SSS's V8 swap project ... THE THUNDER is alive

[SSS]

have been to 7p today to check on the progress :

- Caprice with them since last wednesday
- TJ with them since yesterday

Caprice butchered :

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Hisham and waleed disassemble the whole powertrain ... no accessories attached anymore ... the intake manifold removed to reach bolts more easily during engine removal and mounting again...
The TV shows showing a powertrain completely assembled going out and into a new engine bay are show off and cause too much hassle when you rip off a sensor or component



TJ ... engine bay a bit "lighter" now :

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notice how much space there is when the stock clutch fan, shroud and radiator are removed from the bay ... still with the long 4.0 I6L here!
the LS1 is much shorter ... a V8 is 4cylinders long ... but wider ... enough room in a wrangler engine bay even with a FAT radiator setup

[MalteJK]

Looks good - hope its progressing now in good pace .

[ossme]

They can remove the whole front clip. It is only 6 bolts ..

[SSS]

Looks good - hope its progressing now in good pace .

Thanks! Yes, I hope so as well.

[SSS]

They can remove the whole front clip. It is only 6 bolts ..

I told them ... they said no need, because they ALWAYS disassemble/reassemble the bigger bulks anyway

[ossme]

My concern is that they will scratch up the tub during the assembly process ...

[SSS]

today not much to tell ... my TJ engine and trans are out

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to give you an impression about a conversion radiator (single pass, dual row, crossflow ) with correct shroud and fan:

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it has to fit in front of the short V8:

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if you want to see the donor vehicle in its last days :

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[khaiwi]

Watching the progress closely.

I am in full agreement with your strategy, measure twice and cut once.

Looking forward for another V8 monster in the club

[SSS]

Thanks, Chief!

I am critical too ... to much?

Today I saw some things in the shop which I did not like:

1. the old transmission with transfercase was removed with the front drive shaft still attached to the transfer case WHY?
4 more screws and the driveshaft could have been put safely aside ... grrrrr!
2. the front yoke ujoint was unprotected ... so of course one cap with needle bearing was popped off ... didn't they have duct tape at hand to secure the ujoint?
the foreman said : ana badein saui tarteeb ... I thought : tuzzz ! (I hope he could read my mind!)
3. new 4L60E transmission disassembled to swap the outputshaft for the new hardened shorter Novak version. Shaft was there on the ground ... (where is the adapter ??) ... all the dissassembled parts (except the torque converter!?) were piled up in a pan nearby.

uiuiuiuiiii ... I am boiling inside in regards to messy work attitude ... the same time I don't want to piss off Hisham or Waleed. Fortunately (?) they were not there.
Fighting the human factor I hope they do not mess up! For sure I have to visit the shop regularly and drop some "comments"

[SSS]

Ok ... slowly some slight progress :

The 4L60E has been prepared with a new "short" outputshaft and a Novak TC adapter ...

The whole powertrain assembled and mocked up into the degutted buggy wannabe :

engine_mockup.jpg

In above photo the engine is still sitting low ... it will be lifted by 1.5-2" when the new mounts are in place.

To stay road legal here I have to retain the original engine mount frame horns. Some smart engine mount solution is going to be fabricated to reuse the original frame horns
No grinding, drilling, cutting or welding to the frame allowed! :brickwall

Nevertheless the TJ engine bay is spacious and allows for positioning the
short V8 engine far back but still maintaining original TC mounting position despite the slightly longer tranny, adapter and TC combo (only about 1.5" longer than 42RLE plus TC).

Plenty of clearances for the front end, the accessories and rad and under the oil pan ... more photos will follow soon.

[SSS]

and the journey goes on:

Today I visited my beloved workshop again ...

The engine bay is close to look cool now ... forgot my drool towel at home ... but my new mobile phone has a nice feature : 5mp with flashlight

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here you see some nice Kwik performance relocation brackets to mount A/C compressor and alternator up high out of the way of control arms and axle housing
with a brand new Sanden FLX7 7 piston compressor which can be run comfortably without computer control and still "robust".

On Thursday evening Hisham/7p gave me a call saying "The A/C relocation does not work ... is touching inner fender well ... but I have a corvette solution".
I said : "No way ... 1. I need to change the whole accessory setup to the closer to block version and 2. the right upper control arm WILL hit! Cut the inner fender well to make room for the Sanden!" ... and Thanks God today I saw that cutting the fender well was just right. No contact of A/C compressor with shock mount ... phew ... engine mounting position just PERFECT.
Believe me ... sleeping was not easy until I saw with my own eyes that my A/C is safe now.

On an interesting side note:
The shop centered engine and transmission/transfer case perfectly ... too perfect ... even more perfect than the original engine which usually is shifted about 1" to the left.
In below photo you can see the attachment of the Novak TC adapter mount relative to the original tranfer case mount position. Although the powertrain is about 1.5" longer than stock 7p managed to find the right position to maintain drive shaft lengths ... YESS!

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The next photo shows the PERFECT fit and clearance of the sanderson headers I got from Novak :
Starter (good job Novak!) and front left upper control arm mount (GOOD JOB 7p) are close but clear!

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Now for all who are curious how 7p could maintain the stock mounts :
Hisham/7p had the brilliant idea to use Range Rover engine mount isolators which bolt directly on top of the original frame horns WITHOUT EVEN DRILLING !!!
The engine side brackets are a 7p custom job which use THREE (instead of four) engine mount bosses on the block!!
(The old chevvy SBC brackets for the much heavier iron blocks use three bosses as well ... so should be ok! )
AND THE BEST THING : THIS is muroor legal

Front Left engine mount:

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Front Right engine mount:

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more to come ... stay tuned

[SSS]

and another day has passed

My radiator of choice is a Novak RadLock with the top of the range Spal Fan/Shroud combo ...

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Novak is recommending running the transmission cooler completely separate ... therefor the RadLock has no provisioning for such

Everyone else I spoke to is saying biiig mistake ... fluid to air will never be as efficient as fluid to fluid ... somehow plausible ... SO
instead of ditching already expensive RadLock I grabbed THIS

DERALE 13960 monster HyperCool

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mounted it here ... anyone having problems identifying the spot?

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[MalteJK]

hm ... are you sure about the spot for the transmission oil cooler chafik ?
don't you think the cooler will be totally cloaked with sand quit soon ?

Hisham also told me about that place before ( when i still had the automatic ) ... but for me it sounded a bit too risky...
You have a skid plate there protecting it later on, right ?

But the rest looks pretty nice so far...

[Xof]

above fuel tank?

[SSS]

Ok ... here the solution:

Under the tub below the rear passenger foot floor board as far back as possibe just not too close to the rear axle

About getting clogged with sand ... i am not afraid ... since the 8"(!) fan will run from time to time pulling (not pushing!) the air through!
And one more positive side effect of my 1.25" body lift ... it is high up and protected. And the position far back makes it nearly besides the big rear tire which climbs over any obstacle ... so no skid plate needed.
So far i have sunk only once in deep sand down to the side steps ... but this would still clear the cooler!

Oh ... and derale offers a direct fit kit for the TJ which comes with a frame bracket and mounts even lower ... mine is bigger and higher up ... i would say the better solution than derale themselves offers

Anyway ... i am still using my tranny temp gauge and we will see ....

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