ThatJeepGuy Posted September 29 Share Posted September 29 Stumbled upon this 83 FSJ through marketplace and watched it for a few months. Eventually talked myself into atleast asking questions... Naturally that lead me to making a day trip with a buddy of mine to another state, also convincing the guy to accept my reasonable offer. I've wanted one of these FS Cherokee's for some time now and finally have one to explore and modify. I did try and find a cheap amc360 to put into this engine bay BUT the amount of money i was willing to spend on a used engine and the actual availability of them were not even close. The plan is to do another one of them Jeep LS swaps. Nothing special just dirty and cheap. Honestly playing catch up making this thread but I absolutely wanted to document the evolution of what this jeep may become. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted September 29 Share Posted September 29 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derf Posted September 29 Share Posted September 29 Nice. I've had half a dozen FSJs before. FSJ Network and IFSJA are two forums with lots of knowledgeable (and a few not as knowledgeable) people, along with many swap threads. If it has the column shifter and you're going to swap in a 4L60E, converting the column shifter from 3 speed to 4 speed is pretty straightforward. They all have GM steering columns already and swapping parts in them is easy. Otherwise, a floor shifter is the way to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThatJeepGuy Posted October 2 Author Share Posted October 2 Than along comes the donor vehicle, a 2000s Chevy tahoe with a recently replaced engine just months before the PO had an accident and totalled it out. The relevant bits, 5.3 engine, 4l60e trans, complete engine bay harness and gas tank should be enough to get me through. All said and done after pulling my needs and partingout/scrapping whats left I'm pretty sure i actually made money off this thing, id have to check my notes for sure but definitely broke even at the least. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThatJeepGuy Posted October 5 Author Share Posted October 5 While this is supposed to be a cheap LS swap I splurged and got this set of swap motor mounts. Pretty sure they are still made by Flop Shop but BJs seemed to be the only way to get them? With the new mounts painted and ready for install it was time to pluck the original trans and tcase out And then we dump the new drivetrain in More to come Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hgeranium Posted October 5 Share Posted October 5 Interior pics? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThatJeepGuy Posted October 6 Author Share Posted October 6 22 hours ago, hgeranium said: Interior pics? Surprisingly I have no pictures at the moment. The bulk of the floor pans are a couple sections of plywood thanks to PO. This jeep did come with a set of mastercraft front seats, actually pretty nice for my standards as well! I'll nab a few pictures this week/weekend though to establish the starting point for the inside as well. Haven't set much sight for any work inside just yet. My plan is to have this thing run and move under its own power before I bother with any floor pan or panel repairs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hgeranium Posted October 6 Share Posted October 6 2 hours ago, ThatJeepGuy said: Surprisingly I have no pictures at the moment. The bulk of the floor pans are a couple sections of plywood thanks to PO. This jeep did come with a set of mastercraft front seats, actually pretty nice for my standards as well! I'll nab a few pictures this week/weekend though to establish the starting point for the inside as well. Haven't set much sight for any work inside just yet. My plan is to have this thing run and move under its own power before I bother with any floor pan or panel repairs. Looking forward to it. Looks great Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThatJeepGuy Posted October 9 Author Share Posted October 9 As luck would have it, I stumbled upon this deal, 2 sets of factory bucket seats w/the center console ($400 for all of it). Now not only do it get to resolve the seating situation in the Cherokee, but also the Jtruck hiding in the garage as well Hgeranium, this was the only pic I took thus far, ill get others this weekend. You can see the floor is a beautiful color tone of plywood Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
watchamakalit Posted October 9 Share Posted October 9 Probably be good preventative maintenance to treat that OSB to some Thompson's water seal..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThatJeepGuy Posted October 11 Author Share Posted October 11 Interior Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThatJeepGuy Posted October 14 Author Share Posted October 14 Slow going over here... other things needed to get done soo i managed to get just a couple little things done. Power steering lines - check! Factory 83 pressured line has this goofy arch but the fittings are tight and the lines arent rubbing anything. Alternator bracket and assy on and serpentine belt isntalled... i know - thrilling Radiator installed and plumbed minus the overflow tank which I'm torn on retaining the original or getting one of those cheapy Amazon ones because theyre smaller... I'm going to try the factory clutch fan setup and makeup a shroud for it, worst case scenario I default to e-fans but this stuff was free soo guess which setup wins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted October 15 Share Posted October 15 spotted some rear mudflaps on ebay if you need 'em: https://www.ebay.com/itm/167856786009 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThatJeepGuy Posted October 16 Author Share Posted October 16 On 10/14/2025 at 10:36 PM, Pete M said: spotted some rear mudflaps on ebay if you need 'em: https://www.ebay.com/itm/167856786009 You know pete... Christmas is just around the corner and ive been a very good boy this year ;) Those look killer though! I'm currently floating my Amazon and rock auto cart(s) with essential parts though (potential gated floor shifter, O2 sensors, intake tube materials) - the mudflaps arent going to help empty those carts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted October 17 Share Posted October 17 Jeepers helping Jeepers spend their money Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThatJeepGuy Posted October 20 Author Share Posted October 20 Yes little fella, you get to hang out in the garage for a while This weekend kicked off with manuevering this thing into the garage. Quickly got to work and drilled some new mounting holes in the factory crossmember with this custom "from the floor milwaukee drill press". Its a 2 man operation for sure. This was honestly a surprise - the XJ tank fits very nicely with factory XJ straps and a couple new holes to the environment. Other things like installing factory FSJ coolant temp and oil pressure sensors were checked off the list. Also slid a universal trans cooler in front of the radiator. The bulk items that remain on my immediate list are fuel lines, Wiring shenanigans and a once over on all the fluids. