LS2 XJ

Frank, did you re-use the bracket that bolts to the transmission that the bellcrank goes into (the part that is held on with 2 of the t-case bolts and one other one, it has a rubber bushing that the bellcrank fits into)?
 
Ok, cool, I should be able to come up with something similar. Thanks for the link Frank!
 
Thanks for the tour of RSOR, Project looks bad ass, I'll definitely bring you some more business. Thanks.
 
No problem Adam! thanks for stopping by!

So, yesterday I worked on it for about 8 hours and got some very important things done. First of all, I had to re-do the cross member so that the trans would sit low enough to clear the floor. Its not that its really any taller than the AW4, its just that the mount system is quite a bit different and taller. I am still not 100% happy with it, but it's really close, so when I pull it back out to do the suspension in a couple of weeks, I'll tweak it some.

I also got both shifters working perfectly! I am very impressed with it actually. For the t-case, I had to make a new bracket to hold the bell crank on the transmission, I had to modify the bell crank itself pretty significantly, and also had to take ~3" out of the rod that connects the bell crank to the t-case lever. It took a few trys to get it right, but its dead nuts perfect now. It has a nice smooth, yet firm and solid feel to it, and the gating on the shifter is spot on too.

Ok... pay attention to this! I went about the trans shifter exactly opposite than most other people. Instead of grabbing a GM cable and trans brackets to make work with the Jeep shifter, I used the jeep cable and brackets and modified them to work with the GM transmission. So here's how: The shift lever on the GTO trans points up, just like the Jeep lever. This is different than the Truck shift levers b/c from what I have seen, they all point down. Since the GTO one was up, I decided I could more than likely make it work. The problem was that the distance of the throw from "P" to "1" on the shift lever was 2.75" on the 4L65E, and 1.825" on the AW4. To solve this problem, I simply made marks on the GM shift lever and moved it from "P" to "1" measuring it every time. I kept doing this until I had a mark that yielded me with 1.825" just like the AW4. I then cut the "nipple" thing off of the AW4 lever and welded it to the 4L65E lever and that was good to go. I shifted both the trans and the shifter into the Park position, and the removed the cable bracket from the AW4, and modified it to bolt onto the GM trans. Once that was done, the thing shifted absolutely fabulously! All of the gating was perfect except that there was an extra position for the 4L65E that was found between "3" and "21" on the Jeep shifter. So, I pulled it apart, marked it, and modified the gating to allow one more position. BAM! Works absolutely perfect now! Even the gear indicator lines up on everything , except for "2" in the transmission. However, every other position is spot on.

I didn't finish up until 10 PM last night, so I didn't take any pictures, but I will try to get some today and post them up this evening.
 
Ingenuity! Well done young man!

That should make Brent happy to not have to buy more aftermarket parts, and keep the stock look in the console.
 
John D said:
Frank Z was able to make the factory linkage work with some modification.
I used the one from Novak (below) and with a couple well placed bends have it coming through the console like its supposed to. I like it. I tried the one from Advanced Adapters first and couldn't make it work.

NovakShifterLinkage-1.jpg
Click to expand...

Have you seen my write-up?
http://www.bsfab.net/?p=26
Billy

PS - That motor is sexxxxxy!
 
Well, I know many of you are watching this, so I can finally give another update. I have been CRAZY busy with this thing. I have been working 10-12 hour days (actually worked 13 hours today) trying to get this thing knocked out. As of now, all of the wiring is done, except for lengthening the wiring for the Oil pressure and temperature senders, and wiring up the reverse lights to the Chevy transmission. Also, the fuel is all plumbed up. I had to do that b/c while testing things, it would spray fuel when I energized the computer. It was cool to know it worked, but not so cool to have to clean it up! The next thing I need to do is wire the reverse lights, then I need to swap the oil pans and get the front accessory drives switched over to the new brackets, but Im waiting on that stuff to be delivered.

So... here are some pictures of everything so far. I did take some pics of the shifter linkages so we will start there first:

0601102310a.jpg


0601102310b.jpg


0601102309a.jpg


This is what is left of the Jeep engine harness. Everything was removed except for the Oil press sender, the temp sender, the range selection sender (for the t-case) and the speed sensor wiring. Not much left at all!

0529101443a.jpg


This is a fuse block that powers the injectors, coils, sensors, and the TCM. The fuse block is powered by a relay that is controlled by the ECM.

0601102308c.jpg


Both the GTO and the Cherokee ECMs mounted up:

0601102308b.jpg


And an overall shot:

0601102308a.jpg
 
The fuse block is from advance auto, but I've had it around for a few years so Im not sure if they still carry them or not... Surely one of the big 3 would have them still.

The 05 and up computers are all about that size (much smaller). The last 6.0 I did had the big computer like your 5.3. I was very happy to find out that the new ones were redesigned. Not only are they a lot more compact, they are also a lot easier to mount.
 
How are you making the 97+ ECU happy with the fact that it isn't behind the wheel anymore? I would think it would throw CELs left and right and probably not even try and do anything without a CPS signal. And I'm ALWAYS curious about electronics on these!
 
kastein said:
How are you making the 97+ ECU happy with the fact that it isn't behind the wheel anymore? I would think it would throw CELs left and right and probably not even try and do anything without a CPS signal. And I'm ALWAYS curious about electronics on these!
Click to expand...

