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Postal going 4.0/AW4

bigwalton

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Does it mean it works...

... if you can squeal the tires??? :smokin:

Took it out this morning after checking that there were no leaks or any other problems at idle.

Got it into 2-HI and went out on the road. If the MC2100/HEI combo on the 258 woke up the Jeep, the 4.0/AW4 shot it full of steroids and lit it's *** on fire!!! :thumbsup:

I got it up to 45 on the backroads out here, it's LOUD on acceleration (I added the stock front pipe just to get the outlet farther from the header to try to help) and I'd love to get it up to highway speed. Lots of power on tap at speed, unlike the 258, and I didn't even really get into it while on the road. I pulled into a parking lot nearby and punched it once from a stop (couldn't help myself!) and got a good squeal, but let off quickly.

Neat to see the oil pressure in never-before-seen areas of the gauge!

My attempt to get the tach spliced in didn't work and I still need to do something for the water temp sensor...

Exhaust next!
 

Randyzzz

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Awesome, Eric! Nothing beats a good burnout!:thumbsup:
 

Truck

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That is frickin' great Eric. I'm glad that it is working out. Your jeep has come a long way since the start.

Truck
 

bigwalton

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Well... I'll let her say it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROqnbdEb-Y8

Postal got it's exhaust today, complete with a Magnaflow high-flow cat. It's now fully drivable!!! WOOOOOT!!! Drove it to the auto part store to show the guys there and then we drove it to Costco.

Slight resonance ~40 MPH, but it is nice and quiet at idle and at cruise with some throaty sound when you're on the gas. I'm curious what speed that resonance will hit at when in 4LO.

Awesome power, though I can tell there's less torque way down low, but I knew that would happen. I'll take the trade for the ability to easily accelerate at any speed I've had her at so far. It's just stupid fast compared to the old setup. VERY odd to be able to accelerate in the postal. I have to get on the highway sometime this weekend.

Here's the new front pipe, O2 sensor bung is in (plug in place here), have it and need to wire it up this weekend. It's 2 1/2" tube, not mandrel bent unfortunately, bad assumption on my part, didn't ask... [this is an odd angle, laying under the jeep shooting up the front pipe toward the underside of the intake manifold. Note the engine mount for a reference]
new_exhaustfront_pipe_O2_sensor-1.jpg


Here's the Magnaflo cat. I finally decided to just do it the "right" way. Cost way more than I wanted to spend on it all, but hopefully won't have to worry/mess with the exhaust for a long time now that it's completely new stuff from the manifold back.

new_exhaustcat-1.jpg


New 4wd Hardware muffler & tailpipe. You can barely see the downstream O2 sensor tucked up behind the cat, between the pipe and the framerail, nicely out of harm's way.
new_exhaustmuffler-1.jpg


Funny story from today (other than the video): I didn't know the guy plugged the upstream O2 sensor hole, since I was going to get my own sensor, thought he'd leave it open. So driving it home, I heard a noise I thought was the exhaust coming out that hole, no biggie, I picked up the O2 sensor on the way so I could fix it right up. I got worried when I got home to stick in the O2 sensor and found the hole plugged! I started trying to think what it could have been: didn't happen at idle, didn't exactly track the RPMs or shifting... what is it????

Turns out it was the sound of the conical filter sucking in air! Kinda cool once I got used to it. It threw me because the exhaust hides it when really on it, so it seemed intermittent.

Looking for any excuse to go somewhere this weekend... :D
 
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bigwalton

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Drove it ALL WEEKEND and it's doing great! :thumbsup:

Hit Costco Fri., went in to UM with Kate so she could work a little on Saturday, dropped off recycling, then hit the hardware store and Dairy Queen (with Laura) early this afternoon, then finally got around to splicing in the trailer pigtail and hooked up the M100 to load the engine hoist up. Had a nice drive over to drop that off and on the way back I hit a 4-lane, 70 MPH road and got it up to highway speed.