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derf Posted October 20 Share Posted October 20 Nice. I've seen people put a 42 gallon tank from a late 90s Suburban back there. It just fits with inches to spare. An XJ tank seems to be a reasonable option too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThatJeepGuy Posted October 26 Author Share Posted October 26 Cruising along over here! Tackling the fuel system setup i realized I needed to change my fuel rail setup. This 5.3 has a return system and I want the return-less setup soo a quick trip to the junkyard and I scored 2 of these cross over tubes. To my dismay though it turns out I need the fuel rails as well. Return rails have 2 ports while the return-less have only 1 port - don't it figure. Going with the corvette filter/regulator warrants the return-less fuel rail setup. This install went without issue. Using only the finest evil energy AN fittings and some Duralast HP fuel line. Finished off the afternoon with some sloppy LS harness placement. Wired the starter solenoid to fire off the FSJ harness, still need to find and wire the fuel pump through the LS harness and then make some power and grounds. I'm very wiring deficient soo I'm puzzled on the whole FSJ switched power from column and how that powers the LS harness??? Also ordered some pieces and parts to do the fuel filler. More to come! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThatJeepGuy Posted November 3 Author Share Posted November 3 Not looking like much has changed since the last photo however I got the return-less fuel rail installed, battery hot and ground wires are setup also the pcm wires roughly placed. Engine cranks over just fine but without the vats disabled on the pcm and no carb clean to flood the intake as an alternate fuel I was only able to hear a couple little sputters. Planning to get the pcm setup soon and we can get back to this. Until then I have a tracking number for an sye kit for the 241c I'm patiently waiting to arrive and ill be able to freshen that up and potentially play with some driveshafts soon! More to come!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smash6 Posted November 3 Share Posted November 3 You're moving right along. This looks super rad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThatJeepGuy Posted November 4 Author Share Posted November 4 On 11/3/2025 at 1:41 PM, Smash6 said: You're moving right along. This looks super rad. Thanks, we might have the Vats situation handled this weekend soo potentially I could have a first fire video to share - excitement Absolutely! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThatJeepGuy Posted November 9 Author Share Posted November 9 Here we go, pile of pictures and great progress! Junkyard 241c Installed a jb conversions super short sye and a simple rebuild. Problem free install, I'll figure out the shift linkage and everything else later on. Next came this factory body support, it was hindering the fitment of the XJ gas tank so its gotta go! That's gooder Sending unit got a refit with this evil energy fuel pump. Onward to the pcm wiring connectors. Dug through the red/blue plugs to find the obd2 serial data wire and also the check engine light wire. What an atrocious wiring mess! After a quick test wire setup, this is an encouraging sight! Now here we are - the first fire for this project! There is still soo much to do but at the very least Atleast it runs now! Wiring harness got some cleanup work done, planning to install and wire in the obd2 port under the dash and then start looming wire and mounting things. Pcm and fuse block are roughly where I want them, utilizing the factory coolant overflow for simplicity I think this will all fit nicely on this driver side fenderwell. Still need to configure an intake tube and the battery mount among other things. For now I'm going to shave on this factory fuse block mount this week to get it fitting a bit tighter to the fender. More to come! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThatJeepGuy Posted November 23 Author Share Posted November 23 Simple summary for this weekends progress. While visiting the you wrench yard for some opportunity grabs from an old grand wagoneer, the trans tunnel and trans xmember were set to be all mine! Tunnel came out fine but the xmember was not gonna happen on this trip - so i set my eyes on the d44 front axle instead. It was a little bit of a fight but in the end I Win! Got home and slung myself under the jeep to begin an exhaust hackery of sorts... There was little to no room though between the driver manifold and frame rail to even begin with setting up a crossover tube. I was left with either buying some cheapo manifolds online or modifying the factory one... Turns out chopping the flange off and repositioning it isnt as uncommon as I had thought. Soo with multiple cuts and test fits i came to an all new alignment. Going to weld this up this week and hopefully gwt back into the exhaust hackery this weekend. More to come! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThatJeepGuy Posted November 30 Author Share Posted November 30 The weekend update is here This went very well This however is not going as well... I even had to snapshot my photo as for some reason the actual photo was uploading here upside-down? Trying to utilize the donor tahoe 2-1 collector is proving to be a bit of a pain even for just a cobbled pile of junk. The driver side is alright - definitely going to have an issue with front driveshaft clearance. The passenger side however is where the problems begin. This clunky overall size and configuration of bends on this collector are more than a care to deal with. I went ahead and ordered a generic 2-1 collector on Amazon and some 45° mandrel bent pie pieces. Realistically though i have a feeling this new 2-1 collector isnt going to do what i want soo... In my preparation for disappointment I drafted up my own custom compact 2-1 collector. I won't be throwing myself under there again until potentially next weekend soo until thats all I have to share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThatJeepGuy Posted December 8 Author Share Posted December 8 Just a little more progress to share. My custom 2-1 collector The Amazon 45° bits really helped I did pull both down tubes to start welding seams but I ran out of time. More to come on this and hoping next time I'll have some new exhaust noises to share! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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