing the Flowmaster 80 and the resonator I had laying around I much preferred the sound of the Flowmaster. However, being designed for a crossflow application there wasn't a good way to mount it since it's offset/offset. The resonator is 22" long and the Flowmaster is 17" I think, so with the cat behind the crossmember it made the system much longer than I wanted it to be with both. I threw the resonator on with a downturn as a temporary solution until the Flowmaster 50 series delta flow I ordered shows up and I can redo it. I watched as many videos as I could find of 3.4 exhausts, Camaro and otherwise, and I think the 50 delta flow will be a decent compromise between Flowmaster style sound and not sounding like a Honda with a folgers can. The material in the cat is loose and rattling a lot. Because of that it's not really doing its job, so I'm debating hollowing it out for now to get rid of the rattle. Don't have the money for a decent replacement at the moment. Resonator: 20251009_150950~2.mp4 Flowmaster: 20251011_121412~2.mp4

Need to get all my photos together for a full update but took it for its first spin with the 3.4 today. Incredibly impressed with the difference. The video was too big to host here, so I threw it up on youtube

I guess I wasn't holding my mouth right when I was looking at my diagrams. It's listed under the engine controls system for the California V6, but not the 49 state, instead of the cluster page. For anyone's future reference it's fed by the 3 terminal C203 connector near the ignition switch with a red with a blue tracer and a black with a yellow tracer. My truck is a 49 state, and this connector wasn't plugged into anything on my truck. I was worried about back feeding something with power, since neither of the wires at the cluster had power to it and the Camaro light uses a switched ground, but since it's not a California model there's no issue.

Does anyone have a wiring diagram that shows the pinouts and wiring going to the indicator light panel on the left of the cluster? I have an M.R. 277, the 60 series electrical diagnostic book, and the shop wiring diagrams for the 86 and none of them have a diagram that details the connector or wires going to these lights. I'm trying to figure out how to hook up the check engine light circuit from the Camaro pcm I'm using for my swap to the check engine light in this panel.

A handful of cutoff wheels and a good bit of patience lost later I have a new y-pipe and the start of the exhaust. I thought the flowmaster on the Camaro sounded really tinny and I've had a resonator from a BRZ laying around forever waiting for a project. I'd like to do a bedside exit exhaust, but with the resonator and the muffler it'll be a little too long for that. Gonna see what it sounds like with just the muffler and just the resonator and decide what I'll do. Maybe down the road I'll get an aftermarket highflow cat and a smaller resonator with a shorter flowmaster to shrink the length a good bit, but I'm trying to finish this as cheap as I can at the moment.

Thanks, it's been a fun project. Although I've done plenty of engine swaps before, this is the first one I've done on my own vehicle. Zapped together the XJ and Camaro shifter cable bracket today. The paint is drying in the shed and I should be able to put it back on tomorrow. Started on the exhaust today as well. Got the pass side of the y pipe tacked together (the easy side), and plan on trying to tackle the driver's side tomorrow. The flux core welds aren't pretty, but it should flow much better than the 2.8 one a lot of people used for the 3.4 swap even with the BFH clearancing I had to do to get the pipe between the bellhousing and control arm mount. Incidentally, the 2.8 y pipe won't work with the 3.4 oil pan anyway, the clearance between the pan and the pipe is just a little too close and the pass side would interfere with the oil level sensor in the pan. I've read some accounts that putting headers on the 3.4 makes a decent power gain and I can see why, the stock y pipe necks down to a little under 2" for seemingly no reason. Maybe it was an attempt to keep heat dissipation down in certain areas of the exhaust?

Mine were plug and play, but I've seen people on FB say they needed to change their flashers. I believe they have resistors built in.

Routed heater hoses and made a little bracket that goes from one of the alternator bolts down to the bottom of the bracket to keep the heater hoses from sharing the same space as the alt fan or the belt. Covered it in some heat shrink so it won't rub thorough the hoses as quickly. Also, found out if you take a top radiator hose meant for the 2.8 with A/C and trim it in the right spot it fits the 3.4 water neck perfect. Making a one off intake sure takes a bit of time. I'm not completely happy with the angles and how the couplers have to take up some slack because of the lack of tighter radiuses on hand, but I didn't want to buy piping and getting stuff custom bent is even pricier. Plus the couplers will give at least a little flex in the system. Overall I like it. At this point I have just a handful of things left until the truck is drivable again. I'm getting antsy

