The Perfect Storm-1979 Jeep Cherokee Golden Eagle-Vortec Swap

[DustinLangston]

Here are the pictures of the transmission cooler lines. They are in the perfect position. I will continue the rubber hoses to the cooler.

[DustinLangston]

Got a few more parts in today, including my wiring harness and radiator/fan assembly. Installing the majority of the harness is very straight forward. The only problem I came across was Novak loomed the Knock sensor plugs right next to each other, but the sensors are on opposite sides of the motor. So I will have to redo that.


Also had a hard time locating the crankshaft sensor. It is behind the starter and it must be removed to plug it in properly.
I reinstalled the trans control module and valve body.

[DustinLangston]

Made some good progress on the Jeep over the past few weeks but it is now time to go back to work. So progress will slow some, but my main portion is getting close to finished. I am waiting on several important parts including fuel and air delivery stuff. Once I get them in, my portion will be done. I will then take it to the suspension shop for a small 2" lift. Just enough to clear 33" tires. Once the lift is on the Jeep it will go to paint and out of my hands for a while.
I did finish lining the bottom of the Jeep. The Dana 300 transfer case is also all rebuilt/resealed and ready to go with new mounting studs.

Also got the front of the Jeep put back together so I can install the cooling system.



Also found a picture online of the Lokar shifter I will be using along with the twin stick Dana 300 kit I will be using. So my shifter setup will be similar to this.

[DustinLangston]

Alright everyone, it is time for what I like to call a come to Jesus meeting. I have been working several days in trying to find an aftermarket floor shifter to use on this swap. It amazes me that the 6L80E transmission has been on the market since 2007 and none of the big shifter manufactures (Lokar, B&M, Hurst, Gennie, etc.) have yet to tackle this thing. There is only one available in the market that comes from SpearTech, but it is a console shifter. I am looking for a floor mount as this Cherokee was originally a manual trans, and with the twin stick Dana 300 shifter I thought it would look cool and retro to keep them all on the floor (like an old tractor).
So I thought I'd help anyone else out that goes this route and is in search of answers. I have found that the 4L80E shifter will work with the 6L80E transmission, but here is the tricky part. Even though the 6L80E is a 6 speed transmission, it only has 5 detents, PRNDM. M being for manual mode, which you can then electronically shift through all six forward gears. The downside to this is the aftermarket electronic shifters are UGLY, and you only have two options, a dash mount BOX, or a paddle shifter setup. Both are equally ugly. There is also a gear selector identifier that is equally ugly and difficult to mount anywhere that it would look like it belongs. So for those reasons this is what I've chosen. I will use the midnight series 12" floor mount Lokar shifter, with a powerglide shift knob and shift boot that will match my Dana 300 shift boot.
That will give the ability for PRND, and the M (L on the Lokar shift knob) will be a gear hold. So if you want to stay in first gear you shift into L while in first gear and it will hold the gear. If you want to stay in second, once it reaches second gear you can shift into L and it will hold that second gear, etc.
This is the best system that is available right now. I have spoken to EVERY shifter manufacturer and they all said the same thing. Once builders start using the 6L80E more, we will develop a shifter for it. But right now, not a lot of people are using it.

[uncletiffy]

Great thread!

[DustinLangston]

Well I finally figured out how to post pictures through my new photobucket account. So much nicer than uploading onto the forum and it shows the pictures instead of just links. I hope this makes the build thread that much more enjoyable.

[DustinLangston]

Green for the money. Gold for the honeys. Wheels fresh from the powder coater. They're currently getting their black pin stripe, then off for new 33X12.5 BFG All-Terrain TA/KO2's.

[DustinLangston]

Best part of getting these wheels refinished was that I took the old tires that I had recently purchased used, and put them on my Honcho. It was in great need of new tires. Looks great!

[sonoraed]

Lookin Good Dustin!

[ShawnQ]

Dustin,

I've been away a while, but I'm glad to see you back and working on an FSJ. I loved your original LS swap, and I am VERY excited to see you doing a well documented 6L80, like mine!

I have been going through a rigorous fire academy, and haven't had time to deal with the Jeep. However, I've stock piled some parts and will be back to work on it once I get sent to the field, and finished with the academy.

I'm anxious to see your fuel system choices. I have my 'cart' filled on the summit.com website, ready to click 'buy', but I can't decide to go with twist-lok hoses, braided, twist-tite (by summit), etc. TOo many choices.

