Build MNR 4600 class 2021 U4 Bronco

It won’t be in my race recap so I’ll talk about it here. I don’t know if it was just the lower elevation difference but on race day the little ecoboost flipped a switch and gave me more power. I don’t know what to attribute that to but the whole race I could run everything in a gear higher than I’m used to and it still had the balls to accelerate. We ran the whole thing in high range and never struggled for power. I didn’t have that for qualifying either. The drone footage didn’t air but on the short course we hit the big jump and flew to far into a bad landing that rebounded the front end off the ground. Now I get why they call Vaughn’s Bronco “Bucky”. First I thought that’s weird, I hit that same jump yesterday at full throttle and it didn’t do that. Then it just kept surprising me the whole rest of the race. And my dash is a code reader, I check for codes in the ECM every time I’m in staging now, it didn’t say it had any issues for qualifying and I didn’t clear any codes. It just woke up and chose violence that day. Here’s a little photo sequence of popping the wheelie that kinda surprised us both

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I'm curious about the power.

My old two strokes would gain power when they loosened up. Wasn't a good sign for them. :laughing:

My boat has been the only thing I could actually have some sort of measurement on power. It's a jet and it absorbs the same amount of power to spin any given rpm and I run WOT more than I would prefer. It is a 351 Ford that is carbed and rated for 295HP. I have no other info on specs. I'm assuming fuel injection would help with the loss.

At 500' in elevation it will turn 4400-4500rpm, at 8000' it will turn 3800-3900rpm. I lose about 100 rpm when the temps go from 50 degrees to 100 degrees.

Every 100 rpm is very obvious.

Congrats on the win!
 
This engine is exactly a year old and might have 1200 whole miles on it. A year ago I was just breaking this thing in at Havasu finals.
 
They are always the fastest right before they blow up. :flipoff2:

I'd attribute the gained power to air density altitude #'s that changed from one day to the next. Forced induction engines are sensitive to those kinds of things and depending on how crappy or good the DA is that day decides how much HP it will gain or loose if you don't adjust the boost pressure up or down to account for it.

Next time it feels "slow" bump up the boost 3 or 4 pounds and i bet it helps put the kick back in it.
 
wvracer821 said:
Any Baja recap? I tried to watch some at work. The live feed was pretty decent but stuck mostly to the trophy trucks
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I don’t know how to condense it but I’ll try.

I got a call From Bailey Campbell about a month in advance wanting to know if I could go pit for her in the Baja 1000. I looked at my calendar, put in a vacation request and it got approved. No reason I couldn’t go, so I had to go.

I worked for two weeks straight all the way up until the night I left. Drove all night (7 hours) to get to Campbell enterprise shop in Gilbert AZ. Got there with enough time to catch an hour of sleep in the reclined seat of my truck before the gate opened. We finished loading up the Tremor chase truck and Baileys rebel rally Ranger Raptor. We drove through the Mexicali border to San Felipe where we had a beach condo waiting for us. In fords dime, literally on the beach. Drank my coffee at sunup with the Pelicans 40 feet from the water on the porch of the house and I had the whole upstairs to myself. This is the house.

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I was with JT Taylor and Ryan Miller both long time Baja veterans. We ate at a different place every night and every place the food was awesome. Every morning we’d get up and go practice Baileys section. She’d drive the race course in sections heading from San Felipe towards Ensenada. We’d eat lunch at the tacoria in Valley Trinidad and end up close to Ensenada. Then we’d drive back to San Felipe to get dinner and go to bed. Did that for 4 days. Then Ford wanted everyone to meet up for some team exercises and photo shoots.

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At this thing. The Ford execs wanted everyone to do pit drills. Find parts, change tires, change driver. We timed eachother, made fun of eachother. It was great. They fed us lunch and the “they” was Curt Leduc. Got to hang out with a bunch of really cool people. Got to meet a bunch of Ford top brass, ask questions and discuss the answers. It was really fun actually.

By then it was time to get ready for the actual race day coming up on Friday. So we got the cars through tech and contingency on Wednesday, Ford had us all go to dinner together Wednesday night- all 53 of us. Then Thursday for breakfast there was 61 people. Ford had sent down a car load of “experiencers” people from corporate who’ve never been to a race before. They were there to watch & observe, all pretty cool people. After Thursday morning breakfast they had built us in a rest day. Some people hung out in their hotel room. I went and walked around the docks looking at cruise ships and fishing boats. You think the beaters running around Mexico are in rough shape, you should see the condition of some of the fishing boats those guys are working on look like total death traps.

