Crashnburn80's Supercharged Gladiator Mojave Build

I had a really nice CJ I bought when I was 20 (46 now). It spent more of its life on jack stands than on the road. Biggest loss I ever took with a vehicle, left me stranded several times and left my wallet light.

Recently drove an Unlimited rental car in Hawaii for 10 days. Left me with a stiff neck and overall was just a janky piece of junk. Rubber window switches that were torn apart in the center infotainment area?

If you want an off the shelf vehicle you can kit heavily, Jeeps are great, but it’s not possible to make them reliable.

If you want a reliable vehicle that you can make capable (may require a welder and definitely a lot of coin), pretty easy call

 

Very different companies.

Back in the CJ days Jeep was owned by AMC (American Motors Corporation) and the brand was about off road ruggedness. It was then owned by Chrysler. Now modern Jeep is owned by overseas Fiat, aka FCA which then was then acquired by Stellantis. Each acquisition focuses more on cost cutting and less on off road durability or product quality. The modern Jeep designs have a lot of potential, but the build quality/reliability is some of the worst in the industry lead by their acquiring parent corporations.

 

I had a 56 CJ5 at one point. Well, a hodgepodge of one anyway. It had a small block chevy, muncie 4 speed, 35" BFG's, 5:13 gears, dana axles, twin stick, ect. It would crawl straight up a wall, but never ventured far from the gas station. Absolute beast and POS at the same time. Don't miss it.

 

I did and gave me reservations about the SC, but had no idea at the time I was literally driving the truck mentioned in that thread...the engine replacement does explain some of the stock tune issues we had. Magnusen sent me the stock tune which we worked off first (must have been your original stock tune), but was quickly determined that stock file was not right when adding Daves tune. So we took the Magnusen tune, backed out their adjustments to proxy the stock tune, and added Dave's. Not ideal, but it works. When doing the replacement, did you get any warranty from the shop for their work? Might be the place I go cry to if this one blows

Have had a few jeeps, but this is first one in last 15yrs and first with SC. Wish you'd left those heated lights on it and saved me the time!

 

Ohhh! I didn’t realize you meant the exact truck. You can tell by the front steering stabilizer, it is the high end adjustable Fox unit matching the rest of the Mojave Fox suspension. Jeep didn’t bother to upgrade the stabilizer with all the suspension upgrades on the Mojave and it got the same one as the base model. My OCD couldn’t live with that, and the steering is much nicer with that Fox unit. There is a dial on it to adjust the dampening to your preference.

I don’t see how the engine replacement would affect the tune. It was replaced with an identical unit and the tune was the HP Tuners tune provided by Magnuson, which again was poor to begin with. IIRC there were some changes in the 22 model year that the stock Magnuson tune may have not accounted for at the time when I installed mine.

I believe the shop had a 1 year warranty on the work, which would now be expired. It was hard to find a qualified shop to do an engine swap on a modified vehicle that also had a background with supercharger installs.
Z Sport did the work:
https://zsport.com/forced-induction/

The suspension creak started with the AEV lift install, which I ended up taking back off, but the creak remained. I torqued everything, but something in the suspension must need to be retorqued to spec.

Unfortunately the Jeep headlights are poor, the JW J3s are not any better in output, but they do offer heaters and a much better color temp with less uplight/glare that greatly reduces the Star Wars light speed effect in the snow. Diode Dynamics offers new headlights for the JL/JT which will likely be the best performing option, but not heated. For fogs I’d use the Diode Dynamics Max SS3 in selective yellow, they run hot enough to clear snow.

Also if going the J3 route, I’d pass on the JW/Morimoto adapter brackets as I couldn’t get them to aim properly as they only have adjustment in one 45 degree plane, vs others with independent up/down and left/right adjustment.

Also another quirk on that truck. Long drives in cold temps cause the traction and stability systems to error and go offline, causing an error on the dash. Happened driving across the pass in winter several times. It’s only the time when those systems are most needed. The next day the system would be fine. Jeep was not helpful in the matter and this occurred before the supercharger install so was unrelated.

