5.2L Magnum XJ engine swap
- Thread starter Bloose
- Start date
John D
NAXJA Member # 788
- Location
- Rockford, Mi
Yes, I see them on craigslist and the local 4x4 boards all the time for around $25.
- Location
- NE Texas
FWIW I have a 46re from a 5.9 zj, sitting in my garage.. 100% complete needs rebuild..
If anyone is looking for one to build lmk.. They are rare!
If anyone is looking for one to build lmk.. They are rare!
sorlendingen
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- russia NW cherepovets
Very interesting thread.
Do you have a progress?
I would like to do the same. I looking for 5.2 engine and manual transmission NV3550 from dodge dakota for my XJ 90 (4,0 231, dana 30/44, AX15).
Could same body know the links to order it in USA? In russia NV3550 is missing, and all engines without docs..
p/s: sorry for my english
Do you have a progress?
I would like to do the same. I looking for 5.2 engine and manual transmission NV3550 from dodge dakota for my XJ 90 (4,0 231, dana 30/44, AX15).
Could same body know the links to order it in USA? In russia NV3550 is missing, and all engines without docs..
p/s: sorry for my english
I thought I posted these here but I guess not,
I'll be working on the exhaust tonight. I'm going 2 1/4" to a Y and 2 1/2" the rest of the way. I thought about doing duals but decided that at least for now I'd go single. It should flow plenty for this motor though. If it sounds decent I'll likely leave it.
I may be putting power to the electrical system tonight too. There is a chance, though small, I may try turning it over this weekend.
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I'll be working on the exhaust tonight. I'm going 2 1/4" to a Y and 2 1/2" the rest of the way. I thought about doing duals but decided that at least for now I'd go single. It should flow plenty for this motor though. If it sounds decent I'll likely leave it.
I may be putting power to the electrical system tonight too. There is a chance, though small, I may try turning it over this weekend.
B
John D
NAXJA Member # 788
- Location
- Rockford, Mi
What's your plan for the hole?
TerraWombat
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Eastern Shore MD
Perhaps I missed it somewhere in the thread, but what are your plans for wiring? I'm currently at that stage with my '88MJ 5.9L swap and it's getting interesting. I'm using a '98ZJ harness in the engine bay and splicing it with a '99XJ interior harness. So far I have the bare essentials all worked out. Got it so that when I turn the key the starter relay clicks and 12 volts go to the starter solenoid. So I know I can at least crank the engine over, hah.
This is kind of the fun part for me - wiring things up one at a time and watching the truck come to life. Had a blast Thursday night when I wired up the radio, found and old LL Cool J CD in a box and was blasting it through the speaker on the one door that is installed.
This is kind of the fun part for me - wiring things up one at a time and watching the truck come to life. Had a blast Thursday night when I wired up the radio, found and old LL Cool J CD in a box and was blasting it through the speaker on the one door that is installed.
tbburg
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Scottsdale AZ
Have you ever looked at Go-jeeps web page? possible solution for the hood there, if it's tall enough:
http://jeep-xj.info/HowtoBonnet.htm
http://www.reflexxion.com/rfx/content/section/5/27/
http://jeep-xj.info/HowtoBonnet.htm
http://www.reflexxion.com/rfx/content/section/5/27/
rlevss
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- shelby twp. michigan
try this place for a hood they have a 3" cowel for the xj
http://www.usbodysource.com/
http://www.usbodysource.com/
What I'd like to do is use the piece I cut out to make the scoop. I'm not sure yet if I'll do a cowl type or a "scoop" type where the hole is in the front. I have a cousin who is an awesome body man who I'll be consulting. I'll likely not have him do the work, it's not worth the cost for this project, but he'll give me guidance on what to do. Along with being good at getting sheet metal looking good he's also very creative.
One issue with aftermarket cowls is I'm not sure if there would be enough clearance at the front where the alt and compressor are. I could stop by John Bjorms place, throw his hood on my Jeep, and slam it shut. If there are no dimples in the hood I'd be good to go! He wouldn't mind, right.
Right now the hole is is about the last thing I'm going to work on. I made a Y pipe last night which I'll post a picture of later. It turned out pretty nice. The right side turned out to be pretty tight which is funny because it is shorter than the left so it should have been pretty easy. The oil filter is on the right though so I had to cross the left over under the pan and then run the right pipe and make sure I still had room to get to the oil filter. As it is I'm going to have to make a little pan to keep the oil off the exhaust when I do oil changes. I could also do a remote mount oil filter but I think it will be fine as is.
