Search the Community

New Novak LS engine mounts almost in a couple more holes to drill. The old 2.5L mounts, no that is not me. :) Old tired four banger getting ready to be pulled. No more sewing machine under the hood, it served me well. Sitting in the driveway after the Axle swap from a Cherokee and Newish wheels. Refreshing the interior a bit. Before the project started: When I bought it 30 year ago, yes I'm the original owner.

So, round three of MJ for me begins. Street comanche, LS comanche, and now starting with a stocker to build it my way this time. I sold my fully built XJ for a great profit and am able to start a build I have wanted to do for a long time. This is NOT a prerunner, I have built and driven real $500k+ prerunners that actually prerun baja and whatnot. Thats not what this truck is meant for. This truck is going to have that look of a prerunner although. But that is because the wide fiberglass fenders are a supporting mod for the rest of the build. The true theme of this build is going to be a LCOG build. Having a street comanche I really fell in love with the way it handled like it was on rails because I had a nice healthy tire patch, lightweight truck, and low center of gravity. With my XJs I really enjoyed how well 35s felt off road, but still had a nice patch while on road. So this truck will be low, roughly a 2'' lift, with a nice wide stance. A good adjustable sway bar, adjustable ride hieght, and adjustable shocks. I really want to have the ability to dial it in to whatever type of driving I am doing. Id like a truck that I can daily drive, or blast down a dirt road, do some mild crawling, or take a nice canyon road at some speed, all with the adjustment and tuning of a few things. This truck is being built to not be perfect at anything, but decent at many things. With that said, I picked up a steal of a deal on the truck. It is an ORIGINAL owner 89.5 SWB Sportruck. Options are as follows: AX-15, NP231, HP-D30 vacuum disconnect, Trac-loc D44, bench seat, mini console, tilt steering, and some other odds and ends. It was originally sold in Whittier, CA, and I know this because I have the original window sticker and original registration along with it. I picked it up about 5 miles from where the dealership it was sold at used to be, still in Whittier, CA. It came along with all service records, all original manuals. The exterior is truly impecable, paint is dulling, and one small dent on driver door, otherwise astonishing for its age. There is not a spec of rust inside or out, floor boards, rockers, and even the battery tray. The interior is imaculate, one stain on the driver floor, seat has been reupholstered, and one panel is missing behind the seat. Again, not a big deal. I picked up the truck and got it on the freeway and quickly blew two tires that had been dry rotted beyond use. I saw this ahead of time but thought I'd try to make it home to San Diego where I had new tires, proved why I invest in AAA though. Got some cheapy tires and made my way to Hanneman Fiberglass where Hal, and Harold helped me to some 6'' Front fenders, and 6"' bulge bedsides. Got to have them fresh out of the molds. Cruised down interstate 15 at 85MPH for about an hour and 45 mins, didnt break a sweat or have any issues whatsoever even on the small grades. Will hold 90 in 5th gear like a champ. I quickly realised the brakes were shot so I stopped and picked some up to throw on in the morning. As everything opens at 8AM tomorrow I will be ordering a few parts. I will be purchasing a currie antirock sway bar, JKS acos spring spacer with bump stop, 15x10 Aluminum wholeshot rims, 35'' General Grabber ATX tires, and possibly a 97+ header panel kit. Some things I still need to research are regearing, and I want with this jeep I want to learn some painting and autobody skills. This jeep will not get beaten, and I sort of want it to be a pretty truck, that new ford avalanche gray just has been on my mind since the first time I saw it. So any info on those would be very helpful. Join me for this build, I have been anticipating this one for years, and funds finally came through!! If anyone is intrested in the shell, the rims and tires, or possibly trading plus cash for a bed I won't feel bad about hacking up let me know. I am located in San Diego.

Looking for a little bit of direction here. I'm in the middle of my ls swap and my next hurdle is shifter linkage. I'm aware of floor shifters, and I'm not against that, but then I would be changing out steering columns to delete the shifter handle. I'm interested if anyone here has come up with any solutions for making the stock column shifter work- part numbers of longer shifter cable (or make model of donor), I could do a lot with pictures of your cable and routing. looking for some direction mainly. Thanks

I need taillights... just kidding. I have decided I might LS swap my MJ because it knocks, misses, has an erratic idle, and leaks oil. That said, I need one of these: https://www.morris4x4center.com/chevy-v8-v6-to-jeep-ax15-bellhousing-adapter-kit-manual-transmission-168t-flywheel-and-gen-3-engines-aa-712567v.html If you have one for sale, please lmk. Thanks Is there anything else I will need (I plan on building motor mounts)?

