lsx Waggy for the wife

[nblehm]

Cross posting this from another forum so hopefully it all works correctly.

Been working on this project for a little while here and there, and now its about to ramp up so figured I would start a build thread. My wife has always wanted to DD another wagoneer since she totaled her last one about 9 years ago. That one was a total beater though, so now I am trying to make her a DD that is reliable and has some touches of a modern vehicle (fuel injection). She is excited to get back in a FSJ.

The specs
89 Grand wagoneer.
04 5.3
4l60e
90 suburban np241c (only year of drivers drop 241 with mechanical speedo)
stock axles.
4-6" lift (havent decided yet)
32" tires on probably stock wheels

Last spring I was trying to sell my old wagoneer (the 87 on 35's) I just didn't drive it much and now kind of regret selling it. I actually saw it today and talked to the dude and it was the guy I bought it from 6 or so years ago. He saw it for sale and wanted it back Anyway I got a call from a guy saying we should maybe do a trade. I had mentioned I was looking for a wagoneer without cut fenders and in decent shape (body wise) for the wife to DD. He had a wagoneer and a rolled over grand cherokee with a 4.0 he was going to swap into the wagoneer. Long story short I went and made the trade.
left with this

returned with this


Once home I realized the wagoneer looked a little better in the tall weeds than it actually turned out to be but I am ok with it. I couldnt get rid of my old wagoneer, it was too offroady for all the hipsters who want these things now and while not perfect this new wagoneer is pretty straight. No way I could have bought another this clean for what I have into this one. The market here for waggys is stupid. I parted the 96 grand out and made around a grand I believe.

A few months after I got rid of the grand I found a post on facebook with a 04 suburban for sale. Pick that up and drove it about 50 miles home with a crushed a pillar and a hole in the windshield

Pulled the drivetrain out but sold the np246 it had in it

hover suburban

Put it on the engine stand to reseal it and clean it up, and decided while I was at it to order a cam for it

Its a texas speed 212/218 duration .550 lift truck cam and ls6 valve springs

After all the gaskets minus the head gaskets were done and cam was installed stored them for a little while while I got the camaro rolling again.


The camaro needs a BUNCH of work and lots of money before it was done. I figured I would knock out this project first and get some of the junk out of the garage. So this weekend I cleaned out the garage and swapped the camaro and the wagoneer. On the side of my house I built a modified harbor freight car port as a third garage bay.

[nblehm]

I power washed all the junk I could off the waggy before bringing it into the garage.


Found some interesting stuff, not sure what drivetrain it had in it before it was obviously taken back to stock but it had an electric fuel pump and a vehicle speed sensor converter on the speed o cable.

Also noticed this shadyness :bang:

and finally in the garage, and hopefully in a few months will be running on its own again


My wife is pumped


I also have sitting here novak motor mounts and novak ls waggy radiator. Which didnt come with a steam port fitting. So I plan to tap the water pump and run the steam port line to there. I need to order a s10 fuel tank going to mount it in the rear. I think that's it for now. I will hopefully be chipping away at it during the week and on the weekends.

I have the truck exhaust manifolds and will be picking up some fbody manifolds next weekend. Will be seeing what fits best.

[toddthewelder]

Awesome! I'm just waiting for my back surgery and I plan on dropping the same setup in my 87 wag. I guess I'll be watching you to see what to do

[nblehm]

Been slowly stripping the wagoneer of all the crap I dont need. Motor mounts, all the fuel hoses, it had an arb harness and air lines ran under it and the fuel tank and skid which had about 30 pounds of dirt stuffed in between the 2.
Some pictures, my kid is having a blast working on it. She has been out there ever second I have been working on it (slowing me down but whatever).

Novak motor mounts. They bolt in to where the old ones go. I am going to also weld them in but not until I test fit the motor first.

Pile of junk I dont need anymore


Instead of the saddle tank, I am going with a 2 door s-10 tank mounted behind the rear axle. It should fit in between the frame rails and only stick down a little. I will add a skid plate there. Plus is I can use an oe in tank pump and I found a 0-90 ohm fuel level sender that should fit on the pump to work with the stock gauge. I just ordered all of that stuff tonight. I also ordered adapters to mount stock coolant and oil pressure gauges into the 5.3. I also have a line on a razor grille and headlight set up, hopefully that works out. Next I need to go the junk yard and find an engine bay harness and a astro van hydroboost unit. I dont think the Suburban one is going to fit, it is too big. Sunday I will be up north getting headers for my camaro, and am going to pick up some f-body exhaust manifolds so I have options for exhaust.

edit* I am going to try and include part numbers
fuel tank
Spectra Premium GM18D
fuel pump
Delphi FG0072
fuel level sender
ACDelco SK1083

[Kaiserjeeps]

That's going to be a sweet ride! Great running gear choice for sure. What trans controller are you going with? I just purchased a US shift Quick 1 controller for my CUCV mil truck and a 4l80E swap I am about to undertake. They have been very helpful on the phone. Check out their website.

http://www.usshift.com/?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=MSTCS&utm_term=4l80e%20controller_ms

I'll be following your build.

