neohic

Thanks guys! The plan for the ZJ tank is to cut out the big huge cross member and replace it with a smaller tube structure. I'll be doing away with the stock MJ tank as I really don't think I need the extra capacity and I don't want to deal with transfer pumps. Simplicity is the name of the game! When it comes to replacement parts I want to keep with only one vehicle... and ZJ parts are cheap. Pretty sure the only "new" part going into this truck that isn't from a ZJ,XJ, or MJ is an aftermarket CJ(?) radiator. The ZJ unit is too wide to fit with the steering box where it is. I want to keep the mechanical fan from the 5.2 (remember... simplicity) so I'll be removing the stamped front cross member and replacing it with a tubular one that'll go under the new radiator. ... probably, anyhow?

Thanks, guys! I won't be able to have any time to work on it this weekend but be sure to stay tuned for more soon. We had a junk XJ sitting behind the shop at work that I cut the floor and the fuel door from today. The floor is so obviously being used to patch my floor, and the fuel door will be used for when the bed gets bobbed and the ZJ tank goes under the bed. WHAT?! "When the bed gets bobbed"?!:.. yup. Still some big news coming down the pipe.

More wiring yesterday. The donor ZJ is looking pretty bare at this point... all besides the giant pile of loose wiring, that is. I've been taking the donor harness apart and picking out all the wiring that I don't need out of it as it's been coming out. Sure has been taking a while, only really working on it on Saturdays too, but I think it's worth it dissecting it this way rather than just ripping out all the wiring, plopping it on the ground, and figuring things out from there. So here's where I'm at now. While I was under the truck I noticed something peeking through the floor that looked like numbers. Sure enough... ... classic license plate "patch". After a pass or two with the shop vac... ... I've got some patch work to do. I'm totally fine with this! It comes down to it and it's still a 31 year old truck and the rest of the truck is still in great shape. Even so, it kind of took the wind out of my sails for the day so I just took a step back to have a look at where I'm at. Scary? You bet! When I start thinking about where I started with this truck not all that long ago, where I'm at now, the fairly easiness that things have bolted in (or close to bolted in), and I can already start seeing the end of the first tunnel.

Very cool! Specs on the Beetle?

Welcome back to the Comanche sickness! I seem to remember talking VWs with you a while back. Looks like a good collection there in your first post. I'm a bit of a sucker for early aircooled and MK1s. :thumbsup:

Nice. :cheers: Love that big huffer proudly displayed through the hood.

:ack: ... not exactly my favorite thing to be doing. Sure wish I had more time during the week to work on things. I've been getting the itch to be daily driving an MJ again.

