Fathers Hemi Swapped XJ

I have not posted to this forum often, but with how rare these swaps are I wanted to post this here.

In my last lost post I discussed my fathers 91 Comanche Sport truck that I was searching for. I stil have yet to aquire it. But in the meantime we have been working on one of the shells hes had around.


This truck started life as a 4.0 HO, 5 Speed, 2wd. Obviously not for wheeling, so my father started using it for drag racing. In its quickest state with the 4.0 it was able to run a 13.8.

Obviously that couldnt last forever and due to multiple issues the Jeep was put into storage in 09.

We decided a couple years ago to break it back out and do something with it. We decided to V8 swap it, and decided to go 5.7 Hemi.

As you could imagine it was a tight fit.

We had to make our own motor mounts, trans cross member, "headers" (tubular log manifolds), a more Im forgetting.

Took a couple years, but we were able to get the truck running and driving in time for Roadkill Nights in Pontiac MI. It had been running for 4 days and its first drive was to the show.

Tune still needs work and it has some vibrations we need to figure out, but we plan to have it back at the track next season.

Specs are:
03 ram 5.7(lightly worked heads, comp 274 cam, modman intake, MSD ignition and Summit MaxEFI, full rebuild otherwise).
Turbo 400 (2500 stall convertor, B&M shift kit, rebuilt by local shop).
Ford 8.8 (ladder bars, moser axles, 4.10s, mini spool).

 

Wow what an awesome build with fabrication skills to make this all happen! Learn something everyday as turbo 400s are usually hooked up to GM motors. Stellantis (new owner of Jeep) needs to resurrect the tight+light XJ body and discard all the other crap they make today.

 

Finding a transmission adapter for the TH400 was the biggest hang up. Ended up going with a mid plate adapter made by ATI and cut the excess off.

In between finding it we thought of going with a 727 but couldnt find any small block versions. I personally wanted a manual but spending 5k on the transmission by itself was off the table, and couldnt think of any others that would fit and handle its potential power.

We have learned a lot having to do with Fab with this project. What we want to do next is convert to an IFS. The solid axle is a worry because its very close to the pan, especially since its not lifted. Since it pulled the wheels with the 4.0 we imagine itll go higher, and we dont want to have the constant risk of smashing the oil pan while we dial in the suspension.

 

Well done. V8 swaps definitely have their challenges. Milodon makes a low profile baffled sump oil pan for the 5.7 that might give you some extra clearance and help with oil sloshing, but IFS would eliminate clearance issue.
Looks like something I could get in a lot of trouble with