MJ 3800

[JeepcoMJ]

Hey everyone, I put a 1996 camaro 3800 engine in my MJ.

 

literally the day after paint. took 4 hours for me to re-assemble it i was so excited.

 

What I have is a 1986 Jeep Comanche Custom. it was a bone stock, 2.8 liter v6 with an ax5 tranny (which was in the bed of the truck when i bought it).

Now it's had a FULL body restoration, aided by the fact that there was very little rust for an MJ. the paint job was more than i wanna think about...let's just say i don't wheel this one.

 

rear right fender..not too terrible

 

smoothing after i replaced the bad metal.

 

rear left fender

 

stripped the hood it was all cracked

 

replaced the front left fender. it was dented to hell as well as the panel behind it.

 

that's where it was all dented up. had to pull that with a slide hammer.

 

I hadn't put buckets in it by this point. it looks real nice :D also, i put a bedliner and aluminum toolbox in it at a later date.

 

I bought and rebuilt the D30 front and D35 rear (3:73 gears) axles. had another donor MJ 4-banger that i was originally gonna restore but it was too far gone, so my 4wd AX5 tranny and driveshafts came out of that.

 

Installed a Rough Country 3 inch lift, which handles great but I need bigger tires. 31x10.50 Dayton Timberline A/T tires mounted on (free) American Racing 15x8 aluminum rims. Found an original Comanche bedliner and tailgate liner, so i installed that too, as well as an aluminum toolbox. And fog lights, 2 front and 1 rear (center bottom of the toolbox)

 

Then came the interior. It's blue. let's just say i'm not happy about that. but black is hard to find and grey is too plain. So I found a 1986 4 dr XJ that had blue buckets in it, and a center console, and traded a 1994 Grand cherokee that i payed 200 for straight up (the grand had heating issues...which lead to blown motor/no compression. that was all caused by an accident which wrecked the front end and broke the axle).

 

Off that xj, I got a uncracked blue dash, unstained and unburned blue bucket seats (changed over the brackets to comanche). the seats are strange...they sort of swivel forward and backwards on a seperate set of tracks than the actual forward/back adjustment track. this led them to be higher than stock MJ buckets. which i like. alot.

 

i just wish it were black. the things on the dash were compliments of a certain chica...

 

pic during the engine swap

 

Also from it i took the cruise control, door panel (the 1 good one), power locks, a/c, and vent-wing windows. and the front clip and doors to use on my dad's 1986 Renault comanche.

 

so all that went in my truck and i drove it. put 13 thousand on it and got sick of 7 to 11 mpg. and was looking for viable options. Pete Montie suggested the 3.4 to me, and i was going to do that as it's a straight boltin.

 

then i discovered the RWD Buick 3800 v6 that was used in the 1995 on up camaros. it's a common FWD engine, but the only RWD application is the Camaro and Firebird. and, of course, my truck now. Found a 1996 camaro with 107k on it, payed 350 for it

 

real wrecked. i used the duramax and a triaxle to haul it home

 

that's the engine in the camaro.

 

we had to pry the hood open at the junkyard to see.

 

way i figure it, kid must've been burnin it real bad, lost traction and swung the rear end into something, bounced off and nose-dived into something else.

 

got it home, lifted the body straight off the front subframe and tranny crossmember, and stripped the wiring from the Fbody chassis. took the motor apart, replaced all the gaskets and cleaned the parts, painted it how i wanted it (black with aluminum showing as well) and then it was prepped. the last thing was to notch out the left side of the bellhousing for the starter. the 3.8 is a 90 degree engine, but with a 60 degree bellhousing mount. so i reused the ax5 tranny.

 

the intake as i was wire-brushing it off to paint.

 

forgot to take pics of it all apart, here i'm buildin it back up

 

huge stack of parts that came off it.

 

hard stuff done, all's left was fuel rail, wiring, accessories, and serpentine

 

i like how it looks

 

mostly done. note the stock exhaust manifold...it got in the way with my frame so i made my own.

 

oooh

 

in the end the o-rings on the injectors were shot. had to replace them...only 5 bucks new :D

 

sanded lettering and high points for that brushed look.

 

the bellhousing after i notched it for the new starter (didn't need to cover the notch, it fits like a glove), wire brushed it, and made the debris shield for the flywheel.

 

back side

 

So in January of 2007 I started the project on my christmas break from college. day in, day out. yanked that boat anchor 2.8, set this in and mounted it to the tranny, and realized the flywheel is 3/8 of an inch thicker than the 2.8 flywheel. throwout had no play. so i fixed that problem, and got the engine back in it.

