Hmm I've seen this truck somewhere before

 

Nice build! You put a lot of work into this!

 

Looks awesome, love all the DIY work!

 

I will definitely be updating, although it'll be probably another 8-10 months before I'll have an actual update as to how the axles are physically holding up. I have a target of May to get this truck back on the road complete from my winter project, leaving me about a month to get steering, coilovers, and the 4BT dialed and performing properly. So by the end of next summer the axles should have quite a few miles with the 37's on them to know how they're doing.

Haha whats up man.

Thanks guys! It's been a long hard journey, and just what's posted here doesn't even begin to sum up the amount of trial and error's I had to get this truck to where it is now.

Only being posted here a few days, I've had a couple members here PM me regarding the 4BT swap and other alternatives or suggestions from people here instead. The issue I'm having is my engine is borderline done. I still drive the truck daily, as my alternative transportation is less than thrilling, but cylinder 8 is low on compression and I have an external oil leak from that general area, meaning I believe I have a cracked head. Truck doesn't overheat, and short of a rough idle it actually runs good as long as I keep track of the oil level on the truck.

I had purchased a used 5.9 Magnum back in August to do a stroker and other upgrades to, but being a shop owner now I'd rather actually do something different to show off to customers what we're capable of building. For quite a while there, I was actually really on board with doing a 6.0 LS swap into it, along with the 4L80E and an Atlas 4 speed. But, one thing I do love seeing are all these 4bt swapped Cherokee's and Yota's, and I figure more people in my community would remember a 4BT swapped truck over another LS powered vehicle.

So 4BT is on order with one of my shop neighbors who specializes in used engines. His entire shop is loaded with everything from GM 3.8's to 2JZ's, STI motors, Evo motors, and more. Hell, he sourced a used Hellcat motor for a guy's 3rd gen Ram to get rid of the 4.7 in it. He was up to the task of finding me a 4BT, and he scored with one down in Florida with less than 100k on it.

This winter my goal is to get the engine resealed with everything, get it in the truck and running, and get it out there this Summer. I will be registering for the All 4 Fun run that will take place the last week of July, transitioning into the first week of August. That will in a sense be this trucks "maiden voyage" from all this winter work. Before then I'll have it at a couple shows, and I'll attend local runs to get everything up to par, but ultimately if I can have it running for Colorado I'll have completed my goal.

Next winter I'll do the drive train upgrades, such as engine performance, Atlas 4 speed transfer case, and whatever else I feel short of while out this next summer.

 

There is a thread around here somewhere, that a member did the 4bt swap. Might be worth finding, and having a read. Let ya know where some of the pitfalls are going to be.

I think folks here would of hung you if you dropped an LS into it. (not me though, I think they are great motors.....)

Edit: Here it is.

 

Awesome! Thanks for finding that for me. I have a lot of reading ahead haha

 

When you do your 4bt swap it would probably be very beneficial to have another 4bt build thread on here. You clearly do quite detailed writeups!


I'm definitely following this thread!

 

I'm not much for multiple threads. I have issues keeping track of what got posted where and often time posting duplicates all over. I made this thread an official build thread so that all of my updates stay in one location.

What I could do is on the first page start bookmarking different aspects of the build for the truck for those who want to know more information about a certain section.

Got some more details on the engine though. It's a 1999 16V 4BTA meaning it's the 130 horse and over 400lbs of torque. Should suffice for off road use just fine. Has 52k on it and my supplier successfully got them to separate it from the Fuller 5 speed that it was attached to, saving me around 800 bucks.

After talking to advance adapters, they're about 6-8 weeks out on getting my engine to trans adapter built.

My supplier offers a 12 month 12k mile warranty on all engines sold, as long as I allow them to go through it and do a minimal rebuild (seals, head gaskets, whatever else needs replaced). To go through the 4BTA, it'll run me about $500 in labor plus parts. I got it all quoted out for the basics of around $850 for them to do all the seals, that's not including if it needs any injectors or anything so we'll find out.

I did, however, convince them for an extra hundred bucks, they're going to paint the block black and paint some accents red, so it'll look good under the hood.



