SM465 swap and some other stuff

Finally had a nice day (meaning 50 degrees) and was able to make a some progress on the frame. I've been working on it here and there but its hard to get motivated with no heat in the garage. Also it took me 3 weeks to get the steel to strap the frame. Apparently the steel/welding shop here in town is so slow they laid everyone off. I finally got a hold of someone at the shop after 3 weeks.mehh I'm using 1.5 x 1/8" flat for the strapping and sprayed on weld thru primer on the strap and frame before welding. It better keep the rust down between the two because its $33 a can at the local NAPA

Its not much progress but at least its something

Strapping frame


Bottom of frame strapped


Small crack at drivers side front spring hanger. I just laid a small bead of weld over it. Hopefully it holds


Another tiny crack at the drivers side rear shackle hanger. This side it also rather thin from rust under the rear crossmember. I'll weld up the crack and then weld a reinforcing plate over the area.


Reinforcing plate made out of 1/8". I made one to put on the passenger side as well.


If all goes as planned, then I should be able to get the top of the frame strapped tomorrow and start fitting the 3x4x1/4" angle rear crossmember on.

 

Hey, I can relate to the lack of motivation a cold garage offers. I went through two Winters with my build in an occasionally heated warehouse. It's 18 deg here this morning. But I'm not working on my rig, I'm going skiing instead. Strapping is looking good. Time consming isn't it?

 

This is part of the reason its been slow going!

Yes mehh

 

If you haven't ordered your adapter yet talk to Herm, he redesigned one with AA and it's steal with clocking holes I believe. Really nice unit and not any more expensive. he will probably take partial trade on your t14 stuff as well. Looks like a great project.

 

Made some more progress this afternoon. Weather was sunny and the garage made it up to 52!

Rear shackle hanger cracks welded up







Rear shackle hanger repair plates welded in. The weld thru primer underneath the plates likes to make a lot of spatter.




Gonna cut out the rear crossmember tomorrow at work and then begin fit up. After that comes more wire wheeling, washing, and then paint!

 

What kind of use do you envision for the Jeep?

 

50% on road and 50% off road. I'll be driving it around town and to work. I'll be driving it up into the mountains to explore and camp. This is not going to be a rock crawler, just a all around capable CJ5 that lasts 20 years before its next tear down 8)

 

Painted the top half of the frame this afternoon. Gonna let it cure for a few days and then flip it and do the bottom half. I used smooth finish gloss black Hammerite. It goes on thick and I put on 2 coats for good measure.

 

Looking good

 

it DOES look good...

what is the purpose of the strapping? i have never heard of it before...

very cool build, i ll be watching this one

 

Adds strength to the frame without sacrificing too much flexibility like boxing does. The frame is definitely stiffer after strapping but I think it should still flex some.

 

Couple of points. I have as much or more flex from my Jeep with a well constructed suspension than I had with my old un-boxed frame. The difference is that now my suspension flexes instead of the frame. If your frame is flexy then your tub has to be too as they are connected. My tub supports/mounts were pretty shot so I had no support either from the frame or the tub. I had strapped the old frame and it broke right through the strapping. I boxed sections of it around the spring hangers and the frame broke where the boxing ended. In all I had thirteen frame repairs (cracks or breaks) on my old frame. My new frame is rigid, fully boxed and all the floorpan supports have been replaced so my tub is rigid too, but I get tons of flex from my springs. For moderate trails, if your tub is in good shape, strapping is probably more than adequate. If you have a floppy tub, not so much. I think it's a bit of a mis-conception about the flex coming from the frame as a design element. I don't think these frames flexed that much when they were new from the factory. But after 40 or 50 years ya, they flex. . . .because most of the original frames are shot. Just my .02

 

I agree with your points. Moderate trails are what this Jeep will be used for. My floorboards have been replaced with 16 gauge and the hat channels are now 2x1x1/8".

If I had a larger garage and some more time then I probably would have boxed the entire frame but it just wasn't in the cards right now. Should this frame gives me problems down the road then I'll just make a new one out of 2x4 box and be done with it.

 

Well needless to say progress has been slow, but I kind of knew this before I started this project. I just want to do it right and not rush things.

I got the frame semi finished and put the body back on to gain some space back in the garage about a month ago. I finally started tearing down the engine tonight. Here is what I found and a few questions I have. AFAIK this engine has never been apart unless it was prior to 1974 when my grandpa purchased the Jeep.

Hmmm, the lifter 2nd from the right doesn't look like the rest


Pulled out the cam and lifters and found this. Number 6 intake BTW.


I'm inclined to say that since the came lobe is completely gone this has been happening for a long time, but that is just a guess. The engine has approximately 110000 miles and I bought it with 96000 in 2001. I never really noticed a problem but then again I wouldn't know what the symptoms would be I assume that if I had put a vacuum gauge on it that it would have told me there was a problem with an intake valve somewhere?? Good thing I was planning on putting in an RV cam.

Pulled off the heads and everything looks ok. Cylinders aren't terrible but there is some slight scoring on 2 of the cylinders that may come out with a proper honing.

Passenger head


Passenger block and pistons


Drivers head


Driver block and pistons


Another question I have is about the head gasket. Is the gasket supposed to block off the two 1/2 inch diameter water passages that match up between the cylinders and the head? This is the first :v6: that I've torn in to or any engine for that matter

Are there any other obvious problems that I'm missing?

 

Time for an update

Finished the frame and got the body back on last fall


Tore down the engine, took it to the machine shop who did the machine work and built the short block, and then assembled the rest at home. Engine was bored .030" over, crank polished, new pushrods, Edelbrock timing chain, carb rebuild, etc....basically a full rebuild.


Rebuilt and adapted the SM465 with a Novak master rebuild kit and adapter. Novak also opened up the bellhousing bore for me. I'm using Novak's hydraulic clutch conversion kit and adjustable throwout bearing.


New crossmember built from 2x1x1/8" and Ruff Stuff Specialties crossmember mounting kit. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do for a skid.




Speedway Motors 32" tilt steering column and 1996 Cherokee pedal assembly, booster, and clutch MC.





I still have lots of little things to do after getting the pedal swap done. Things like putting fenders and grill back on, running fuel, brake, and clutch lines, tidying up some wiring, cleaning up and bolting the transfer case back on, OD clean up, and the list goes on. I hope to have it running by sometime in July. I'll try to keep updating this thread and have lots of other pictures, just ask if you want to see something specific

 

Looking great. Don't let up now.

 

I'm having a little brain fart today. Originally from the factory, the transmission used a rubber mount on the crossmember and the transfer case used a rubber mount bolted to the frame rail (in 71 at least).

Now that I have swapped in an SM465, I have the transmission bolted to the crossmember and the crossmember mounted to the frame using rubber bushings.


Can I bolt the transfer case mount directly to the crossmember? The plan right now is to bolt it to the crossmember with a body mount puck but I'm thinking the puck may be unnecessary since the transmission isn't using one and the entire crossmember is poly mounted. Something along the lines of this:

 

I would think that its a good idea to mount it like you pictured. I believe that's called a torque mount. The two bolts on the transmission crossmember are too close together to control all the torque of the drivetrain twisting. With that extra mount it has more leverage.

 

I did mine like this.

 

Scott, what are you using for the D18 mount?