5.3 in a tj

userbmx1315

userbmx1315

builds more then wheels
Joined
Feb 8, 2008
Location
Bessemer City, NC
looking to put a 5.3 into a tj. i know its been done a million times but i cant find a thing for beginners/dummies. i know i need the motor with wiring and pcm.

whats it take to run it with stock guages and ignition?

if not stock guages, then i'd have to make a dash. maybe its cheaper this way.

i have read that some companys can get it down to 4 wires and even 3 wires. what do the wires go it?
 
Call Novak. I did today, talked to them for about 30 minutes. You piggy back a GM pcm and use the Jeep computer to run the gauges. They have motor mounts, trans adapters (if you're keeping a Jeep trans), wiring, and fuel systems. I'm in the process of dropping my old 4.8 in an 04 TJ Rubicon with a NSG370 that was previously swapped in. It's fairly straightforward, just takes a little work. They also have a tach signal box. I'm going to use the stock Jeep gauges and fuel system, just have to get rid of the stock regulator to get 58 psi for the GM setup. Then you just thin out a GM harness for whatever sensors you need. They say to ditch the Jeep MIL light and run a new one from the GM computer. Any other questions, I can probably answer :D

You can also use Pin 42 to run an electric fan setup through the GM computer. Of course, you'll need a new radiator, block hugger headers, and you have to modify the frame to get the AC compressor to clear.
 
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what wiring harnesses is everyone running. i'd like to get a list of places that modify and that supply new harnesses.
i'd like to keep stock guages.
 
Run a GM harness for whatever motor you have. Cable driven throttle body is the easiest. Novak can thin the harness, but there's a lot of companies that can thin out harnesses. Almost any place than tunes will do the harness work. If I'm not mistaken, Rock City on this forum knows a bit about that stuff.
 
What trans and transfer case you wanna run?

That determines how much money you are going to throw at it

you going to run drive by wire, or drive by cable?

wiring harness and computer need to come from the donor vehicle or a donor vehicle, doesnt matter if they arent from the same vehicle that the motor came out of, send the computer and wiring harness off to Jim's Performance, tell him what you are doing and he will hook it up, tell him you want the Jeep vin in the chevy computer

Even with Novak's said tach signal fix, I have never seen one work right, that being said Stone4x4 on here has run all factory gauges with no problems, little secret I guess

I opted to run aftermarket gauges just for the look and ease, and it also gets all the dash dummy lights off
 
userbmx1315 said:
Plan on a th400 or a 350. And d300 for case.
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so all you need is the 5.3 motor wiring harness, dont bother pulling the transmisson wiring harness, you will also need to run a kickdown cable for the transmisson, they make a adapter to run the kickdown cable off the throttle body, unless you are doing a manual valve body

4 wire hookup

as far as ignition goes when you get Jim to do the harness work you will have a purple start wire, and a pink keyed on wire, run these to keyed ON in the Jeep's steering column and you can use the factory Jeep key to start the jeep

you also have a red wire that runs to the positive on the battery, and a gray fuel pump wire, I ran the factory jeep 4 cylinder fuel pump with no issues at all

keep in mind also, that the factory chevy manifolds wont work inside the jeep frame just right, either mod these or run some block huggers, if you run block huggers make sure your headers clear the motor mounts, if you buy your adapter for the dana 300 to the th400, or th350 from Advance Adapters, go ahead and buy there motor mounts and headers

running the dana 300 with a th350 or 400, you will probally have to run a 2 piece front shaft, i ran a 700r4 with a stock np231 and cleared for a 1 piece front drive shaft

money adds up quick with these, $3000-$4000 depending on what you already have

custom radiator and a tarus fan, all the little things that you dont think of right away

probally more stuff that I will remember
 
+1 for Jim's Performance. Once its up and running, take it to a local tuner and have it adjusted, etc. for better performance.

If you run the D300/350, you can get the factory GM 700r4 adapter and then a $125 spud shaft from AA. If you are going with a D300, then you'll need a new front axle with passenger side drop or flip the D300, which costs more than its worth IMO. A 2 piece front shaft, like guffey said, will likely be needed to clear the pan on the TH350.

If you are running a 350/D300, then there is no need for the stock Jeep PCM unless you insist on using the factory gauges. Me being me, I'd keep the dash and install new, quality gauges and keep it simple. This will let you ditch the Jeep computer and run just the GM computer. You'll need to wirie in a tach if you choose to have one. This is easy and Jim can tell you how to do it so you have accurate rpm readings. I can't remember what ohm resistor is needed but its easy to do.

I can't comment on the headers and motor mounts and if they will or wont fit in your Jeep but it sounds like there are good suggestions already.

If you get a drive by wire, be sure to get the gas pedal from the donor vehicle. I've never worked on a drive by wire engine and how it works with a TH350/400 and how to get the kickdown cable to work. i'm sure its easy enough.

I'd suggest a drive by cable as it seems to be the easiest and isn't controlled by the computer. You can use whatever gas pedal you want and a traditional kickdown cable for the transmission.
 
