98 SE 5.3 Swap and Other Stuff

So I think I’ve made enough progress to start a build thread. I’m starting with a 98 SE model I bought several years ago at a government auction for way too much money. It had low miles though so whatever. I’m going to give a bit of backstory so skip this if you are bored easily.

I did the standard lift/wheels/tires/rack/bumper treatment about 8 years ago and it has been a great rig and has taken me everywhere I wanted to go. In the last couple years though the mileage seemed to get worse and worse and the power seemed to be dropping too. About a year and a half ago I started researching the 5.3 as an option. Frank Z had his thread and there were a few others that had somewhat documented the swap and it seemed doable but the price always put me off of it. LS/Vortec motors in my area are rather expensive compared to what other people have reported. I decided I was going to do a 5.3, I just needed to find a motor that was reasonably priced. Fast forward to last December and I came across an 05 Yukon for sale on craigslist listed as parts with only 140k on the clock. I emailed and asked how much he wanted for just the motor/trans and he said $2k for the motor/trans or $2k for everything. He was a repo guy and just wanted rid of the whole thing. We settled on $1800 for the rig and he even delivered it to my house. I pulled everything off that I wanted and sold a bunch of parts off of it to try and recoup some of the cost. I made back about half of what I spent on the rig.

Instead of going the Novak route on everything and chopping a hole in the hood I’m building my own bracketry and mounts and using an LS1 intake so as not to disrupt the attractive lines of the stock XJ hood. I personally think the Novak stuff is overpriced and have read more than a couple peoples comments that the motor mounts are a pain to deal with anyway. Plus I’m not rich and the Novak radiator, motor mounts, xfer case adapter and headers total well over $1600.

I’ll also be posting cost information and part numbers for everything I have purchased so it is available to future swappers.

Here are the threads I referenced a lot during my research phase
FrankZ:
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1007477

PhotoJared:
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1122178

blistovmhz Poverty Method:
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1119575

xjbubba
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=945920

Huge shout out to the guys who have answered my questions over the last year. Especially JohnD. I have bugged him a lot via PM and he has answered all of my questions. Thanks John-

Blah blah… shut up and show some pics already

05 Yukon donor:



Motor pulled


Stripped and ready for cleaning


The heads were super gunked up with oil/crap


Piston cleaning


Valve seats were pitted


So I hand lapped them


...continued...

One of the exhaust manifold bolts broke off in the head so I tried drilling it and using an easy out and ended up breaking a small drill bit off in the broken off bolt. I thought I was screwed and then did some reading and found out carbide will cut through high speed steel. So I took the head over to dad's shop and he had a small diameter end mill I was able to plunge into the broken cluster**** I had created





New guide seals


Stock springs


And here is the motor partially assembled and painted. I used some high temp black metallic on the block and high temp "graphite" color on the valve covers and pan





I cut the connector off the back of the intake and made a bracket/plug to hold the MAP sensor. Mostly for clearance as some guys said it was too close to the firewall





...continued...

Then it was time for a trans rebuild. I have a buddy that works at a trans parts warehouse so I got all the parts at near cost. $380 total including a new 1800 stall torque converter, Transgo SK shift kit, corvette servo and all aluminum pistons to replace all the plastic ones.



Done


I ordered motor side mounts from https://www.davescustomsunlimited.com/ And I am making my own frame side mounts.



At this point I was committed to the swap



I also decided it was a good time to swap in a new heater core



I'll be posting more stuff later tonight. I need to sort through some more pics. I am also throwing in a long range fuel tank build into the mix which should be interesting. I have some untested mods to the transfer case I'll be making too so that should be interesting.

I'm trying to film stuff as I go too so if you are interested you can check out my channel. I'll be making a playlist with all the swap vids once I have more than 1. Should have another one up soon. I've been working on motor mounts and trans mount this past weekend.

https://www.youtube.com/user/jesscneal

Thanks for looking guys. More soon-

Jess

I forgot to add in the cost of a new valve body harness and the fluid for the trans rebuild. The pic below shows all of my costs up to today with part numbers. Some of this stuff is obviously specific to the year motor I have:

Look forward to following!!! Let me know if you need any help

PhotoJared said:

Look forward to following!!! Let me know if you need any help

Click to expand...

