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The Gray Ghost


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New Novak LS engine mounts almost in a couple more holes to drill.

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The old 2.5L mounts, no that is not me. :)

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Old tired four banger getting ready to be pulled. No more sewing machine under the hood, it served me well.

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Sitting in the driveway after the Axle swap from a Cherokee and Newish wheels.

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Refreshing the interior a bit.

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Before the project started:

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When I bought it 30 year ago, yes I'm the original owner.

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Yes, most of the holes are already there. I believe you need to drill two additional holes on both sides. Planning to transplant a 4.8L/4L60E from a 2002 Yukon.
 
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Hmm, didnt know that. Guess I'll find out when I start on the build. I've got a 99 6.0L/2wd 4l80e to put in an eliminator that I'm gonna lower a little bit. Make it into sort of a drag truck

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  • 3 weeks later...

Some more progress today. My son and his friend are moving right along. Some close up pics. They struggled with the novak transmission mount for the 4l60e a little. Might have to be modified at a later date, but should be good enough until I break it. LOL

Also found out the f-body water pump still will need spacers to line up. I'll post links to everything I bought for this build at the end. 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Not much has been done. I managed to delete the VATS out of the PCM last night with little trouble. Water pump is mounted. The alternator is a little high and some hood support trimming might be needed to keep it from rattling. Might have choosen a different relocation set if I had known. But looks good. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

So I've been playing around with a few ideas. Haven't started wiring yet. Bought a newer gauge cluster off of Ebay(91-96). Going to add jeep temp and pressure senders to the block. I've done some various reading and found out the tach is adjustable. Since I spent all that money on a HP Tuner, going to attempt to drive the tach and speedo with the chevy PCM, making whatever adjustments I need in the PCM. Has anybody tried this?

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  • 1 month later...

Gauge Update

This is just a write up on how I updated my 89 Comanche to have stock looking gauges with an LS Swap. I wrote this to help someone save a little money, as I did a LOT of experimentation here, and spent lot more money than I needed too. Of course your mileage may vary.

 

First goal was to ditch the old cluster with idiot lights for electronic gauges. So I bought a 91-96 Jeep Cherokee Factory Speedometer cluster from ebay for $60

After much research and gnashing of teeth I was able to come to the conclusion that I might be able to drive a Jeep Speedometer and Tachometer from the VSS out and Tach signals of the Chevy PCM.

So my plan was to use Jeep sensors for the Oil and Temp and tie the PCM straight to the electronic speedometer and tach. So my adventure began.

My first goal was to make ready the Cluster. I had done some various reading and found out the tach is adjustable depending of if you had a 4 or 6 cyl. Since I spent all that money on a HP Tuner, I was going to attempt to drive the tach and speedo with the chevy PCM, making whatever additional adjustments I needed in the PCM.

 image.png.4e087f4568cc5c74e40fada2228012f2.png

 

 

 

 

So I took the tach out and drilled a hole in the casing so that I could adjust it while it's plugged in. You could do this with the tach still in the casing but I wouldn’t recommend it. I also rolled the Odometer to match mine, which is NOT for the faint of heart. Also be very careful when adjusting the potentiometer it’s really not made for the abuse.

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Picture of old Cluster and Connection

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Picture of new Cluster and Connection

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PinOut:

Function

Old Gauges

Colors

New Gauges

Lamps

1

Orn/Blk

A7

Oil Gauge

2

Lt Blu

B7

Not Used – Alt Lamp

3

Tan/Grn

-

Lamps

4

Orn/Blk

A7

Lamps – GND

5

BLK

A3

Ign (Oil and Volt)

6

Wht/Blk

A8

RH Turn

7

Brn

B6

High Beam

8

Wht

A4

Lamp

9

Orn/Blk

A7

GND

10

BLK

A3

LH Turn

11

Gry/Blk

A2

Tach

12

Grn/Wht

A6

Ign

13

Wht/Blk

A8

Temp

14

Vio

A1

Not Used – Fuel

15

Tan

-

Lamps

16

Orn/Blk

A7

Fuel Gauge

17

Tan

B1

Low Fuel

18

Wht/blk

-

Speed

New wire

Pick a color

A5

GND!!!!