[nblehm]

That's going to be a sweet ride! Great running gear choice for sure. What trans controller are you going with? I just purchased a US shift Quick 1 controller for my CUCV mil truck and a 4l80E swap I am about to undertake. They have been very helpful on the phone. Check out their website.

http://www.usshift.com/?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=MSTCS&utm_term=4l80e%20controller_ms

I'll be following your build.

I'm running the stock gm computer for the trans controller.

[nblehm]

progress has been a little slow. Had to catch the 50th ejs so went to moab last weekend. Anyway on to the pics

More of the front lift Also found the front of the frame is cracked at the driver leaf perch

extended brake lines


One side novak mount fit great. Other has a decent size gap on the top of the frame.


Got the heater box pulled of since it was broken. Doing some research now, thinking about maybe doing a vintage air system. Would gain me a bunch of room in the engine bay :dunno:


Got my new grille. Have to move the center mount before it will fit

Trying to get enough room to get the motor in with the jeep in the garage. Set the front down on the rotors.

fail

ended up here, even though I was trying to avoid it. It actually will turn out for the better now that it is off. Plus somebody already had it off and didnt put all the bolts back

I had a hell of a time getting the motor and tranny in there. Really glad the front clip was off. Finally had my wife come out and help a little. Was a little scary having her operate the cherry picker while I was trying to get the motor lined up

was a tight fit on the pass side firewall, banged up the stud for the heater box and the valve cover.


and s-10 fuel tank

[nblehm]

Well got a few things done this weekend. It was super nice, and my kid wanted to hang out so we spent a lot of the weekend fishing oops. Also my welding helmet batteries took a crap so I couldnt finish weld anything so stuff is just tacked in.

Anyway. Thought I was just going to bolt in the suburban gas pedal...
Not so much

I looked at going with another dbw pedal but decided to just combined the waggy and gm pedal. Cut the gm pedal where it straightened out and drilled a hole and cut the waggy pedal off where the cable attaches. I think this should work pretty well. Probably add a brace to it as well. Had to redrill the hole first one the pedal was mounted to high.




Got the gas tank positioned and mounted. It is sitting on a brace for the body in the back and I tacked a 1.25" box tube to the body for it to rest against in the front. Also made straps for it. I bought s-10 straps but they werent going to work.

When your garage isnt big enough for a work bench

Building straps

New crossmember (self tapping screws are temp, need to get some nuts and bolts)

Fuel line clearance

It hangs down a bit, but I think it will be mostly hidden by a hitch when I find one, and the bumper




I still need to figure out the filler hose, the tank uses a hose much bigger than the stock waggy. But otherwise they line up pretty well.

Started laying out the wiring, will be working on that this week after work. Dont need to thin to much out since I will be running all the factory gm emission stuff to make it legal in Denver.


Ordered a universal trans cross member (didnt have stock one to work with) and studs for the t-case so I can get that mounted next weekend. Still deciding on a SYE for the 241. Leaning toward yes though.

My kid had to work on jeeps this weekend too, she can operate a jack and jack stands all on her own I found out

[Strode]

My kid had to work on jeeps this weekend too, she can operate a jack and jack stands all on her own I found out

[Fearless]

Its coming along nicely and your work looks good.

This, however, is Priceless

My kid had to work on jeeps this weekend too, she can operate a jack and jack stands all on her own I found out

Enjoy these years.....

[SJTD]

I would suggest mounting the straps to the tops of the cross members. The front one isn't too bad since the horizontal section is pretty short but I think the rear part is going sag severely. If not under the static weight of the fuel, certainly after a few bumps.

Might even want to put in another member for the rear strap depending how it looks going to the top of the rear cross member.

[nblehm]

That's a good point. Making them yesterday the thought crossed my mind. I'm not to worried about the front but I could see the rear bending and becoming loose with the extra metal there. I would probably be better off rebelling them so they were straighter and didn't follow the rear of the tank as much.

[nblehm]

So out in the garage this weekend, decide to take a good look at the t-case decide if I was going to install a slip yoke eliminator etc. Well that didnt last long. One look at it and I clearly bought a pass side drop tcase doh. Not sure how I didnt manage to catch that when buying it. Probably because it was snowing sideways and 10 degrees out. Anyway now I'm back to deciding what to do. Think I will just go pull a np231 out of a blazer or something. Even a jeep case should work then put the current 241 input and gear set in it.
I was going to run a mechanical speedo with a vss signal generator in it but I may just stick with a gm vss on the tcase and maybe do one of the speedo boxes novak sells. I'll see what the junkyard has next weekend.

[nblehm]

So out in the garage this weekend, decide to take a good look at the t-case decide if I was going to install a slip yoke eliminator etc. Well that didnt last long. One look at it and I clearly bought a pass side drop tcase doh. Not sure how I didnt manage to catch that when buying it. Probably because it was snowing sideways and 10 degrees out. Anyway now I'm back to deciding what to do. Think I will just go pull a np231 out of a blazer or something. Even a jeep case should work then put the current 241 input and gear set in it.
I was going to run a mechanical speedo with a vss signal generator in it but I may just stick with a gm vss on the tcase and maybe do one of the speedo boxes novak sells. I'll see what the junkyard has next weekend.

[nblehm]

Well life has been getting in the way but making some slow progress

When you just want to hear car noises...


And CAR NOISES!!!

https://youtu.be/e-ehfgGgJ1g