The Build of Wanda

[Weebz]

Usually a good plan to walk away if things aren’t working.  You will get it. 

[AJK]

Lol, i love your humor. 

[Savage90]

Day 14:

 

After 2 or maybe 3 attempts I finally fitted a patch for the floor. Inverted of course for clearance for the front drive shaft. 
 

I’m satisfied with it but not comply happy. I think I could do better but it is what it is. It’s done. 
 

fully welded in, painted, and seam sealer on the underside. Once it’s all dry I’ll add some new heat shielding. 

Some of my attempts: 

 

while things were drying I had some extra time. Can’t sit there and watch paint dry so I checked something else odd the list. Got to get the wife’s car back into the garage!!
So onto the power steering cooler.  
the PS cooler was originally zip tied to the bottom of the radiator shroud and I wasnt happy with it. So I welded on a few tabs to the back of the bumper so it can actually bolt on and not bounce all around. I taped the tabes so I don’t need to worry about not being able to get to the nuts on the inside of the bumper. 

 

all in all a really productive day! totally different than yesterday. 

[Savage90]

4 hours ago, AJK said:

Lol, i love your humor. 

Haha thanks! Glad it’s coming through in my writing!

[Jdofmemi]

Glad to see it coming together!

 

Every mod seems to come with 2 steps forward, and 1, 2, and sometimes 3 steps back

 

It's going to be great once you get it all together.  Seems like you are getting close now.

 

What's your estimated date for a test drive?

[Savage90]

2 hours ago, Jdofmemi said:

Glad to see it coming together!

 

Every mod seems to come with 2 steps forward, and 1, 2, and sometimes 3 steps back

 

It's going to be great once you get it all together.  Seems like you are getting close now.

 

What's your estimated date for a test drive?

sometimes 3 steps back for sure. also doesn't help that I added things to the check list like the steering cooler, wiring harness, and modifying the radiator. there will probably be other side projects added as i continue reassembling it.

 

Test drive hopefully is middle to late next week. Im currently waiting on 2 parts to arrive still before I can even test fire the motor. A valley gasket and 5 wire to 3 wire adapter for the cam position sensor. once its running it should all come together quickly after that.

[Jdofmemi]

2 hours ago, Savage90 said:

sometimes 3 steps back for sure. also doesn't help that I added things to the check list like the steering cooler, wiring harness, and modifying the radiator. there will probably be other side projects added as i continue reassembling it.

 

Test drive hopefully is middle to late next week. Im currently waiting on 2 parts to arrive still before I can even test fire the motor. A valley gasket and 5 wire to 3 wire adapter for the cam position sensor. once its running it should all come together quickly after that.

Boy, can I relate to how the list tends to grow!

 

I bet you are ready to enjoy your Jeep, instead of spending all your time working on it!

I know I am!

[Savage90]

3 hours ago, Jdofmemi said:

Boy, can I relate to how the list tends to grow!

 

I bet you are ready to enjoy your Jeep, instead of spending all your time working on it!

I know I am!

Weren’t you just saying something about 2 steps forward 1 step back? lol. 
 

well the manifold is off again. 
 

Let’s see if I can type this out well. It might get confusing. Or I’ll at least make it confusing. lol
 

when I was reassembling the motor I removed so it wasn’t sitting in the garage with painters tap protecting the valley and valves; I put a new valley gasket on because one was damaged when we swapped them. 
However i reused the old one on the exchange motor. But it wasn’t until the new gasket for the old motor showed up that I realized I made a mistake.

the exchange motor is more of a performance motor so it came with a fancy aluminum one with an O-ring type seal. 
the one I reused was not that. Unfortunately it wasn’t until after the old motor was all torqued down that I realized I should have just used the new gasket. 
alas here I am now… the new gasket should be here Monday. 
also it was the fancy one as well as these seals or something similar that made me realize I make a mistake.
I rather take an extra week and wait for a $60 gasket to start the motor than risk ruining a very expensive motor. 

[Jdofmemi]

18 minutes ago, Savage90 said:

Weren’t you just saying something about 2 steps forward 1 step back? lol. 
 

well the manifold is off again. 
 

