98 XJ 5.3 Swap and Other Stuff

[stomperxj]

So I think I’ve made enough progress to start a build thread. I’m starting with a 98 SE model I bought several years ago at a government auction for way too much money. It had low miles though so whatever. I’m going to give a bit of backstory so skip this if you are bored easily.

I did the standard lift/wheels/tires/rack/bumper treatment about 8 years ago and it has been a great rig and has taken me everywhere I wanted to go. In the last couple years though the mileage seemed to get worse and worse and the power seemed to be dropping too. About a year and a half ago I started researching the 5.3 as an option. There were a few people that had somewhat documented the swap and it seemed doable but the price always put me off of it. LS/Vortec motors in my area are rather expensive compared to what other people have reported. I decided I was going to do a 5.3, I just needed to find a motor that was reasonably priced. Fast forward to last December and I came across an 05 Yukon for sale on craigslist listed as parts with only 140k on the clock. I emailed and asked how much he wanted for just the motor/trans and he said $2k for the motor/trans or $2k for everything. He was a repo guy and just wanted rid of the whole thing. We settled on $1800 for the rig and he even delivered it to my house. I pulled everything off that I wanted and sold a bunch of parts off of it to try and recoup some of the cost. I made back about half of what I spent on the rig.


Instead of going the Novak route on everything and chopping a hole in the hood I’m building my own bracketry and mounts and using an LS1 intake so as not to disrupt the attractive lines of the stock XJ hood. I personally think the Novak stuff is overpriced and have read more than a couple peoples comments that the motor mounts are a pain to deal with anyway. Plus I’m not rich and the Novak radiator, motor mounts, xfer case adapter and headers total well over $1600.


I’ll also be posting cost information and part numbers for everything I have purchased so it is available to future swappers.


Here are the threads I referenced a lot during my research phase
FrankZ:
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1007477


PhotoJared:
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1122178


blistovmhz Poverty Method:
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1119575


xjbubba
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=945920


Blah blah… shut up and show some pics already


05 Yukon donor:

Motor pulled

Stripped and ready for cleaning

The heads were super gunked up with oil/crap

Piston cleaning

Valve seats were pitted

So I hand lapped them

...continued...

 

[stomperxj]

One of the exhaust manifold bolts broke off in the head so I tried drilling it and using an easy out and ended up breaking a small drill bit off in the broken off bolt. I thought I was screwed and then did some reading and found out carbide will cut through high speed steel. So I took the head over to dad's shop and he had a small diameter end mill I was able to plunge into the broken cluster**** I had created

New guide seals

Stock springs

And here is the motor partially assembled and painted. I used some high temp black metallic on the block and high temp "graphite" color on the valve covers and pan

I cut the connector off the back of the intake and made a bracket/plug to hold the MAP sensor. Mostly for clearance as some guys said it was too close to the firewall

...continued...

 

[stomperxj]

Then it was time for a trans rebuild. I have a buddy that works at a trans parts warehouse so I got all the parts at near cost. $380 total including a new 1800 stall torque converter, Transgo SK shift kit, corvette servo and all aluminum pistons to replace all the plastic ones.

Done

I ordered motor side mounts from https://www.davescustomsunlimited.com/ And I am making my own frame side mounts.

At this point I was committed to the swap

I also decided it was a good time to swap in a new heater core

Here is the cost breakdown so far. I forgot to add in the cost of a new valve body harness and the fluid for the trans rebuild. The pic below shows all of my costs up to today with part numbers. Some of this stuff is obviously specific to the year motor I have:

[/QUOTE]



I'm trying to film stuff as I go too so if you are interested you can check out my channel. I'll be making a playlist with all the swap vids once I have more than 1. Should have another one up soon. I've been working on motor mounts and trans mount this past weekend.


https://www.youtube.com/user/jesscneal


Thanks for looking guys.

 

[stomperxj]

This past weekend I worked on the new accessory brackets and finished the motor mounts and trans mount. The original accessory brackets I made did not work. The alt was too high and the GM steering pump pulley hit the steering box. So I'm going back to using a high mount Jeep PS pump. The Jeep hoses are a bolt in as is so if I need to replace them its an off the shelf item. The idler and tensioner are off of an 02 GMC Envoy.


Brackets are .25" aluminum

Hand finished with a file, belt sander and sandpaper

Belt routing. I think I forgot to mention I'm using an L99 water pump. It lines up with the truck crank pulley.

Passenger motor mount

Driver motor mount

I cut the middle out of the Yukon trans cross member and spliced it into the XJ cross member. I'm using an OEM Yukon trans mount.

I think I'm caught up on pics now. The motor/trans is supported 100% by the Jeep now which is a big step. I have to make some slight adjustments to the firewall by the back corners of the heads. Its a little tight but should be easy to clearance. I'll be posting another video on youtube tonight.


Jess

 

[mallthus]

Great write up and it's clear you've got some mad fabrication skills. Well done so far and looking forward to seeing this build play out.

