Blue Jeep build

[gt1guy]

In other less depressing news, I've got a little more done to the pile.

Both engine cage braces/coil mounts are done. Also made the rear mounts for the air box.

But, while making the rear air box mounts, I had both hose clamps on the silicone coupler at the TB cranked down tight to hold it where it would sit. That's when I realized a fatal mistake I had made in the air box.

I had used the long end of the bell mouth as the straight section that went into the silicone coupler. Well, It was way too thin and gave up the ghost when the clamp was cranked down. Didn't take a picture of the mess, but it completely buckled in.

Here's the difference in the now cut off bell mouth piece and a real 4" intake tube. Big difference.

So my fix consisted of cutting off the bell mouth straight part just at the top of the weld holding it to the air box. Then I took a T-dolly and a body hammer and put a slight flare on the new straight piece so it would sit down over the old weld a little. This was all done to avoid welding directly to the end of the bell mouth, Blowing a giant hole in that would have been a nightmare to fix.

New piece welded in. I did make it 5/16" longer to make up for removing the TB clocking ring I'm no longer using.

Hardest pert was getting to the spot between the straight piece and the bottom of the box. Technically I didn't have to weld it 100% because it's welded 100% on the inside......but I gave it a go. Took a #8 cup with way more stick out than I thought would work. Basically welded with the tungsten horizontal. Pretty much the whole process was what they tell you not to do.

Isn't pretty but it's welded.

This was before I took the little belt sander and smoothed it all out on the inside. Right is the new straight piece, left is the bell mouth inside the box.

Fits perfect.

Someone asked a while back how I was going to keep water out of the air box. Other than saying the opening is pointing to to the rear. Here's what else I've done that I think will help.


There's a slight gap between the back and the cowl.

The back is raised a bit above the cowl height.

And the cowl itself will drain off water pretty good before it can get to the box. It's not just a solid flat piece.

So we can add another 6hrs to the air box.

Next up will be the sway bar arms since everything is together and I can fake not actually having sway bars yet.

Already ordered weld on -8an male fittings for the valve cover breathers and a low profile oil fill bung and cap. The stock plastic oil fill set up gets in the way of one of the coils. The new one is only 7/8" to the top of the cap and I may move it a little more out of the way.

 

[Bebop]

Imagine when you remove it on the dyno and you pick up 20hp

 

[ExWrench]

Sorry about Murray, Kevin It sucks when good friends get a bad deal.
Good on you for stepping up & giving him the kindest out & not letting him suffer

About this:

Gonna need to weld some AN fittings to the valve covers for plumbing it up.

You may already know this, but locally pre-melting a cast Al piece to float the impurities out & homogenize the surface to be welded can save a shit ton of headaches.



IR no genie-us, but that guy^ seems like a no-BS source of welding knowledge.

Buggy-smuggling project is looking schweet! Now "just" finish it

 

[csutton7]

That sucks!

 

[gt1guy]

Imagine when you remove it on the dyno and you pick up 20hp

That's ok. I'll still be over 500hp with it on.

Honest question: Why would I want to remove it on the dyno? Just to see the difference?

When it goes to the dyno, I want it tuned exactly how it will be ran.


I do have something to compare it to though. I know someone who put this exact same engine in their 2dr on 40's. When he dyno'd it, it put down 360hp and a little less torque to the wheels.

The tune he ended up with after the dyno session is the tune I'm starting with.

 

[gt1guy]

Sorry about Murray, Kevin It sucks when good friends get a bad deal.
Good on you for stepping up & giving him the kindest out & not letting him suffer

About this:



You may already know this, but locally pre-melting a cast Al piece to float the impurities out & homogenize the surface to be welded can save a shit ton of headaches.



IR no genie-us, but that guy^ seems like a no-BS source of welding knowledge.

Buggy-smuggling project is looking schweet! Now "just" finish it

Thanks man. I miss the little dude. Just sucks when helping means death.


I had not seen that video and will definitely follow that process. Thanks for that. I need to watch more of his videos.

I "think" when the sway bar arms are done I can blow this thing apart and switch gears. Both axles need some finish welding. Knuckles need the brackets for double shear steering welded on. Steering arms need the tie
rod bolt holes drilled (bought the drill bits already). Need to order axle shafts too.

Paint, plumbing and wiring are waiting in the shadows.

 

[Bebop]

Honest question: Why would I want to remove it on the dyno? Just to see the difference?

