98xj 5.3 swap (the poverty method).

[Kittrell]

My not so pretty 5.3L............

It's okay, nothing that came out of that engine bay was pretty either. Keep up the good work.............:looney:

 

[blistovmhz]

Well wtf. I setup the harness on the bench to test the harness and spare ECU, and my ECU disappeared. Spent 2 hours looking for it. Just got it like, a day or so ago. All I can think is someone stole it (but what a bizarre thing to steal in a garage full of tools right?).

I've been putting a bunch of thought into the gauge cluster, and I think the answer is to just do it all in software over OBDii. Cluster kits are (imo) usually ugly, massively over priced for what they are, and require installing more sensors and wires.
Thinking a 7 or 9" tablet would fit nice (or possibly just build my own black box and connect it to a fairly wide LCD). Seems like the easiest, cheapest, and best looking option. Also the most portable as it'll work on pretty near any engine 97+ without any extra sensors.
Also leaves me open to a projector HUD on the bottom of the windshield

 

[Hoooper]

if you have the vss on the transmission output, you just don't have a 4l signal because it doesn't matter. Yeah the Speedo is wrong but in 4l who cares. If you hook up a switch it will totally screw up your shifting because there's no way to read the change, so anytime you switch to 4l it would be doing calculations that are completely wrong for shifting, but right for the speedometer. Remember it's using output from the transfer case so to get the speedometer right you will be telling it the output revs are multiplied even though the signal its receiving never changed. I think it actually might be so confused the shifting would be completely fubar. Hell it's confusing me just trying to think about it

 

[blistovmhz]

if you have the vss on the transmission output, you just don't have a 4l signal because it doesn't matter. Yeah the Speedo is wrong but in 4l who cares. If you hook up a switch it will totally screw up your shifting because there's no way to read the change, so anytime you switch to 4l it would be doing calculations that are completely wrong for shifting, but right for the speedometer. Remember it's using output from the transfer case so to get the speedometer right you will be telling it the output revs are multiplied even though the signal its receiving never changed. I think it actually might be so confused the shifting would be completely fubar. Hell it's confusing me just trying to think about it

Right. Duh . Makes sense. What I wanna know is why they put the VSS on the t-case output for 4wd applications, when it clearly belongs on the transmission output.

 

[blistovmhz]

I think my next question should be about the motor. I hooked up the starter and bumped it, but I have no idea how fast it should be turning over. Seems a bit slow. Does the 05 starter (stock) require shims?

 

[Hoooper]

Right. Duh . Makes sense. What I wanna know is why they put the VSS on the t-case output for 4wd applications, when it clearly belongs on the transmission output.

Left over from the old days of mechanical gauges and all mechanical transmissions most likely, it was there and nobody questioned it.

I think my next question should be about the motor. I hooked up the starter and bumped it, but I have no idea how fast it should be turning over. Seems a bit slow. Does the 05 starter (stock) require shims?

If its turning over you probably dont need shims. My 05 motor didnt need shims. Probably either your battery is low or the electrical connections arent good. Did you run new large gauge wire already or were you using jumper cables? I couldnt get mine to bump over with jumper cables at all even with heavy gauge cables, but once I ran all new 2ga wire from the battery it spun right up.

 

[ehall]

The big question here though is the wide bearing. IIRC, the early 231 used a wide bearing and the late model used a narrow bearing. I've heard that the bearing doesn't matter and that it'll fit either case, but I've never actually tried to do this before. Does anyone happen to know which combination (if any) will work?

The narrow bearing works fine on the older input shaft, I just used a narrow bearing on my older 242 no problem. I don't think a wide bearing will work right with a newer one, because less surface area on the shaft, but I don't know for sure, it might work fine.

 

[blistovmhz]

When I assembled the case the first time, I noticed the planetary was rubbing against the front of the case. Swapped to the wide bearing to hold the planetary back that extra 0.3". Seems to have worked.
Keep in mind, the 241c shaft I used is probably 2000+, so things may be different here. I'm not sure why it's got a wide bearing to begin with.

 

[blistovmhz]

Engine test fitted.

Not much firewall clearance at all

Not really sure why the Novak mounts locate the motor so high. It could easily drop another 2-4 inches without issue. I almost have a clearance issue with the PS box (but that's because it's a Dakota box and sticks out an extra 3/4" over stock. With the current height, the alternator is almost fully above the hood line.
The mounts also seem to locate the engine further towards the driver side, and I'm really not sure why. Could be moved an inch passengerward before we have headers binding with the frame.

Brake lines will probably have to be relocated as they're real close to the headers.

Got under the Jeep to check tunnel clearance and realised the stock t-case shifter linkage was bound up a bit. Was removing it anyway to do a direct linkage as I've already got the 231c lever that points up. Somehow knocked my head into one of the body screws and have a bit of a dent and some bleeding, but that's cool because if I'm not bleeding, I haven't done enough "upgradez".

Still can't find my rogue ECU. Checked everywhere in the house and garage. I've only had it like 3 days, and I don't remember taking it out of the milk crate it came with. Everything else is still in the crate. I may be crazy and the guy who sent it over may have just forgotten the ECU, but isn't answering calls at this point (dragged his heels on getting the ECU/coil packs/starter to me for almost two weeks).