 

right after i yanked the motor. took only 3 hours to do that. shame of it is I had to replace the water pump, oil pressure sending unit (saved that for the 3.8), and the mechanical fuel pump less than 1000 miles previous

 

empty

 

the boat anchor.

 

pops studyin it, that's the motor in front.

 

first time setting it in.

 

good clearance

 

well he appears to be thinking...in spite of that, i did most of the work. he welded, i fabricated. my welds are terrible but i'm getting better.

 

good clearance there too.

 

still with the 2.8 header

 

then figured out two things. 1) the stock exhaust manifolds were NOT gonna work. and 2) the a/c compressor wasn't gonna fit into the frame either. so i could either notch the frame or eliminate the a/c.

 

my goal is an all options MJ work truck. a nice truck that i can show off, it is in NO way meant to be a wheeler. i have other ones for that.

 

Because of that, I went with keeping the a/c. yanked the motor, notched the frame, welded it up (after sever test fits). the frame is now 1.5 inches thick right in front of the coil. I plated it with 1/4 inch steel, and plated the bottom all the way across so it still has the strength it needs. it just won't crumple right in a accident now.

 

i'm either very brave or very stupid. or a gosh-darned genious. look at the size of that cut!

 

with the mounts put in. it's an angle iron idk how thick, with 3 studs on it for the rubber mount.

 

driver side mount.

 

first plate welded in. i decided on multiple pieces so i could full weld the inner piece as well.

 

bottom part is done. now for the top

 

fronts and rear done. now for the center motor mounts solid welded as well

 

finished and primed

 

paint's not dry. went black cause i like it better than white.

 

finished driver's as well.

 

this is the driver's side mount. all done. paint and check :D

 

it's made from the camaro mounts but shortened and altered heavily. this was the hard side, as it required more cutting and fitting.

 

passenger side. just shortened it and re-drilled it. welded a cross-bar and it was good

 

oh, and i cut the bottoms narrower so that i would have room for control arm movement.

 

all mounted, had to get rid of the 2.8 header cause there was no room for fans or intake.

 

yay

 

fits like a glove

 

converting it to fit the 4.0 rad. in it

 

havin a dandy time.

 

lefty

 

the radiator.

 

gettin there...

 

fits!

 

the header panel. note that I cut out the center section of the old header and reshaped/welded it to the 4.0 header. that way i retained my centrally-located latch mechanism.

i braced the middle when i was done.

 

up close of the latch

 

4.0 hood support

 

painted the inside of the hood, remade the hood latch part on the hood.

 

now for the fans....

 

managed to get the camaro fans in it.

 

 

so i got that all mounted up, and made my heater box hoses. then i made my power steering hoses (wasn't cheap...at all). then i decided on the radiator situation. couldn't find a newer style one from a 4.0 with a filler neck, but i wanted the 4.0 nonetheless. so i got a rad. and condensor from a 1992 xj and made the lower brackets for that (after extensive surgery on the front end). used the 4.0 header panel but altered it by putting the hood latch and part of the header from the 86 header panel onto it. had to remake the clip that's on the hood and reposition it back further. used a 4.0 hood support. And used the stock camaro fans.

 

power steering hoses

 

heater hoses. short on cash here so i used what i had...aluminum tubing. it was the right diameter and works quite well. looks good too.

 

used the 86 battery box

 

oh! fuel pump. i used an inline new fuel pump from a 1988 Ford 150 5.8 liter v8, and an inline fuel filter from a 1992 dodge shadow. i know a 4.0 would have worked, but on my budget, it made more sense to go my way. plus it's easier to fix now.

 

fuel pump system.

 

left side. it also has an external power steering reservoir unlike the 2.8. note it's in front of the brake booster now.

 

upper rad. hose, note the inline filler neck.

 

got that mounted. then i ordered a Moroso In-line filler neck. worked like a charm, made the lines and that was it for the big components.

 

last major thing was the exhaust system. i ended up taking two front headers from a 1992 FWD pontiac bonneville (they're stainless, stock ones are cast, and different as they're RWD) and having a machinist friend make me flanges that match the RWD heads. reconfigured the headers (i actually mean completely redesigned) and used them. welded in the flanges for the o2 sensors, and that was that. got those done mounted and all.

made the y-pipe from the camaro one. that's double-walled stainless so to do that ya have to cut, weld the inner tube to the outer tube, then smooth, and repeat. cut twist bend. got it figured out, lead it down to 2.25 inch pipe, and installed the pre-cat o2 sensor. don't have a rear one so i didn't bother...yet. put a cheap cat in for now, i need one that removes n0x as I do not have a EVAP canister. but that was done then

 

driver's side. that's the flange i had made, i'm manufacturing the manifold there. the Fwd ones that had stainless, the front two holes line up but the back one was farther back so i had to shorten it and modify quite a bit of it. actually all of it lol

 

completely custom down tube.

