Comanche Dawn

[Limeyjeeper]

About 1,200 !!

[ghetdjc320]

6 hours ago, Limeyjeeper said:

After way too much downtime due to my move from Texas to Indiana via Ohio. I am now settled in and have now got my garage to the point where I can start back on the Comanche. I have a decent list of fixes to make:-

Overheating. Still chasing this down. Need to check compression, injectors etc. I am going to figure this out eventually. I am also thinking that the carter fuel pump might not be up to the job. I need to test drive with a fuel pressure tester connected to see if the pump keeps up. It should but who knows. AF ratio is good so it doesn't seem to be running lean.

Cam position sensor replacement which means taking off the intake. PITA

Also need to pull the trans and transfer case to replace the bellhousing and Novak adapter with the QuickDraw setup. Now I have my lift running that is a much easier job for and old fart like me.

Lots of electrical gremlins. Still chasing down the door locks. They work with the key but not from Digital Watchdawg. Really weird issue. Also interior lights don't work. Might just make a new dash harness. Stock harness is an abomination.

Replace park brake cable with slightly shorter one.

One of my fender flares has lifting paint. Very, very hard to get a good adhesion. Made the mistake of blasting the factory paint off. Should have left it on would have made a better base.

Also going to replace the aftermarket from clip with the original one from the Jeep. Needs a lot of cleaning up but it will fit sooo much better. Anyways. I will keep everybody posted as to my progress!!

 

 

This is the pump I ended up grafting onto the sending unit. 

 

[Limeyjeeper]

On 10/11/2022 at 6:13 PM, ghetdjc320 said:

This is the pump I ended up grafting onto the sending unit. 

 

Do you have a pic of how it looks installed on the sender unit?

[ghetdjc320]

I don’t at the moment but I’ll get one in the next few days. For the quick draw bellhousing, I suggested to Chad that they clearance it a bit for the firewall. On my LS6 it fits with the motor mounts in the middle position but I’ll be moving it to the full forward position to raise the transmission a bit more. Chad said they’d change the casting on the next run though. 

[Limeyjeeper]

Yea I saw you did that. I already modified the firewall a little, but I will be sure to do the same as you and grind that tab off.

[Limeyjeeper]

Got the intake off to do the Cam sensor and decided to replace the fuel rails with Holley rails. Had a set kicking around. The schrader valve was leaking on the stock intake which wasn't helping my fuel pressure.

 

 

I am also adding a fuel pressure meter so I can see really what is going on with the fuel pressure. Added it to the end of the rail.

 

 

Also decided to pull the plugs and found out that the plug wires had melted to the plugs. Big mess. So I had to replace the plugs and wires. I used Accel Porcelain plug wires which should work with the headers much better.

 

 

Just waiting on a couple of lines to get the fuel back together. I have made plenty of An-6 lines, but I have taken a real liking to the Fragola pre-made lines. For fuel or brake lines they are a high-quality option, and not much more than a couple of good quality An-6 hose couplings.

 

[ghetdjc320]

36 minutes ago, Limeyjeeper said:

I have made plenty of An-6 lines, but I have taken a real liking to the Fragola pre-made lines. For fuel or brake lines they are a high-quality option, and not much more than a couple of good quality An-6 hose couplings.

Good info, I’ve been looking at those recently. 

[Limeyjeeper]

Fuel rail all buttoned up. Got the fuel pressure gauge installed. Fuel pressure staying at 58 psi except under hard load where it dips to 56 so the old Carter P90011 is keeping up just fine. I presumed this would be the case as the AFR is never showing lean. The short-term fuel trim tables are also not showing a lean condition either. Still not happy with coolant temps. They seem to be a bit more stable but still not where I would like them. Swapped out the water pump with a Holley rebuildable pump. Old one was noisy.  Going to add an oil cooler behind the winch. Oil is getting into the low 200's under normal use. Plenty of room to get a 10 row cooler in there. Hoping having more oil capacity might help. The slim Holley pan isn't very big compared to the truck oil pan holding less than 6 quarts compared to 8. All I need is a 20 degree drop and I am out of the woods.