New Wire

BLK

B2

 

Note: Oil, Temp, and Tach I used the existing wires through the firewall. On my Comanche at C100 I had (Oil-C6),(Temp-D2), and (Tach-C3) you can chase further down the stream based on your application. On the PCM side of the house the Red connector holds both Speed-pin 50 DkGrn/Wht and the Tach-pin 10 Wht.

 

So after wiring up the cluster and accepting defeat too quickly I purchase a Digital Dakota SGI-100BT. After sticking it in line with A5 and A6, I still had no gauges - UGH!!. I later discovered that I missed a GND to B2. Suddenly the tach and speedo came to life. It’s highly possible that I didn’t need the SGI-100BT, but liked the fact that I could fine tune the tach and speedo by bluetooth, which means if I change tire sizes or gears later I have less guessing. So I left it in. If you discover that you don’t need it you can leave info in the comments.

 

 

 

Chevy PCM Settings:

              VSS out 4000 ppm

SGI-100BT Settings:

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When I went to mount the oil pressure sender, I discovered that the block had an old block heater in the way. Something I definitely don’t need here in North Carolina. I decided to take advantage of the location to place both the oil sender and temp sender closer together, which required a little more work from a mechanical point, but made wiring easier.

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I bought a ICT Billet LT Gen V Engine Block M12-1.5 Coolant Crossover Feed Adapter to fill the hole in the block where the block heater stood, then drilled and tapped the hole to 3/8 NPT to hold the temp sender. (You’ll find out later that I didn’t need to do this).

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After wiring and mounting the senders, I found out that the white wire in the harness I purchased for the oil pressure was not the signal. The black wire was. This pegged out my gauge, which didn’t hurt anything, so I swapped the wires and left the white wire unattached, This fixed the gauge.

So after getting all the air out of the system and finding a happy 180 degrees through the PCM. I noticed that the temp gauge was about 50 degrees off. After researching some more I found out I bought the wrong temp sensor :doh:. The 4.0L I6 has two!! One for the gauges and one for the PCM. WTF! Oh and finding a connector/pigtail for the gauge one outside a junkyard. Impossible. So I did a little temporary jeep engineering.

 

First I cut a screw to fit over the proper sensor. Be sure to measure your connector. My screw was too big and I had to grind it down.

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Placed over the terminal.

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Then filled with epoxy:

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After cutting off the screw head I was left with a post.

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I ended up going to the head location because I didn’t want to drain the coolant again, and was able to stop  up the hole with my finger. Fortunately I had left plenty of wire to relocate.

image.png.774049377c228953475194e6d30fa8e3.png 

Wrong one: https://pe-ltd.com/assets/coolant_temp.pdf

Note: I notice that with all the adaptors on the sensor that it took a little while to come up to temp, but eventually settled in. I will most likely buy another sensor and adaptor for the lower location, and swap out the next time I need to drain the coolant. I left plenty of wire just in case. May also hunt down the pigtail in the yard next time I’m there. This is what it looks like. If someone has a part number please let me know.

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Gas gauge is another story. Apparently Chrysler reversed the ohm level for the float. So even though I know the fuel tank is full the gauge is pegged out at empty with the light on. I can live with that for a little while. Or at least until the tank isn't full.  You can find out more info here:

https://comancheclub.com/topic/15047-ho-fuel-sending-unit/

 

 

Hope this helps someone.

 

Items used:

91-96 Jeep Cherokee Factory Speedometer cluster – ebay.com

Delphi 16 Way Black Micro-Pack 100 Unsealed Female Connector - https://www.eficonnection.com/

Delphi 16 Way BLUE Micro-Pack 100 Top TPA - https://www.eficonnection.com/

Delphi 16 Way BLUE Micro-Pack 100 Bottom TPA - https://www.eficonnection.com/

Delphi Micro-Pack 100 Female Unsealed 20-22ga Terminal - https://www.eficonnection.com/

Delphi Micro-Pack 100 Female Unsealed 18-16ga Terminal - https://www.eficonnection.com/

Delphi TS10019 Engine Coolant Temperature Sensor

ACDelco PT2386 Professional Multi-Purpose Pigtail

Crown Automotive 56027012 Temperature Sensor

Standard Motor Products PS257 Oil Pressure Sender

Standard Motor Products S727 Pigtail/Socket

Digital Dakota SGI-100BT

 