$1700 obo, would like to get my trailer back without having to unload this thing onto blocks in the yard

Need to get some 90° barbs to cleanup the fuel lines a bit It lives 20250927_160903.mp4

Mounted the Camaro 3.4 fuel pump relay on the pedal box. Luckily the fuel pump wire exists in the 86 2.8 harness, there just isn't a third wire in the weatherpack connector going to the tank. I just threw some weatherpack terminals on the feed from the relay and plugged it into the cab harness and added a third wire going to the tank. I plan on using some rivnuts on the little bit of the cab wall that hangs below the bed to mount the in-line Walbro pump. Ran the trans cooler lines and mounted a Hayden cooler on the radiator. I plan on also running it through the cooler in the radiator, but I need to get some fittings as the Chevy threaded ends are different from the Jeep ones. Also, gonna move those horns for more airflow. The 2.8 usually ran really cool, but I know this 3.4 will run hotter. Finally got all the engine bay wiring loomed up and routed through the harness clips. Need to figure out a pcm mount and how I'm gonna run the heater hoses.

Eh, in the grand scheme of things the injectors were cheap. I got the lowest price option on Rockauto because they at least had a year warranty. I'd like to get some nicer ones to replace them down the road. Thank you for the kind words. It's been cathartic to do this project as it's one I've thought about in some form or another since I got my grandads truck back 18 years ago.

Finally got around to thinning out the excess on the harness. These Apex 2.8 connectors are great because it doesn't matter what way you insert the terminals into the body, so you don't have to worry about how the terminals are oriented when crimping them. Also got a new driveshaft delivered and installed today. Once bolted down to the axle yoke the slip yoke just completely covers the splines on the tcase.

Repurposed the 2.8 coil mount to make some mount tabs for the pt cruiser fan to the radiator. Had to clearance the shroud a little so there's room for the hoses and clamps. Now sorting out all the wiring. I guess I jinxed myself saying how much I hated wiring work because now the Lexus daily has a wiring harness issue. So much fun.

Trying to prioritize things now. Started mocking up and cut the hole in the cowl for the intake. With intake and coolant hose routing I realized that there wasn't a way I could keep the mechanical fan. While the Camaro came with aftermarket electric ones, they were no-name and I was dubious as to how many cfm they would pull and if they would be enough. A few times on here and on the TDI swap group on facespace I had seen people mention that a PT Cruiser fan might be the right size for the TJ/YJ radiator and the 2.5 and 2.8 radiators on the MJ/XJ. So, yesterday I went to the local pull a part with some tools and a measuring tape and sure enough the fan and shroud is just about the same size. There was an abundance of PTs in the yard, and I was able to snag a low mileage Bosch unit for $24, so in the future I should be able to get a decent set of brushes and a commutator if it ever decides to die on me fairly cheaply. Below are pictures of a 2.8 radiator with the stock mechanical fan shroud, the PT Cruiser shroud without the tabs trimmed off, with the tabs trimmed off, and sitting in the truck. Replacements are advertised as pulling 1500-2300 cfm and the stock Bosch is fused at 40amps from the factory so I assume a factory one should be on the high end of that. That's more than the stock 3.4 Camaro pulls, so I think it'll be alright. I'm going to look more into how to lower the fan kick on temperature in the PCM as well. Also realized that the boostwerks NP242 shifter linkage won't work with my setup. First off, the NP207 shifter lever tab has an odd angle compared to the later 231 and 242 shifters. So, I snagged a 231 shifter off a '00 XJ in the yard. And, with the 4L60e being shorter than the AW4, the extension they give you hits the shift shaft so I'll need to shorten that. As well as the turnbuckle they provide being significantly too long, but I found a fairly cheap 304 stainless one I can order to replace it. Speaking of shifting, I wanted to keep the 4L60e cable shifted and since the shifter for the 84-86 A904 operates on a linkage I couldn't make that work (I had it laying around from my grandad's truck). I snagged a shifter, cable, and transmission bracket from the same '00 XJ. I should be able to cut and weld the Camaro and XJ cable brackets on the transmission end together and make it work. I'll also be regrinding the notches in the shift gate like shown in this build thread over on LS1tech. However, I'm not seeing a way to tap into the trans wiring to feed the reverse lights, and on the Camaro they were powered through a set of contacts attached to the shifter. So, I'll need to figure out how to get my reverse lights to work. I also managed to nab a C and D horn from an 88 Cadillac Deville to be spares for the ones on the truck for $5

Bump would also consider trades for some nice highland check wingback seats as well.

