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96 xj sport 5.3 swap

jmg222 said:
Yup, it's all very subjective. I did it when I was still going to use the truck to drive out to rausche and needed nav, and I hate those pop-out windows. If I knew I was going to trailer, I would have just left in a nice single din with blu tooth. and a clock :)
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clocks and cup holders, nesecitys for any vehicle haha
 
got home from my second job today and started swapping in the 97+ console and e-brake lever.

fitting the 97 ebrake handle and meshing it to the 96 cable was a bigger pain than i thought it was going to be. for one the mounting holes aren't in the right spot, the rear ones a bit to far back, and the front one is was too forward. and the cables are completely different. ended up using the factory 96 rear mounting hole and cutting apart the 96 ebrake handle for the and welding it on the front of the 97 in line with the front 96 mounting hole, then i cut the "hook" apart and opening it to loop and "crimped" it on to the 96 cable trap.

PITA

also got the chevy shift boot bolted up it dosen't fit perfect but its sealed

sorry im lacking in pics, i was moving fast trying to beat night fall
 
cleenrob said:
it clears by a couple inches, when i built the exhaust i cycled the suspension to full stuff with the front shaft in and made sure to build it to clear
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Man I would love a couple inches. I have to run OE compliant cats 2" out of the header and I have 1/4" clearance from the frame and 1/4" clearance to the front driveshaft at full stuff. Sh*t is TIGHT in my XJ swap.
 
clydefrog said:
Man I would love a couple inches. I have to run OE compliant cats 2" out of the header and I have 1/4" clearance from the frame and 1/4" clearance to the front driveshaft at full stuff. Sh*t is TIGHT in my XJ swap.
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i doubt i would have done an ls swap in an xj whilst in cali, sounds like to much of a pain

kudos to your for accomplishing it tho
 
clydefrog said:
Man I would love a couple inches. I have to run OE compliant cats 2" out of the header and I have 1/4" clearance from the frame and 1/4" clearance to the front driveshaft at full stuff. Sh*t is TIGHT in my XJ swap.
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Thats Commiefornia for you where all the city folk dictate what you can do.
 
There are areas in California where smog is not required. Now I don't know how that pertains to the legality of motor swaps and their requirements, if any
 
1990JEEPXJ said:
There are areas in California where smog is not required. Now I don't know how that pertains to the legality of motor swaps and their requirements, if any
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Most counties you don't need a smog once its in your name, but if you get pulled over and its pretty clear that my XJ has something big under the hood, then its off to the impound lot.....

All states are slowly following California's smog laws. I say swap now while you can if your in another state.
 
each state is different. NY is second only to CA in how strict they are with smog laws.
In ny, if you swap in a motor, it must be (1) newer than your model year and (2) must have been offered as an option for that make/model.

You can get an exception, but it involves having a licensed shop certify your swap, and it needs to be done periodically (not sure how long).

All cars must pass smog, EXCEPT cars that are 25 years or older. The law is very equivocal as to whether this also means that cars that are 25 years or older also must meet the above to criteria for an engine swap -- I've had jiffy lube pass be through with no problem, but other places refuse to pass AND rip up my inspection sticker (even if it still has life left in it).

Anyway, that's just ny.. I'm sure CA is the same or worse. KNOW your jurisdiction before doing an engine swap. And don't just ask a mechanic -- that's just his interpretation of it, the laws are generally so horribly written that they are open to interpretation.
 
texas is more chill i have to have equvilant emissions equipment the was on the swap vehicle, so i only need one cat, a cat 02 sensor(was an obd2 ), and the evap system. the engine must also be at least 1 year newer than the swap vehicle


talking to my dad yesterday he was amazed that i set up the evap system and it was street legal haha

my county doesnt do emmisions checks tho

went thru the inspection station on saturday and im sure the didnt even realize it had a non stock engine in it

one i hit 25 years old i can run steeet rod tags and it really wont matter what i do to it as long as its inspected vy an ase certified technician for the plates
 
clydefrog said:
Most counties you don't need a smog once its in your name, but if you get pulled over and its pretty clear that my XJ has something big under the hood, then its off to the impound lot.....

All states are slowly following California's smog laws. I say swap now while you can if your in another state.
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I was under the impression that unless you were in a rural area, you had to have your vehicle smogged every 2 years.
 
1990JEEPXJ said:
I was under the impression that unless you were in a rural area, you had to have your vehicle smogged every 2 years.
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You are correct. There are a lot of rural counties up here though. My county is every two years (but all the neighboring counties are just change of ownership). In 2018 the two year is going away and being replaced by an annual smog...or at least that is what is in the works.

Sorry to hijack your thread Cleenrob : ) Jealous you live in TX...

What really irks me, and I do believe we need smog laws because there are way to many people who drive polluting cars and are selfish, but the fact that after the swap my MPG's went up, and my XJ was 1/3 as polluting out of the tailpipe but it was still a 9 month process due to all the calibration numbers needing to match. Complete BS.
 
You guys are somewhat lucky, in Oregon 75 and newer must smog unless outside a deq area. Cars run so clean now they should bump it to every 4 years not 2. It's not like the 70's and 80's where carbs ran dirty and fouled cats. They could eliminate deq and not much would change emissions wise. Oregon used to dump cars for emissions, now they they read codes and sniff at idle.
 
drove it up to my second job up in the hill country last weekend, this thing is a freaking blast to drive! ive never owned a vehicle capable of burnouts haha.

this is parked out side the shop, its a rare time of year. everythings still green



got the 97+ center console installed. gotta love dem cup holders. also got the lokar shifter boot all installed, just need to trim the excess material. used the auto shifter bezel hogged out to fit the lokar shifter and screwed the lowkar bezel almost exclusively to the auto bezel, mostly so i can just pop it off if i need to





also melted thru the front diff breather line because it got to close to the header

and the oil pressure sending unit its gushing oil too

now on to defeat:

to those of you reading thru this planning on doing an LS swap in your jeep or other oddball vehicle, please be sure you have a working, non bypassed, neutral saftey switch. i had an incident today fiddling around with the shifter and i walked off to fiddle with some thing else and i left it in drive, went to start it up standing out side the jeep and it rolled forward with the hood up into the garage and the hood jammed into the brick opening of the garage and crushed the cowl pretty good alone with damaging the hood pretty good, just eyeballing it looks like the a-pillars are a tad tweaked too. i was too pissed off to take any pics, but im happy i didnt crush a foot or something worse.

it was a completely avoidable mistake that shouldnt have happened, and theres nothing to blame but my own stupidity, im gonna have a shop pull the cowl back into place and replace damaged panels with junk yard stuff
 
sorry to hear that! truck looks great...

I've been there too... started it in D a few times, lucky enough I had nothing (and no one) in front of me :-0
 
ahh, that'll buff right out !!
and if not, that strap adds character to the build ;-)
 
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