My LS Swap Included:

ICT Billet Oil Pressure Sensor Relocation Adapter Port LS

ICT Billet LT Gen V Engine Block M12-1.5 Coolant Crossover Feed Adapter

Auto Meter 5284 LS Install Kit – Only used one fitting here. Might consider another product.
ICT Billet LS Master Adapter Set Engine Oil & Coolant Sensor 

 

Specs:

 

 

93 or 96 Cherokee ohms

89 Comanche ohms

Oil

0 psi

1

1

 

40 psi

46

???

 

80 psi

87

88

Gas

Empty

105

0

 

½ tank

33

???

 

Full

5

88

Temp

----------

100 Degrees – 1365 ohms

100 Degrees – 1600 ohms

 

----------

220 Degrees – 93.5 ohms

180 Degrees – 309 ohms

 

----------

260 Degrees – 55.1 ohms

240 Degrees – 113 ohms

 

 

 

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I promised a rough list of what this took for the LS transplant and here it is. I may edit as I remember other things.

 

Novak RMU    Mount, rear, transmission, polyurethane, Jeep, Novak style    1
Novak LSXJ3    Headers, exhaust, GM Gen III V8 engines in XJ Cherokees / MJ Commanches, natural steel finish    1
Novak MMXJ3    Kit MMXJ3, engine mounts, GM Gen III engines into XJ Cherokees & MJ CommanchesICT Billet (LS1 Camaro to Truck) Water Pump Spacer .7" Adapter Swap kit LSX LS LS3 LQ4 GTO 551690-71
Auto Meter 5284 LS Install Kit
LS ENGINE ECM MOUNT
ICT Billet LS Truck Alternator Bracket Kit LSX LS3 LQ4 LQ9 L33 LR4 5.3L 4.8L 6.0L 551750-3
HiwowSport Billet Aluminum Thermostat Housing for Chevy,GMC,LS Series Silver
OAW G7290 Engine Water Pump for Chevrolet Camaro Corvette & Pontiac Firebird GTO LS1 LS6 5.7LCT Billet 5.3L LS Heavy Duty Truck Power Steering Bracket Kit for Saginaw Pump Relocation swap 4.8 6.0 4.8 6.0 551321-3
Kyostar Throttle Position Idle Air Control Throttle Body Sensors TPS IAC For LS1 LS2 LS6 LSX LS7
Goodies Speed 75116 - Fuel Filter/Regulator 58 PSI Kit with AN-6 Fittings for LS swaps and EFI conversion
QIKE 4AN Nylon Braided CPE Fuel Line Kit 10FT Set (6AN)
OzCoolingParts Pro Top 3 Row Core Aluminum Radiator + 3 x 9" Fan w/Shroud + Thermostat/Relay Wire Kit for 1984-200 Jeep Cherokee XJ/Jeep Comanche
Alex Tech 25ft – 1/4 inch Split Wire Loom Tubing Wire Conduit – Black
Dakota Digital SGI-100BT Universal Speedometer and Tachometer Interface
Dorman 47076 Vacuum Amplifier
Coolant Overflow Tank Recovery Bottle Overflow Expansion Reservoir Replacement for 91-01 Jeep Cherokee SUV 91-92 Comanche 52027984
HP Tuners MPVI2 VCM Suite Standard (2 Universal Credits)
Lokar XCOS64L60EEB     
Ls6 intake manifolds with fuel rails injectors Ls2 lsx lq9 4.8 ls1 Fbody...
Various connectors, hoses and fasteners as needed.
Donor for LR4, 4L60e, and 261 GM transfer case with wiring harness.
Donor for Dana 30 and 35 axles.
Rims and Tires from craigslist.

Sold old 2.5L with AX4 for $500

Generic transmission cooler. 

Lift kit from who knows where? 

 

FYI - This was not a cheap thing to do. I'm in roughly $4-5K. But I definitely like it. There is no lack of power and the Chevy power steering pump does a better job of driving the power steering box than the AMC did. I have no hint of death wobble any more, and although there is more road noise it drives well. I also bought things that didn't get used, that I'm not factoring in here. 

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