I later talked to one of my buddy's who works in a diesel performance shop. Said if I can get it mounted to the transmission and build the engine mounts so it's physically mounted in the truck, for $1000 they will get it running, which includes flashing the computer and everything to avoid any and all check engine lights and whatever else.

So, I'm thinking that is the route I'm going to go. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to do the install, but I love warranties more and I'd rather have it done correctly instead of me fighting it the entire way. I've got enough on my plate build wise, the engine swap could wind up costing me my summer events in the long run.

 

Welcome and great progress with the build. Bummer you'll miss the snow wheeling season. Or do you get that in your area?

If you come to the Rubicon, still, sliders are mandatory. Otherwise no more show truck status. Hahaha

Look me up as I'm there regularly. Keep it up!

 

We get snow in the foothills, not a ton in the valley. Not that it's really a problem, as I can be in the foothills in less than 15 minutes from my house.

But yeah, I'll be missing out a little bit this year. I've got other rigs that I'll be able to play with, but my main wheeler will be down for quite some time. I've got an 88 Bronco that I'm getting ready to do a 4" lift and 35's. I ordered some Hutchinson beadlocks for the Ram, but instead they're going onto the Bronco and the truck is getting the new Cali Off Road Dirty Life beadlocks. Bronco is actually my wife's that we're building up, so before tear down on the Dodge happens I'll have it set up to at least go play with. Only other thing this winter I'm doing to the Bronco is a Spartan locker in the front. Eventually it'll get SAS'd and regeared, when that happens I'll scrap the Spartan and carrier wise I'm thinking a Detroit locker in the rear, and a True Trac up front. For now a ratchet up front should suffice until next winter when the Bronco get's its makeover.

Sliders are already taken care of. I've got a set of Jeep JK unlimited Rubicon sliders set aside that I'm going to fab up and get on the truck. They fit perfect under the cab. Then under the front section of the bed I'm going to do a slider/step combo, so it'll all work out fine. To be honest the shows we take our vehicles to aren't necessarily car shows, and pictures do a lot more justice for this truck than in reality. It's got dings and scratches through out. The Fusion bumper has a ton of scratches from rocks and tree's on the trails. The grille is destroyed and currently held on with zip ties.

But, it's been my baby for over 2 years now and even if it gets abused on the trails, it still gets a ton of attention from everyone and I still love it. And even though it's abused, it's still meticulously cared for maintenance wise. If something's broken, it's addressed quick. My CTS2 has all the maintenance scheduled and makes me aware for everything down to rotate and balance.


Fun update to go along with what I just said. Friday I spent majority of the day servicing the truck at my shop. Front and rear diff services, engine oil, coolant flush and new thermostat, IAC replaced, TPS replaced, spark plugs changed out, and a few other odds and ends like detailing and such.



Saturday I took it on an all day off road run. Up at 6:00am and arrived at the trailhead at 8:00am, then started an annual Turkey Run with one of the local off road clubs. Essentially kind of a treasure hunt of finding flags in in the desert. Truck handled and performed flawlessly...through flags 1-4 (plus a bonus flag)

Ran into one snag out there. One of my buddy's had his old FJ40 out and it wound up snapping the rear pinion on one of the hill climbs. Problem was, it snapped the bolt that held the spider gears in place as well, so after spending some time with it we found we couldn't pull the axle shafts to get the broken pinion out. The problem we were having is when rolled forward, the ring gear pulled what was left of the pinion into it, locking the rear tires.

So, after spending a ton of time trying to winch dead weight, on top of locked rear tires, we gave up and flipped my truck around and hooked up some tow straps. I dragged him up the hill, then we got him flipped around and wound up dragging him back to camp backwards.

Overall, I'm EXTREMELY impressed and proud of this truck for both accomplishing this trail, along with having to accomplish about 1/3 of it pulling another vehicle. Only time I needed help was on one of the steeper hills near the end. Had an enormous amount of moon dust at the top. We stopped and let our other buddy with his SAS'd Yota go up first, then we attempted it with the Dodge and FJ. Made it about 5 feet from the top when my tires broke loose and buried me within a few seconds. So, unspooled the winch again and hooked up to the Yota, then feathered the gas and let the winch do most of the work we made it to the top.

And, even after being pulled out backwards, we still completed the course and got flag 5 ha. And, no carnage on the Dodge.