Tech and contingency

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The docks

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Friday was race day but the limited classes don’t leave the start line until way late. I think the Bronco DR was off the line at 11:24 AM and the ranger raptor was off the line at 11:29 am. Our chase orders were to be staged at RM 35 and hopefully that was just for a fly by but we’d be there just in case. So hanging out with Jason Schererer and all his guys we watched every TT spec TT class 1’s etc come by (which was awesome BTW). When the Bronco came by it didn’t sound right and it looked like Brad wasn’t going to stop. He finally pulled off about 100 yards past our pit spot so we had to move the trucks to go work on it. The way the exhaust is ran on that thing the dual exhaust tips dump in front of the rear axle after the skid plate. So every time the Bronco sacked out it jammed the exhaust tips into the dirt and broke the exhaust off at the headers. The whole system slid back and Venturi effect was getting O2 to the 02 sensors. We had to pull the skid plate off slide the exhaust forward. Bolt it back up to the headers and make makeshift hangers out of hose clamps. We used a sawzall and cut the snake fangs off above the level of the skid plate so it wouldn’t happen again, and it didn’t fail the whole rest of the race.

The race trucks had to run down the west coast about half way down the peninsula then cross west to east and start heading back north. So our instructions were to go to San Felipe, get dinner and go to bed because Baileys driver change was supposed to be about 5:30 am. We stopped in Valley Trinidad on our way back to SF and found the KTM rider that had crashed into a rock, ruined the engine on his bike and broke his arm. He wasn’t even headed for medical attention yet. He was getting a taco and heading back to Ensenada to go watch people finish. Bryan Crofts couldn’t let him go on that injured as he was, his obviously broken arm was dangling. So Bryan did a cold pack and compression wrap on his arm to stabilize it at least.

So while the boys raced in the night we had a peaceful dinner and hung out on the beach before going to bed. Got to run into woody on the Malecon having drinks with DontNeedRoadz. We were actually staying in almost across the street from eachother condos but didn’t figure that out in time to get to party with them. That night both the Ranger and the Bronco wiped out the rear differentials which set our driver’s changes back by about 5 hours each. So we had breakfast and took our time getting to Maralia junction. By the time John Williams got the truck to us it was all doctored up again good as new by his pit crew and Loren’s pit crew. All we had to do was put Baileys floor in it, fuel it and send them on their way. The Ranger got better fuel mileage than planned so we slammed 29 gallons in it instead of the anticipated 40.

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Once they took off She was going double their pre run speed. When we pre ran we could stay ahead of her in the chase truck by quite a bit. Now we couldn’t even catch them. She went from maralia junction where she got in to the top of the goat trail in 1 1/2 hours. That’s half the time it was supposed to take. Cleared the goat trail already so they are all the way past the worst part still in day light. Lots of rough trails to go now but all down hill to the ocean from here. She ran hard and clean all the way to the end and knocked over an hour off her projected time. Because Score has an actual finish line and a ceremonial finish line. Ford had the Bronco do some Ford VS Ferrari stuff. The Bronco finished 20 minutes ahead of the Ranger then waited at the checkered flag for the Ranger to catch up. Then they crossed the stage together so all 61 people could be there for the champagne and photos.

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There’s a lot of little details I’m leaving out. Overall it was an amazing experience. Ford is serious about this stuff yet made it really fun. They paid for everything while I was down there, I wouldn’t have had to spend one penny of my own money if I didn’t want to. I was housed and fed very well. Proud to get to claim a spot on team Ford Performance
 
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bdkw1 said:
I miss factory money.

Curt is good people.

It's spelled morelia
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Thanks for the correction, I was getting information like drinking from a fire hose. I’m sure I misspelled other things too. Brad Lovell was the boss of the whole thing down there but Curt Leduc is his right hand man who was there to make all the ancillary stuff happen seamlessly. Which he did, Curt can make stuff happen down there.
bdkw1 said:
Did you get any good contacts with the Ford people?
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I did. Have some new contacts in my phone and email addresses. Not sure it will do me any good but I’m going to see where I can go with it.
bdkw1 said:
Or?

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:lmao:
 
And now I’m home and working on KOH Prep. The last 4 weeks evaporated way too fast. I’ve been wanting to take this picture but I usually forget.
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While I was off playing in Baja, dad and my co-hoser pulled the shocks off of it and got them out for a rebuild. Full stanced.

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Now it’s all torn apart and on jack stands. Going to go through the whole front end. Replace some rod ends and work the ram a little. Will tear the rear axle completely apart inspect and reassemble. Change the fluids in everything KOH will be here before I know it.
 
The Bronco DR is neat, but it has just not done it for me yet, I think I liked the Bronco R more.
That Ranger Raptor is freaking awesome!
 
welndmn said:
The Bronco DR is neat, but it has just not done it for me yet, I think I liked the Bronco R more.
That Ranger Raptor is freaking awesome!
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I would love to have that thing as a buggy not a streetable vehicle. The Coyote and the 10 speed with the paddle shifters is psychotic. At the first meetup I got to be front and center for a full throttle no lift shift acceleration event and it actually stunned me. The RPM range that thing can maintain for 30+ hours doesn’t even make sense.
 
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