Let’s see if I can type this out well. It might get confusing. Or I’ll at least make it confusing. lol
 

when I was reassembling the motor I removed so it wasn’t sitting in the garage with painters tap protecting the valley and valves; I put a new valley gasket on because one was damaged when we swapped them. 
However i reused the old one on the exchange motor. But it wasn’t until the new gasket for the old motor showed up that I realized I made a mistake.

the exchange motor is more of a performance motor so it came with a fancy aluminum one with an O-ring type seal. 
the one I reused was not that. Unfortunately it wasn’t until after the old motor was all torqued down that I realized I should have just used the new gasket. 
alas here I am now… the new gasket should be here Monday. 
also it was the fancy one as well as these seals or something similar that made me realize I make a mistake.
I rather take an extra week and wait for a $60 gasket to start the motor than risk ruining a very expensive motor. 

Ugh!

 

Tough luck, but it's better than a big problem later.

 

On the bright side, you now have extra time to tidy up the rest of it, at least the parts you didn't have to take back apart to pull the intake.

 

How are your driveshafts, with the new transfer case?

[Savage90]

Day 15:

 

although there were steps backwards today. I did proactively prepare for them and take the manifold off so it will be a quick gasket change when it arrives. 
 

also finished up the floor now that the paint and seam sealer is dry. Added back some heat shielding I cut out. And put the interior back together. Cannot even tell now!:)


 

lastly the final harness arrived. However it was still wrong or at least one plug. Good thing I order an additional plug just in case so that I could modify them and make 2 plugs into 1.  really wish I  knew the correct one to just order lol. 

 

[Savage90]

1 hour ago, Jdofmemi said:

Ugh!

 

Tough luck, but it's better than a big problem later.

 

On the bright side, you now have extra time to tidy up the rest of it, at least the parts you didn't have to take back apart to pull the intake.

 

How are your driveshafts, with the new transfer case?

Interestingly enough I have 2 sets of drive shafts. The ones from my old white Jeep that had this drivetrain in it originally. And the ones I gad modified for this Jeep during the suspension/axle upgrade (which absolutely don’t fit now).
With that said I’m sure something will need to be modified so measurements to come after the motor is running. 

[Jdofmemi]

1 hour ago, Savage90 said:

Interestingly enough I have 2 sets of drive shafts. The ones from my old white Jeep that had this drivetrain in it originally. And the ones I gad modified for this Jeep during the suspension/axle upgrade (which absolutely don’t fit now).
With that said I’m sure something will need to be modified so measurements to come after the motor is running. 

Sounds like you will soon have six driveshafts

[Savage90]

So much for an easy gasket change. With the AFM technology from the old motor the gasket sits underneath it all. So I would have to remove all that to pull the gasket. And to make things worse. It’s a different gasket assembly as well than what I thought and bought lol. 
 

At this point I think I’m going to swap the valley covers again putting them back on the original motors they came with. I’ll only be loosing the ability to plug the AFM harness into the block. But looking at some Motech videos that’s fine since it was only installed on certain motors. They just zip tie it out of the way when going on motors that don’t have it. or at least that’s what the video said from a few years ago. 
 

long story short I hope to have this buttoned up tomorrow. And possibly able to test fire the motor before I hook everything else back up. 
 

Still a long list of items to check off and this just added to it:/

[Jdofmemi]

that you are over the last hurdle.

[Savage90]

Yesterday was a good day! Got everything reassembled wiring harness all plugged back in and fuel pressure at 52psi. 
Test fired the motor!!! Took just a second for it to turn over but fired right up! Not too bad after 16 months in storage and a fresh oil change. let it run for about 30 seconds is all. I dont Have any cooling set up yet. 

 

I unfortunately don’t know how to add a video but here is a screenshot! Lol

[Jdofmemi]

That's got to be a good feeling Mike!

 

Glad it's coming together.

[Savage90]

Day 19 I think??

 

Transfercase is in hopefully for the last time. It’s been in and out about 5 or 6 times now. Not a good time bench pressing it in and out lol. Smashed my finger pretty good this last time because I was too impatient to wait for my wife’s help to hold the shifting cables while I lifted It. The cables needed to be installed before the transfercase was in place just because I dont have any room to install them or adjust after.
 

anyways. I am working on building a mount for the triple sticks now. The center console I’m sure will need to be cut up a little but I will do my best to make it look factory as possible. 

