1985 Wagoneer, 6BT, nv4500, np205, D60 and corp 14

[ross80truck]

I started this build on the other forum and will try to get everything transferred over as best as I can. Not making a whole lot of progress right now on the build, so you all are not missing anything.

[Stuka]

Well, we are missing photos

[ross80truck]

Here is my build thread for my 1985 Jeep Grand Wagoneer. I am swapping in a 6BT Cummins motor. The motor is intercooled and running the P7100 pump. The transmission is an NV4500. Between the transmission and transfer case I am mounting a Northwest Fab Black Box. Finally there will be an NP205. Power will be put to the ground with a Dana 60 and Corp 14 Bolt that were taken out of 1980 K30. Here are a few pics of the wagoneer before I started. I bought it as a non runner. The body is in excellent shape except for a slight fender bender on the drivers side front.

[ross80truck]

Here are some pictures of stripping everything getting ready for test fitment of the new motor.

Getting it on the lift ready for tear down.



Stripped all the axles to make way for the new axles and springs


Removed the front clip to make everything easier to access.

[ross80truck]

Motor and transmission out and on the floor.


Blank Slate ready for new motor and axles.


Axles ready to be bolted under the wagoneer. They have not been rebuilt yet. Just getting them under the rig for test fitting and assembly. I will pull them later and rebuild them and then re-install them. The front is a Dana 60 kingpin style with passenger side drop and the rear is a Corp 14 Bolt. At present they have 4.10 gears, but I think that I will probably end up going to 3.73s in the end.

[ross80truck]

Once the motor and everything was out, I decided to go ahead and hang the axles so I could at least roll the Jeep around. I am not building this as a rock crawler, but I would like it to be very capable. So, to get more flex out of the rear I am mounting up a pair of 63" springs off a suburban. I bought a kit from Ballistic Fab that comes with spring hangers front and rear and it also comes with U-bolts, shackles and spring perches for the axle. I roughly tacked in the rear, I will hard mount everything later on when I determine my desired ride height.

[ross80truck]

Next I went ahead and hung the D60 upfront on the stock springs. Again, this is just to be able to roll it around. I have a set of custom springs on order from Off Road Design right now that are designed to carry the wight of the cummins motor and still give a Suburban 4" of lift. If I have done all my research right, they will work perfectly for my application. I am also going to do a shackle reversal when I final mount the new springs.

[ross80truck]

Before I started mounting the motor I wanted to get the new steering box and steering brace in place. I upgraded to a J20 steering box and bought a steering brace from BJ's Offroad. I am planning on running 35" tires 12" wide. I figured with the extra weight of the cummins motor and winch bumper that upgrading to larger steering box and brace would be a good idea. I also eventually plan on adding a locker in the front, but that will come latter.





This is a bad picture, but it shows how the upper steering brace mounts to the frame.

[Resbum]

Good start, ross. Subscribed.

Resbum

[ross80truck]

Also bolted up my new Hydraboost that I bought from Elliott here on the forum. Elliott was great to deal with and answered all my questions and got me the right setup for my jeep. He ended up setting me up with his adapter kit and a hydraboost and MC from a 94 Chevy P30 van. This thing was so easy to install and is already setup for disc in the front and disc in the rear.

[ross80truck]

I started pulling the seats out of the front so that I could have easier access to the transmission tunnel and under the dash. Ran into a little bit of a problem. The seats in my 85 are electric and they were in a position that did not allow me to access the bolts to get them out. So, I rigged up my DC power supply and wired it in to the seats so I could operate the controls and adjust the seats to get to the bolts. I bought this power supply years ago when I was doing some anodizing, I knew it would come in handy for something else.

[ross80truck]

Here is a picture of all the front seats out. My wife really likes this shag carpet (read with a lot of sarcasm). With the seats out, my jeep makes a great playground for my 14 month old son. He loves to get in there and walk around and play with the steering wheel and all the knobs. I need to get a picture of him in there next time my wife and him come by the shop.

[ross80truck]

My wife and son stopped by the shop today. Lane loves to play in the Jeep, especially now that the seats are out of it.

[ross80truck]

Last night after work my friend and I bolted the motor, transmission and transfer case together. This is basically what my final drive train will be. I tried to get everything bolted on the motor so I know what all will be in my way. I did put my fuel pump on simple because it looks so nice setting in the box on the shelf after it got rebuilt and cranked up. I also need to replace the gasket on the lifter plate behind the pump first. Once I get all the engine mounts and transmission mounts made I will pull the motor back out and then do all the stuff to the engine that I need to do.

