Dremel or grinder and new hardware TJ

Wow. Who would have thought a 5000lb+ truck would bend up skidplates like that when driven over rocks at 30mph.

I did notice in that one video TJ posted that he's a bit heavy on the skinny pedal

I'll be the next to say....Damn! I never seen skid plates fubar-ed like that before....even the pic of your LCA is all banged/bent in...wow man! You might as well do a SAS with your engine swap then you don't have to worry about the sheared bolt and banged up IFS

Just an unhappy word of warning on the LCA .. That back bolt bushing can be a real BITCH to get out (hope you are much luckier then I was)... I had to take a cutting torch to the arm (and pull things out in pieces), then burn the bushing out then, torch the sleeve out .. Then press in a new bushing and put in a new arm and all new bolts etc ..

Basically a major major major SNAFU, type job

I doff my cap to you sir, you've done us all proud.

Well, figure I whhel for work...and then go play too...so a few years worth of wheeling is a lot of rocks.



I am picking up two LCA and bolt assemblies at the wrecking yard when I get the engine tomorrow...as I already figured the LCA in question was FUBAR.

Well, on the truck scale, it was more like 5,700 lb.

And - to be fair, running through those rock gardens, that's about as slow as the cruise control can go.

And you are running a 33" tire?!
My truck must be closer to 6k lbs with the 35's I can't imagine what SASed X's would weigh. ugh.

I've been wondering about that. I don't expect it'll be a whole lot heavier than it is now, really. The axle weighs a lot - but then so does a lot of the stuff that it replaces - especially my 100lb center skidplate.

The 33's might weigh around 80 lb each on the Al rims...the stock set up was probably around 50 lbs/tire, so tire weight might be 150 over stock?

35's in the same make probably add around 20 lb/tire, at most, over the 33's, so another 100 lb (Assumed 5 tires on truck)



Besides, weight down on the ground is great...its what the suspension has to support that I worry about.

TJ, how thick are those skid row plates?

I'm dually impressed as well

The Skid-Row plates are 3/16" thick steel.

Notice that the powder coat held up too, despite a few scratches, they are not rusty.



I had skid row plates on my jeep before the X, and those held up great too.

holy hell man, hahah.

You'd think if you hit hard enough to bend those like that, you could also bend your frame too.

*note to self, never let TJ drive my truck*

Well, no, the point is that the SKIDS take the impacts, PROTECTING the frame and all those low hanging fruit under there.



Plus, the skids tie the frame points together, much the same way the floorboards tie together the framing on a house...increasing the overall strength/ridgidity of the truck.

Now I kinda wanna see what the floorboards of your house look like too

Damn, TJ. THat's a hell of a beting on 'em.

Next is a set of skids for me.

New engine arrives in Jerimies Fronty - Steve Grins


New engine on stand...So Shiney...


Pulling the old engine


Truck's too tall, hoist can't get it out of bay, w/o lowering the front of the truck...(made it)


Cheli growling at pulled engine


Cheli demonstrating how to milk an X


Andy kicking ass under truck

Flywheel - clutch pilot bearing area - shop buggered me - rammed ol pilot instead of putting in the new one


Detail of pilot/buggering


Where most of my clutch went due to pilot rip off


Tranny relaxing on driveway


old and new engines on stands, exchanging stories, awaiting their various fates...

Wow - so has this been a good experience so far... or are you sobbing on the ground wishing you'd bought a Toyota?

Looks like it could go either way depending on your attitude

Well, there are a lot of wires and hoses and doo flickies that just were not present the last two swaps I did back in the '70's...but the basics are similar.



Most of the plugs and connectors thankfully on the new engine were intact, and so far, seem to correlate to those on the old engine....except they are mostly much cleaner and not mud colored.

I spliced and heat shrink sealed the few cut plug wires that were not intact.

The exhaust manifolds are different...the '03 has a built in Cat, the '01's is a separate piece.

My secondary cats are toast...platinum iron oxide soup.

As I don't live in CA, I can replace those sections with Federal straight pipe sections.

Believe it or not, the MOST frustrating part of this project so far is the damn sheared LCA bolt.

As soon as I get more acetylene, that F'er is TOAST!

I'll do that part this week...the rest of the swap will resume this weekend.

yah - I've heard a few horror stories about LCA replacement... that can suck.

yeh tj, Im in the market for a new oil pan... I see you got one in pretty good shape there.. By any chance you think I could take that thing off your hands?? Let me know how much you want, and how much it weights..

do you think you could also take some pics of where the bolts are on that bad boy.. thanks a bunch..

I'm giving the entire old engine to a bud to re-build.



I can take pics of the oil pan bolts though before it leaves.