 

[MTSN]

Looking at your pics gives me anxiety because it's so technical and over my abilities, so my hat is off to you! :beer: That motor should be a lot of fun in a light XJ!

 

[Adventure: OffRoad]

Good to see you've started! I'm kinda curious, it looks like the motor is sitting real low with the motor mounts. What kind of oil pan have you looking into getting?

 

[stomperxj]

Great write up and it's clear you've got some mad fabrication skills. Well done so far and looking forward to seeing this build play out.

Thanks!

Looking at your pics gives me anxiety because it's so technical and over my abilities, so my hat is off to you! :beer: That motor should be a lot of fun in a light XJ!

Thanks!

Good to see you've started! I'm kinda curious, it looks like the motor is sitting real low with the motor mounts. What kind of oil pan have you looking into getting?

It has the truck pan on it right now. Looks like it clears everything but i'll be sure to flex it out and see if it's close to anything. If its close to hitting I may pull it off and cut it down. Worst case I'll order a CTSV or F body pan for it.

 

[jeepdreamer]

Subscribed because this is too cool for school! Great work so far! When you're done...feel free to come and do mine.

 

[Uboatcmdr]

Looks good man!
I have an lm7 in my yj, which has the stock truck oil pan and no clearance issues, although that's leaf sprung for now haha.

I really like you're accessory brackets, I'm using the stock setup which makes the power steering pump the biggest clearance concern for when I build a 3link.

Just an FYI, the stock 5.3 pump is a direct fit on the jeep hoses.

Maybe I missed it, what are you doing for wiring/tuning?
I did the harness myself in an afternoon with info from lt1swap.com which made it super easy. Then I had Wayne from 150tunes set up my pcm. His tune is great, runs dead smooth, definitely improved shifting over any 5.3 truck I've driven, good power, and only 150 bucks!

 

[stomperxj]

Subscribed because this is too cool for school! Great work so far! When you're done...feel free to come and do mine.

Thanks! As long as I can name my price, no worries

Looks good man!
I have an lm7 in my yj, which has the stock truck oil pan and no clearance issues, although that's leaf sprung for now haha.

I really like you're accessory brackets, I'm using the stock setup which makes the power steering pump the biggest clearance concern for when I build a 3link.

Just an FYI, the stock 5.3 pump is a direct fit on the jeep hoses.

Maybe I missed it, what are you doing for wiring/tuning?
I did the harness myself in an afternoon with info from lt1swap.com which made it super easy. Then I had Wayne from 150tunes set up my pcm. His tune is great, runs dead smooth, definitely improved shifting over any 5.3 truck I've driven, good power, and only 150 bucks!

I was going to use the GM PS pump but had clearance issues at the steering box. I sent my PCM off to Brendan at LT1swap.com for the tune and I did my own harness too. Wasn't too bad and I'm probably being too anal about stuff but it should look clean when done. All the Jeep and GM wires will run through the same loom so it will look somewhat factory in that regard. My trans should shift pretty nice with the shift kit and corvette servo in it.

Thanks for the comment on the brackets. I wanted to make my own setup as all of the brackets you can buy are insanely expensive. I modeled them up in Autodesk Inventor and made about 3 revisions till I got everything placed how I wanted it.

 

[Uboatcmdr]

Nice! I've never played around with inventor, but I use AutoCAD a ton designing parts to plasma cut at school, and I'm trying to get solid works down which is a very steep learning curve in my opinion haha.

Nothing wrong about being Anal on an engine swap, I still need to go back through and loom my harness. It's fully wrapped in electrical tape which does the job but looks like some ghetto hack job.

 

[HercDriver]

Sick. Ill be keeping this thread on lock of when I start my 5.3 swap.

Great work. I envy your shop!

 

[stomperxj]

Nice! I've never played around with inventor, but I use AutoCAD a ton designing parts to plasma cut at school, and I'm trying to get solid works down which is a very steep learning curve in my opinion haha.

Nothing wrong about being Anal on an engine swap, I still need to go back through and loom my harness. It's fully wrapped in electrical tape which does the job but looks like some ghetto hack job.

Solidworks and Inventor are pretty similar. I've used both for years and prefer Inventor. A lot less clicks to get what you want it seems. I've been using Autocad professionally for about 17 years and started out as a hobby on release 10 in the 80's. I still use it all the time too.

Sick. Ill be keeping this thread on lock of when I start my 5.3 swap.

Great work. I envy your shop!

Thanks! I just finished building my shop a few years ago. Its been awesome having a space for projects like this. I did everything but the concrete to try and save money. It was a lot of work though

 

[cjjohn]

Great work Stomper!
I completed a 5.3 swap into my CJ 7 a couple of years ago. What a difference. Best mod I've done. It would have been much easier if I wasn't in California. I had to keep mine smog legal. I always thought a 5.3 in a Cherokee would be the perfect solution. Subscribed!