 

 

I love the Fragola AN lines. Very well made.

 

 

There is something not right with either the motor or the radiator. Cooling really should be the least of my worries with this swap. All the obvious things aren't panning out. Running lean (AFR is spot on), Head Gasket or leak (Pressure test of cooling system holds up just fine). No leaks. Temp sensor off (Installed new one. It reads a little lower but not radically) The only other thing I thought about was that the fiberglass hood simply isn't dissipating heat like a steel hood would. Even with the vents. Also, I was wondering if the hidden winch is blocking a lot of airflow into the engine. Very frustrating.

I am going to tackle some of the other changes I want to make such as swapping the bellhousing. I might just pull the motor and taking a deep dive to see what is going on. Gonna try the oil cooler first and go from there.

[boxyjeep]

What is your radiator and fan setup?  Also, how many other coolers (transmission/AC/etc.) do you have in front of the radiator?

 

I would think the fiberglass hood would be better than the stock steel.

[Limeyjeeper]

35 minutes ago, SoCalJeepComanche said:

What is your radiator and fan setup?  Also, how many other coolers (transmission/AC/etc.) do you have in front of the radiator?

 

I would think the fiberglass hood would be better than the stock steel.

I have the Novak radiator and fan setup. All I have in front of the radiator is the AC Condensor. Factory Jeep size.

[ghetdjc320]

My thoughts would also lean towards tuning. Timing? Air in cooling system? The under hood temps in these MJs always seems to be hard to control regardless of the engine under the hood. 

[Limeyjeeper]

Might have had a bit of a breakthrough today. I flushed all the coolant out of the system and refiled using Global Extended Life 50/50. It was recommended by a bunch of LS guys. I was using Amsoil previously. I then parked the Comanche on a slope, so the radiator cap was the highest point and used a no spill funnel kit from Harbor freight.

 

I ran the engine at various speeds for about 30 mins. Temp stayed where it should be. A ton of air came out. Took it out for a drive. Temps seemed much better. Then put the funnel kit back on started the engine again and did another 20 minutes of burping. Lots of air came out again. I then loosened the rear steam lines. No air just fluid. Took the Comanche out again and temps seemed about 20F lower than my run in the morning before the fluid change. Highest temp I got on the scanner was about 212. Run the HP tuner scanner. The fuel tables look ok. They are rich and leaning out with mileage which is what I would expect. These will come down as the long-term fuel trim tables start to get optimized. Right now, they are a mess. The stock unlearned GM PCM always defaults rich and uses the trim tables to lean out the mixture until it is more optimized. Ideally nothing should be greater than around -6 or +4.

 

 

 

I burped it a third time and no air really came out. My only caveat is that the air temps were only in the low 70's, but on my first run prior to today's changes the temp still got to 228F which is way too high. The highest I got on my last run was 212F.

 

I am adding the oil cooler this week which should bring the temps down about 20F. If this continues, I might have cracked my overheating problem. At no time did the temp start to get out of control and climb and climb like it did before once it got to temp. I really hope this is the end of this saga. I did buy this kit. It looks pretty interesting, and I will use it to make absolutely sure that I have no air pockets.

 

If this and the oil cooler doesn't fix the issue? I am going to fabricate an air scoop under the radiator and install the factory air dam which both push air up into the radiator. If that doesn't work, I will replace the radiator with a big aluminum cross flow Jeep radiator not the parallel flow one Novak sells for the LS conversions which is not as efficient. It makes plumbing a bit more of a challenge, but it much more efficient particularly as I have the jeep condenser in front of the radiator. Almost all the Jeep Xj/MJ LS conversions I have seen don't have AC so no condenser and no cooling issues or they used a big LS crossflow radiator.

