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Rockwood’s 1997 “LS” Swapped XJ

Rockwood

Rockwood

An Ape
Joined
May 27, 2020
Member Number
1588
Messages
379
Loc
Sticks, San Diego County
So, been here pot-shotting builds for a while now. Guess it’s time to get shelled by you fuckers. :flipoff2:

I’ve had this pile for 10 years and 100k miles now. Bought it for $600 (ah, the days of cheap shit XJs) as a fire trail rig/spare vehicle to fuck around with.

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Dat flecks. Here it sits, $300 RC lift, 31s.

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Locked F/R, 4.56s and 33s. Scratch built bumpers, 2x6 sliders, etc. Big time.

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Long arms, RE 5.5” springs, fab’d my own shacks, OTK steering with heims, 10” Fox factories and cobbled in some shock towers in the rear.
 
A couple years ago, Holley approached an online mag I write for to do some content. Jumped on the opportunity and bought a 2003 4WD Suburban that had been sitting in a neighbor’s yard for years. $1,000+ in DMV fees? Perfect. Bought that bastard for $1500 and ripped it apart. Inspected the bottom end, rebuilt the heads, new lifters, gaskets, rockers, etc. Sent the 4L60 to be rebuilt (yeah yeah, it’s a garbage trans), and started collecting parts.

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Ready to drop in. Advance Adapters NP231 adapter using the stock GM output shaft (for easier parts sourcing in the future), Novak mounts, stock ECU, eBay swap harness. Timeline to complete? Dude, I'll have this shit done in 2 months in time for desert season... :mr-t:

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Called some buddies over, bought them beer and yanked the 4.slo. Then spent not enough time the following week getting the engine bay ready for the swap. Had I done this over (God help me, never again), I would've ran the fuel lines, breathers, wiring, etc BEFORE putting that big honking engine in, but hindsight is 20/20.

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But, she was in, and that's that.

I then spent the next 6 fucking months doing all the little shit you think is easy but really isn't. At all.

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2016+ Vette Z06 brushless fan on a smallish, but dual pass/3 row Be Cool LS swap radiator. The left side of the radiator has the stock XJ fan sucking on it, along with my aux cooling stack (trans/PS). Everything is sealed off/ducted to maximize natural airflow (this pile sees a lot of time in Glamis as a recovery rig for when one of my buddies runs out of talent).

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Only an XJ guy would be fucking ecstatic at all this clearance. You mean I don't have to disassemble the front cooling stack to change a belt?!?!? Amazing!

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Little shit like mounting pedals takes half a day. Worst part? After driving it a couple of days, I put it a little too close to the brake pedal. The GM ECU is tucked up in the dash against the firewall, eBay harness's fuse box and PWM controller are behind the hood release kick panel.

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And done. If it fits, it ships, right?

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I did run in to this feller in Glamis who had a solution for the above.
 
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How it sits now. The battery was moved to the driver's side at an angle (AGM at least). Utilizing a stock 2003 Suburban high pressure PS line. Stock GM airbox hacked up (OE paper filters are the only way to go in the desert other than big tractor style filters). Radiator cap is in a PITA spot, but not terrible. Still need to get AC back in this pile, hook up offroad lights (that 12g red wire chillin out on the other side) and might re-do some other shit. The stock Jeep ECU's harness was hacked down to gauge sensors only (temp, oil pressure, speedo) and acts as a gauge mule and I managed to guess/check the stock shifter to work mostly with the GM shift pattern.

Overall thoughts? This thing isn't a rocket ship, but it is smooooooooooooooth. Using an XJ Magnaflow exhaust (same as what was on the 4.slo), this LM7 makes over 100hp more, yes is considerably quieter. Solid mounts on both engines, this one doesn't rattle/shake the entire vehicle at idle, PS pump has a lot more power, alternator doesn't struggle, etc, etc, etc. Cruising around town and keeping up with traffic is easy, and fuel economy appears to be in the upper teens. I've abused on the local mountain roads it trying to get it hot, but the cooling stack I have in there easily keeps it cycling on the thermostat.



Yes. I did this backwards. Should've gone with TONZ. I'm sure this will end in tears, but for now: fuck it. :flipoff2:
 
rattle_snake said:
Perhaps but broken axles from the v8 power will provide the motivation for tons & 40s.
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LOL. I did manage to get it completely fucking stuck in my creek last night fucking around "testing" shit. Recent rains eroded the banks a lot more than I thought, and I ended up with both bumpers stuck on the banks. Managed to get it out by getting majorly jiggy with it...

But yeah, there's definitely a LOT more torque off idle. Carefulling will be required. :flipoff2:
 
Mittnz said:
Siiiiick.

I have new chromoly axles for that D30 that I'll ship you for cheap. :)
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No more money will be "invested" into this Turdy. :flipoff2:

Knocking on wood here, but I've never had an axle failure, and have wheeled most of the famous trails in the SW. We'll see how it holds up, but the group I'm in isn't a rev-limiter until you make it kind of group.

Eventually, I'll go with SD axles (probably 1st gen D50/Sterling combo). Or JK castoffs, or what the fuck ever I can find cheap. 37s would be the largest tire I'd put under this, but even then the cost of them hurts my feelings a bit.
 
RunningProblem said:
JK axles and 37s would be smooth. I say this after putting F350 axles under a Jeep thinking ‘I should have LS Swapped it first.’
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Yeah. Group I wheel with used to be nothing but old Yotas, Sammies, etc, on 35-37s, smashing into shit and laughing. Now they’re all heavily air conditioned in JKs/JLs. Some made the interim step of tons and 40s, then ended up selling their shit for one because SoCal trails get boring that way.

