Vehicle: 2005 Jeep TJ Brute

(See our Brute project for information on the Brute build)

ENGINE

2009 6.0/6L80E out of a Pontiac G8

Some components to ask about when purchasing these setups:

Typical items: alternator, water pump, AC compressor, power steering pump, exhaust manifolds, starter
Engine Wiring Harness
ECU
The second connector for the ECU - This connector often does not come with the engine harness as it is not part of the engine harness, its actually part of the body harness and there is a large connector on the engine harness that connects the two harnesses. The yard pulling the harness may not want to give you the connector with the engine as they typically do not want to cut connectors off of a harness, but it doesnt hurt to ask! Being that it usually isnt provided, those reworking wiring harnesses are familar with this and can often provide this connector. Be sure to talk to with them though, as charges for this connector will vary. I've had one that gave it to me free an another that wanted to charge $70 for the connector.
MAF (Mass Air Flow) Sensor - This is connected to the large plastic intake shown in the picture below and sometimes can also be left out when they send the engine to you.
Exhaust Collectors - These are the pieces that bolt to the bottom of the manifolds and connect to the rest of the exhaust these also have the O2 sensors in them. Usually I will install headers so I dont need them but if your using the stock manifolds it would help to already have the collectors and not have to find some.
O2 Sensors - As mentioned above typically these are with the collectors.
Power Steering Hoses- Ive found its more critical to have the high pressure hose, and not critical to have the low pressure hose. The high pressure hose I typically will take along with the stock Jeep high pressure hose and have a hydraulic hose place add some compression fittings to connect the two. This way the hoses fit well both on the engine end and the vehicle end. For the low pressure hose I typically use a stock Jeep hose.
Transmission Cooler Lines - I usually use a Bowler Manifold and AN braided hose but if trying to save money you could reuse the stock lines. However I have seen a push on hose with hose clamps blow off of a stock line transmission cooler line on a LS swap.
Heater Hoses - Same scenario, I typically replace the heater hoses and for one of the hoses have to use an adapter to go from 3/4 to 5/8 but if your looking to save money you could probably reuse some of the hoses.
Engine Cover - Personal preference on whether you want to use the engine cover or not, but I have had engines come without it so if you are wanting it you should request it.

Items that can end up coming with the engine and transmission, but that I do not use. This doesnt mean that they might not be useful or could be used if swapping into something other than a Jeep.

Transmission Mount - Being that these last couple 6.0 and 6L80s came out of cars I purchase a mount with the transfer case adapter.
Radiator Hoses - These hoses are not close to matching up to a Jeep radiator so Ive always purchased the Gates hoses and cut them to work.
Driveshaft - Obviously not used
Intake Tube - Not exactly sure what to call this, its large, plastic and connects the MAF to the intake. Maybe you could get it to work but Ive never tried to fit it into a Jeep.
AC Lines - I always buy a new manifold and make new lines as it would be difficult to make the stock AC lines work.

During prep we did have to swap out the oil pans from the car style to the muscle car style.

TRANSFER CASE

Jeep Dana 300

We used a Novak transfer case adapter and due to needing a driverside drop had to flip the transfer case. When using the novak kit we did have an issue with spacing and ended up making an additional spacer between the adaptor and the transfer case. The first thing that was noticed was that the shift rods hit the transmission before it would rotate far enough to bolt up. Due to this we had to flip the ship forks to the top (what used to be the bottom) of the case. We could not find a kit to flip the shifter forks so we ended making our own kit. In the future we may offer this sale. If you are interested contact us and we might be able to work out a deal. For shifters we used a North West Fabworks cable shifter.

To flip the shift forks we had first cut the shift fork housing. This is tricky because there is very little room between the detent springs and the yoke area. Next we had to make a tube assembly that would hold the shift forks in their new location.

EXHAUST

The exhaust for this build was a little tricky; The engine came with Doug Thorley headers which unfortunately did not fit. The plan was to run the exhaust down the passenger side of the Jeep. To do this though we ended up buying to sets of headers, one rear dump on passenger side and one center dump on drivers side. We then ran the drivers side exhaust under the engine and in front of the oil pan sump.

WIRING & ECM

The harnes we had reworked, upon startup we had an issue were the Jeep would not shift out of first. When we tried to run the codes we found that the scanner could not see the TCU. We checked into the wiring and tried switching the wires in the OBD2 connector around. When we did this we could see the TCU but not the ECU. What we found is that the OBD2 connector goes through the TCU to get to the ECU and in-between those two the wires were switched from where they should be. Once we fixed this all was good.

ADDITIONAL ITEMS

We installed several other items during this build, Dakota Digital Cruise Control, Speartech Tap Shift, and PSC hydrualic assist steering.