thecodemonk

The truck is looking good! Let me know how the XJ doors fit with the old-style interior. I'll be looking to do the same at some point with the doors off of my wrecked XJ :)

Long bed - I like to haul stuff and I like the extra room and capacity. I believe it's a little longer out the back and it does have a longer wheelbase, which means departure angle and breakover angle suffers, but I think it's worth it for what I like to do with the truck. Auto - I love driving a stick in town, where I'm really working through the gears and getting to choose what gear for what situation...but for offroading, the automatic works great and is one less thing to manage while crawling on obstacles. 4x4 - Both for trails and for winter in the northwest...it's just nicer to have the availability, even if 90% of the time I'm not using it.

Thanks! Tent is sold to a lovely couple who came down from Canada to pick it up. Back on topic though...I stopped by the shop and got into some good conversation with the owner and the techs there about what's going on. First...the progress updates: The gauge cluster fits great!!! Also, the shifter switches fit in a factory-like location. Huge thanks to Rory (owner of RADesigns) for prototyping and putting that together! This gives me the ability to leave it running like the stock shifter from the silverado for when my wife drives (she prefers it that way), but still do manual-like shifting for when I'm on the trails or if I just feel like it (as well as control how the torque converter behaves in manual mode...nice strong hold in any gear on downhill segments, for example). Speaking of shifters...the winters shifter needed to be raised a bit so that I didn't smash my fingers when putting it in park. The Hazzard Fabworx guys made a mount that puts it perfectly (and will keep my hand warm when I have the heater rolling haha). Now...onto the bad: This is the view from the top, for clearance to run the radiator hose and fill neck, as well as the plumbing for the air intake. Sadly, there's just not a lot of room with the truck spacing. I talked with Luke (owner of Hazzard) and his techs and what I think I will do is convert the whole accessory package to corvette spacing, buying approx 1.5" of room. Then we'll move the PS reservoir somewhere else. That has the additional consequence of switching the side that the upper coolant hose has to run from the drivers side of the engine, to the passenger side. That's great news! That should give us plenty of room to run the air intake pipe around to the drivers side of the bay (like stock, which means I may be able to hook it up to a snorkel later if I want) and there won't be any interference to the coolant fill neck. To convert to corvette spacing, I need to: - Switch out the crankshaft balancer - Swap out the water pump (thankfully, the 2001 camaro pump works for both F-body spacing and corvette spacing) - Remove the spacers on the accessory brackets and swap those to the tiny one (only for the passenger bracket) ...and I think that's it. Additionally, they mentioned it would be a lot simpler to tune if I stuck with the fuel injectors that came with the truck. Truck injectors are shorter than the car injectors, so that means getting a spacer kit for them to lengthen them out. Lastly, they mentioned a billet fuel rail would be good to grab too...didn't need to be fancy, but it would help. So I got that on the way too (oddly, the Holley "Sniper EFI" branded one is the cheapest one on Amazon that doesn't have crap reviews). Oh...one last thing. The SD508 ear looked like it was going to hit the hood. So...I got the SD7B10 mini compressor (the little compressor the Geo Metros use). It's just going to do actual A/C work for a tiny cab, so a tiny compressor should be fine. The holley diagram for the brackets show it as being lower than the alternator, and the alternator looks like it clears just fine. So, I got all of that ordered up and the parts should arrive today, and I'll drop them off at the shop tomorrow. My Amazon garage looks like I have a million cars with all the mixing and matching of parts.

That's really sad to hear Alexia. I know how the frustrations can make a truck sit for a while. Hopefully, a break from it for a bit will help to bring back that initial excitement for it. Any way to go back and undo some of the frustration and get it back to the way it was when you were having more fun?

It's a James Baroud Evasion XXL! I love that tent. It's roomy, easy and quick to setup/tear down on my own. Sadly, the wife thinks it's too cold (it's perfect for me), so it's actually for sale right now on the Spokane Craigslist.