 

Also contrary to my previous theory I did get the fuel pump to run out of steam today. WOT at around 5k the injectors went to 106.5% duty cycle which means they were totally maxed out and not getting enough fuel so I will probably need to upgrade. Ignore the speed it is showing low by 50%. Still need to dial in the Dakota digital box to correctly emulate the Jeep to GM VSS signal. Not a priority until I need cruise control.

 

 

More to come.

 

[boxyjeep]

Nothing better than an engine that doesn’t overheat.  
 

What software are you using for the tuning?

[Rowdy89mj]

I have the Novak radiator (they have recently come up with a new core design, that is smaller but yet more efficient.) I have a stock Jeep condenser and an aftermarket tranny cooler in front of my radiator. I usually run 180s but can get up to 212. 

I have my fans maxing out between 190 and 202. Even running ac on a hot and humid Louisiana day. 
 

another idea to help burb the system is to leave that tall overflow on over night after a hot soak to let the air make its way out the system. 

[Rowdy89mj]

I also added a temp sensor to the bottom of the Novak radiator and have my fans running off of that sensor rather than the temp sensor in the head, you can have a significant difference in radiator temps vs head temps

[Limeyjeeper]

1 hour ago, SoCalJeepComanche said:

Nothing better than an engine that doesn’t overheat.  
 

What software are you using for the tuning?

HP Tuners. Great product IMHO.

[Limeyjeeper]

1 hour ago, Rowdy89mj said:

I also added a temp sensor to the bottom of the Novak radiator and have my fans running off of that sensor rather than the temp sensor in the head, you can have a significant difference in radiator temps vs head temps

Good point. I don't like where the temp sender is right under the header. I am getting a good 25 degree drop between the radiator input and output which seems about right so I think it is doing its job. I like the idea of the overnight burping. I will try that tonight!!

[Limeyjeeper]

So I added the oil cooler and also relocated the oil filter. No way to keep the filter where it was. With an oil filter takeoff it hung too low. I never liked where it was positioned right next to the front driveshaft. I used a Setrab remote filter (SET-RFHU77-22-22)

 

 

An Evil Energy 10 row oil cooler and a Canton Racing remote filter adapter (22-598). It was the only adapter I could find that would fit with the Holley pan.

The Corvette LS pan needs a M22 x1.5. This setup also allowed me to use a longer Oil Filter. I used AN-8 lines.  Plenty big enough. I overall gained nearly a quart of oil capacity. Should compensate for the smaller corvette style pan. The truck has a much deeper pan +2.5". Makes a big difference with cooling.

I managed to install the filter right next to the cooler behind the winch

 

 

 

I also went back to the Corvette power Steering reservoir. With the Novak fans I had enough room to reroute the intake in front of it. Much cleaner install.

 

 

I burped the coolant system for ages and left it overnight to cool off. It is too cold out now to know if these changes worked. They must make some difference.

 

Next project is rewiring the door switches to use OEM plugs which I happened to find in really good shape. Currently I have female pins pushed onto the switch pins. Not ideal.  I also need to figure out why the Digital Guard Dog key fob isn't locking the doors. I think I know why. Just need to prove it!!

 

[Limeyjeeper]

More shenanigans with the Jeep. This time interior lights. The dash harness I had was for a 91 Comanche and the cab harness was from an 89. So, the 91 has a 3-pin door ajar switch which doesn't fit in the hole for the 89. Well, I couldn't get it to work so I had to convert to the single pin switch. To do that I had to run a new wire between the switches and tap the under-dash lights into that ground. It is a yellow wire that I had to cut and redo. Once I did that everything behaved itself and I now have interior lights. Managed to add the Duramtec A-7180-BC interior lights. That went OK once I took the Bl/Wh wire and connected it to my new ground circuit.

Also figured out the no cruise. I had not set the PPR setting in the GM PCM to 3 so it was very confused. I dropped a different base tune into the Jeep and forgot to change the setting in HP Tuners. 