The extra poke would be especially nice.
 
Rockwood said:
Yeah. Group I wheel with used to be nothing but old Yotas, Sammies, etc, on 35-37s, smashing into shit and laughing.
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Beating the absolute brakes off a vehicle is one of the funnest things I know how to do.
Id vote JK D44's if you aren't going to be too hard on it.
Great build and "Being a cheapass" I would have done the same route! :flipoff2:

Some of us watch way to much Utube. Thought I'd seen this build before. :smokin:
 
bad zuki said:
Beating the absolute brakes off a vehicle is one of the funnest things I know how to do.
Id vote JK D44's if you aren't going to be too hard on it.
Great build and "Being a cheapass" I would have done the same route! :flipoff2:

Some of us watch way to much Utube. Thought I'd seen this build before. :smokin:
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Biggest problem with JK D44s is the price people want for their easily bent noodles hurts my feelings. :flipoff2:
 
If you can make a D30/8.25 last for more than a week with a 5.3, You don't need tons. :flipoff2:

Holy shite, I haven't looked up those prices for a while. $1500 for a front. Jeez.
 
bad zuki said:
If you can make a D30/8.25 last for more than a week with a 5.3, You don't need tons. :flipoff2:

Holy shite, I haven't looked up those prices for a while. $1500 for a front. Jeez.
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Yeah. On a whim, I scanned FB Marketplace here in SoCal... Some fuckstick wants $4500 for a pair. Another wants $500 for an empty housing. Jesus H Christ on a stick.



Speaking of: one of the delays in getting this bastard ready to run was needing to replace all the bearings in that Turdy. Had it regeared/locked years ago before I knew better by a friend's friend... When I went to hook up the front driveshaft on re-assembly, noticed the pinion yoke was loose (should check these more often, I know). Huh. Odd. Tighten it back to spec and it's not moving. Rut-roh. Pull the cover, EUREEKA! IT'S A SILVER RUSH. Sweet. On teardown, I find out that the builder thought I had one of those rare Dana 30s that not only doesn't use a crush sleeve, it doesn't need ANY preload shims either. Apparently they just tightened the nut until drag was correct, said a quick prayer to Baby Jesus, and shipped it. :lmao:

Replaced the bearings, guessed almost correctly on carrier shims (backlash was 0.003, moved shims to get to 0.007), stock pinion slinger was correct, pattern good. Guessed 3x on preload shims and ended up at 23 in-lb, which should be fine for brand new bearings.

Only nice thing was this finally got me off my ass to buy the rest of the setup tools, so future failures of this pile won't be terribly expensive.

Which, now that I think of it, is probably gonna turn me into cheap ass Sisyphus on this: break, repair, break, repair, break, repair.

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Rockwood said:
$Tree-fiddy? I wish. Everyone here wants $950, or I'd have to ship a boat anchor in from your neck of the woods. :flipoff2:

But yeah, better than $4k+ for frowny-face D44s.
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I snag every SD60 I find for less than $500. I have a stash of them. Also, the 99-06 14B is the best with the disc brakes, internal parking brake, innards of a 70's 14B and for 50-150 dollhairs. I have a stash of them as well.
 
Cowboy63b said:
I snag every SD60 I find for less than $500. I have a stash of them. Also, the 99-06 14B is the best with the disc brakes, internal parking brake, innards of a 70's 14B and for 50-150 dollhairs. I have a stash of them as well.
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Making a road trip out to San Antuckio to visit the parents. Think it'll fit on the roof of a rental minivan...? :flipoff2:
 
Rockwood said:
Biggest problem with JK D44s is the price people want for their easily bent noodles hurts my feelings. :flipoff2:
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They're only easily bent if you're driving with a heavy right foot.

I sometimes think I should have gone with JK axles. Tons, wheels, extra width, steering...stuff starts to add up just to say "One tons and fourtys" on a Cherokee.
 
Updates:

Z06 fan will keep it on the thermostat by itself.

First fill up was 11mpg. That being said, I did manage to get it VERY stuck in my creek (both bumpers on the banks at one point, took an hour to get it out), used it as a long overdue tractor around the property to pull some trees over, build a bridge over said creek, lots of idle time messing with shit, ridiculous brodies, large driver’s side exhaust leak, and otherwise terrorize the neighbors. I’ll see how this tank shakes out with a serious attempt at reasonable fuel economy.

As noted above: Novak’s headers leak like a motherfucker. The instructions say to not use a gasket. I didn’t believe them. Ended up with an exhaust leak that got worse since the MLS gasket started warping from the leak. Took the gaskets out as directed, and now it's leaking even worse. Ran a feeler gauge in there and the top of every cylinder had a 180* sweep that wasn’t sealing shit (0.08"+ gap). Bought some Felpro composite gaskets for the smoosh-factor, added some RTV to the top half for moar smoosh-factor, and it’s sealing now. Good thing too, I was starting to get seriously high when driving this pile. :flipoff2:

Engine self learning has made for noticeable improvements, especially after I fixed the exhaust leak. Some kid in a 2010 Camaro tried to pass me on an on-ramp and couldn’t pull it off. By no means will this actually win a drag race, but still quick enough to pull shit like that off. The Corvette servo I put in when rebuilding the 4L60 makes for a very firm 1-2 shift that really launches the thing forward. Hopefully it lasts...

Brodies? Yeah. It has them. They're violent.

Need to finish the hood. Having an engine sticking out of the hood attracts too much attention. Also want to get ground signal to pin 16 to switch up the maps when 4 LO is engaged, but with the VSS between the trans and transfer case, this will probably cause problems shifting. May end up getting the throttle re-mapped, as tip in is a bit aggressive.
 
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