Great Lakes 4x4. The largest offroad forum in the Midwest banner

LS Powered Jeep Willys Pickup

58K views 233 replies 36 participants last post by  Ryanw10 
#1 ·
Finally getting back at this project so hopefully by starting a build thread it will keep me motivated to get it finished.

I bought this truck when I was a freshman in college for $150 plus some random engine accessories I had left over from the LS swap in my Wrangler.



It may not look like it but the truck was in extremely good shape, as in no rust holes and pitting other than the floor boards. We stripped it down and gave the chassis a good coat of paint. It had a 4.2L ghetto fabbed to the originally transmission and t case that we got running and actually drove the truck around for a little while.



I started all the body work and that where I started to get burnt out on the project. The hood, fenders, and grill were all sandblasted and primed, and the cab was sanded/sandblasted and the dents filled with bondo. I ditched the flat bed in favor of a stepside bed from an 80s chevy, and then this is how it sat for pretty much the last 3 years.



Just a couple days ago I picked up an 05 5.3L with 156k for $150, the guy said the lifters wore into the cam. So I will rebuild this motor for the truck very similar to my wrangler motor with a cam, pistons, and some big fuel injectors

I already have a 4l60e with a beast sunshell, corvette servos, etc.. just needs new clutches and steels so as soon as the motor is done I will do a quick rebuild on this with new seals, bearings, clutches, steels and so on.

I also already have a ford 9" that I plan to put into the truck and keep it on leafs. For the front axle im thinking a passenger drop 44 as I already have a gm np231 I can use. If I can find a cheap way to mate a driver drop T case to the 4l60e I will steal the built hp44 from my wrangler and use it in the truck. Either way the front will get linked with coil overs.


The end goal for this thing is going to be a street friendly truck on nothing bigger than 35s that can be a good dune cruiser my dad can use and then follow us at the offroad parks if he chooses too.
 
See less See more
3
#116 ·
Yea I guess the picture is a little deceiving but vertically between the inlets there is probably a 4" difference but horizontally there is basically nothing. I have only used rubber flexible hoses in the past and there is no chance of that working. Stainless flexible hoses might work but I'm having a hard time spending close to a $100 on a hose that might work.

I spent countless hours dialing in my aluminum tig skills to make sure I wasnt going to ruin a brand new radiator welding the puck mounts on so I'm not worried about relocating the outlets...but that doesn't affect the flow of the radiator at all?



Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 
#118 ·
I tried that at auto zone one time with a cardboard cut out of the shape i needed and the guy at the counter asked me "what's the make and model?" So I said nevermind and went over to auto value and the guy at the counter came back and helped me find what I needed

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 
#120 · (Edited)
I'm going to disagree with you but I will hear you out and I will be open to others opinions as well.

I was for sure planning on a bushing to isolate the tank from the mount, but unless convinced otherwise I do not agree with opening the hole up. I get that the frame flexes but if I have the radiator mounted only by the tanks, won't the radiator core absorb frame flex?

I could be way off but that is my train of thought. I made these pucks but wide open design sells basically the same thing and it looks to me like they mount them to there frames the same way I did, it actually looks like they don't even use a bushing at all.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 
#124 · (Edited)
Their mount is a completely different application though. Theirs is mounted to a single bar in a tube chassis. There is less flex and deflection in a heavily braced tube chassis to begin with, and attaching both sides to the same cross-car beam reduces that even more. Short of severe damage, their mount will see very little torsion or movement. Yours is mounted to the opposing frame rails, which get drastically more twist than their setup. Plus theirs basically just has locating straps hanging the radiator, and probably a cradle at the bottom. They're locating it more than actually mounting it. Yours has structurally braced brackets locking it to flexible frame rails.
The way you have yours mounted, anytime the frame flexes/twists it will be torqueing those bolts up and down, putting a bending moment on the bolts and into the pucks. Over time it will fatigue crack the brittle HAZ areas on the radiator around the welded on pucks.
Using bushings with shanks to pass through oversized holes in the brackets(think OEM Jeep body mounts) will allow the bushings to take up most of the bending moment and keep the stress off your radiator tanks. If you can't find bushings like that you could even use standard rubber pucks to sandwich the brackets and some thick wall hose to sleeve between the bolt and oversized hole.

Something like this but with a better temperature rating:
https://www.mcmaster.com/#bushings/=1c8nwpc
 
#121 ·
I had an idea over the weeked...a full float high pinion dana 44 rear axle.

The Ford 9" that I thought I might use in this build is now getting repurposed for use in my wrangler, and it just hit me that I potentially have almost everything to make a rear hp44 minus axle shafts.

My concern is strength. I will use 4.10 gears and the way I understand it this ratio is one of the strongest. Next concern would be locking hubs/drive flanges, the axle would start off with a welded diff, probably a Yukon grizzly or equivalent down the road. This truck will not see bigger than 35" tires and the motor will make an estimated 400 hp and be pushed through a built 4l60e.

Thoughts/conerns?

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 
#144 ·
Wheelbase of 116" and those are 35" trepadors that are true to there size.

Keep in mind this thing is not going to be a dedicated rock crawler. It is going to be a Sunday car show, dune runner and very mild wheeler. It would kill me to see the cab and fenders get all scratched and dented to hell from any serious offroading.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 
#158 ·
Outboarded transmission mounts are a bad idea regardless of the type of motor mounts. You need 3 points to establish the mounting plane, adding more is only putting undue stresses on everything. More than one person has broken a transmission housing doing this. Remember, it's not just about stress from the drivetrain, the chassis is also twisting and putting loads on things. Overconstrain your powertrain mounts and now you're putting torsional loads through your thin, brittle, cast aluminum transmission case that it was never designed to experience.
 
#159 ·
Thanks for the info, if I end up having to re do my wrangler transmission crossmember because of the new motor position I will probably consider 1 center mounted bushing instead of 2 outboarded.

I gotta ask though, why is it that the majority of "offroad" universal crossmember kits come with 2 bushings and intend for them to be mounted outboarded? Space constraints to maintain flat belly? Or maybe they assume it's going on something with a roll cage tied into the frame at multiple points so chassis flex is very limited?

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 
Top