SO MUCH better at highway speed... got right up to 70 and didn't sound like it was about to come apart like the 258 did. There was still power if I hit it hard, it would downshift and keep pulling, but I didn't do much more than 70. That's all I wanted to be able to manage, no need to go any faster than that for me.

Still haven't gotten the upstream temp sensor in yet, need to do that. For the engine temp, think I'll just suck it up and buy the Hesco unit that goes in the heater hose. Worried me that I was just assuming the radiator was working well enough to keep it cool, but I couldn't help driving it. Need to wire the data port and try to figure the MIL light if I'm going to bother...

Oh, also went back on a dirt road near here and got the front hubs locked in to play with the twin sticks :D HOW COOL!!! did all the various combos. Front/rear 2-LO is pretty sweet, very odd to see happening for the first time.

Anyway, awesome weekend with the postal back on the road... looking for any excuse I can find to drive it... I see some lunch runs coming up this week ;)
 

MrBeep

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Congradulations!

Way to go my friend. Great to hear it all worked out well.

Looking forward to seeing it on the "Dunes"! :D :wave:
 

bigwalton

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Got a couple more things done (or I thought so anyway).

Good news: tach is working. Tapped into the signal wire from the PCM to the coil and it's all good (there's aparently two different grey wires coming out of the PCM and I didn't trace the first one I tried, just thought I had the only gray wire...oops). Took a quick drive this morning and it was SWEET seeing the HUGE difference in RPM compared to what the 258 had to do. I thought I was doing good when I hit it hard to get up around 60 MPH and the RPMs looked nice--then the overdrive kicked in :D

Also bundled up the wiring in the engine bay in loom, found cool stuff for the large bundles in the harness. I liked that it's beefy, but has slits where water can fall out rather than pool like with the corrugated loom. A PITA to put on though.

I also went ahead and ordered the coolant temp sender fitting from Hesco that you put in the heater hose: Linky

Bad news: Problem is that you have to use an adapter to get the 3/8 NPT down to 1/8 NPT for the sender and there's very little to nothing sticking out of the bottom of the adapter into the coolant stream AND the adapter makes the sender sit farther up in it anyway. On my ride this morning, the temp gage hardly moved, if at all (I let it warm up in the garage some before I went out to get it up to temp). I'm afraid there's not enough of the sender exposed as it sits now with the sender and adapter tightened down as much as possible.

Still need to wire up the data port and maybe the MIL light. Thinking more and more about not bothering with the light and just scanning it every so often. As long as it's running well enough not to notice, what's the real worry if I'm running with a check engine light?

The droning/resonance issue I mentioned with the new exhaust is looking problematic. It hits right around 40-45 MPH when cruising, which I end up doing A LOT around town where most of my driving is... so far my main way to deal with it is just to goose it so it downshifts, which is fun, but I think this will get old quick. I'm guessing my only option is a different muffler? :shrug: Any thoughts?

Overall though, I'm loving the new setup. :smokin:



I just ordered the "rail shifter" for manual control of the tranny... I couldn't help myself (buy my parts to help my addiction!) I wanted it for the dunes after my short drive playing with it in dirt/low gear.

http://radesignsproducts.com/default.aspx
 
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Randyzzz

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So that rail shifter is in addition to your stock shifter? Talking about twin sticks...:D

Have you looked for a different design sender with the same ohm reading? Like Autometer or VDO? Maybe a different year or engine has a different thread...