Started sorting out routing the stand-alone harness. I want this to be contained to the engine bay with the stuff up near the wipers passing through the big oval grommet next to the throttle cable. All the excess that would normally be behind the Camaro dash will get shortened and go through an apex 2.8 sealed 14 pin connector up above the blower and pcm. Rigged up some brass fittings so that both the factory sending unit for the MJ gauge and the sender for the Camaro pcm both get oil pressure. The gauge one has much more clearance than it looks like in the photo. Welded a 1/2-20 nut to the bracket that originally had the vacuum release on the brake pedal that I assume went to the 86 cruise control, so that I can reuse the Camaro brake switch. The Camaro throttle cable fits into the MJ firewall if you trim down the locating tabs on both sides.

Made holes and mounted the Camaro power distribution block. Surprisingly the Camaro battery cables fit quite well and the battery already has side posts. Got the factory engine bay harness and the Camaro engine harness mounted today. I've always liked the cowl intakes, so I'm gonna rig something up with all the piping I have on hand

Well if anyone was using it to do a conversion on a 87 or later they'd have to get the later style master cylinder, but that's fairly cheap in the scheme of things. I could've answered if the 229 was bigger a few months ago if I knew it was a question in need of an answer. I sold the 229 I had on hand a while back. I don't remember it being substantially larger than either the 207 or the 242. It was heavier than 207 though.

Installed a new brake booster after hitting that area with the needle scaler and a coat of mastercoat. I'm incredibly impressed with the mastercoat. I had some overlap from the area with clutch master, and it took a significant amount of time with the needle scaler to knock it off. I decided to just get a stock replacement because I wanted the simplicity of just bolting it in. Will look more into upgrading to a larger one somewhere down the road. I also mounted the vacuum reservoir from the Camaro and the cruise control unit behind the front crossmember. The truck hasn't had a vacuum reservoir since I've owned it, so it'll be nice for the HVAC to not default to defrost under heavy loads. Now, on to the matter of the transmission mount. Novak supplies a nice bracket that bolts to their adapter and an energy suspension GM style mount. In the form it comes in, it was way too tall to fit the stock crossmember and if I bolted the mount straight to the transmission the engine would've been angled downward too much. I felt like it was easier to modify the Novak bracket than the crossmember. I cut the bracket so that only the lowest mounting holes were left and rounded the corners off. However, when bolted in place it didn't sit flat on the crossmember, so I stuck it in the vise and bent the tabs to match the angle of the adapter relative to the crossmember. Threw a coat of paint on and drilled holes for the new mount bolts and access holes for a socket on the crossmember and bolted everything up. There's about 3/8 of an inch of clearance between the NP242 and the driver's floor, so I shouldn't have to worry about them touching. It's nice to have this drivetrain completely bolted into the truck. Now everything I've read about 3.4 swaps says you need to swap in the oil pan and timing cover from the 2.8 so there isn't any interference from the axle. I would rather keep the 3.4 timing cover because that's where the 24x crank position sensor is housed and the 2.8 cover doesn't have a place to bolt it to. The 24x sensor helps with keeping the idle smooth and according to some of the reading I've done, without it the engine defaults to multiport injection instead of sequential injection. Multiport injection isn't a bad thing, it just means more than one injector would be firing at a time and costing more gas. I've also read in a few places that if you're lifted it may be possible to keep the 3.4 oil pan. I left it on the motor when I swapped it in, and today I tried to see if there would be any clearance issues. I disconnected the sway bar and maxed out the suspension as much as I could with a jack. It had about 2.5" until the driver's side was going to be on the bumpstop and the passenger tire was already 2" off the ground. There was more than 3.5" between the diff and the oil pan, and the same for the passenger side. That said the truck is lifted 3ish in the front, so this might not work for a stock truck or one that was going to get flexed harder than mine. Time will tell Looking at it, I may be able to get the mechanical fan to bolt up to the 3.4 water pump but it would be much further back than on the 2.8. Ultimately, I'd like to keep the mechanical fan and have a pusher mounted on the front that the PCM controls. The stock Camaro PCM doesn't turn the fan on until 220° and I'd prefer it to run just a bit cooler than that.