If the reactions to the first two episodes of 4x4 Garage, in which we transformed a dilapidated 1988 Ford Bronco into a great-looking, functional on- and off-road machine, are any indication, you're liking MotorTrend's newest video series. If so, then we've got good news, because episode 3 is now streaming on MotorTrend's YouTube channel, with episode 4 set to go live August 19.

In episodes 3 and 4, we take a classic 1978 Jeep Cherokee Chief with a completely worn-out factory 360 V-8 engine and a TH400 transmission, and give it a major upgrade with an LS engine and 4L65E transmission swap done at Wood's Off Road in San Marcos, California. Wood's Off Road does a lot of LS swaps, but given our tight timeline of driving it in on Monday and heading out to the desert to go 'wheeling on Friday, Wood's enlisted the help of Shayne Wardle of Filthy Addictions Offroad and Kory Holmes of Holmes Fabrication.

How to Watch the 4x4 Garage Video Series

Shayne is a master when it comes to fabrication, especially when it comes to building super sweet exhaust systems, and Kory Holmes knows more about LS engines and LS engine swaps than anybody we're ever met. Together, the crew installed the LS engine and Gearstar-built 4L65E transmission and fired it up for the first time in a mere 48 hours. Here's a quick-and-dirty outline of how episodes 3 and 4 panned out. Be sure to stick around for episode 5, when we'll be prepping a brand new 2022 Chevy Silverado for dual on- and off-road duty and then hitting the desert with a bunch of awesome 4x4s for a whole mess of fun. We'll update y'all again before that episode airs.

Christian drove the Cherokee into Wood's Off Road on Monday morning, and as soon as it had cooled enough to pop the radiator hoses, he and Johnny Wood got busy yanking the factory AMC 360 V-8 and TH400 transmission.

While Johnny and Christian were busy yanking the old engine out of the Chief, Kory Holmes and Shayne Wardle got busy prepping the all-aluminum LC9 5.3-liter V-8 so it could be controlled by a super-nice Holley Terminator X system. Because the LC9 uses displacement on demand, variable valve timing, and active fuel management, Kory obtained all the parts required to delete those systems from Turn Key Engine Supply and he and Shayne Wardle stripped the zero-mile engine down to the short-block and built it back up with a factory 6.0-liter cam, LS7-lifters, and other components to make the finished 5.3-liter a lot simpler and more reliable.

Not to be outdone, while Christian and Johnny were working on uncrating the Gearstar 4L65E transmission, Amber Mayo dove into the empty Chief engine bay to degrease and paint it so it looked nice when the new LS engine went in.

GearStar Performance Transmission is always our go-to transmission builder when we absolutely need it done right the first time and can't have any chance of a new transmission failing. Each transmission is a work of highly functional art, built in Gearstar's Akron, Ohio, facility and then dyno-run to ensure perfect operation. We also sent our adapter to GearStar so that when we uncrated the beautifully packed 4L65E that GearStar built us it was ready to go straight into the vehicle and accept our Quadra-Trac T-case right away. When the work on the LC9 deletions was complete, we bolted the new transmission up to the bellhousing and slung it in the chassis with a set of Flop Shop Offroad FSJ-to-LS conversion motor mounts. The company is currently not manufacturing these mounts, but similar bolt-in LS engine conversion mounts are available from BJ's Off-Road.

With the engine securely bolted in place it was time to tackle the wiring, beginning with plugging in the Holley Terminator X harness. While Kory and Shayne handled that, Johnny built a custom mount to house the control boxes for the Holley Terminator X and Dakota Digital VHX Series gauges that cleanly fit inside the glovebox compartment. The Dakota Digital VHS gauges are exceptionally nice and fit perfectly inside the factory gauge bezel. They give a perfect means to monitor all the systems you care about like tach, speedometer, odometer, fuel level, oil pressure, temperature, voltage, and more, without taking away from the classic looks of the vintage interior. Kory is amazing at wiring and created a super-clean harness with Deutsch connectors for the Dakota Digital gauges on the bench. Then we plugged the Duralast AGM battery back in its place, finished all the electrical connections with new battery cables that Kory built, and attached all our Terminator X connections before buttoning it all up.