 

by the way. Why doesn’t Jeep paint the center console mount thingy? Every console I have ever removed is rusted up. 

 

[Jdofmemi]

15 hours ago, Savage90 said:

Day 19 I think??

 

Transfercase is in hopefully for the last time. It’s been in and out about 5 or 6 times now. Not a good time bench pressing it in and out lol. Smashed my finger pretty good this last time because I was too impatient to wait for my wife’s help to hold the shifting cables while I lifted It. The cables needed to be installed before the transfercase was in place just because I dont have any room to install them or adjust after.
 

anyways. I am working on building a mount for the triple sticks now. The center console I’m sure will need to be cut up a little but I will do my best to make it look factory as possible. 

 

by the way. Why doesn’t Jeep paint the center console mount thingy? Every console I have ever removed is rusted up. 

 

I'm sure you will make it look better than the hatchet job EVO did to get twin sticks in mine

 

It's torch cut, jagged edges, and never even cleaned up with a grinder or anything.

 

Unbelievably poor work.  I'm pretty sure an unskilled teenager could do better.

[Savage90]

Day 21 & 22: 

 

Continued working on the shifters and modifying/cutting up the center console. 
 

I cut about 3” out of the shifters to shorten them to around 4.5” of just the shifter. I did this because I have knobs to screw on. With the knobs they were much too tall and interfere with the transmission shifter. 

 

Onto the console. There is a black top cover that goes over the center section of the console so I slightly over trimmed the under side to hopefully get a nice cut for the top cover when I put It on. Unfortunately the far Driver side won’t be completely covered. I had To go a little further than I hoped. The tcase and shifters/center console should be finished up and fully installed tomorrow. Just waiting for paint to dry now. 
you can kind of tell the hight difference in these 2 photos. 1st is before I cut down the shifters. 

 

lastly I mocked up the front end with the radiator, fan, and radiator support. I did this so I can see where best to install the steam port I need to add to the radiator. This will be done Saturday since I cannot weld aluminum. 

[AJK]

Shifters look good! You doing a hell of a good job on this rig.

[Savage90]

Hero case and shifter cables are 100% in and finished!! Boy that was aaaaalot of work! 
The black covering for the console did its best to cover up the shifters but it can only do so much. I’ll eventual have some boots made to fancy it up. But overall very happy with how it turned out. 

 

[Savage90]

19 hours ago, AJK said:

Shifters look good! You doing a hell of a good job on this rig.

Thanks! taking longer than i hoped/expected. but part of that is my fault like fixing things along the way or trying to make it perfect. 

[Savage90]

Well Friday was suppose to be the test drive day. And I say suppose to be because Wanda just needs her drive shaft put back and the fluids bleed/burped and I can take her for a spin. 
That all went sideways when I went to start her for the first time with the belt on so I can bleed the steering and burp the cooling system. Hard to see in the photo but the belt jumped backwards off the alternator and was rubbing the alternator. 

so I either have too long of a belt or my alignment is off. The only thing different in this motor than the last Jeep it was in and running is the PS pump. It had a Howe full hydrolic pump; and I’m running the standard PSC hydro assist pump. So the diameter might be different which hopefully means my belt is just too loose. I’ll work on it next week; if I cannot figure it out I’ll just order the billet brackets from Motech. Which I should Have don’t when the front of the Jeep was off. It will be much more difficult now with the radiator back in.

 

some good news though. The new headlights JW speaker headlights look sick!! 

 

and lastly. I “successfully” modified the driver exhaust to clear the tcase. However I purposefully pulled the rest of it towards the driver side so now I have to tweak the passanger because it’s touching the transmission mount/bushing now. But I now have more clearance for the front drive shaft because of this. 

[Savage90]

Working Day 30 I think of motor exchange? I think Haha. 
 

Successful test drive complete! 
 

With the exception of a front drive shaft the Jeep is 100% put back together so o was able to put her in gear and go around the block! 
 

wish I could upload a video but hopefully this screenshot captures how I feel after all this work. 

 

test drive went very well. Took it super easy though. The jeep shifted great and everything seems to be working. 
 

however I do have cam surge which I didnt anticipate. However it’s not really a problem because I was expecting that I would need a tune. So no problem there just need to get it taken care of before I really test her out. 

[Weebz]

Awesome work man. Gotta feel good.