Hey all.
I'm sticking a 5.3L/4l60e into my 98 XJ, and figure this is probably a better forum for any questions that pop up than the Jeep forums.

My gear:
98 xj, 6.5" lift, d30/d44 (4.56 lunchboxed), 1 tonne cross over OTK/OTA steering, dodge dakota steering box.
5.3L/4l60e from an 05 1500
Hybrid np231j (np231j case, main shaft and SYE, np241c 27 spline long input wide bearing, np231c internals and front output).

The guy I bought the motor from says it belonged to his buddy who rolled his truck out at the mud flats. Cause he was drunk, insurance wouldn't cover anything so he parted it out. Buddy says after it'd been rolled, he started it up and made sure it was still in good working order. Claims around 100,000km on the dash.
I've no idea if he's telling the truth. For all I know the motor was sunk in a lake and the transmission could be blown up.

The plan:
Fuel delivery will be accomplished with an in tank, 255lph Walbro pump connected to a C5 filter/regulator. I'll probably dump the EVAP and just install a tank vent. Low pressure return will get dumped back into the tank through the top to the bottom near the pump.
I'll probably have to swap out the sender with a GM compatible one for gauge cluster reasons.

Exhaust:
Novak/Sanderson shorty block hugger headers (2.5" collector out), tee'd in to a 3" after the downpipe. Will run both front O2's and one post-cat (for cat monitoring).

Electrical:
Harness is from an 04 1500. Was missing the alternator connector, but otherwise complete. The alternator was a 3/4 pin on the harness donor, while mine is a 2 pin.
Grabbed the pedal/TAC and all associated wiring from the 04 donor.
The ECU is being programmed by Brendan at LT1swap.com. I should have it back in a few days.

Shifting:
Still no idea. I can't find a stock XJ auto floor shifter. I was thinking a C5 shifter might work. I really don't like any of the aftermarket shifters I've seen so far.

Gauges:
I gave up on this. I'm just going to stick a tablet or a home brew black box behind the dash and run it all over OBDii/Bluetooth.


Here's where I'm at now.

The Jeep motor is out, new mounts installed, most of the old electrical is out.
The 5.3/4l60e are bolted together, headers lightly installed, motor is complete other than the AC I had to remove for frame clearance, and I'm just waiting on parts at this point.
I've got the harness hooked up on the bench to test the OBDii and make sure all my wire labels are correct, but my spare ECU seems to have vanished, so this is on hold until the spare ECU unhides itself, or LT1swap ships mine back.



Questions:
First off, am I missing anything obvious?

Next, the starter. I connected the stock starter to the block (engine is fully assembled, just missing power/spark/fuel/computer), filled up the oil, and gave it a bump. It doesn't seem to turn over as fast as I'd expect, but I've never watched an LS crank over without fuel/spark. How fast should it be cranking? When I gave it it's first bump, I immediately started to worry that the motor was dumped in the lake or something, but I really have no idea what I SHOULD expect with cold cranking speed on this motor. Jeep motor bumps over quite a bit faster.
Was the stock starter supposed to be shimmed perhaps?
What obvious stuff could cause a slow crank? I'm using booster cables I use to jump lots of big trucks. Using starter case ground, solonoid and motor are wired together and hitting positive to the terminal closest to the block.
Motor had been drained of oil before it sat. Is there any special prep I should be doing to circulate oil before trying to turn it over?

Alternator. Mine has 2 pin. The motor the harness was attached to (04) had that 3/4 pin. There are three wires for the alt on my harness. What do they do?
From what I understand, I should be able to just take the two wires that are wired directly to the ECU plug, and put them on the correct connector, but what's that third wire for?
My alt is stamped with DR44G on the front.

Transmission. The guy I bought the motor/trans from had mentioned something about some incorrect part on the trans while pointing at the shift lever, and said that he didn't know why it was installed but that it was the wrong one. It was cold and rainy and I just wanted to get the drivetrain loaded into the Jeep, so I didn't really ask about it. Any idea what he might be talking about? He mentioned something about "while you're swapping it, you might as well do the filter while you're at it".

I'll post more as it comes up.

 

the harness on engine is that the one your using? Tranny connections cut off?

 

Yup. Harness came off an 04 1500 from the wrecker, but was missing tranny end. Tranny end I already had with my trans .

 

How did this work out? I am wanting to swap a 5.3 into my 85 cherokee.

If you got a process that worked, let me know!!

 

Dude, that was NINE YEARS AGO, and he's been gone the past 4 years.
You really need to check post dates....

 

lol I know it was 9 years ago, but was worth a shot