The Build of Wanda

[Savage90]

Part 2:

 

the exchange motor is attached to the hoist and it’s time to get this thing back it. 
it’s at that exact moment I forgot I havent Tried to weld the back of the DTD towers. Not going to get another chance if I dont do that now. So I pull the welder out and get some of the metal prepped. The brake lines and some wiring is in the way so I was only able to weld it here and there. I was having issues with my helmet so I’m not proud of any of the welds I did. But it’s better than nothing that was there before. 

now its time to get the motor in. 
 

this is where things got very very difficult. And probably more than likely due to the fact I have never do this before. 

it took almost 4 hours to get the motor back in!!! And at one point I almost thought it wasn’t ever going to get back in and my Jeep was going to be stuck halfway in my garage forever.  

the problem I was have was the hoist that I was attached to the block was hitting the firewall so it wasn’t allowing me to push the motor in any further to get the motor mounts to place. I only needed about another 2 inches. So I found and readjust the motor angle and fought and readjusted again and so and and so forth. Until it finally fell into place. 
 

im not happy with myself on how my firewall looks now and its going to take some time to get over it haha. if this doesn’t say rookie I dont know what would lol. 

as of now I thing everything is ok. No wires or lines seem to be damaged. I am A little worried about the fuel line since it was a struggle getting the motor in I’m hoping I didnt pinch it anywhere. 
 

after the motor was in It was about 9pm so I was now doing Jeep stuff with flash lights lol. 
it took about an hour to get the transmission crossmember back into place and control arms reattached. 
im happy to say the Jeep was rolled back into the garage and was safe over night with the door being able to close!:) 

[riskitforthebiskit]

Nice job!!  Wish I was there to help out.  

[Savage90]

21 minutes ago, riskitforthebiskit said:

Nice job!!  Wish I was there to help out.  

Oh man so do I!!!! 

[Savage90]

Well it’s very clear I  was already worn out before the exchange motor went back in…

 

Jake just help me realize that there shouldn’t be an issue swapping the transmission to transfercase adapter. The bell housing difference shouldn’t matter. The adapter is drilled out. So it accepts a bolt  or studs 

 

even though the exchange motor is in I should Be able to swap the adapters. It will just be more difficult now. Haha 

 

shit shit shit! 

[AJK]

Looking good man. So I understand this correctly there was a V8 then a V6 and back to V8?

[Savage90]

26 minutes ago, AJK said:

Looking good man. So I understand this correctly there was a V8 then a V6 and back to V8?

Close. 
It’s a 2008. So originally came with the 3.8. 
The previous owner to me installed a V8 in 2016 I believe when the Jeep died in him at the time. 
he put a 6.2 L99 in it from a 2011 Camaro. 
 

to be honest. there was nothing wrong with how the Jeep was running before with the engine swap. It had not dash lights. It passes smog here in California. The only down side is that there was a belt squeak for the last 2 years that I could not solve despite swapping almost all the accessories. 
 

the reason for the motor exchange really is because the one I took from my previous white Jeep is a better motor and a lower mileage motor.

It’s a LS376/480 hit cammed LS3. No real reason other than that.

 

 

[AJK]

Nice man. Thats a big job to take on. 

[Savage90]

Day 4.
 

took a rest yesterday. The 12 hours on Saturday really wore me out. 
 

still didn’t get much accomplished today either with a late start as well as a hold up on the wiring.  
 

previous owner issues strikes again. The wiring harness was never installed well in my opinion. Sure it was working but didn’t look good. Part of the harness were bunched up in sections as well as just laid over the top of the intake manifold. So I wanted to clean it up and make it look more factory; as well as let me add an engine cover on the future if I wanted to. 
 

well that’s led me to here.

after unloping part of the harness that was wrapped around the windshield fluid reservoir area. All the driver side plugs were now on the passenger side so I now need to de-loom half the harness to move all the wires back to the driver side. It’s been really fun taking off a ton of electrical tape today. 

I might order a de pinning tool to help with this. The wires in the loom are all tangled up. 
anyways. It appears I just added a bunch of extra work for myself.

[Jdofmemi]

Looks like you are getting it!

 

I sure hope the belt squeal is gone after all this. 

[Weebz]

Oh man.  That gives me anxiety just looking at that.  I can’t match two simple wire colors yet alone a harness.  My damn kids would murder me asking “what color is this”?

[Savage90]

On 4/29/2024 at 7:36 PM, Jdofmemi said:

Looks like you are getting it!

 

I sure hope the belt squeal is gone after all this. 

I sure Hope so too! That was my excuse for doing all this

 

On 4/30/2024 at 9:46 AM, Weebz said:

Oh man.  That gives me anxiety just looking at that.  I can’t match two simple wire colors yet alone a harness.  My damn kids would murder me asking “what color is this”?

its giving me anxiety too. lol. 
my plan is to do 1 wire at a time so I dont have to worry about where it was connected to before.  

that’s the idea at least. 

[Savage90]

Difference between a hero 3 speed and stock JK transfercase. 
I just need to figure out which one to use now. 

[Jdofmemi]

1 hour ago, Savage90 said:

Difference between a hero 3 speed and stock JK transfercase. 
I just need to figure out which one to use now. 

I love having a 3 speed case. One for general trail use, super low for technical spots.

[riskitforthebiskit]

1 hour ago, Jdofmemi said:

I love having a 3 speed case. One for general trail use, super low for technical spots.