Update time! I stopped by the shop last night and it looks like they made a lot of progress really fast! Engine, transmission, and transfer case is all in place. The engine looks really snug and they commented how easy the Novak engine mounts, headers, and radiator was for fitment. It went in really easily for them. Looking underneath, it looks like there's plenty of room for the OEM compressor. Also, those headers are REALLY shiney. That probably won't last that long once we hit the trails again. :) They fabbed up a transmission mount (with their HFW logo, of course) that attaches directly to the existing crossmember from Iron Rock. It uses CJ leaf spring bushings, so that should (hopefully) be easy to get when they eventually wear out. Lastly, I had read that the whole drive train would be shorter with the new setup, but I hadn't really understood how much shorter it would be! This picture really gives an idea of how much farther forward the t-case is from the stock location. On the way out of the shop, I spotted all the old parts in a pallet and couldn't resist taking a picture. There's a lot of memories (from such a short time ago) wrapped up here... They mentioned that getting all the big pieces in place was the easy part and that getting everything wired up would take a bit longer to do. I'll keep updating as long as there are interesting updates to be had! I can't wait to get behind the wheel of this!

I'm not sure either...maybe a different clutch?

It's been a few days and the thread will probably get quiet again for a few weeks. But I thought I'd post an update (as well as something I hope the V8 guys might find useful, if they want to run the Dakota Digital cluster I did). First off...I went to the junkyard and, after a bit of searching, found a SD508 off of an old XJ. This will probably be my A/C unit (after converting it to R134a) and the Denso unit that came with the V8 will be my OBA unit (since it's specs say it flows more air). - Denso 10s17f: 10.8ci- SD508: 8.4ci For comparison, the York 210 that everyone likes flows 10.3ci. So I am hoping that the Denso works well (even though I have to setup the oiling system, unlike the York's built-in stuff) I got it all mounted up and, with some help from my neighbor's tractor, got the engine into my dad's pickup for transport. We built a bit of wooden frame around it to hold it still while we drove. After I got the SD508 mounted up, I noticed that the belt alignment is slightly off. I'm notsure if it's enough to cause me problems, but I suppose I can tackle that when it happens. Oh...also, the last big piece came in from Novak...their radiator and fans. The passenger side fan is pretty thick...I'm hoping I don't run into any interference issues. For the gauges, my neighbor with the tractor is also my neighbor with the 3D printer, so he brought over the units I asked him to for the gauge mounting. I think it looks great and everything mounts wonderfully (I had to cut some clearance for the nuts on the cluster, but it wasn't too bad) It sits almost flush...I forgot to account for the metal housing under the front plate when I designed it. I may go back later and redo them, but the sketch measurements for the two pieces are below (please forgive my inability to draw straight lines) If I were to do it again, I'd make the thickness of the legs just a smidge smaller to help it sit flush. For now, it looks good enough, I think. If it bugs me later, I'll update the STL. Speaking of the STL, for anybody who has their own 3D printer, this is the STL we worked off of (I built the design in tinkerCAD and that's what my neighbor used for these pieces). It's two pieces because we didn't have a 3D printer large enough to make it one. If your printer is too small, you can get away with cutting off the legs until it fits your printer. Here's the file:91 MJ Guage Mount Plate for VFD3-1010.stl For now...I dropped the engine and this bed full of parts off at Hazzard. I'll probably be dropping by every few days to the "vehicle ICU (VICU)" to check up on him.

The bracket spacers from holley came in and, so, I got the accessory brackets mounted up. Everything fit pretty well, other than having to take the water pump back off to get one of the bolts on (for the A/C bracket spacer). In addition, the sidewinder shifter came in...going to visit RADesigns (since he recently moved up here to Spokane) and pick up some cool additions to modify this into a manual shifter. I set it in the jeep to see if it would fit there...may or may not be the permanent position, but I like it so far. :) Lastly, some scribbles of an idea for framing the gauges...I sent it over to my friend with the 3D printer and will see if I need to adjust the sizes, but it should get me close (made it in two halves because a single piece would be too large for his printer). If it works out, I'll post up the final design files for people to use if they have a 3D printer of their own, or even for use with a CnC machine (for the few people who, like me, prefer the older interior over the 97+). The remaining pulleys should come in tomorrow and friday to finish this up. Saturday, I hope to get to the junkyard to source a SD508 off of one of the old XJs there.

