Supercharged LS3 crammed into an XJ

[Skruffy]

Originally Posted by Anak

Pics are needed!!

But I still appreciate hearing you are making progress.

Anak,
Is there anything in particular you want to see?
I’m home now for a week or so.

[Anak]

Just curious to see the progress. And I like details.

What did it take to plumb the AC? Did lines have to be fabricated or were there stock lines for a certain application that did the trick?

And I would love to see how the hood develops.

[Skruffy]

I took the Jeep to a radiator shop that can make custom lines for the AC. They basically just connected the needed Jeep side components to the Chevy compressor.



Some heating and bending of the tubes was needed.
The shop charged me for 5 hours of labor to make 4 hoses and charge the system.
I don’t know if that is a good deal or not but I am happy to have AC again!
They did recommend that I wrap some of the exhaust pipes to prevent one of the closer lines from overheating so I’ll do that this weekend.
I am also going to instal a Off-road Only Sway-Lock dual rate sway bar.
I will probably put that on a new thread since I don’t see one for that instal.

[Anak]

Man.

That looks like an intimidating nest of snakes.

But I also appreciate a functional HVAC system.

Be cautious about wrapping the exhaust system. Too much of that insulation can end up damaging your exhaust pipes, particularly if you are using the fiberglass fabric material. The dimpled aluminum material is better as it will allow airflow between itself and the exhaust pipe. Best would be to make a stainless heat shield out of tubing that is of 1/4" larger diameter, but that gets more complicated as it needs to have stand-offs on the inside, and if it is on a bend it needs to have been bent on the same radius as the exhaust pipe. Just do the best you can to avoid creating an oven for that section of exhaust pipe.

[Skruffy]

The intercooler, pump, and reservoir add a few lines that would otherwise not be there. The wiring actually takes up a lot of space too. If I were to do it again, which I won’t, I would have been more efficient with bundling wires to clean things up.

I only wrapped about 6” of one of the header pipes where it was close to the ac line.
I didn’t touch the rest. Is that a problem? Or would it make sense to wrap the ac line instead?

[Skruffy]

Finally recorded a walk around video.



https://youtu.be/rh-gvX3hCwU

[Skruffy]

Finally getting around to the problem of the hood.
I don't have any experience with body work so I enlisted the help of my uncle who is good at everything. We settled on a design that works withing the constraints. Its going to be primarily fiberglass construction and I think it will be pretty slick when it is done.


Getting a general idea of the shape and size





More mock up






This is more or less the final size and shape of the outside edges. I want it to be a small as possible and do not want it to be any more obnoxious than necessary.





All the lines are parallel with the original XJ hood. This required some clever scribing and careful cutting with the bandsaw.

[Skruffy]

More pics of the hood project.

Here you can see the final shape and dimension



This gave us a really good template for the internal dimensions.

[Skruffy]

Hood coming along…







Almost done with the wood portion
Takes a while cause of all the waiting for glue to dry.

[Anak]

Looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

[Skruffy]

Originally Posted by Anak

Looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

Thanks man,
I am too. It has been over a year without a hood! Glad I went this route. Getting a hood and an education in this type of fabrication.
Today we should have the wood and bondo prepped for the first layer of fiberglass.
It takes a while because of so much time waiting on glue to dry, plus it has been raining out here in San Diego so dry times are several hours instead of 30 minutes.

[Skruffy]

The first bit of fiberglass mat is on

The next photo shows the bottom. Eventually the foam will be filled formed and glassed as well.

It’s coming along. Can see the light at the end of the tunnel now.

[Skruffy]

Pretty much got this wrapped up. Wouldn’t hurt to do some more sanding and shaping and painting but I really don’t care to make it perfect. If I fret over the little things I won’t enjoy the Jeep.








It feels good to have this project complete. I thank you all for the interest, suggestions, and support.
Not sure what will be next for Skruffy, maybe a better way to mount the rear shocks, or maybe one ton axles…

[Anak]

Nice job.

I can't imagine getting to such a point that one has to look for things to put on the to-do list. Well done.

I want to see this rig someday.