Today's scheme... 4.0 stroker to 545RFE

Just thinking out loud... I'm not totally convinced a 545RFE is all that but just kicking ideas around.

XJ or WJ project vehicle

- Jeep I6 stroker
- 5 speed PCM from XJ donor
- 545RFE out of a WJ
- PCS stand alone controller for the 545RFE

The XJ would take to this quite readily, especially if you started with a 5 speed manual XJ to start with.

For a WJ can you change the PCM with an XJ one if you were going this route? Would it be that simple?

Maybe there are alternative ways to do this?

Can christuned or flyinryan make the 545RFE TCM live with the WJ or XJ automatic 4.0 PCM? "drag and drop" the appropriate coding from the V8 PCM to the 4.0 PCM? Maybe that's an option?

If it wasn't for emissions testing there would be no need for the factory PCM at all in my jurisdiction and that would be much simpler but watcha gonna do? I ain't moving.

Better alternatives? What's a decent five-six speed manual that makes sense in a unibody Jeep? Don't say NV4500, more interested in something that doesn't shift like a five ton truck transmission. AX15/NV3550 live with a stroker?

???

What's wrong in the AW4? with a trans cooler it should survive behind a stroker motor. If you want to stay 5 speed, the ax15 is a very stout trans and it easily put up with the abuse that a stroker can throw at it.

There's nothing wrong with the AW4 of course. Just thinking about it terms of getting more efficiency and/or combining a 4.0 with a decent transmission in a WJ.

I guess you could do a AW4 in a WJ at that point, that would be "simple" and "cheap" compared to what I originally posted.

Will a 545RFE even bolt to a 4.0L?

I've always been a fan of the 545rfe. I loved it in my WJ with the 4.7HO.

Electronics, packaging, bolting it together... It's going to be a mess to put the 545 into an XJ or behind the I6 in a WJ.
If you want another overdrive gear in the XJ, I'd be looking at transfer case mods.
If you want a better trans in a WJ, have the 44RE (isn't that what it is?) built up after market.
I like the 545 too but the amount of work to make it happen... your efforts are better spent elsewhere.
Like a bitchin' stroker w/ after market trans upgrades in a WJ.

yossarian19 said:

If you want a better trans in a WJ, have the 44RE (isn't that what it is?) built up after market.

Click to expand...

ZJ and WJ 4.0Ls came with the 42RE. Except the 93 ZJ. 99-00 WJ V8s got the 45RFE. 01-04 V8s the 545RFE. The same transmission, different software. The 45RFE can be flashed to the 545RFE. 93-95 ZJs used the 46RH. 96-98 5.2Ls then got the 44RE and the 5.9L got the 46RE.

Yeah, sounds like cluster #@$& pita. The 4.0 won't bolt to the 545 either so that means a custom bell housing.