Most of my fuel stuff is waiting to be picked up. Holding off till tomorrow or possibly Friday as my RAD should be in by then as well. Not having parts sucks. All I can really do right now is figure out how to empty my full tank of gas, remove the old fuel stuff, install the new pump and tackle the electrical that I've been putting off to the weekend (roomie is the electrical guy and he'll lose his shit if I "do it all wrong", so I just wait for him to do it).

 

[Hoooper]

Have you looked at how much the oil pan hangs down? I assume they have the engine as high as it is because of the oil pan depth. Maybe you have a lot of lift, I cant tell, but with 4.5" lift the bottom of the truck pan was hanging about level with the bottom of my axle tube. The brackets were also designed for LS1 swaps from what I gather, so to increase oil pan clearance the engine goes as high as possible to still fit under the hood (fits with an LS1 intake and accessory setup)

Do you have the engine brackets on the center or forward holes for the block bolt holes? The brackets I got came with 3 drilled holes so you could adjust about 1/2" either forward or back

 

[blistovmhz]

Yea, I've got 6.5" lift and tonnes of room between the pan and the track bar (and I'm running a straight track bar). Could easily drop it down another 2 inches before I had to modify the track bar. The only clearance issue I had on the bottom was with my track bar mount brace, which I'd built almost touching the bottom of the XJ pan. Cut it off and will just build a new one when the time comes.

I'm still not sure what I'm going to to about the height. I may just build a big scoop for the time being. Haven't really put any serious consideration into that yet. Just looking at it, it looks like about 3" scoop should about do the job without doing any modification to the intake or alternator bracket. Long term, I'll build some new brackets and stick an LS6 intake, but right now I just wanna have this thing running so I'm not totally depressed at the lack of wheeling I'm able to do right now.

Engine mounts are sitting in the middle hole right now. I was just dropping it in for a test fit to see where everything's goona be roughly. I'll move it ahead to the front hole when I drop it back in after the electrical is done.

 

[Luke95]

I am following this thread closely I want to see what you do for emissions.

 

[blistovmhz]

We no longer have emissions tests here. This was the last year for small vehicles in BC.
My plan is 2x upstream O2 and 1x downstream just for the sake of monitoring CAT efficiency. I may tie in the EVAP, but probably not right now as I don't have a GM tank pressure sensor. We'll see. I may change my mind if I have any reason to hit a wrecker before the end of the month (when all our wreckers get shut down).
I suppose I am still looking for a dipstick tube, but as everything is 50% during closeout, I'd be real surprised to find any SBC's on the block anymore. Last weekend there were at least 20 guys pulling motors, and there were only maybe 2 or 3 post-2000 GM trucks.

That said, the emissions stuff really doesn't look at all difficult. You need upstream O2 for closed loop so you're doing that anyway. Downstream O2 takes a few minutes to install. Other than that, what is there? Pretty much just EVAP on 2003 or so + from what I understand. Once this is done, even without EVAP, I'd still probably blow away an emissions test simply due to the much higher efficiency of the 5.3 over the old beat up 4.0L.

 

[Luke95]

Our emissions is all plug in here.

 

[Hoooper]

FWIW I was talking about how low the bottom of the truck pan sits in relation to the ground or bottom of the axle, not the track bar. My track bar has plenty of space as well. It's something like an 8" deep pan which is about 3" deeper than the ls1 oil pan. How does the bottom of the pan look on yours under full weight? It's probably fine at 6.5" but based on mine I think I would still be concerned about dragging it on something.

 

[WiscoXJ]

FWIW I was talking about how low the bottom of the truck pan sits in relation to the ground or bottom of the axle, not the track bar. My track bar has plenty of space as well. It's something like an 8" deep pan which is about 3" deeper than the ls1 oil pan. How does the bottom of the pan look on yours under full weight? It's probably fine at 6.5" but based on mine I think I would still be concerned about dragging it on something.

Figured id chime in on this. the vette batwing pan would be a good option to reduce clearance problems. ive swapped another style pan as well onto a vette due to the twins not clearing the batwing pan, but I don't remember the name though.

 

[Johnnie Walker]

Pretty sure the C5+ pan would interfere with the front suspension/driveshaft. There are a few companies that off shallow pans, that include additional baffles and such in the pan for racing/off-road applications.

 

[Hoooper]

Figured id chime in on this. the vette batwing pan would be a good option to reduce clearance problems. ive swapped another style pan as well onto a vette due to the twins not clearing the batwing pan, but I don't remember the name though.

the f body pan is a better choice, it's about 3" shorter than the truck pan and doesn't have those ridiculous wings. The downside is it has crappy oil control so you have to get an aftermarket baffle such as the one sold by improved racing

 

[blistovmhz]

Anyone got a link to the chassis wiring? I'm just digging into it now.
I pretty much just need to keep ignition, HVAC, wiper switch, lights, interior fuse block power, .. That's about it right?
Anyone know if the airbag is independent of the old ecu?

 

[blistovmhz]

And..... We're beyond the point of no return!