And one weighs 75# and the other weights 200# 

 

3 hours ago, Savage90 said:

Difference between a hero 3 speed and stock JK transfercase. 
I just need to figure out which one to use now. 

One weighs 75# and the other weights 200# 

[Jdofmemi]

4 hours ago, riskitforthebiskit said:

And one weighs 75# and the other weights 200# 

 

One weighs 75# and the other weights 200# 

Weight that is useless sucks.

 

Weight that adds performance, is not a bad thing.

[Savage90]

Sneak peak of why I’m spending so much time on fixing the wiring. 
this is the worst if the bunch.  Hopefully have this all wrapped up tomorrow. I ran out of my good tape on Friday otherwise it might have been finished. 
also I’m struggling in finding the correct plug for vvt to non vvt motors for the cam shaft position sensor. Hopefully do the first start this week!

[Weebz]

Still making my head hurt.  Glad you are making progress though.  

[Savage90]

Day 5-8 was all more wiring. 
 

If I hadn't decided to almost completely redo the wiring harness and reloom it I’m confident I would already be done. 
well maybe not with the transfercase yet but close. maybe at least start it and make sure everything runs correctly. 
 

 

Ever since I  bought the Jeep I had hated how the wiring was ran! This is the main reason why I decided to redo the harness; it just became more complicated after I dug Into it. 
 

before:

After: 

[Savage90]

Day 9

bite the bullet and bought a used headlight wiring harness from eBay so I didn't have to fix yet another problem with the previous owner cutting and splicing the whole harness up for his chosen headlights.
The only problem with this is I will now need to buy new headlights I didnt love the other was anyway so I guess a happy expensive accident. 
This allowed me to reconnect the entire fuse box though so that’s all ready to go now. And won’t ever need to be touched again. 

Day 10

started off slow since I have a lingering issues changing motors. the old motor is technically an L99. New motor is LS3. Don’t ask me the different because I cannot answer lol. but there are differences and the one I’m doing with right now is the crank/camshaft position sensor. Or maybe it’s the VVT sensor. 
I don't know. But I do Know I need an adapter to go from a 5 plug to 3 plug. This has been difficult. Hopefully I can solve it soon because after today it’s all I’m waiting on to test fire the motor. 
What the old motor has:

what the exchange motor has:

Anyways. I  knocked a lot of little things out today. 
power steering pump installed 

exhaust mostly installed. Minus the Y pipe and the muffler but that’s because I still have to put the transfercase in. Also plugged the O2 sensors in while I was down there. 
found out my adapter plate for the transmission was lose (wonder how long it was like that)

did an oil change. 
motor bolted down to the frame mounts.

beater hoses shortened and installed.
also got to do a little clean up in the garage which always feels good in the middle of a project.  

[Weebz]

Impressive man.  Keep it up. 

[Savage90]

Just me.. second guessing my decisions that have lead me here..

 

going to need some extra hands. Trimming and a BFH will be needed. 

[Nice Little Jeep]

On 5/7/2024 at 8:09 PM, Savage90 said:

Day 5-8 was all more wiring. 
 

If I hadn't decided to almost completely redo the wiring harness and reloom it I’m confident I would already be done. 
well maybe not with the transfercase yet but close. maybe at least start it and make sure everything runs correctly. 
 

 

Ever since I  bought the Jeep I had hated how the wiring was ran! This is the main reason why I decided to redo the harness; it just became more complicated after I dug Into it. 
 

before:

After: 

You would’ve been done, but you would’ve had a Band-Aid on the problem. I did the wire on Jerry’s Toyota back in the day and he never had problems with the wiring. We just got it done the first time.

[Savage90]

23 hours ago, Nice Little Jeep said:

You would’ve been done, but you would’ve had a Band-Aid on the problem. I did the wire on Jerry’s Toyota back in the day and he never had problems with the wiring. We just got it done the first time.

That’s a good point! 
 

I also always hated opening the hood for people that asked to see under it because I was embarrassed of the quality and wiring mess. Even though I didnt do it originally I’ll feel so much better popping the hood!

[AJK]

LOL that look...I know that look. Keep up the good work bro! It's looking good.

[Savage90]

all 3 and maybe more of these days have been dedicated to working on getting the Hero Tcase in since im still waiting on parts to be delivered to test fire the motor.

 

Day 11:

 

I was hoping to keep the cables on the tcase so i didn't have to worry about getting everything on and tights after its installed since it would be hard to get any tools in there. but that was just not going to happen:/ 

i was able to get it set in place with a floor jack to mark what i needed to trim on one of the crossmember supports to allow it to get into position. only needed about an inch of clearance. i ended up welding what i cut out to add bad the strength that i took away.

after that was trimmed up i was actually able to get the tcase temporarily matted behind the transmission and hanging on its own weight.

Day 12:

from here i was able to set the front drive line in place and see what else i needed to trim out or beat with a BFH to make it all clear. since i would get a hammer in there to make the clearance i decided i needed to make this all even harder on my self and cut a big hole in my floor board that i will need to go back and patch later. Im a glutton for punishment. however the good news in the tcase has been in and out of the jeep 3 times now so at least i have that working for me.

Day 13: 

tough day in the garage working on the floor patch. I got too thick of metal the first trip to the store so it was really hard to manipulate. second trip i got what i needed but was struggling to get the shape i wanted. after a lot of time struggling and 2 failed attempts i ended up calling it early out of frustration and needed to step away. lol