MJ: Project CRD is born

[zluster]

Got the engine out today, pulled the engine and trans together, and of course, what do I realize as soon as I start pulling the engine......i forgot to drain the tranny, ya, it dumped all its gear oil all over my garage floor.

I swear, thats like the 4th time I have forgotten that. Dammit Dammit Dammit.

so I rolled it outside(easy to push with no engine trans, interior, etc etc) and washed out the garage and also scrubbed down the engine bay. Got it pretty clean, normally I wouldn't bother but it needs to be throughly degreased before I can shoot paint.

Still need to do some other cleanup and tear down before I can shoot paint, though I will probably wait to shoot the engine bay untill later, going to try and get most stuff mocked up, then ripped back out for paint.

this weeks major goal is the get the drivetrain in place so I can move on to mocking up the interior, front end body parts, AC, intercooler, etc.

[zluster]

These are just a bunch of picture of the side of the engine, I figured I would never have as good of a view of it again once its in, so I took some pictures for reference.












The combination of the extreme height of the engine, and the depth of the oil pan, means that at the very least the front end needs to sit up about 3" and the engine needs to sit back a good ways to clear the front differential. To get good clearance the firewall needs to be persuaded into a different shape.






Its gonna be tight:

[zluster]

Lots of extra metal on the fender that needs to be removed:

Here you can see the parts of the headlight support that need to be trimmed:



This will be my drivers side engine mount, its a engine mount for something, I just grabbed it off the shelf at autozone because it looked close, it has the right height to clear the articulation of the upper control arm. I just wish it was heavier duty looking.

This is going to be the passenger side engine mount, its very similar in design to the OEM KJ mounts, but it only about 3" tall, the passenger side engine bracket sits up much taller than the drivers side, so I have to use the shorter one on the drivers side.




This is the Oil filter location, when I got the engine it came with a cartridge style oil filter that stuck way out, it just wasn't going to clear the frame rail, I was worried I wouldn't be able to fit anything and would need to get an oil filter relocation kit. So today at autozone I brought my parts down and started looking at oil filters, of course the larger fram PH8A and the sotck PH16 work, but both are too large, I started grabbing some off the shelf and it looks like the one I picked works perfect, as it turns out it looks like its for the 4cyl XJ/TJs........lucky for me I will actually be able to get this oil filter on and off when the engine installed:

[zluster]

Not much else to add, got my passenger side mount finished today, need to modify the drivers side mount in the same way. I tried to start on that tonight but my chop saw blade self destructed, time for a new one, gotta wait till harbor freight opens tomorrow morning to get another.






After this I need to make a little plate to bolt the transmission to the transmission mount, after that I will work on clearancing the floor to clear the transfer case(trans and transfer case are a good deal further back than they were stock.

[zluster]

Old part of engine mount bracket cut off, new piece of angle iron tacked on.





Tacked all the way around:


I may not be the best welder, but, well........I may not be the best welder.




Look ma, no hands!



Drivers side mount under compression:




So theres that, got the engine mounts done and the engine in place, I need to modify the transmount to bolt now, and then I will need to clearance the rear floor to get the transfer case in place.

Plenty of stuff to be done.

[zluster]

Worked on fitting the 2500 fenders and headlights:

[kyro]

looking great mate well done