Here we go into another month, all! This month is... well, this month is really something special. I dig it, anyhow! Here is one of those trucks where it looks somewhat of the norm... and then you start to take a closer look. Big knobby tires? Check. Heavy offroad bumpers? Check. Well weathered Comanche body? Check. LS power under the hood? What?!?! This month, be sure to take a close look at... YEAR/MODEL ● 1989 Jeep Comanche Pioneer. Originally 2wd, 4.0L, AX-15, with a Dana 35 ENGINE/PERFORMANCE ● 2006 Trailblazer SS LS2 400hp/400lbft - stock internals, Corvette accessories Novak Ceramic Coated swap headers, 2.5” header outlet pipes, merging to a single 3.5” pipe. Reduces to a single 3” over the axle with a Magnaflow High flow cat and straight through muffler 4” intake to AEM cone filter DRIVETRAIN ● 2007 Tralblazer SS 4L70 - TransGo shift kit, some upgraded internals, Novak tailhousing and 300M output shaft NP242 from a Grand Cherokee Dana 30 Front axle - 4.10, TrueTrac, Truss/sleeve, c-gussets Ford 8.8 rear axle - 4.10, Trac-lok, Mustang Cobra Carbon Fiber friction discs, restacked and no friction modifier for more locking, RuffStuff diff cover COOLING ● All metal CSM 3-row HD radiator (for now, needs upgrade to Novak super thick aluminum unit in the spring). stock XJ E-fan and 2 Spal Slimlines B&M transmission cooler Needs an oil cooler ELECTRICAL/IGNITION ● Custom wiring harness from the driver's seat forward, everything is rated to IP67 for water protection Engine bay connectors are either stock GM, Deutsch, or a few metripack 280 Deutsch DRB12-48 bulkhead connector in stock location Cooper Bussmann RFRM engine bay fuse box Littelfuse 868-163 HWB60 interior fusebox, mounted to old ECU mount Cooper Bussman Power Relay Modules to switch and control the big loads SUSPENSION/STEERING ● WJ Grand Cherokee knuckles with crossover steering Custom 1.5” OD 0.25” wall track bar using JKS OTK bracket, RuffStuff ¾” heims, and a modified Iron Rock Offroad Double shear chassis side bracket Durango Steering box with removed internal stops Custom power steering hoses to meet up with Corvette PS pump SPC 1.5” travel JounceShock front airbumps MetalCloak 4.5” Dual-Rate springs 0.75” Spacers Garbage 12” travel white-body shocks to get it on the road (soon to be replaced with Fox/Kings) Single Y-link radius long arm suspension - RuffStuff DIY Long arms kit with 1.25” heims Rusty’s Offroad 4.5” lift springs (5-leaf) SummitRacing extended XJ shackles in relocated pivot (7” long c-c I think?) RuffStuff high-clearance Deaver-style leaf spring brackets and u-bolt plates Garbage 10” travel black-body shocks to get it on the road (Soon to replaced with Fox/Kings) Extended progressive poly bumpstops on 1” aluminum drop spacers RuffStuff Specialties DIY Traction Bar INTERIOR ● 2007 Subaru WRX Seats Rostra Seat Heaters 2002 Subaru WRX Underseat subwoofer mounted to back wall Streamlight 75712 flashlight/cradle mounted to back wall - charges from vehicle 12V Jensen JHD3630BT head unit with weatherband and bluetooth Infinity Reference Speakers with DEI Speaker baffles Cobra 19DX CB Radio B&M Pro Stick shifter - modified with BillaVista tutorial for offroad use Novak Cable TC shifter - modified to work with NP242 and 4L70 Modified XJ Center console to remove e-brake handle area, add cupholders, and clear B&M shifter (needs more work) LED B-pillar and footwell lighting 1992 GMC Jimmy rear-view mirror with LED map-lights 1990 Eliminator tilt steering column, with working cruise control BRAKES ● WJ Grand Cherokee knuckles with 13” rotors Akebono Calipers with a small shave to clear wheels Stock Explorer rear disc brakes WJ grand cherokee booster and MC Deleted rear proportioning valve LIGHTING ● IPF H4 headlight housings with 65/75w bulbs LED White/Amber turn signal bulbs with switchback Hella 90mm foglights with PIAA amber bulbs Zeus Pro Single 20” LED bar - spot beam Hardwired flood work light on a magnet mount EXTERIOR ● Custom dents Cut hood for intake manifold clearance TrackSpec large hood louvers Custom 3/16” plate front bumper with integrated LED and fog light mounts and protection with hidden winch (between front frame rails) Custom bent stock rear bumper (for now), custom plate bumper to match the front coming soon WHEELS/TIRES ● 33x12.5 R15 BFGoodrich Mud-Terrain KM2 - siped Cragar Soft-8 steel wheels 15x8, 4” backspacing 1” spacers on the rear, 0.25” spacers on the front Winter (just put them on, no pics yet): 2009 Ford Ranger Sport 16” wheels 285/75 R16 Yokohama Geolandar I/T G072 1/2” spacers in the front, 1/4” spacers in the rear, extended lug studs MISCELLANEOUS ● T&M Metal Fabrication frame stiffeners Hi-lift extreme Maxtrax Warn M8000 with synthetic rope, custom tool to turn clutch lever through a hole in the front bumper Remember That One Time?... Tell Us Your Best MJ Story ● The company I work for built a prototype vehicle, and we were taking it up to Houghton, MI, in the Upper Peninsula for testing. I thrashed on my Comanche for several months every night after work to complete the 4.0 HO and 4WD swap, along with the 3” lift, D30 build, and Ford 8.8 installation, to get the truck ready to take up there, often working into the night in the garage after a 10-12hr day getting the work vehicle together. I went to school in Houghton at Michigan Tech, so I was really excited to get my truck up there for some after-work shenanigans, especially because one of my coworkers was bringing his Land Rover Discovery up as well. I ended up finishing putting the MJ together at 1am Monday morning, had it all packed up by 4am, and left at 7am to drive 600 miles up to the UP. The MJ ran almost perfectly for 4 weeks of wheeling and exploring. Everything was great until the last weekend. I volunteered to stay over the last weekend as my co-workers all had families to get back to, and we needed someone to stick around until Monday to load the vehicle back onto the trailer for the trip back. I was doing some exploring by myself and unfortunately ended up almost getting stuck in a mudhole (thanks MaxTrax!) and cutting an electrical harness in the front of the truck. Some of the magic electrical smoke escaped and I hustled back to civilization as fast as I could, but the Comanche died on a remote dirt road, and I had to get it towed back to town. I couldn’t find the cut in the last day up there (luckily I also brought my motorcycle so I still had transportation) so I had to rent a u-haul to get it back to Detroit. Even after splicing the harness back together the truck never seemed to run very well again, I don’t know if something somewhere got shorted or what, but this eventually led to me having enough of the 4.0L and deciding it was time for an upgrade. And now it’s got an LS2 :) CC is Awesome!... Why Do You Think So? ● There’s a huge knowledge base here and some pretty incredible build threads. I love browsing the tech and build thread sections learning new things about Comanches, and seeing what other people are doing with the platform. My favorite part is when I find some part or solution that is really well done, so I can take and use for my own build! :) FULL BUILD THREAD HERE Holy picture dump, Steve! Totally worth it though! A big, BIG tip of the cap on this build. I really appreciate the way you've documented everything in your build thread. Almost like a "how-to" on an LS swap. Very cool! It's your month so be sure to enjoy all of it. Congratulations! -Ben This post has been promoted to an article