Hey Eric, can you put it in the radiator hose? Jagsthatrun has a cool adapter for LS steam tubes, says it's 1/8" pipe thread... http://jagsthatrun.com/Pages/Parts_Cooling_LSI-tee.html

LS1tee2240-1.jpg
 
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bigwalton

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So that rail shifter is in addition to your stock shifter? Talking about twin sticks...:D

HAH! Never thought of it that way, guess I'll be quad-sticked. :rotfl:

Yeah, since the AW4 is electronically shifted, you can wire in switches to control the servos in the right order to operate all the gears manually. With a 3PDT switch, you wire this shifter in "parallel" and you can have normal automatic operation (and still select 3 or 1/2 with the main shifter) or throw the switch with the main shifter in D and have complete control of the tranny without any computer input. The stock action of the tranny in 1/2 mode is annoying, you can't make it go from 1st to 2nd, it's just RPM controlled and a little violent. Also can't start off in 2nd, forcing you to go through the RPM range and then have it shift when it feels like it.

You can make your own, but at this point I'm ready to just have it work rather than fiddling with yet another thing on the swap. I'd always intended to get one of these setups anyway, it was a major goal of doing the swap in the first place.

Have you looked for a different design sender with the same ohm reading? Like Autometer or VDO? Maybe a different year or engine has a different thread...

Hey Eric, can you put it in the radiator hose? Jagsthatrun has a cool adapter for LS steam tubes, says it's 1/8" pipe thread... http://jagsthatrun.com/Pages/Parts_Cooling_LSI-tee.html

LS1tee2240-1.jpg

I have a used autometer temp gage I pulled out of an XJ years ago and it's got a sender with a 3/8 plug but its got a HUGE end on it that could only work in a hole in the block (and even then I'm worried about clearance inside the block!) I was thinking I needed to find another sender with the right fitting and plug pole deal, but I don't know where to start trying to find all those specs and sitting at the part store going through boxes would find the right plug/port combo, but they won't know the Ohm range.

Frankly, I'm a little pissed that Hesco is selling this as a solution for EXACTLY what I need, with this exact sender and it's not working out...

I was thinking of cutting off the bottom few threads of the adapter bushing and maybe drilling out the sender hole as much as I can to get some space around the end of the sender to get more coolant around the thing...

Now that LS1 unit looks like just the ticket! But I've already shelled out the cash for this deal, so I'll try to make it work.
 

bigwalton

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I'm a moron and Hesco is lame...

I worked on the temperature sensor housing dealio today. I got NPT taps (good to have anyway) and chopped off some of the top of the 3/8-1/8 bushing and then tapped it out as deep as I could while still getting a firm seat on the sender. That got the bottom of the sender another 1/4" or so into the center of the housing, but the bushing didn't seat nearly far enough into the housing, so I cut some of the top of the housing off and tapped it out literally as far as I could until the tap bottomed out. That got the tip of the sender and about 1/8" fully into the stream.

So I reassembled everything and took it for a ride to get Laura from daycare and to run to RadioShack and grab daddy-Laura dinner out and...

NOTHING. :banghead:

As I drove home, watching the needle mock me while sitting still to the left of "C" it hit me: no ground!

The gage reads the sender resistance by passing current through it, in the block of the 258 the body of the sender is grounded, completing the circuit. In the Hesco housing, it's isolated by heater hose on either end!

When I got home, I crudely grounded the housing to the AC compressor and eureka! Needle moved. So I'm going to pull the housing AGAIN and drill/tap a hole for a ground wire and hopefully this saga will be over.

I can't understand why Hesco doesn't say anything about this... here again, this housing is SPECIFICALLY FOR THIS USE! They would have to know that the thing needed grounded. It's bad enough that there's no way to do that as they ship it to you, but to not even mention that you have to do it??? I'll write them an email this weekend...

Anyway, that leaves some little stuff before the sand dunes trip. Heading out to weld up the tranny lever and maybe do a couple other things tonight. Should have the rail shifter Monday or Tuesday, haven't been able to find a 3PDT switch locally. Will try another place tomorrow.

Did I mention the new setup rocks? I'm squealing tires just because I can and driving it everywhere I can manage. :smokin:
 

BOBCAT

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Way to go Eric. Glad to hear your about to get things wrapped up. It's nice to be able to bark the tires just because you can.

Don
 

bigwalton

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Thanks Don.

Welded the tranny lever all permanent-like.

