Whats up Pirate, Im kind of new to the forum. I just usually troll around learning as much as I can. I am not a engineer, master designer, or anything fancy like that. Nor am I a professional welder so my welds may not be all that pretty, but my buddy is, so he will do all the final welds just to be on the safe side. I am just a mechanic that learns as he goes, with some crazy ideas for builds and usually stay committed to finishing what I start.
So this is my first wrangler and I must say I love it!! I am the type that cant leave anything alone. I have always wanted to put a cummins in a wangler so thats what my goal was (one day).
I just had my appendix out so I have some down time to start a thread..but it definitely throws a wrench in building the jeep:shaking:
Picked it up about april of 2012
had some fun figuring out the soft top and how the doors come off
got bored with the bald 31's, found some used 33's on craigslist for 240$
2nd gear was grinding and was annoying me so i found a used ax-15 to put in and figured I would convert it to external slave. also picked a SYE and driveshaft while it was apart.. oh and got a good deal on a borla header so i threw that on at the same time along with a flowmaster.
so, I drove it around like that for a while. It rode surprisingly well and the exhaust sounded nice, close to v-8 sound as a 4.0 could get! The axles came with 4.10 gears, so that worked out pretty well with the 37's.
When I bought this thing I knew it had a rot hole in the frame, so I patched it right when I bought it. Then when i Patched that one I found another one... then another... and ANOTHER... I wasnt very happy to say the least. I also had some body rot which I had purchased all the new panels for to replace.
Oh, I also got stopped by the cops and ticketed for the wheels sticking out to far, SO, I built some rear fender flares instead of buying them. pics will come shortly.
Yes, I found a large amount of rot behind the stock flares and step..:mad3:
once I got the fenders wrapped I sanded them down and coated them with POR15 then with Duplicolor spray on bed liner. I am pretty happy with how they turned out.
ok.. IN jan this yr I picked up this as my donor. 97 12 valve cummins, auto tranny.
thats one lonng drivetrain...
ok, so thats out... now on to the jeep
bye bye baby 4.0
alright, so that brings me to what to do about the body/frame rot. I already have the new panels for the tub but still not sure about the frame and all its patches..
then after hrs of degreaser and a wire brush and steam cleaner, the cummins was clean...well, cleaner..
did the KDP fix..
changed the seals between the power steering pump and vac pump, also installed new PS pump. changed rerar main seal, front seal, and slapped on a fresh coat of red :grinpimp:
I was planning on running the auto tranny and upgrading to the nv4500 later but decided to do it right the first time. so i hit up ebay and scooped this up..
then a new 13" clutch kit from Valair was in order. good for 400 hp 900lbft tq
I still needed to address the transfer case. The one that came in the truck was a np241DHD, which has the PTO and I cannot get a SYE kit for it. so I sold it for like300 or so, and bought a np241DLD for 60$. so converting to a manual I need a different 29 spline input shaft and the SYE to make it work.
Nice job so far, might as well shave off the stock engine mounts now, they will be in the wrong position. At least that is what happened when I did my TJ/4bt swap. I tried using TJ front coils but ended up with a lot of rake in the front. There was about 3.5" front bumper compared to the rear. I ended up running 78-79 Bronco coils in front to get it to sit level. So that makes me wonder if it would be easier if you converted to 3" wide front springs since your engine is a few hundo heavier than mine.
Thanks, yes the front is definitely much heavier with the 6bt. I have more pics to post but had to run some errands with the wifey. I ended up sticking with leafs still, i got the RS44044 for the front and pro comp 53111 in the rear.
Nice job so far, might as well shave off the stock engine mounts now, they will be in the wrong position. At least that is what happened when I did my TJ/4bt swap. I tried using all four 6" lift TJ front coils but ended up with a lot of rake in the front. There was about 3.5" front bumper compared to the rear. I ended up running 78-79 Bronco coils in front to get it to sit level. So that makes me wonder if it would be easier if you converted to 3" wide front springs since your engine is a few hundo heavier than mine.
I'm not meaning to be a picture whore here or anything, but after you get going on whatever you're going to post up next about the swap, I'd like to see more of the flares, too. I'm in the process of trying to make my CJ a little more street "legal," and one of my major hiccups is the tires being nearly all the way out from under the body. I had some ideas up in the brain housing group that were fairly similar to yours, but included front flares...so with that said, did you build them for the front, too?
Thanks! those are about all the pics i have of those flares.. i basically did it all on the go. I cut a piece of sheet metal to the size i would need, bolted up the long side then bent the short side slowly using a little heat. Then the pipe i just winged it and took measurments to match the othe rside
and i never got to the fronts, ended up tearing it apart before then.
We put in a 16hr day on a saturday. Made the rear body mounts, Im using Daystar 1'' bodylift kit, shaved the factory motor mounts, put some 3/16 plate on the inside and bottom of the factory frame rail for some reinforcement, dropped the body on and got it as squared up with the frame as possible. Then dropped the motor/tranny/TC in.
sacked up and bought some nice Gen-right fenders. 4" flares, fronts are aluminum rears are steel. Then sold the ones I made for 250.
I love the way these fenders look!!!
started on the add on sport cage, I will also be tying it into the frame.
I ended up going with Monstaliner bedliner for paint. going with predator for the color with black grill, hinges, and fenders.
For the grill, Im thinking of blacking out the intercooler and radiator, then covering the entire grill including the headlights in black mesh and having allen head bolts every few inches around the outer edge... I Think...
And this little guy is my greatest creation of all!!! :grinpimp:
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Pirate 4x4
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