Well...I got started on the gauge fitment. Test fitted and took a measurement (the gauge unit is just 1 inch thick, so I figured if I cut down to 1.25 inches, I should be safe). Picked up a dremel and started going to town. I'll spend some time cleaning it up more later (it's my first time using a dremel and cutting/melting plastic with it). First...test fitment! As a note, I ground away a little of the inside edge to make room for the screws, but it fit perfect otherwise! It sits nice and flush... With that done and confirmed, I marked where the screws are and (roughly) where the bezel ends on the Dakota Digital unit. I may look at cutting this up as a model for my friend to use for measurements. I also got this in the mail...a bracket for the PS pump and the alternator from Holley! Just gotta wait on the spacers to make it fit for truck spacing now (supposed to arrive on Monday).

Continued minor progress while I wait to take the MJ in. Knock sensors replaced and RTV applied around the seals (leaving a tiny bit of room on the back in case there's some kind of odd pressure thing) Took the trans cooler off of the XJ (took a picture of it dangling before I went to the store to pickup more kitty litter for the inevitable puddle) I put the intake back on to check some measurements...man that thing sits really tight to everything (doesn't hit though, even after I cinched it down). Valley cover bolts just barely clear...was worried I'd have to go get some special kind. Throttle body just barely clears the top of the water pump. Whew! I ended up using a socket to bent the fuel line out of the way of the coil plug...it has a really small kink in it now. Hopefully that isn't a problem later down the line (if it is, guess I'll be springing for those fancy aftermarket fuel rails -.-) UPS brought a present in the mail today...after measuring 300 times, I went with the Dakota Digital's VHD-1010 and hoped it would fit (measurements said it would fit barely, height-wise). ...turns out, it fits! Just barely...but it sits between the mounts without any difficulty. Just need to do a little cutting of the old structure for the warning lights to let it sit flush (and also cutting a small frame for it to sit in and to fill out the sides). Since I have a spare unit (when I swapped gauges out to get full gauges instead of just id10t lights), I will probably see if I can't do that myself. Going to talk to a friend about making a flush frame in his new fancy 3D printer and see if that will do the job. I also measured and ordered some accessory brackets...went with the holley set for both A/C and PS/Alt in the corvette high-mount style. While cruising around and looking at what other people did, I noticed some were able to keep the A/C compressor in the original spot (passenger-side down low). I'm hoping I can do that too as that will be an easy dual compressor setup (A/C and OBA). Anybody else have experience on whether or not that will fit? If not, I'll find out in a few weeks when we drop the motor in.

Speaking of work on the MJ...yesterday morning I got some bonus time to work on things with the jeep... I got the NP231 out of the 01 XJ to be modified to mate up to the 4L60e. I went with the AA adapter kit over the novak one because it'd be easier for me to open up and work on the NP231 than the 4L60e. The new Input gear looks a lot longer than the old one...but it fit just fine all together (no finished shots since it doesn't really look different other than the longer input shaft). That said, the swap was pretty straight forward (I double checked against the bleepinjeep video for swapping a NP231 input to make sure I didn't miss anything). I also got the new intake test fitted on the engine...it sits nice and low and should clear the hood now! However, it looks like I'll need to tweak the fuel rail input to clear the coil packs...a few places indicated that going with aftermarket rails eliminated that problem. I'm going back and forth on whether I should do that or just tweak what I have. Hopefully, I'll be able to make a bit more progress on Saturday. In the meantime, I'll be trying to think of the best way to handle the gauge cluster problem. Nobody really makes a cluster for the older style...but dakota digital has a few that look promising (potentially small enough that I could fit it in the existing mount if I did a little careful dremel work). The clusters I'm looking at so far (with plans to mask/paint the front chrome to something more dull and fitting of the rest of the interior). http://www.dakotadigital.com/index.cfm/page/ptype=product/product_id=211/category_id=233/mode=prod/prd211.htm http://www.dakotadigital.com/index.cfm/page/ptype=product/product_id=846/category_id=69/mode=prod/prd846.htm I'm leaning toward the digital one as it's just a hair less tall and will be easier to fit.

