Quote from spitzmic on June 17, 2020, 7:31 am

It's a mild build, but so far it works pretty well.  My wife uses it as her daily driver and we have over 1,000 miles on it now.

Vehicle is a 1965 CJ5A Tuxedo Parks edition, that was totally rebuilt from the ground up.  Custom frame, axles, etc.

Motor is a 2007 Silverado LY5 5.3l.  The short block had about 50k miles on it and was very clean inside and stock 9.9:1 compression. The guy who had it builds 15-20 motors a year and his client had fallen through on this one. He had already deleted the displacement on demand function, installed an LS9 camshaft, and an LS3 timing chain cover. I finished the build by sourcing a Camaro oil pan, a set of 799 heads, having them rebuilt with upgraded valve springs, finding a Trail Blazer SS intake manifold, and using a FiTech 70050 wiring harness, computer, and 92mm throttle body.  It should be in the 400+ horsepower range. And of course I painted it traditional Chevy orange.

Transmission is an SM465 4 speed from an 87 Chevy Truck, with a hyrdaulic clutch.  T-case is the original Dana 18.  I used kits from Advance Adapter to mate the T-case to the SM465 and the old school manual to the motor with a Centerforce Clutch.

Accessories are the GM Performance Parts kit, with a Corvette Damper and Camaro water pump, headers from Advance Adapters, and a Walbro 255lph in tank fuel pump with 3/8" fuel lines.  I ended up using a rotating thermotstat housing from CVR to help with routing the lower radiator hose.  I also cut the upper hose barb on the water pump back about an inch.  Space is very tight between the motor and the radiator.

I'm running a universal LS swap radiator from Be Cool, sourced from Summit Racing.  It has a pair of thin mount SPAL fans, set up to start/stop at different temps using the FiTech ECU controller, primary on at 185, then secondary on at 205.

I've had no configuration problems with the computer set up.  Once I had the fuel system working properly, it fired right up.

I did have an issue with the ECU getting wet.  Turns out the FiTech LS ECU is not waterproof.  FiTech did replace it under their warranty program, even though it was past the warranty period.

I'd be happy to answer any questions people may have.

Here's a link to my build thread on the Early CJ5 forum.

http://www.earlycj5.com/xf_cj5/index.php?threads/project-old-goat-1965-cj5a-restomod.135209/

 

Mike