I wouldnt mind a cluster like that. I want a drive by wire, for simplicity. Plan on flipping the 300, since i have the 300 already.
 
I've thought about doing aftermarket gauges in two of my rigs, but after looking at it I would have 1000+ in just gauges! Of course, it depends on what brand you go with. I also have a Pyro in my CUCV and those aren't cheap either. I'd be interested to compare the costs. I think it'd be nice just to get rid of the Jeep computer all together.

When you say drive by wire, you're talking about the electronic throttle body? I don't see that being the easiest. Perhaps you meant drive by cable?
 
The easiest is the drive by cable but I'm sure the drive by wire setups have been made easy as well but I'm not nearly as familiar with those
 
rockcity said:
The easiest is the drive by cable but I'm sure the drive by wire setups have been made easy as well but I'm not nearly as familiar with those
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I have done both, to be honest the drive by wire is much easier, only issue is that the chevy drive by wire pedals are all bulky, I took the chevy pedal and cut it off and used a CJ pedal in my YJ

people talk about the drive by wire having a spot around 3000 rpm's where it seems to lose power, Jim has got this figured out, my current setup is 5.3 all stock, jim's custom tuned ecm, and it has plenty of get up and go, and very torqey

either way the kickdown cable is the pain in my opinion, it has to be adjusted just right or you risk the life of your transmisson

Croatan_Kid said:
I've thought about doing aftermarket gauges in two of my rigs, but after looking at it I would have 1000+ in just gauges! Of course, it depends on what brand you go with. I also have a Pyro in my CUCV and those aren't cheap either. I'd be interested to compare the costs. I think it'd be nice just to get rid of the Jeep computer all together.

When you say drive by wire, you're talking about the electronic throttle body? I don't see that being the easiest. Perhaps you meant drive by cable?
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I would never spend $1000 on gauges, dont get me wrong I like a good gauge but $1000:eek:

yes drive by wire would be electronic throttle body
 
never heard any issues with problems adjusting the kickdown cable. I put mine on and vioila! it was good to go! maybe I'm missing something???
 
i did mean cable, drive by cable.

1000 for guages? wow, be cheaper to just use stock guages. but he did say TWO rigs.

i would like to make it streetable, i'm not sure what it would take to do that. i'd like to eliminate the o2 sensors, a/c and w/e isnt needed

does Jim have a website? is he part of this forum?
 
my
rockcity said:
never heard any issues with problems adjusting the kickdown cable. I put mine on and vioila! it was good to go! maybe I'm missing something???
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700r4 swap was nothing but trouble, with the kickdown cable adjustment has to be right on, or you can burn a tranny up quick

after several attempts I finally got it right, a kickdown cable adjusted wrongly with shift to soon, or the opposite, way late shifts
 
userbmx1315 said:
i did mean cable, drive by cable.

1000 for guages? wow, be cheaper to just use stock guages. but he did say TWO rigs.

i would like to make it streetable, i'm not sure what it would take to do that. i'd like to eliminate the o2 sensors, a/c and w/e isnt needed

does Jim have a website? is he part of this forum?
Click to expand...

the system has a total of 4 o2 sensors, Jim can eliminate 2 and make it run, takes all the emmissons stuff out, and security features

www.jimsperformance.com

he is not part of this forum, but you can find him on ls1tech
 
whats the difference with the vortec motors?

btw, i'm 100% new to this and not familiar with ls1-2-3. . . . . or even vortec.


to put in easy words. i want a 5.3 v8 in a tj hahaha.
 
the 5.3/6.0 is a vortec motor and is based on the LSx type of engine. They all use common components, somewhat, and many of the parts can be interchanged, including heads, intake, water pumps, etc.

LS1 tech is a good start but there is so much information there its hard to filter through it unless you know what to look for. There is a good LSx resource thread here on NC4x4 and lots of good "starter" threads and info on Pirate as well. This should get you knowledgable enough to tackle LS1tech without too much trouble.

You want to keep at least the 2 manifold O2 sensors. The computer uses these to map out the air/fuel ratios and improve it over time. You can do without them but the programmer would have to load a table of fixed values in the ecm for it to "read" and while it would run and likely not be too much of an issue, you won't get the full benefit of the ecm making minor adjustments as needed for optimum power and performance. Sam (farmboy) runs his 5.3 without any O2 sensors and it seems to do OK but I'm still skeptical of any benefit of doing so...
 
What they said! I was talking about a full array or gauges in my CUCV. Tach, speedo, oil, water, voltage, fuel, boost, and pyro. That'd be about a grand....luckily I already have the pyro and boost gauges, with the pyro being the most expensive at ~140 bucks. It adds up quick. Plus I would have to get the VSS converter from a cable speedo to make an aftermarket speedo work.

I'm not sure what my buddy wants to do just yet for his gauges, but we have the basics covered. Motor, trans adapter, clutch/flywheel, etc.
 
One other plug for Jim's performance again, he includes a 4 k square wave speedometer wire, and a tach signal wire for gauges, from the gm computer
 
is there anything bad about the 5.7? just looking at all my options. ive got to start pulling parts from my xj to pay for this stuff.
 
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