Thanks! I've read your thread front to back about 20 time so far

This past weekend I worked on the new accessory brackets and finished the motor mounts and trans mount. The original accessory brackets I made did not work. The alt was too high and the GM steering pump pulley hit the steering box. So I'm going back to using a high mount Jeep PS pump. The Jeep hoses are a bolt in as is so if I need to replace them its an off the shelf item. The idler and tensioner are off of an 02 GMC Envoy.

Brackets are .25" aluminum


Hand finished with a file, belt sander and sandpaper





Belt routing. I think I forgot to mention I'm using an L99 water pump. It lines up with the truck crank pulley.





Passenger motor mount



Driver motor mount



I cut the middle out of the Yukon trans cross member and spliced it into the XJ cross member. I'm using an OEM Yukon trans mount.






I think I'm caught up on pics now. The motor/trans is supported 100% by the Jeep now which is a big step. I have to make some slight adjustments to the firewall by the back corners of the heads. Its a little tight but should be easy to clearance. I'll be posting another video on youtube tonight.

Jess

WOH! Top notch fab work. I need to get a welder...

Nice, i just picked up my 5.3 last night.

arty:

Unrelated to the topic - but that's the first ever tan manual door cards I have seen. I need a set of those doors so I can get rid of the power windows and locks on mine

Frank Z said:

arty:

Click to expand...

Thanks for chiming in Frank. I'll have questions you may be able to answer later when I get to more wiring

Miller88 said:

Unrelated to the topic - but that's the first ever tan manual door cards I have seen. I need a set of those doors so I can get rid of the power windows and locks on mine

Click to expand...

Weird... I've seen a few around my area. I'm actually planning on putting in aftermarket power windows at some point. Tired of the manual-

It's too bad you're not local, I'd offer to trade everything!

I have come close to swapping out to black door cards just to get rid of the power windows and locks.

Miller88 said:

It's too bad you're not local, I'd offer to trade everything!

I have come close to swapping out to black door cards just to get rid of the power windows and locks.

Click to expand...

I've heard the factory power windows aren't that great which is why I bought one with manual everything but now I miss the convenience. I've got my parts picked out. Just gotta fit it into the budget

I made some progress yesterday and today on some smaller stuff. Got the air box mounts done and the 4" outlet welded on. Chopped up the factory GM plastic computer holder and made some mounts for it. Got the gas pedal modified too. Just have to drill an upper hole for the top bolt and that should be mounted and done. Disregard the booger welds. Not my prettiest work but they are plenty strong.











And I threw everything in the engine bay to check fitment and to get an overall shot of how everything fits


Thanks for looking-

Jess

I've been working on wiring a lot lately. What a pain in the ass.

Plug for the back side of the cluster:


I ran all of my gauge signal wires through the main firewall connector. After thinning out the Jeep harness I had enough wires left over that were unused to do so.

Laying out the GM harness:


More later-

racer32 said:

I've been working on wiring a lot lately. What a pain in the ass.

More later-

Click to expand...

Lol, which is why I'd rather pay someone $250 to do it :flame:

Relevant to my interests...

Nice build so far! What air box is that? That is exactly what I need to make my 5.3 intake work with my snorkel.

clydefrog said:

Nice build so far! What air box is that? That is exactly what I need to make my 5.3 intake work with my snorkel.

Click to expand...

Thanks! I got this one off of an early 90's Mitsubishi Mirage but there are several early/mid 90's Mistu's that have this style of metal air box.

racer32 said:

Thanks! I got this one off of an early 90's Mitsubishi Mirage but there are several early/mid 90's Mistu's that have this style of metal air box.

Click to expand...

I meant to say Galant not Mirage but I'm sure they are similar. Eclispe, Talon, etc... should all be somewhat similar I think.