Wow this build got quiet... Minor update/excuses as to why it dropped off the map: - Made a bed rack...went camping! Drove great to Banff and back in June 2018, so I figured we were good for a drive down the west coast (through OR and to SF, CA and back up). In between trips, I bought a pair of sliders from @krustyballer16 and got those welded on. They work and look great! On the west coast trip, we made it down and had a blast camping with the jeep. The bench seat is surprisingly comfortable for a long trip! On the way back home...it made it most of the way but developed a REALLY loud knock on the way back...about 300 miles from home. So there I was...loud as hell knock in the engine, almost no oil pressure (dipstick still showed plenty of oil), and the old 4.0 was down on power with 300 miles to go. Also, my wife was with me and was pregnant. With all of that, the jeep still powered through and made it home on it's on power. However, it wasn't going to be going anywhere for a while. So...it sat...I ran out of time to work on it (prepping for baby, grandma's funeral...life stuff). Then...about two weeks before my baby's due date, I got t-boned in my XJ. The damage was....extensive. The front driver's side frame is pulled in significantly... The unibody is separating from itself under the rear seats... and it mostly ripped apart the lower control arm mount, and a bunch of other things. Needless to say, that XJ is totaled and now I'm borrowing my wife's car to commute to work. The silver lining is, my wife said it'd probably be better to get the blue MJ back up than for me to go buy another car for my commuter. So this project will pick back up. The downside is...with a newborn, work responsibilities ramping up, and other things...I won't get to do most of the work myself (mounting the motor, wiring, etc). I'll be doing as much as I can to prep the motor, trans, and t-case (donated from the wrecked XJ), and then it will go into Hazzard Fabworx next month for the actual engine swap. Once that's done and things settle down again, I should be back to modding it.

Hey Alexia, did you ever test the CAN to CCD box in the vehicle? I didn't see an update to that. If so, how'd the testing go? (I assume no news means it probably went great).

He's back on the ground and driving around! I got the front brake lines installed and bled, found that even at almost 5.5" of lift, the 33's rubbed the front of the wheelwell. I moved the axle back and then it rubbed the back AND the front of the wheelwell, so I returned it to the original position. Once I buttoned everything else up, I broke out the painters tape, marker, cutting wheel, and large clippers. My wife took lots of pictures while I was cutting but this is all pretty standard stuff, so I'll just include one that highlights the experience (no lights in the shop so I just have my battery powered flood lights and the glow from the sparks to go off of): I still haven't cut off the old control arm brackets, but got the Bilstein 5100s installed. Man do they ride good...this jeep rides better and absorbs the bumps way better than my XJ. I should probably go back and work on that. Now that I can daily drive it again, updates will probably slow down again as my bank account recovers from all the parts buying (though I do still have the RuffStuff steering kit to install).

Bending and flaring hard brake lines are a lot scarier in concept than practice, it turns out. Got the rear hard lines in and bled...no leaks! One step closer to being back on the road. Here's the old lines out on the ground and a few pictures of the new ones after install. The ebrake cables are long enough to get into the bracket but I'm not sure that they'll withstand much flex...probably need to think about how to extend those before doing any wheeling. Tonight: Front brake lines and bleeding those...hopefully the shocks will arrive today or tomorrow and I can start driving it again!