For the fuel system, the LS engine requires about 58 psi and a decent volume. Christian has been sitting on a BJ's Off-Road aluminum fuel tank with BJ's optional in-tank EFI pump. The tank is a super-nice fit under the rear of the fullsize Wagoneer/Cherokee chassis and increases fuel capacity to 27 gallons, which should be plenty for the more efficient LS engine and overdrive 4L65E. The tank hooked up perfectly to the the factory 1-inch fill and ⅞-inch vent lines, and it fills more quickly than the factory coffin side-saddle tank. With the tank bolted in place, we used a bunch of Earl's Vapor Guard ⅝-inch hose and -6AN fittings to build our send and return lines from the Corvette filter/regulator and up to the engine. The Holley Vapor Guard is great stuff that's really easy to work with; just cut the line to length and slip it onto the proprietary Vapor Guard fittings. Unlike old-school braided line that doesn't survive very long with modern ethanol-blended fuels, the Vapor Guard is built to withstand E-85, 100-percent methanol, and full ethanol fuels, let alone gasoline and diesel. And best of all, Vapor Guard doesn't allow any permeation of fuel, so unlike traditional rubber that can lose as much as one gallon per two-foot section to the atmosphere every year, Vapor Guard keeps the fuel in your tank.

With the best build-crew ever, this project was straight-up flying forward, so much so that even after a relatively lazy start late Monday morning, by Wednesday evening we were finalizing the cooling system lines that retained the factory FSJ radiator and building an air filter setup in anticipation of its first fire. After a snafu, caused by Christian allowing the pickup and return lines to flop while installing the BJ's tank and then hooking the lines up backward on the Corvette regulator, the engine fired to life and settled into a nice idle with the Terminator X managing things beautifully.

Now that the rig was a runner, Thursday just required Shayne to do his thing and build a super-slick exhaust using 2.5-inch Flowmaster mandrel bends and a 2.5-inch in/out Flowmaster 70-series chambered muffler. While Shayne was busy working up a gorgeous-looking and killer-sounding exhaust, Johnny and Christian got to work installing the Radflo Off Road 2.0 Smooth Body Remote Reservoir shocks. The Radflo shocks provide precise damping control with fade-free performance from an SSID steel tubing body with exceptional heat-dissipation. Radflo offers all sorts of shock lengths, types, and shaft and body diameters. Because the eyelet ends of the new Radflo shocks were for ½-inch mount, and the factory Jeep uses big clunky ⅝-inch pins, we cut out the stock Jeep pins from the factory upper mounts and replaced them with a heavy-wall DOM sleeve to accept a simple ½-inch shank bolt. The shocks were getting their final mounting just as Shayne was putting the wraps on the exhaust tip cut.

With the exhaust and suspension wrapped up, it was test-drive time, and despite everybody putting in a mountain of work on this project, Kory Holmes was the star of the build and absolutely earned the right to slide behind the wheel for the first test drive. The Jeep fired right to life, the factory column-shift linkage crisply plunked the GearStar 4L65E into reverse, and we were off. With our baseline questions in the handheld programmer answered, the Holley Terminator X performed perfectly in self-learning mode. With the exception of lacking a radiator overflow bottle, and the little extra rear driveline vibration noticeable thanks to the stiffer polyurethane motor mounts, the Jeep drove like an absolute dream, with a ton of power right off-idle all the way up through the redline at 6,200 rpm. What a beast!

With most of the build done by Thursday night, we pulled the Chief into Wood's Offroad once again on Friday to wrap up a few little odds and ends before heading to the desert. For starters, the lack of a radiator overflow bottle just wasn't gonna cut it, so Johnny Wood put his personal touch to the matter, grabbing an empty glass Maker's Mark bottle and building a slick custom bracket for it that holds it securely next to the radiator. Speaking of the radiator, the plan was to retain the factory one, but after getting a really good look at it during the build we decided to place a call to BJ's Off-Road for one of its replacement 1972-1991 AMC V-8 brass and copper radiators. They're super-nice, beefy three-core units with absolutely none of the chintz you'll find in some import radiators sold by some vendors. Yes, BJ's does sell a nice bolt-in LS conversion radiator for fullsize Jeeps, but we figured we already had the adapter hose lines built, and this way if we ever put a tree branch through the radiator or suffer some unforeseen accident that puts it out of commission, we should be able to easily source a replacement no matter where we are. Finally, we placed an order with longtime Ultimate Adventure Official Custom Driveshaft sponsor Quigley. The company built us a spankin'-new Quigley Custom Driveshafts 1310 CV rear driveshaft to eliminate the buzz we were feeling going down the road. Because we ordered late, the shaft arrived right before this episode will air, so we'll follow up with how it performs when we clue you in on just what to expect in episode 5 of 4x4 Garage.