When you say behind the wheel what do you mean?
 
in control of the engine - running ignition, injectors, etc etc. The 97+ ECU is pretty smart and will notice if it suddenly loses the ignition coil, injectors, most of the sensors, TCU, and CPS, and will most likely pitch a fit.
 
kastein said:
in control of the engine - running ignition, injectors, etc etc. The 97+ ECU is pretty smart and will notice if it suddenly loses the ignition coil, injectors, most of the sensors, TCU, and CPS, and will most likely pitch a fit.
Click to expand...

Ok, so you are refering to the seperate fuse block. I'm intrested as to why that was done.
 
Ghost said:
Ok, so you are refering to the seperate fuse block. I'm intrested as to why that was done.
Click to expand...

I think he means there is no feedback from the sensors that are normally plugged into the 4.0L which will cause the computer to go into an auto shutdown (see the 3rd line in my sig). I am waiting to see how this works out too. I invested a lot into mine then ended up with aftermarket cluster anyway.

The separate fuse block is for the GM harness. Found this in case someone is looking http://www.wiringproducts.com/contents/en-us/d136.html About halfway down, 15 bucks.

Tyler, any updates on the cluster saga?
 
Last edited:
A page you may be interested in for cluster/CCD/97+ info - it's by a guy in Finland, and he's got a Caravan not a Cherokee, but it's the same bus. http://www.kolumbus.fi/juha.niinikoski/CCD_bus/ccd_display.htm

http://www.kolumbus.fi/juha.niinikoski/CCD_bus/ccd_disp1.jpg shows just how much info he was able to glean from the bus - those messages should be exactly the same on a Cherokee. So if you can find a local wirehead who can use the info on that page properly you should be able to build a custom braindead ECU that will read just the sensors you want and broadcast the info across the CCD bus to the 97+ XJ cluster.

I've been looking at this for a while but have no solid info other than what I just posted.
 
As far as the Jeep ECU, yes, it will pitch a fit! It will hate life as it will basically be living in a cold dark closet. However, nobody will ever know that it's pitching a fit b/c the CEL in the cluster is being removed and I will glue in an LED and wire it up to the GM computer. Also, I replaced the Jeep DLC and wired in a new one to the GM computer. I did not remove the Jeep DLC, I just unscrewed it and shoved it behind the kick panel. This way, if at any time there is a problem with say the airbag system, the Jeep DLC can still be plugged up to pull those codes.

Im still not 100% convinced that it will work... John didn't have any luck with it, but the Guys at Novak insist that they do it on every swap they do and have never had an issue. For the tach, they can modify the gage to accept a GM tach signal. So I sent it out, and for $225 they will do the deed for us and send it back. I respect Johns opinions, and he had me convinced, so I convinced my customer to just go with some autometers, but... Novak does this a lot, so I have to say that its hard to not at least try to get the gages working. All I know is that even with everything unplugged and cut out, the Jeep computer was still turning on the fuel pump until I cut the feed wire and hooked it up to the Chevy computer. Now it does the job.

I am also planning on using the Jeep computer to run the A/C and the electric fans. There's just so much that the Jeep computer does that I hate to just ditch it without trying.
 
Team Willys said:
Well, even with our little mount situation and set back, I am still officially ahead of schedule. I had to work on my truck some today to get ready for a day trip to "The Cove" for a little day ride. While I was finishing that stuff up, the UPS man showed up with a package from Novak, it had the engine plates and the hardware that goes with them (which I didn't get the first time either). Big thanks goes out to them for making that happen.

Well, after finishing the truck, it was about 7 PM and I was feeling kinda froggy so I decided to keep on working and see if I could get the engine sitting in the XJ. I mounted up the plates and did some quick measuring. The GTO alternator was going to hit the Jeep PS box so I went ahead and took it and it's brackets off. I was go for launch and started jacking up the hoist. After about halfway up, the strap broke and the engine fell about 2 feet. When it hit the floor the oil pan broke really badly and also broke the block. At this point, you are probably like WHAT?!?, then of course Im gonna tell you that I am completely full of crap and I didn't drop it at all. :roflmao: So anyway, test fit #1. I got it started into the jeep and got it almost lined up, but ran into some more issues. The A/C compressor hit the frame, so without significant work and notching it out, it just wasn't going to fit. So, It came off as well. For some reason though, it still wouldn't drop down into place... I couldn't see anything hitting, but it just wouldn't go. I finally saw it... The GTO oil pan has a front sump oil pan. It isn't very deep at all, so I figured that it would clear and be just fine. I was wrong. The oil filter was hitting the Track Bar, and the steering stabilizer's mounting bolt was hitting the oil pan. So, I took both of those off as well. After 2.5 hours of struggling, cursing, pushing, pulling, and prying, it finally set down into place.

It is a tight fit, but actually fits very well. It sorta looks like it was meant to go there actually. Tomorrow I am going to work on the crossmember and get it in there. I had to pick up a different transmission mount, so that will take a slight amount of work to get in. I will then mount up the 231 and try to figur out a linkage. Novak claims that the factory linkage will work on their website, but I just don't see it happening, but... I am gonna give it another go once its in.

So enough chit chat.

Who's ready to see what an LS2 looks like in a cherokee?

Picking her up in preparation for the transplant:

0527102003a.jpg


Starting to get it in the hole!

0527102008a.jpg


0527102008b.jpg


And here it is!

0527102134c.jpg


0527102139a.jpg


0527102139b.jpg


I'll try to make another update tomorrow!
Click to expand...


Cocky bums... Wouldn't ever try that without pulling the front clip, Ive never had good luck with my engine hoist though. Looks amazing...
 
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