Also, I am debating on weather or not to get an under drive unit to go between the transmission and transfer case. Off Road Design sell the Magnum Box and North West Fab sell the Black Box. It will give me basically 3 low range gears, 2:1, 2.72:1, and 5:44:1. Do I really need it, probably not. Do I want it, hell yeah! Plus it would allow me to triple stick my transfer case, and that is just cool!

Here are pics of everything bolted together.

[ross80truck]

Well, after not getting to work on the Wagoneer for what seems like forever, progress has now been made. The motor is now hanging in the engine bay. I say hanging because no mounts are made yet. I fabricated a makeshift A-frame to mount on my lift to hang the front of the motor. Then I bought a harbor freight transmission stand and bolted it to where the transmission mount is. This allows me to move everything around really easily to get the motor sitting exactly where I want it. There is still a lot of moving and raising and lowering to be done before I start fabricating engine and transmission mounts though. I am very excited to say the least!







A-Frame I built to set the motor in place


This is how I adjusted the back of the transmission

[ross80truck]

Ordered my radiator today. I went with the Flex-A-Lite 56412L. I bought it from THMotorsports.com. From what I could find they had the best prices and free shipping. This radiator is the same as the 56000L, but it comes with a set of electric fans premounted. I also ordered a radiator overflow tank (part#32017) and zinc anode kit for the radiator as well (part#32060). The overflow tank is polished stainless. It is a little more "bling" than I would like for under the hood, but it is designed to mount easily to there radiator, so I got it.

[ross80truck]

Here is my new radiator and fans from THMotorsports.com. This is Flex-A-Lite parts # 56412L. Now time to start measuring, cutting, and mounting.

[ross80truck]

I have been working on the jeep trying to get the radiator, intercooler, and AC condenser all mounted up. I cut and moved out the radiator supports and then also fabed new body mounts for the frame. As you can see in the pictures I am going to run the second gen Dodge IC inverted. I had to cut about 3" off the bottom to make everything fit. We also then mounted the AC condenser in front of the IC. Everything is going to be stacked in there pretty tight, but I am happy with how it is going to work. As for now we are using the stock Jeep condenser, but I am going to order a new condenser from Nastalgic Air Parts before final assembly. The new condenser is better designed and a little larger. That should help with having a nice cold AC.


Here is a picture from the front with the radiator, IC, and AC condenser.


Driver's side IC exit.


Passenger Side IC exit


Not much gap here, but enough to change a belt without to much cursing.

[ross80truck]

I worked last night on designing my engine mounts. I have decided to go with more of an engine mount/crossmember. I set the motor in place and then took all my measurement. Then I laid it out on a piece of plywood and cut out a template. It took several different revisions to get it just how I like it, but this is my final design. There will be two of these. One in front and one in rear of the engine mounts. I am going to try to get them cut out of steel today and cleaned up and then tacked in place enough to hold the motor. Once I pull the motor back out, I will final weld everything up. I am also going to connect the two plates with some steal strap to make it more rigid. With this cradle and the heavy front bumper I am going to mount and brace back to the frame, I think the front end will be plenty stiff. I will just have to worry now about boxing in the back half of the frame.

Template test fit


Wood template

[ross80truck]

Finally officially got the motor mounted. I am really happy with how how it turned out and engine placement. I could not believe how much the springs collapsed when I set the total wight of the motor on them. The springs compressed a total of 6" with the motor weight on them. The wagoneer looks pretty goofy from the side right now. I have already been talking to Off Road Design about a set of springs for the front. They are not listed on the website, but they make a custom set of springs for the 80's model Chevy trucks to hold the weight of a Cummins plus give good ride quality and flex. They said a total of 11" of flex. Nice!



In this picture you can see how the engine mount runs completely under the motor to the other side of frame. This is to help stiffen the frame. I will take a piece of 4" strap and weld between the engine mounts from frame to frame to tie the two together.



Here you can see how the engine mount runs completely under the motor. As of now there is only 1" between my highsteer drag link and the oil pan. This will change when I mount new springs.



Notice how flat these springs are with the motor weight on them.


That is a lot of rake from front to rear. Not the look I was going for, but it can be fixed.