Yes

 

[gt1guy]

Yes

Would be kind of interesting to see, I have to admit.





Putting this here for future reference.

This was the intake setup that put 360hp to the wheels. Same engine, trans, diff gears, only difference was 40" tires. He did say he would see intake air temps up to 140 driving around.

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

We are still fucking with this goddamn air box?????

 

[Will Scarlet]

We are still fucking with this goddamn air box?????

Were you expecting something different???

 

[gt1guy]

We are still fucking with this goddamn air box?????

Well, I did fuck it up soooo.....yes.

And I did have to wait until the engine cage bracing was in place to slap the rear mounting tabs on.

 

[gt1guy]

Officially moved on to the swaybar arms now

With everything in the shop still piled over to one side, my handy little rolling gantry hoist is trapped. So to get the Jeep sitting at ride height and not bottomed on the bumps, I had to use the special HF engine hoist with the built in auto-down feature. What a pain in the ass. Have to lift higher than I want, then run to the jack stand like a fire drill, then lift it even higher because I was too slow.

I do have a question, or at least spell out my plan and see what you think.

I don't have the bars yet. Not going to order them until i can get final weights on the F&R ends and know the exact lengths of the arms.

So, my plan is to just use a 1.5" tube that fits through the bushings with zero slop and if I stick a piece of 1.375" to the end of it, the female arm splines will just make contact if I crank them down. They don't lock on to the 1.375. they can still spin but there's no side to side slop.

This would just be for getting the bends where they need to be and to make sure there's no interference through the full travel.

I don't see a problem with this process. The actual building of the arms will be done on the welding table so I'm not worried about the splines not matching.

What do you think?

 

[1Sinner]

Sorry to hear about your little buddy.

 

[ExWrench]

So, my plan is to just use a 1.5" tube that fits through the bushings with zero slop and if I stick a piece of 1.375" to the end of it, the female arm splines will just make contact if I crank them down. They don't lock on to the 1.375. they can still spin but there's no side to side slop.

This would just be for getting the bends where they need to be and to make sure there's no interference through the full travel.

What do you think?

If there's no play except rotational and you space the arms out to the same width they'd be on the real torsion bar, you should expect the arms to cycle the same on the bars as they do on your mockup tubes. I say go for it

 

[gt1guy]

Sorry to hear about your little buddy.

Thank you.

 

[gt1guy]

If there's no play except rotational and you space the arms out to the same width they'd be on the real torsion bar, you should expect the arms to cycle the same on the bars as they do on your mockup tubes. I say go for it

Yep, that's my thinking too.

 

[gt1guy]

I guess first off I should say that I received those Nuke Performance fuel rails. Damn these things are nice.

I actually like the way these hold the injectors better than the factory rails do.

Stock clip on top....not shown is the the little wire that goes with the stock clip. The Nuke clips bolt to the rails.

Also got the parts to modify (lower) the oil fill cap and add the AN fittings to the valve covers.

New cap just falls into the stock hole which is the reason for the threaded bung.

AN fitting are going here. LS's have a lot of oil sloshing around inside the valve covers. Figure this this best spot to get the least amount of oil out the breathers.

 

[gt1guy]

On the sway bar front. I took a piece of 1.5" DOM long enough to go through the bushing and welded a piece of 1 3/8"DOM the width of the sway bar splined clamp to it.
Buuuut, the more I held the completed contraption, then stuck it in place, there was just a little too much wiggle for my liking........even with the splined clamp cranked down until the ends touched.

So I came up with a way to make it tighter using 1/16" TIG rod. No wiggling, tight as fuck, perfectly centered and square.

Started on the rear arms first cause I figured it'd be the easiest end. I sure hope the fuck I was wrong and I'm pretty sure I am.

Got the "prototype" arm done. Will need to make a jig so I can knock out a pair that are somewhat the same shape.

In the end the, only way to pull it off was EXACTLY the opposite of what I had in mind. You'd think that by now I'd have learned, but nope.

My first thought was to start with the arm horizontal at ride height. Figuring I'm only dealing with ~half the travel in either direction. That didn't work. To get it outboard enough to clear the coilover at full droop, the tire hit it at 1 wheel stuff. I kept moving the arm up until it hit the shock tower at the top of the old inner fender well. So I had to start heading in the other direction.

In the end I had to keep it under the bulge of the tire. I have fuck all for lateral movement on the axle through full articulation, so as soon as one side of the axle moves up it's eating any room for the arms.