I have decided I might LS swap my MJ because it knocks, misses, has an erratic idle, and leaks oil. That said, I need one of these: https://www.morris4x4center.com/chevy-v8-v6-to-jeep-ax15-bellhousing-adapter-kit-manual-transmission-168t-flywheel-and-gen-3-engines-aa-712567v.html If you have one for sale, please lmk. Thanks

Alright so as the title says, I’m going to discuss how I did my budget LS swap for less than 1000$. This is my first write up I’ve done so please bare with me. I have always made YouTube videos of my builds so I will try and post a link to each video I made pertaining to that portion of the swap. I purchased my 88 comanche for 500$ and drove it home. Was a rust free 2wd 4.0. It ran great but I have a problem with leaving anything stock and going all out. Last year I built a 12v Cummins TJ and had a blast doing it, but this build I wanted to go fuel injection. LS is the only logical choice. I am a 23 year old with a wife, a baby, student loans and a mortgage. Extra money is hard to come by, like I’m sure it is for most of you. I enjoy having cool rigs but don't always have the money that most internet builders seem to have. So I have to get creative and do things for cheap, yet still being professional quality. Enough babbling and on to the swap lol. I'm going to refer to my motor as an LS but it’s really just an old iron block 5.3 LM7. Same thing tho. These motors can be found all over junk yards. They can range from 200-1000$ depending on the person you buy it from. Then you still need to buy a trans and case and harness and computer and all the other goodies. I have found however when doing swaps like this that it is easier and a lot of times cheaper to buy a donor vehicle. And I did just that. I picked up a wrecked 03 Tahoe for 700$. It had front end damaged and a twisted frame. No good for anyone else but a goldmine for me. I got it home and got it fired up. I then had a buddy come over and flash the computer and remove the VATS (vehicle anti theft system).100$ It is important to make sure the motor and everything runs fine before you disassemble it so if somthing isn’t right after the swap it’s easier to narrow down that it was somthing you did and not a Pre-existing issue. Once I verified everything was good I started pulling everything off I could possibly need. I.E. motor, trans, case, harness, ecu, gas pedal and harness (DBW) , both driveshafts, gear selector cable, exhaust, trans cooler, fuel pump, hoses and Ac lines. After I had taken everything I needed off I posted the Tahoe on swip swap pages on Facebook and parted out the rest. I ended up making all my money back from the Tahoe on the left over parts and made a 300$ profit. Now it was time to start getting ready for the swap. The Tahoe came with a 5.3 4l60e and NG(somthing) case. The junk push button kind. I sold the case and bought a 241c transfer case for it. Basically the same case just manual and not electronic. Now this was the time when everyone and their brother started telling me I couldn’t run an LS in a Comanche without the Novak motor mounts. Well, if I did buy them that would mean I would have to buy an LS1/6 intake, water pump and move the Altenator. That’s another 5-800$ I didn’t have to spend, on top of the price of Novak’s mounts and headers. The other option I had was to keep the truck intake but run a cowl hood. I didn’t like either of these options so I decided I would make my own mounts and use the stock manifolds if possible. I purchased universal motor mounts off of eBay for 60$. I was determined at this point to make it work and prove all those internet builders and nay sayers wrong. If I could squeeze a 12v in a tj, this should be a walk in the park! I came across someone who had done this swap before in an XJ and he gave me some pointers on how to do it. The only 2 modification needed to make it fit were to clock the alternator down about 2-3” and run a smaller pulley for the power steering pump and run 1/2” spacers between the pump and the bracket. I will I’ll post a link here on how to modify the stock Alternator bracket. the power steering pulley you will need is dorman P/N 300-130 While the motor was out I went ahead and put a cam and valve springs in it. This is obviously not needed for the swap so I’m not factoring it in to the total cost. But since I had it out I went ahead and did it. I cleaned the motor real well. It surprisingly had no leaks. Now it was time for the harness chop. I spent the next couple of days researching and watching videos on how to convert the harness to a stand alone harness. LT1swaps.com is very helpful and also the videos from YouTube username “youcandoit2”. Watch his videos a few times and then it’s time to pull up your pants and get to work. This was my first big wiring job and was honestly overwhelming. And it stayed overwhelming until I was about balls deep into the harness then it all seemed to make more since. It took me about 8 hours to de-pin and clean the harness of the Unnecessary wires and sensors and wire up the fuse box. I did notice that if you go by the wiring digram from the YouTube videos I mention earlier, his diagram is wrong for the relays. Each pin needs to be moved one space counter clockwise for it to function properly. While I was in the harness I went ahead and did a wire tuck on the harness so you would not see any wires in the engine bay. I ran the wires behind the intake and through the firewall for a nice clean look. About 40$ in relays and fuse box Once the harness was complete it was time to pull the ol 4.0 out and get the engine bay cleaned up. The next weekend I dropped the LS in and started designing the motor mounts and finding the happy medium where the motor was as high up as I could get it with out hitting the hood. I took some measurements before I pulled the 4.0 out to see where the 5.3 sat in relation to it. I was honestly surprised with my findings. I measured the stock springs at ride height with he weight of the motor on them, I measured the distance from the ground to the rear sump of the oil pan and also the the front of the pan over the axle. 4.0 spring was 13” rear sump 12.5” front of pan 19” 5.3 spring 14.5” RS 11.5” FOP 18.5” I will post link here for video on motor mounts here. Once the motor mounts where set and welded in it was time for exhaust. You have to cut the factory collectors off to get them to fit but the stock manifolds will work and fit between the rails. They have also been proven to flow enough air with out any noticeable restrictions up to 900HP so stock manifolds will work just fine. Depending on which motor you end Up getting may determine if you have to modify the driver side manifold tho. The angle is just slightly off on some manifolds and needs to be cut and rewelded to point straight down. These manifolds are cast steel so they are able to be welded to with out any preheat or post heat. Once I had them fitted between the frame rails I welded on V band clamps to them for easy installation and removal. 20$ on eBay. At at this point the motor is in and staying in. Time to start working on wiring . If you wire your harness like I did from his videos mentioned above, you with only have a couple wires to hook up. A constant 12v power wire, an ignition wire, a fuel pump hot wire and the wire for the starter solinoid. Under the dash is a small fuse panel. On that fuse panel there is an empty spot marked “ign.” This spot gets 12v after key is turned on. I cut the orange wire for the fuel pump right before the plug on th fuel pump and ran my fuel pump wire from the harnes to that. The starter solinoid wire goes to the Jeeps starter relay. It is the bottom left pin. Should be labeled “ignition terminal” on the diagrams. I will I’ll post a link for the video I made on wiring it here. At this point I tapped into the Jeeps fuel line and ran fuel hose from the intake to the Jeeps hardlines. About 30$ in hose. I am still running the factory Jeep pump and seems to be doing fine but I’ll eventualy upgrade to a GM fuel pump. If you are still following along I applaud you! I’ve been typing for 2 hours now and I’m getting lost in the timeline of what I did next lol I will continue this write up tomorrow hopefully.