Next project is getting my MaxJax lift installed so I can do the Bellhousing swap. I am WAY too old to be crawling under jeeps and pulling transmissions out on my chest!!

Got the door switches rewired using the OEM plugs. Makes everything much more reliable. I also fixed the Digital Guard Dog issue. So now the key fob kicks the door locks. Sometimes you have to step away for a while and regroup before going back in and tackling wiring and realizing you had completely overthought the problem. So that is one more issue ticked off the list!!

 

 

[Limeyjeeper]

Swapped out the upper hoses. I was using 1 3/8" hoses and I noticed that they were leaking. I found some 90 degree 1 1/4" hoses which is the correct size for the upper LS hose. Fit is much better. They are Texas Specialty Products Part No TSP-13.6508.

 

 

 

[Limeyjeeper]

The OEM, original front clip is off to paint. All OEM parts. Big mistake going aftermarket. Never fitted right and now half the tabs that the top mount screws into snapped off. Not a solid piece at all. Yet another lesson learned. I only did it because it was less parts to paint. So now the OEM one will be painted as 8 separate parts. Main clip, top metal rail, bottom metal rail. Indicator inner insert left and right and headlight bezel left and right. It is fascinating how the front clip went from 8 parts in 86-90 to 4 in 1991 (left and right headlight bezel, clip and grille and then to 2 in 1997, clip and grille.

 

Headlight and inner bezel for indicator. Replaced headlight bezel as it had a broken side piece

One of the broken tabs holding the L bracket to the top radiator crossmember.

[boxyjeep]

Ugh, nothing worse than having to repaint after a new paint job.  I've also noticed sub-par quality on the aftermarket 97+ header panel that I installed on my truck prior to paint.  Half of the mounting bolts broke off just like yours (nothing a little bondo couldn't fix!) and the top portion doesn't fit perfect either.  Not worth repainting for me now, but will swap in OEM if I ever need to replace it.

[Limeyjeeper]

Had a pretty busy week with the Jeep. I fixed the hinges on my hood. When I first did them I thought rivets would get the job done, but no I should have mounted them in Fiber Glass which I now have done.

 

 

 

Also replaced the disappointing Quik-Latch hood pins.

 

 

with the Aero Latch pins. They are bigger but sooo much better. With a bigger area they put a lot less stress on the fiber glass and they are also much easier to adjust. The Quik Latch quality for the price is not good value. The Amazon knockoffs are just as good/bad.

 

 

 

 

I got the new battery tray in. My old one from Rusty's only held an Optima battery which only lasted 3 years. Now have an awesome Odyssey battery in place with the Dirtbound Offroad Battery holder.

 

I installed the cargo box splash guards which had been missing. I replaced the deteriorated factory ones with Styrene Butadiene Rubber SBR which is more flexible and doesn't become brittle in time.

 

 

I also refurbished all my fender flare retainers. Some were only 3 years old and had already snapped. Used Stainless bolts and internal lock washers to hold them in place, so they are easy to replace if I ever need to.

 

 

This week I am going to build new taillights using the Key Parts lenses and the ZimmDak Industries housings. The fit is great, just waiting for the Sikaflex to glue them together.

[boxyjeep]

How are you liking the fiberglass hood so far?  The guy who created them (Baja Fiber) is now known as SoCal Fiber and is somewhat close by to me.  Worth the investment?

[Limeyjeeper]

On 1/26/2023 at 2:20 PM, SoCalJeepComanche said:

How are you liking the fiberglass hood so far?  The guy who created them (Baja Fiber) is now known as SoCal Fiber and is somewhat close by to me.  Worth the investment?

My hood fit was very poor. Hopefully Socal Fiber pay a bit more attention to that. I love the hood. It really turns heads. You just need to do a lot of rework to get it to fit. Mine didn't have enough bow in it so the back of the hood didn't line up with the fender very well. We had to cut the fiberglass and remake it to increase the bend. 

Other people have had no issues so maybe I was the last one before they went belly up.