I've followed this thread for a while now too while planning MY 5.2 SWAP. I ended up making my own mounts, using the stock exhaust manifolds, and notching the frame a bit on the passenger side. This left me being able to keep my hood lines stock. I have about 3/4" between the top of the air intake hat and about 1/2" between the top of the alternator bracket and the underhood supports. Granted, my engine doesn't sit perfectly centered in the engine bay, but raising the engine high enough to clear the steering shaft would've been silly. As for the blue '86 build thread years ago, HERE it is. He must've used Dodge pickup motor mounts though. They hang a little wider than the ZJ mounts, but they do sit higher.

:doh:

Still watching. Still enjoying. :popcorn:

Still very cool, BJ. Look forward to more updates!... sooner than later.

:banana: ... and then?!

Had another busy day working on it, but I didn't take any pictures. Before anyone posts the "useless without pics" smiley, hear me out. :smart: Today's progress was ugly progress. The dash came out of the truck along with the pedal assembly, column, interior wiring, brake booster, and master cylinder. In their place went in the ZJ column (almost a bolt in... had to drill a couple holes for the lower support on the firewall), the ZJ dual diaphragm booster and master (direct bolt in), the entire dash harness from the ZJ, and an automatic XJ brake pedal assembly. Before harvesting any of the wiring from the donor, everything was labeled... otherwise it'd be a real soup sandwich trying to decipher everything! There's going to be a ton of useless wiring to remove from the entire harness, and it'll sure be a fun process. Next on the list is going to be changing out the truck's heater core... because one does not remove a dash without replacing the heater core... ever. While the heater box is out, I need to remove the donor ZJ's heater box as well to see if I can move all of the heater box controls over so I can retain the ZJ dash heater switches. See? I told you so... ugly progress, but progress none the less. :shake:

^This... all of it. My wife's daily driver is an '07 Focus SES four door hatchback. Her's has the DOHC four cylinder, it's got plenty of pep, and it's good on gas. Plenty of creature comforts too! It's a fun little car and it's been very good to us.

What a day! What a day! WHAT A DAY!!! :banana: This little '86 is officially a V8 truck! Everything started off just fine with the engine just about dropping into place on the first try. Technically, it was in there. It was sitting on stands, but in there. Things came out really tight in some spots so the engine is favoring the passenger side a bit. Time for mounts! The tight space above the passenger side frame rail just wasn't jivin' with me. So... Then a quick... hack?... transmission crossmember was made up. My plan is to wait on really tearing into the truck suspension wise until after I've got a few miles on the drivetrain. Being that I'll probably be doing something special for control arms, I just couldn't see myself doing something permanent here. That is the bastard love-child of the stock crossmember along with the cut up remains of the ZJ transmission bushing hanger. Ugly? ABSOLUTELY! Functional? For now. Didn't even bother to get all the dirt off. :D So then that brings us to here... Oh, yes... today was a good day.