Whew! What a week...why does it feel like it takes me 50 times longer to do anything than anybody else? I got around to measuring the angles and tacking up the leaf perches, then dragged my axle over to a buddy's place and he burned them in (along with shock tabs). They should hold nicely now! Next we got it home and lined it up...and found it wouldn't go in. While I test fitted the new center pins before welding, something about them was too snug afterward...so I drilled them out a smidge bigger and it went right in. Next up...new rubber (and wheels). The old wheels seemed to be too snug around the hub nub and were difficult to get off (and nearly impossible to get back on once off). So it was time for new wheels (and with new wheels, comes new rubber...because why not?). Got some 33x12.5's that should fit nicely. With the rear on the floor...it certainly added to the rake haha! Now that the rears are done, time for the fronts! It's a good feeling to have it all supporting its own weight again...after seeing the rake (not near as bad as the picture makes it seem), I realized I still need a bit more in the front, so I've got a small spacer coming to help that (I still like a little rake in my truck). That said, the rear brake line hates me and won't come loose from the splitter block...so I guess I'm learning how to make hard lines afterall for the axle side. On the short list of things to do before I take it back on the road: - New Shocks all around - Front brake lines extended - Rear brake lines extended (and axle hard lines made) - Bleed Brakes - Front coil spacers (the 0.75" ones from Daystar) - Remove or relocate front sway bar with extended lines - Cut off stock control arm brackets Tomorrow, I'll tackle the brake hard line...and if I get too frustrated with that, I'll start cutting the control arm bracketry (laying towels/blankets over the nice new control arms to protect them from the sparks since all I have is an angle grinder)

Sure thing H0rnbrod! Fun fact: They clear the stock control arm mounts even with the suspension fully compressed. (I haven't cut them off yet...may do that tonight while waiting for the paint to dry, if the welding goes well for the perches).

Got the rear off yesterday evening...so far the simple things that should be easy have all been a pain in the butt and everywhere I expect difficulty, things just come off easily (rear leaf spring bolts and u-bolts came right out without any struggle, but all brake related items took way longer than they should have). Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

Some new goodies came in today...they won't get put on for a bit but I got the parts at least! T&M stiffeners and a headliner board and fabric from SMS (getting tired of hearing the rain and hail at max volume and of the heat coming off the bare metal roof). I'm not a proficient welder and certainly not good enough for welding upside down or all along the MJ so I got on the schedule at Hazzard Fab for early June for that. Once I get the SOA done, I'll get to work on the headliner. Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

Yeah! That's a good point. Most of the lines don't seem like the runs are too convoluted to me...just that one spot. Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

Well, the front 3 link went in like a dream! Huge props to Iron Rock Off-road on their three link system and how easy it was to install! It tucks up pretty well underneath: As for the lines, there's enough give for them to just sit out of the way for now (after pulling away their plastic mounts from the uniframe). Even at full compression, it doesn't interfere with them and doesn't seem to rub much so I'll leave them this way until I can get to a shop to get those lines replaced with new ones (I don't feel comfortable enough to bend new line myself). Here is how it sits with just the front lifted with the Rubicon Express 4.5" lift coils...seems smaller than I expected but bigger tires may help with that feeling. Now to move onto the back and I already encountered my first problem...oi! Minor update on the V8 engine: It looks good...I forgot to snap pics from the borescope but the crosshatching is still there and it turns freely. Once July hits, I should start digging into that and this thread will be a bit more active. Until then, the plans are just to get this lift done and a bed rack done for the roof top tent. Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

Man I am horrible at keeping this up to date... Not much had changed...but I've been slowly taking the suspension apart to install the iron rock three link kit (looks great). That said, I found something different about MJs than XJs...the fuel and brake line routing around the extra brace for the cross member! The brace comes right off but the hard lines are formed around that shape still. Passenger side brace as an example: The lines on the driver side with the brace removed: If they we're flush along the rails, it wouldn't be an issue but since they're not, they're right where the upper link mount goes...any thoughts? Can I just pushthem out of the way? Is there another solution I am missing? I'm thinking I can just pull the clips that hold them to the frame and pull them so they go around the link for now (and redo them completely during the engine swap later). Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

Ditto the last few posts ^ :)

Wow...5 years later! Glad you're still keeping the truck and am picking up the project again. There's a lot more information on the LS swaps so I think you're in a much better place with the new plan. I'm in the process of doing the LS 5.3 swap too! Excited to see how the project progresses!