Keep us posted, looking great!

Thanks,
Shawn

[DustinLangston]

ShawnQ I'm so glad to hear from you. Your work earlier this year inspired me to take on the 6L80E trans. You're absolutely right in your thread that there isn't a lot of support out there for these yet. Good luck with your academy. Hope you get working on that Jeep again soon.

[DustinLangston]

I've had quite a lot of good luck so far on this Jeep, but that seems to have run out. I have been waiting since Christmas for my fuel system parts. BJ's and TeamGrandWagoneer were closed until the new year so nothing shipped out until last week. Well I finally received all my new fuel sending units and pick up tubes and they were all wrong. Both BJ's and TeamGrandWagoneer sent me wrong parts. But I can at least explain what I'm doing with it to you that are following. I am keeping the stock steel fuel tank and installing a new sending unit and a new pick up tube assembly. The fuel tank was first removed, and cleaned thoroughly. I will be temporarily running rubber fuel injection lines to a pre-filter, then to a Walboro external fuel pump, them to a post filter regulator that is used on the Corvette. This has become an extremely common way of running fuel systems for LS swaps. I 100% prefer the external fuel pumps vs. the in tank fuel pump systems. The rubber lines will be temporary until I get the Jeep back from paint then I'll switch it to braided lines. This is a gen IV LS motor so it has a single intake fuel rail. The fuel line is 3/8". The Corvette filter/regulator has a 5/16" return line that runs back to the tank. This works perfectly with the original Jeep pick up tube. It has a 3/8" pick up and a 5/16" return.


That wasn't my only bad luck so far. I went to install the Dana 300 transfer case and found that the 6L80's output shaft was still too long. So I had to take it apart and do some more grinding. Not that big of a deal, just annoying. One big finding that I will share with the group. I would recommend doing the 6L80 swap into 1980+ full size Jeeps. 1979 and older have the passenger side Dana 44's front and rear. Things are a little tight on that side. The new assembly is longer, so the rear driveshaft is closer to the fuel tank. Still inches away but closer than stock. The front driveshaft interferes with the original heat shields on the trans unless the transfer case is clocked flat. That is the route I took, but doing this will make it so you can no longer use the original trans cooler lines. If the suspension were to bottom out, the front drive shaft would crush the trans cooler lines. The one big good news item is that the location I chose for the trans cross member was perfect. It doesn't interfere with the front or rear drive shaft so that means no modifications required! Also the original speedometer cable is just barely too short to work. Mine was broken to begin with so I would have had to order a new one anyways but just a heads up for you guys.

[DustinLangston]

Oh one more thing. This was new to me as well. I ordered the standard 27" wide aluminum FSJ radiator from Novak. Come to find out the 6 cylinder FSJ's had a different core support with a smaller 25" radiator. Novak is working with me and getting me a CJ7 radiator setup that will work with this. I should have known it was different because the location of the battery tray is different.

[GaJeep94YJ]

Please post part number of the fuel setup please. This is the route I wanna take as well.

Also the radiator info too if you don'tmind

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[HeavyMetalThunder_81]

Sort of off-topic...but I've never seen or heard of a factory 6cyl Golden Eagle. Kind of neat.

[DustinLangston]

Something's missing.....
Got the Cherokee put back together enough to tow it to the spring shop. I am going out of town for work all week and didn't want to lose momentum. The spring shop will lift the Jeep while I'm gone. While the spring shop has it my driveshaft guy will come measure and customize the driveshafts. The tire shop has the wheels and will be mounting the new all-terrain tires and delivering them to the spring shop to make sure they have proper clearance with the new lift. Not doing anything crazy. Probably 3" to clear the 33X12.5 tires. Lastly it will be delivered to the exhaust shop for a new custom Magnaflow exhaust. I'll pick it back up Friday. Hopefully I will have my new fuel sending unit/pick up tubes by then. If so I will have it running and driving this weekend. That gives me all of next week to customize all of my cooling, power steering, etc. lines. Then off to paint and out of my hands for a month. I have also stripped the interior out and sent it to my upholsterer.

[66stepside]

Wow, just read through the thread, very slick. This build is going to be awesome when it's done!

Where are you located?


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[DustinLangston]

I'm in Southern Utah

[DustinLangston]

Lift with new wheels and tires. I love how it looks

[Renodemona]

Looking really nice!