 

fits, and got the egr valve hooked up too

 

driver's again.

 

it's about this point that i realized...ooooh sh(# it's F.I. now i gotta do the wiring. so first thing was to figure out what to do. The engine runs off a PASSKEYII system, or Vehicle Anti Theft System (VATS). basically the key has a little chip in it that gets read and enables the computer to turn on the fuel injectors. i don't have that type of system on the comanche ignition so i wanted to get rid of it.

 

Solution, Baker Electronics makes a VATS bypass module for 30 bucks with shipping. run a ACC (crank and key on power) plus, ground, and then the blue wire out to pin 55 on the PCM.

 

PCM wiring is fairly straightforward. there's 4 grounds that run to 1 ground wire. 1 battery positive, and 1 ACC positive (that must be powered while cranking as well). then the blue wire from pin 55, and the green and white wire from idk which pin right now. that's the fuel pump relay wire. it supplies power, but you need a relay to increase it enough to get fuel pressure.

 

The PCM actually grounds the sensors and injectors. those are powered through the engine compartment fuse block by 10, 15, and 20 fuses. I chose to reuse the camaro fuse block as it is water tight, and i needed to use the relays for the fans. i mounted that where my vaccuum canisters and cruise module were, and moved those over.

 

PCM location

 

note i moved the vacuum canisters and cruise servo. and that black box on the left is the fuse box from the camaro. all wired up. pcm is where it's gonna be.

 

this is all the wiring i had to sort through to get her done.

 

then i fired it up. it ran...like crap. i neglected to install that relay between the fuel pump and the PCM...made for low pressure. figured that out by installing the diagnostic connecter inside and plugging it into a scan tool that i borrowed from a friend. had to be careful...those cost 3000 for a proper mechanics one. anyways, fixed that problem and my wiring was done.

 

anyways, i had a few more leak problems from my coolant system, none from my power steering, no oil leaks, good pressure (60), and it was running good. I found the tach wire from the new motor and on a whim hooked it up to my tach. it worked. we thought the signals were different, or at least on a different pulse system. but it worked great.

 

first drive...20 feet but it was done :D

 

finished

 

my gas mileage is increased from 7 to 19. the next thing to do is hook up the check engine light, rear o2 sensor, and shift light. then i'm putting an electronic speedo system from a 92 4banger ax5 in it, so that I can switch my cruise control to the camaro cruse (computer controlled and not reliant on vacuum).

 

then I'm putting the keyless entry and antitheft system from the camaro into it, and the power window and lock switches from the camaro, and power windows. at that point, i'm installing the trunk releas switch in my center console and i'm removing the handles/latches/locks for my toolbox and installing the rear hatch latch system from the camaro into it. that will make it so that i can push a button on my keychain to open it, or one inside, and i won't have to lock it to keep my tools in it anymore.

 

I have a stock comanche split rear to put in it as well. and i'm still looking for a black interior. the other thing is to put a Liberty Light bar on the top of the cab. those are sweet. and of course a 5.5 inch lift with 33x12.50R17's is the goal for the future.

 

if anyone can help me on posting pics, let me know and if you have any insight on my truck it's always appreciated!

[Oizarod115]

ILL HELP! i wanna see!

 

get a photobucket account, or somethin to that effect.

then upload all the pics you want, and underneath the uploaded images there should be 3 boxes with different codes in them

 

click on the IMG code box, and it should auto-copy it, if not, copy that code

plop the code straight in your text where you want the pic to be and post it!

 

need any other help lemme know.

[DirtyComanche]

the seats are strange...they sort of swivel forward and backwards on a seperate set of tracks than the actual forward/back adjustment track. this led them to be higher than stock MJ buckets. which i like. alot.

 

 

 

 

I have one of those (yeah, my seats don't match). I like it, I can see the ground in front of the hood easier.

[JeepcoMJ]

yep, i love my seats. if i get a black interior i will reupholster these before i'd put in regular black seats.

 

thx for the photobucket info too! i'll get on that a.s.a.p. i have LOTS of photos. sadly they're mostly of the engine conversion and hardly any of the interior or anything. i have up-to-date-photos tho so you can see the "finished" project.

 

thanks!

[feerocknok]

Holy moly, that swap sounds tricky.

 

Congrats! I'm anxious for pics too

[89eliminator]

you're practically my next door neighbor because i live in Waterford east of 36 on main street. maybe i'll see you around sometime. i have a red Eliminator. http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2525818

[JeepcoMJ]

Hey i'm gonna post this in the MJ projects...that makes more sense.

 

sorry, i didn't mean to post this project here lol.