Is there a good resource for motor/tranny/t-case?

[LUVNMY06TJ]

I'm beginning research for a project and was wondering if there was a/multiple resources that list specs of different motors, transmissions, and transfer cases, and which ones easily or not so easily married up to one another. Oh, and a way to identify each would be helpful too. At this point any resource would be helpful, even books. Thanks.

[Mortalis5509]

I'll start out by being a smart ass...google.

On a different note, what's the budget, how much power do you think you need, and auto or manual? Street and trail or just for trail use only?

I have a few ideas but need those answers that way I can give you a suggestion to go in.

[DOUG]

Question I have is which is more important... the transfer case setup or transmission or motor?   

Seems that one of those would be available, already have, fit better, have best gearing, etc, and would be the starting point.

[kvom]

Nowadays it's theoretically possible to hook up lots of motors to lots of transmissions via adapters and swapping input shafts to match spline counts.  Same applies to transmissions and transfer cases.  But that doesn't mean that every such combination can fit in a Jeep.

Someone I know (not Larry) is putting a 5.3 V8 in his LJ.  Without thinking too  much about it he bought a 6L80 transmission and an associated harness to hook up all the electronics, and it's too tall for the tunnel.  So to get it to fit he had to add a body lift.  A little reasearch would have shown that a 4L80 or TH350 would have been preferable.

[Mortalis5509]

Nowadays it's theoretically possible to hook up lots of motors to lots of transmissions via adapters and swapping input shafts to match spline counts.  Same applies to transmissions and transfer cases.  But that doesn't mean that every such combination can fit in a Jeep.

Someone I know (not Larry) is putting a 5.3 V8 in his LJ.  Without thinking too  much about it he bought a 6L80 transmission and an associated harness to hook up all the electronics, and it's too tall for the tunnel.  So to get it to fit he had to add a body lift.  A little reasearch would have shown that a 4L80 or TH350 would have been preferable.

6l80 makes a 4l80 look small. 6l is really tall and takes a lot more room. I did consider the 6l80 to race with but went to a 4l80

[LUVNMY06TJ]

I'll start out by being a smart ass...google.

On a different note, what's the budget, how much power do you think you need, and auto or manual? Street and trail or just for trail use only?

I have a few ideas but need those answers that way I can give you a suggestion to go in.

Google...  //LMAO// Well played. ... The budget has not yet been set. I'm trying to find something common, with a lot of aftermarket support/availablilty for replacement parts, perferably used - perhaps a junk yard find/pull a part. I wouldn't mind taking a long time to rebuild something to learn it. I'm looking for something to have ample power for tons and probably 40's so I was thinking 8 cyclinder. This would most likely be manual but I would be open to auto if the right deal came along. This would be primarily for trail but it would need to be streetable at least for a while.

Question I have is which is more important... the transfer case setup or transmission or motor?   

Seems that one of those would be available, already have, fit better, have best gearing, etc, and would be the starting point.

Hmm... good question. Well with the power I'm looking for that might be the starting point. The transmission would obviously need to be able to handle the motor, and I really like the idea of 4:1 gear ratio in 4 low but I'm not set on that ratio.

Nowadays it's theoretically possible to hook up lots of motors to lots of transmissions via adapters and swapping input shafts to match spline counts.  Same applies to transmissions and transfer cases.  But that doesn't mean that every such combination can fit in a Jeep.

Someone I know (not Larry) is putting a 5.3 V8 in his LJ.  Without thinking too  much about it he bought a 6L80 transmission and an associated harness to hook up all the electronics, and it's too tall for the tunnel.  So to get it to fit he had to add a body lift.  A little reasearch would have shown that a 4L80 or TH350 would have been preferable.

That's a good point I had not considered Kirk. I'll add that to the list of considerations whilst conducting my research.

[kvom]

It would be hard to go wrong with a Chevy LS motor as they are cheap, common, and parts are readily available.  My LQ9 6.0 in the buggy does about 350HP stock and is pretty bulletproof.  The ECM's are easy to program for emissions. 

It has a Turbo 350 auto with a reverse manual valve body.  Autos with reverse manual shifts are reasonably universal in buggy builds vs. manuals.  The TH350 doesn't have any electronics, so interfacing to the ECM and a Jeep's instrument panel is much simpler.

And it has an Atlas TC with a 4.3 low ratio, but you can order them with different ratios as well.  Here in the east you don't need really low ratios as wheel speed is needed for wet rocks. 

So that's an example of a fairly straightforward powertrain.

[clark123456]

Higher transmission gear can allow you to overcome the wheel speed issue with a low geared transfer case...correct?

Torg (or Clark)

[kvom]

For a streetable rig choose the diff gear ratio that's best for driving on the road in high.    But certainly with a low tc+diff ratio, you can shift the trans to get more wheel speed.  I usually use 2nd gear when bumping.

The reverse manual transmission has a couple of advantages:

1) For a sudden recovery you can slam the shifter from 1st to reverse without hunting or shifting into park by mistake

2) Reverse can be use to brake the vehicle if brakes fail

[clark123456]

...

1) For a sudden recovery you can slam the shifter from 1st to reverse without hunting or shifting into park by mistake

Jim, in case you have not seen or heard of this concept, if you are about to go head over heels on a climb, you can slam the tranny into reverse and get on the gas to pull the vehicle back to where the head will not come over the heels.

[Mortalis5509]

For a streetable rig choose the diff gear ratio that's best for driving on the road in high.    But certainly with a low tc+diff ratio, you can shift the trans to get more wheel speed.  I usually use 2nd gear when bumping.

The reverse manual transmission has a couple of advantages:

1) For a sudden recovery you can slam the shifter from 1st to reverse without hunting or shifting into park by mistake

2) Reverse can be use to brake the vehicle if brakes fail

Choose the Trans for street not the gears. Th350 isn't know as the strongest and doesn't have od. Better choice to have the gears move the tires with ease and have od to offset the deeper gears.

[kvom]

TH350 is plenty strong for what we do, esp. if it has the K case.  Tripp's correct about the OD.  It will be cheaper than a computer controlled tranny both to buy and to integrate.  With a buggy where you don't worry about all the JK sensors and gauges, a 4L80 makes more sense.  Otherwise the harness will be $$$.