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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.
 
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#171 ·
Np208 transfercase is in and clocked to tuck into the floorboards nicely. It hangs a little below the frame rails but I would rather have that then start hacking into the bottom of the tub. Started checking for driveshaft clearance and it looks like there is plenty of room. Gotta finish the steering box mount and trans cross member before the final clearance check then I have a lot of welding to do.


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#172 ·
I haven't been putting a lot of work into this lately, just collecting parts. I got a trunion kit for the rockers, and pretty much everything else to get the motor fired, and I scored a deal on a willwood brake/master cylinder set up. Thinking a hydroboost setup would be a nice complement to the cam so I have been researching that. I have never setup a hydroboost system before, anybody have opinions/experience on them?


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#180 ·
Over the summer I lost all forward gears in the 4l60e in my wrangler...and well...I stole the 4l60e I had built for this truck to keep the wrangler going for the summer. As of yesterday the willys truck now has a 4l80e! I got a 2008 2wd one with supposedly only 90,000 miles. The output shaft is splined all the way so I should be able to get the right adapter for my np208 and just cut the splines on the output shaft down. The best part about a 2wd 4l80e is that is has a vss signal built into it already so I dont have to worry about trying to machine the adapter for one and adding a tone ring.

Going to order the rest of the parts needed to get the drive train bolted together this week and then start plugging away at getting it all put together and in the truck for good.


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#184 ·
I had a co worker go this route. He said he picked up the whole van for $600. If I would have found a deal like that I would have gone for it, but this way I saved myself a whole bunch of work getting everything out and apart.

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#187 ·
Got all my parts to get the drivetrain put together with the new 4l80e. Unfortunately when cleaning the np208 to get it ready for the input shaft swap I found the start of some cracks in the case. I might try to weld them but I'm going to focus on getting the motor completely put together and the 4l80e bolted to it while keeping an eye out for another transfercase.


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#190 ·
I'm finally getting back to working on this thing. Got the steering box mounted last week and now I'm working at getting the parts I have been accumulating for the motor on and then drop that in place. Apparently though I misplaced some of said parts I have been accumulating...

I found my new oil pump and crank bolt but my trunion kit and rockers decided to dissapear.

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#193 ·
Well, I tore apart my entire barn and shed in Hope's of finding my missing parts, but instead came up with more that I'm missing...

Now up to almost $500 in parts that are missing...which really sucks cause I like to think of myself as an organized person, especially when it comes to my barn and I had a dedicated cabinet for all the parts on this build [emoji25]

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#197 ·
New timing chain and melling oil pump installed! Had no RTV in the shop so I couldn't get the oil pan on though.

Need to decide on some rocker arms yet. Since I dont have the factory ones anymore I really want to get a full roller rocker, just got to decide what brand and how much money I want to spend.


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#203 ·
Holy shit that’s quite the list, that sucks. Idk if you have a guy you order your stuff from or not but I used Lance Draeger over on the east side for all my LS engine components. From my holley to the BTR components and even parts for my truck, I’ve bought quite a bit through him.

What do you mean by flywheel adapter? The snout adapter for a torque converter?


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#204 ·

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#206 ·
Took advantage of summit racing's cyber Monday sale and ordered there LS roller rockers. They are a full roller, billet aluminum, and made in the USA! I also ordered a new crank spacer and crank bolts so I could get the 4l80e bolted to the motor. Once I got them bolted together, I dropped them both back in the truck.

Next up is getting a transmission crossmember figured out.


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#208 ·
I know the feeling of not enough time haha. This summer was all about boat and house projects. Now that those are all wrapped up I was planning on spending a bunch of time on this. Then I got asked to put coilovers and bump stops on a YJ and 3 link it. Now that's where most of my free time goes

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