 

AMC took over in 80, and everything really turned to shit. Prior to that they were somewhat decent. My dad had a 78 with a 304 and an auto and it was a good vehicle for the times, which is why I always wanted one. The 86 I had was beautiful, but a piece of shit, and that was also inherent of the times- carburetor with an emission system with so many hoses it was impossible to know where everything went to and what it did- the emissions shops I tried to take it to wouldn’t touch it.

At the end of the day, a jeep is a jeep, and nicknamed a heap for good reason.

 

J.E.E.P.
Just
Empty
Every
Pocket

 

One mans trash is another mans treasure! Noticed the SC and stabilizer when buying and paid a very, very reasonable price for the jeep which did make me suspicious… but it ran OK and they gave me a warranty. i have no idea if theyd honor it since i purchased with the SC already installed, it wasn't noted anywhere in paperwork and not priced accordinly. overall happy with it once I got the tune.

Thanks for so much detail and the link to the shop. I ordered the Diode Dynamics max ss3 today as I had a similar experience on stevens last winter going to leavenworth and am glad that appears to help. I couldnt see anything and had to pull over to clear headlights several times on the side of the pass with wife and two kids in the car. Not fun, will never do that again

i have noticed the traction and stability error coming down from the mtn on rt90 where im not touching the gas much and cruising ~75 in 8th. Light comes on around snoqualmie. Really good to know its not related to the SC as I had myself convinced it was. I can sleep easy(ier)

the creaking is super annoying and embarassing. I pull out of my parking garage downtown around a ton of pedestrians and everytime i let go of brake, apply gas, let go of gas, apply brake, let go of brake, the thing sounds like its cracking apart. It didnt do it all summer (dry?), but the first day it rained i cant do anything without those loud pops/creaks until it gets cold/near freezing, then goes away again mostly. I was putting silicone spray on the fox shock tubes thinking that would help based on some bad advice on gladiatorforum, but did nothing. Will look at the suspension and maybe can solve that way. If not, it is what it is

i was looking for inspiration on mojave builds and found this thread randomly. Amazing its the same jeep, but i knew immediately by SC, the stabilizer in your original build, kirkland addy, and someone doxxed your name in a prior page and i have the window sticker with your name on it Too many coincidences, its def the same

 

And it still hasn’t…going strong when I take it out every 3-4 weeks.

 

I had the same experience on highway 2 of having to stop on the highway with no shoulder get out of the vehicle on the roadway to clear the headlights with my kid in the back. Extremely dangerous and I also vowed that would never happen again. The SS3 Max fogs will be a big help. You can see the review post here:
Diode Dynamics SS3 Max

While the fogs are a big help, heated headlights are really necessary too for regular use in that environment. It’s also worth noting that since the fogs do not have dedicated heaters, they take a little while to heat up. The heat is not instant on like halogen, so you need to have some forethought in turning them on.

The stability control error also happened heading up the pass, so not related to coasting downhill in 8th.

The creaking is obnoxious AF.

Jeep will not warranty the powertrain on the truck, even if the selling party told you it had a warranty.

Additional things you should know:
-The hood got bent over the windshield. The hood was up over the windshield on a lift and the vehicle was raised and the hood hit the lift cross bar and got bent over the windshield. The shop paid for the repairs.
-The driver side bed above the gas door was bent. I had the spare 37 strapped in the bed to cross the pass in the winter, the excess strap which was tied and tucked in the wheel came untied and blew out of the truck in a touchless car wash, the rear tire then ran over the strap and bent the bedside. This was repaired at the same shop and time as the hood. The repairs are very well done, knowing exactly where they were, I could not tell a repair was made afterward. I was honestly impressed.
-Both batteries were shot, they could not hold a charge. I think the seller may have had these replaced under warranty.

I custom ordered the truck from Bellevue, had it built to my spec. Hopefully you find inspiration/useful ideas in this thread, I thought the truck was great on the light weight Raptor 37s which were quieter and better mannered than the Toyo AT3s on there now.