... RED '86 models? :D

I work at D&C Extreme in Colorado Springs. We're known for being a Scoit shop... but we're branching out.

... it's now later. Pushed the truck back into the shop this morning for some extraction, wiring removal, and cleaning. From what I remember, Jim stabbed in the 2.8 from a '91 S10, backed by an AX-5 from a '96 XJ, and then finished up with the original 207 transfer case a while back. That's where things stopped for this little red '86. Everything came out really well and I appreciate Jim leaving everything dry. Not a single drop of fluids of any kind dripped on the floor! Out came the drivetrain... ... and out the door it went... Felt a little bad about undoing Jim's work, but I like to think that he'll appreciate the future mismatch of drivetrain components that will be taking their place. I took the rest of my time today removing all of the underhood wiring and giving everything a well-enough cleaning. Quite literally a clean slate to work with. Funny thing about this truck is that it seems like everyone who has seen it recently has the same reaction of "wow... that's a solid truck". It happened again today at the shop and then it was revealed to me some original grease marker codes left over from the production line still in place. Kinda cool, I guess. Really shows how the truck has fared since it left the factory. This week I'll take care of a few maintenance items on the 5.2 and hopefully mate it up to the transmission from the ZJ. Until then...

I am planning an exo cage as well since the interior cage was only for mock up. Expect to see something H3RESQ inspired. :drool: Spent a little time on this truck today. More on that later.

D&C is very much still in business!... however Damien has had nothing to do with it for a number of years now. He sorta drove things into the ground and then sold the company to the current owner. As for the cage, we've got tons of options for just about everything we offer! The suggestions you mentioned are already in the works. The dash bar... oh, the dash bar... It's based off of the current XJ dash bar which is pretty much set in stone as far as I know. Ideal? Probably not. You nailed it though that these are not designed to be race cages and keeping things as user friendly is definitely a must. I moved the a-pillar tubes out towards the doors to free up some space and to make getting to the headlight switch just as easy as if the cage wasn't even there. The glove box door is another one of those deals where interior space and creature comforts were kept in mind. Can you open the door all the way? Nope. But you can get it open enough to still use it and the bend in the dash bar aids in that. Overall, I'm really excited about it! It's the first step in what I'm hoping to be a complete product line for MJs out of the D&C doors.

I'll keep everyone posted! There's a bunch more pictures I took of everything showing all the fine tuning details with the fit and finish. Hopefully I'll be able to get something finalized and put together something real in the Vendors section. :thumbsup:

Time to spend some time on this thing... Got it into the shop at work to finally have a good look at it and to mock up a new production interior cage. The good? It's probably the most rust free MJ I've ever had... The bad? Hail damage... lots of it... I also finally had a chance to look over the mighty 2.8. Not that I'm rethinking things and now planning on keeping it, but it was more just to see what the condition of the wiring is in. I think what I'm going to do is use as much of the donor wiring as I can and get rid of all the breakable stuff like power windows and locks, cruise control, and whatnot. As for the donor(s)... ... the green ZJ is the main source. The red one will be giving up a few interior bits that are broken/missing in the green one. Not totally sure what the dash setup will be, but I'm hoping to keep as much of the MJ dash but also use as much of the ZJ switches and cluster. We shall see. The wiring, transmission, steering column... ... and 5.2 V8... ... should fit just fine with some creative finessing. This really has nothing to do with the build, but the cage fabrication went well. I work at D&C Extreme in Colorado Springs and we currently offer 4 door and 2 door Cherokee cages in a few different variations. In the past when customers ask about Comanche cages, we've made up some creation of 2 door stuff... and I can't imagine they fit very well without some cutting. That's all about to change! I took the time to make up some numbers based off of the XJ cages. Not sure on pricing, but stay tuned to our company website. Who knows... maybe I'll put together a Comanche Club discount? What I'd like to see is a full MJ line of components. Cages... sliders... bumpers... I've got plans. We're mostly known for being an International Scout shop but we're branching out. Fingers crossed we'll have some time to put some time into new products this year. As for the actual build of this truck, I'm sure I'll be pushing hard on this soon. Seems like the Ape finds a new way of disappointing me every week lately. Very much looking forward to throwing some effort at this one!

:cheers: Since this is your thread after all, anything new with Betty?