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Blue Jeep build

Damn lot of work on that exhaust but it is bad as fuck man. great work.

Exhaust is looking killer!

Well, mine certainly aren't show quality, and it's questionable whether they'll hold up :homer::jester:


Progress looks awesome though


Thank you kind Sir's.

It was a lot of work to get to this point, but I'm enjoying it now.



Nice work, headers are sick looking. :smokin:


You any closer to working on that Camaro? Fuck that Jeep...... :lmao::flipoff2:


Every day I work on the Jeep is one day closer to attacking the Camaro again. I haven't forgotten about it.:grinpimp:
 
It was a lot of work to get to this point, but I'm enjoying it now.


I certainly wasn't enjoying it after I finished welding the primaries to the flange and let the clamps go.:eek: Damn flange had a 3/8" smile. Luckily, without the slip fit collectors it's really just a set of zoomies. That made it easy to fix the smile. All is good now.


Got the O2 bungs installed. Putting 2 per side, so if I ever want to get a wideband, I'll already have a place for it.

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For the engine side of the flange, I ground a little bevel in the tube, then ran a bead with no filler around the opening.


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Driver side header finished and ready for coating.


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Passenger side starts tomorrow.
 
Headers and exhaust are all done. Just need to add a couple hangers somewhere on it.


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Got the air cleaner box finished and ran up to the cowl.


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Those were the last couple things I needed to get done with the body on, so off it came.


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First up was getting the actual transfer case adapter installed so I can make the trans mount.

So this factory adapter got yanked out.

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The new billet adapter installed.

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Now I have room to make the trans mount. It will tie into the 3 bottom bolt holes in the back of the trans.


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Trans mount done. Made the whole thing removable so there's nothing in the way for pulling the trans without having to remove the x-member.

Also made a rear transfer case support after weighing the Hero and realizing it weighs 150lbs.

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X-members that were only tacked in place are now mounted as they should be.

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So, isn't that what you would consider the H pattern for the tcase mount? I was under the impression from the "atlas support" thread in General that a Y was the preferred method.

Really clean work on everything
 
So, isn't that what you would consider the H pattern for the tcase mount? I was under the impression from the "atlas support" thread in General that a Y was the preferred method.

Really clean work on everything.

Thank you Sir,

No, this would be the "Y" pattern. Two engine mounts for the top of the "Y" , the trans mount and TC support mount are inline to create the straight bottom of the "Y".

It better be the "Y" cause I was going to put the TC support off to the side by the front output. Because of the "Atlas support" thread, I moved it inline with the trans mount.

Now I have to go reread that thread 10 times again.:flipoff2:
 
I interpreted the same part about the mounts being inline, where you have the tcase/trans/crank in a line. I thought the tcase mount had to come off the same cross member as the trans mount.

I could be misunderstanding the thread as well, but I thought the potential issue with the two cross member mounts being parallel and each connecting to the frame is that if the frame rails were to get in a flex each cross member would move differently and cause the tcase and trans to move separately. As apposed to one cross member would allow the frame to pivot independently.

I'll be re-reading the thread several times when I go to build a support for my doubler setup :homer: Maybe someone smarter than me will chime in


Edit: maybe I am misunderstanding. Hydromatic seemed to be well educated on the matter and this is how his mount is - similar to yours with two cross members

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And this is what I was pictured, with the trans and tcase both sharing the same frame side mounting points.
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I interpreted the same part about the mounts being inline, where you have the tcase/trans/crank in a line. I thought the tcase mount had to come off the same cross member as the trans mount.

I could be misunderstanding the thread as well, but I thought the potential issue with the two cross member mounts being parallel and each connecting to the frame is that if the frame rails were to get in a flex each cross member would move differently and cause the tcase and trans to move separately. As apposed to one cross member would allow the frame to pivot independently.