Got the temp sender housing off again to tap a hole for a ground wire I made up. Sealed up the ground screw, bushing and the sender with red RTV and checked continuity from the body of the sender to the eye on the other end of the ground wire. Prepped a hole in my fuel filter bracket (bolted to AC compressor) to attach the ground wire and checked continuity from that to the steering shaft (figured if it was grounded to that, it's pretty damn well grounded). Left the housing uninstalled to let the RTV cure overnight.

Had to change the LJs oil too, so that's all I got done tonight. :shrug:
 

Bogged

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Eric,

Was it specific to a jeep or specific to a "splice into the heater hose" job?

If it's a jeep one, then yes, email them.

If it's the latter, then some senders don't need to be grounded. They have a 2 wire sender.
 

bigwalton

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No, this is listed by Hesco specifically as a way to get the 258 single-wire sender into a 4.0 conversion setup (in their 4.0 conversion part list with a description about exactly this). Doesn't have anything to do with my Jeep.

http://www.hesco.us/shop.asp?action=details&inventoryID=128580&catId=

Even IF it was listed as generic, and it's not, they would have to know by now that this is an issue with one-wire units and they could AT LEAST provide a note saying you have to come up with a way to ground the thing (at that point I probably would have gone for their thermostat housing that's tapped with an extra hole for the sender, just to avoid modifying a brand-new part). As I see it, they should get them made so that they have a way to actually ground it given who they're marketing these to (258-4.0 swaps and 4.0 head swaps, using the stock 258 sender).
 

bigwalton

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Houston, we have water temp

Well, the modified/grounded setup with the stock sender works. Just got back from a ride. It was running at about 2/3 of the way through the green (I wonder if my autometer gage will hook to the stock sender wiring to find out the actual temperature?) and cooled off closer to 1/2 as it sat idling while I dumped our recycling (~3 minutes).

Finally have all my gages back and I had to have the temp gage working before the dunes trip next weekend... whew.

Data connector up next.
 

bigwalton

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Just got in from tonight's action and I now have the rail shifter mounted and working to control the shifting. :smokin: Nothing beats 1AM test drives in rain with no top :D

Pics to come and some other details are on the shifter thread
 

bigwalton

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Trip report

Well, this past weekend was the big test, the deadline to have it ready to go to the 2nd annual Sandblast at the Silver Lake sand dunes with some of the midwest Scrambler owners.

198 miles one-way on almost all highway (in MI that means the average speed is 75-80) with the back loaded and pulling our trailer full of junk.

attachment.php


Blasting around the sand dunes Fri night and all day Sat. mostly in 4wd HI in 1st gear.

Driving out was initially nerve-racking as I was worried about anything and everything going wrong. Listening for any odd noises. There were no issues and I cruised easily at 70 the whole way, only needing to gas it on uphills where it would downshift and keep right on going.

Went out on the dunes after dinner on Friday night and parked for sunset. Noticed a pinhole leak in a tranny cooler line, right near the joint with the hard line. Loosened the clamp, slid the hose on more and fixed it.

After that there were no more issues other than my unfamiliarity with the new setup and how it drove. :shrug:

I was still really nervous and hesitant with it, I tried the manual shifter, and it worked great, but I stopped because I didn't want to be thinking about it on top of listening for any issues with the Jeep. I thought I was having a tranny or torque converter issue, but I realized late on Saturday on my last (and only successful) try at the monster "Test hill" that it was the automatic shifting into, and then refusing to shift out, of 2nd gear--resulting in too little wheelspin for the sand. I found it would downshift fine if I just floored it and kept it floored.

That's how I finally made Test Hill :D and when I realized why people figured out a way around the stock shifting setup :huh: We weren't there much longer after that, but I started really planting the gas pedal and things got A LOT more fun :thumbsup: Can't wait to get more familiar with the manual shifter.

Here's a beauty shot of where the new setup got me :cool:
attachment.php
 
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