B
My plan for the wiring is pretty much the same as yours. I used the harness that came in the Dakota that the motor came in. Basically there are three plugs on the ECU, two are for motor and trans wiring and the third is for items that are specific to the vehicle, i.e. Cruse, gauges, power, etc. Then there are power and grounds that get tied together etc.
I ran into two problems when doing this. First the Dakota has the ECU on the oposite side as the Cherokee. I completely untaped the harness to change the direction of the wires. That caused about half the wires to be too short and the other half too long. For the short ones I spliced in a length of wire to extend them. For the long ones I haven't done anything yet. I may fold them up if I can get them into the split loom like that, or I'll trim them and splice them.
The second problem I ran into was that things were not matching up to the FSM diagrams for my '98 Cherokee. Turns out that even though my XJ is a '98 it seems to have a '99 harness. This was causing some pretty big headaches at first but once I figured out it has a '99 harness things got much better.
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John D
NAXJA Member # 788
- Location
- Rockford, Mi
I ran into this on my '98 also, made me nuts for a while because just enough stuff was the same that I didn't consider the harness to be from the next model year.
Exactly! The only thing that saved me was one of the first wires I ran into that didn't match was a white coming from the fuse panel. I had a fuse panel from a '99 I parted out and it also had the white wire which the '98 was not supposed to have. It can be really confusing until you figure this out! :eeks1:
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TerraWombat
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Eastern Shore MD
I wish you the best of luck with the wiring. It can definitely be done, but it's a pretty big undertaking. I'm not sure how the Dakota wiring harness matches up, but the Grand Cherokee and Cherokee harness conveniently have power and signal wires on opposite sides. For example, the wire that supplies 12V to the starter relay when you turn the key to the 'start' position is on the driver side on the ZJ harness, but comes through the firewall on the passenger side on the XJ harness. I've found at least a half dozen other wires that do the same. Instead of tearing the harness apart and re-routing wires, I'm probably just going to run a bundle of wires along the top of the firewall to get the signals and power where they need to be.
- Location
- Rainy side of Washington
If I ever get around to doing this I'm going to hack it up to get it working, take notes on what I do, then get pigtails or crimp terminals and connector shells for everything on the motor and build a harness from scratch. I really hate tangled wiring harnesses.
I'm really hoping it is possible to get the motor a little lower, but I fear it won't be... how much clearance do you have between the oil pan and the axle housing right now? And are there any low profile oil pans that sit closer to the crank?
Oh, and my plans changed a lot... I had to swap a motor into the 91 before I was ready to do a V8 swap, ended up putting another 4.0 in it, and found an 88 MJ that is real close to rust free and straight (for the northeast) for cheaper than I could get a new bed for the 91, so I am wheeling and DDing the 91 and parked the 88 till I can find a V8 donor. Oops.
I'm really hoping it is possible to get the motor a little lower, but I fear it won't be... how much clearance do you have between the oil pan and the axle housing right now? And are there any low profile oil pans that sit closer to the crank?
Oh, and my plans changed a lot... I had to swap a motor into the 91 before I was ready to do a V8 swap, ended up putting another 4.0 in it, and found an 88 MJ that is real close to rust free and straight (for the northeast) for cheaper than I could get a new bed for the 91, so I am wheeling and DDing the 91 and parked the 88 till I can find a V8 donor. Oops.
TerraWombat
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Eastern Shore MD
I actually moved my 5.9L up about 3/4" in the engine bay just to make sure I had enough clearance between the pan and the front axle. There is no contact between the two at full compression, but it's close.
I can't really say yet as I haven't put power to the system but it really doesn't appear that bad. In my situation the only part of the harness from the Dakota is the part of it for the engine components. Everything that goes to the distribution center and the fuse block stayed with the Jeep. For anything on the engine harness that needs power or ground it's just a matter of spicing into the correct circuit. The only problem I ran into is where they ran the same color wire for more than one circuit. In those cases I had to physically trace the wire to its origin. Automotive wiring would be sooo much easier if they used wire numbers like in industrial wiring. Of course they would have to print the number on the entire length of wire which would add cost but it would still be nice. Or at the very least they could never reuse the same color in one vehicle.
As far as a wire being on the wrong side of the vehicle, some wire, a soldering iron, and some shrink tube can fix that!
B
B
Mine is close but not really to the axle, it's close to the steering linkage and track bar. I may have to bend my track bar for clearance but I'm not sure yet. My bigger problem was the exhaust. The block hugger headers fixed the problem with the manifolds hitting the firewall but then it made everything wider right in the middle. Overall I'm happy with where the motor is. I thought it was going to by much worse.
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