I'll be re-reading the thread several times when I go to build a support for my doubler setup :homer: Maybe someone smarter than me will chime in


Edit: maybe I am misunderstanding. Hydromatic seemed to be well educated on the matter and this is how his mount is - similar to yours with two cross members

1673589060541.png


And this is what I was pictured, with the trans and tcase both sharing the same frame side mounting points.
1673589121689.png


Ya, I think I'm ok. I posted my mess in that thread and haven't been called an idiot yet. We'll see how the rest of the day plays out.:flipoff2:
 
:lmao:

I hope so because it seems easier to do the two separate cross members like you have than it is to try and tie both into one.
 
God it must be nice to have a frame… cry’s in unibody tears
 
God it must be nice to have a frame… cry’s in unibody tears


Yes, it is nice. If I add up the cage tie-in and body mounts, the tub is held to the frame at 24 points

I'm using about 5' of the factory frame on each side. Just the parts that run under the tub. Everything from the firewall forward and from the rear doors back I made.

Best thing you can do to a unibody is to weld all the millions of seams that are spot welded together. Major job, but it works.
 
Best thing you can do to a unibody is to weld all the millions of seams that are spot welded together. Major job, but it works.
Agreed. And fish plate your "frame" rails. Then mount all your cage tie ins to them. Nothing wrong with a cherokee. You just gotta beef em up. Like everything else.
 
I was going to start on the engine skid, but remembered I have a Pacific Fab pan to install on the engine, which has the sump start much further back, so I decided to wait on that. Since I didn't need the drive train in my way anymore I yanked it all out.

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LS3, 6l90e, Hero 3spd. No oil in anything, no torque converter, no front accessory drive. 721lbs.

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That's one scale under the oil pan ( top right, green) and one under the trans pan (top left, red). I found the results really interesting. I honestly thought it would have been the other way around, heavier under the engine.


Finished up the fish plating where the rear frame section ties into the original frame. Bout time, I made the rear frame section in 2018:grinpimp:

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Next up were the rear bump mounts. Kind of sucked because they had to be right next to the C-pillar mount ears.

Looks easy enough.:flipoff2:

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And then.

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Have to have them rotated to keep the bolts out of the coilover springs.
 
Looking good

Thank you Sir. It's nice to be rolling along knocking things out. Kind of a neat change of pace.

Now that I have the trans free, I can pull the pan and remove the TCM. Need to send that with the new ECM I have out to get tunes loaded.
 
Progression is awesome--keep stoking the fire....

Speaking of fire...............So far I've only had one small fire during this build. When I was cutting the rockers in front of the rear wheel well opening. I found out that the rockers are full of a foam that does go up in flames pretty easily. Also found out that the smoke is horrible to breathe. The rockers were full of it and it ran about a third of the way up the inside of the B-pillar. I guess it's there to absorb side impacts. Not sure why they would use a foam that burns with toxic fumes.

Here's the B-pillar opened up. You can see all the foam before it was scraped out.

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Interesting note on the B-pillar on a JKU. It connects to nothing at the bottom of it. It just ends. There's three 1 inch welds that hold it in place for the entire length of the B-pillar. Seemed pretty sketchy to me.

My solution was to remove the whole thing and install a proper 2"x .120 DOM tube stuffed inside the b-pillar sheet metal.

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But since that would require bends in the x-brace and harness bar, and I don't like that, I did a second B-pillar to the rear where everything could be straight.


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I feel your pain. Keep up the good work.

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Yep. Kind of a sinking feeling when you tack where you thing it will work........only to hear the the ding ding ding of a bolt dragging on the spring when you cycle the syspension.:eek:
 
I found out that the rockers are full of a foam that does go up in flames pretty easily. Also found out that the smoke is horrible to breathe. The rockers were full of it and it ran about a third of the way up the inside of the B-pillar. I guess it's there to absorb side impacts.
I'm guessing that foam is to help NVH & cut down on tinny, hollow rattles + transmitted road noise.

Fortunately, you won't notice any of that over your new rowdy exhaust :flipoff2:
 
I'm guessing that foam is to help NVH & cut down on tinny, hollow rattles + transmitted road noise.

Fortunately, you won't notice any of that over your new rowdy exhaust :flipoff2:

I didn't think about the NVH aspect of it. Could be the reason.

Exhaust note blocking out rattles and squeaks would be fine............................having to wear earplugs would not be fine.:flipoff2:
 
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