So I got rid of the street comanche a few months back as you all are aware of. I sold my immaculate XJ as well the other day, for this. Its a 1990 Comanche pioneer, it has the metric tonne package. Its got a locked D44 rear and d30 front with chromolys and geared to 4:10. It is dark blue, it's got custom metalcloak TJ long arms up front with there 6" coils. SOA in rear and all around a 5-6 inch lift. Now the major stuff: Built LM7 5.3 from a 2005 silverado with just under or around 400HP. A built 700R4 and a new/rebuilt NP241 T-Case. All the swap was done using Novak adapt parts and painless harnesses. It still needs some work, its not 100% done or perfect. But here we go on round 2 of an MJ for me.

so recently I've been watching way too many roadkill episodes and i have began dreaming about engine swaps, they make it look so easy. with that being said, my 2.5l is not as fast as i want it to be and its very old, so i have a few questions would a 5.3L chevy Ls motor fit into my 86 comanche? I've been doing some research and have found these pretty cheap. What all would i need to buy to do this swap? I'm not worried about the difficulty (except for wiring) but i do work at firestone and i would have lots of dudes with some knowledge to help me out. so what i really want to get out of this post is a basic list of parts that i would need to buy, and if an ax-15 would work with the 5.3? THANKS and bear with me I'm sort of a noob with a big dream