So here's the final product after a million different attempts.

I didn't get a picture of ride height.....but.....it's 6" below stuff and 10" above droop. Though there is almost 24" of wheel movement during full articulation

Full 2 wheel droop.

Full 2 wheel stuff

1 wheel stuff 1 wheel droop.

1 wheel full stuff the bump stop will have about 2.5" used up in the mix. That's a little help

Now the way the links angle increase the closer to full stuff it gets, correct if I'm wrong..... I think that will lower the rate of the bar. I have to run that by whoever I get to make the bars themselves.

Any thoughts on that part?

 

[gt1guy]

Also ordered the limit straps for the rear. 17" from Kartek.

 

[1Sinner]

Looking good. Those nuke rails are tits

 

[gt1guy]

Looking good. Those nuke rails are tits

I was very impressed for sure. They come with -8an fittings for the ends of both rails (4). Also in the center on the bottom of each one is a o-ring boss port (the kit comes with plugs for those). The billet mounting brackets are pretty robust and come with spacers to add if you're running the older LS style injectors.

For $160, I'm glad I pulled the trigger.

 

[Rnuovrcj5]

I was very impressed for sure. They come with -8an fittings for the ends of both rails (4). Also in the center on the bottom of each one is a o-ring boss port (the kit comes with plugs for those). The billet mounting brackets are pretty robust and come with spacers to add if you're running the older LS style injectors.

For $160, I'm glad I pulled the trigger.

You’re making it hard for me to not pull the trigger on a set of them for a future LS swap in my C10.

 

[gt1guy]

So, here's my ghettotastic jig for welding the three main pieces of the rear swaybar arms together. Had everything sitting 1/4" above the table so I could weld all the way to the bottom of the arm without gluing it to the table.

Worked out great........except on the second arm I got a little wild with the MIG gun and hit the angle iron holding it in place. So That was a fun hour trying to get the fucker out. Had to wiggle the ends about a thousand times to get where it was stuck to break.

The above picture is of the original "prototype" arm. I need to cut it free of the of the splined end and grind a bevel on both sides so I can get a full pen weld to the splined end. And because all I had to start with is 1/2", I'll need to plate the 1/2" with 1/4" on both sides to bring it out to a full 1" thick arm.

There's another 1/4" lip a little ways back from the end of the splined piece. I'm just going to use that to fish plate where the arm connects to the splined end. I don't think I need to run that all the way to the far end of the arms. That would be 1-1/2" thick arms and I think that's way over kill for my use.

 

[1Sinner]

You made me spend money I ended up buying the nuke rails since they were still on sale..... Dick......

 

[gt1guy]

You made me spend money I ended up buying the nuke rails since they were still on sale..... Dick......

It was a honor to play a small part in you spending money.

 

[YJLOPES]

Now the way the links angle increase the closer to full stuff it gets, correct if I'm wrong..... I think that will lower the rate of the bar. I have to run that by whoever I get to make the bars themselves.

Any thoughts on that part?

I think you have that right. The closer to full stuff, the less effective that bar will be.

 

[gt1guy]

The part confusing me is that when on side would look like this....

The opposite side will look like this....

I think I'm more confused now.

When I measured total arm movement through full articulation I got ~13" and the shocks are 16" travel. Arms are 22" long.

 

[gt1guy]

Both rear arms are welded out and done except for the link tabs. Heims and tube ends should arrive tomorrow.

I decided to run the last fish plate out to the bends. Ended up only going past the first bend on both sides.

This picture shows the first try. I put two small tacks on it and installed the arm. Stuffed the tire until it almost touched the body with the other side hanging off the limit strap. Spun the tire and it peeled off the fish plate breaking the tacks and throwing it on the ground.

I took that as a sign.

Trimmed it to this and no more contact with the tire.

That's a fuck up. It's what I get for making the two pieces at the same time. One is a inch or so longer than the other so I couldn't just use it on the other side (it's the short one). I just beveled it correctly and ran a few more beads.

So, while waiting on the final parts for the rear, I took a look at the front.

All I have to do is get an arm to follow the side of the grill up and over the tire and drop a link just past the inside of the tire.

Full lock and stuff, other side hanging on limit strap.

There's no going low on this end.

Doesn't look like much steering angle until you look from the rear.

 

[gt1guy]

Heims and tube ends showed up. Back to the rear to make the links.

Can't wait to find the sneaky hidden fitment issue that's just waiting to yell "I'm here".

Edit: Also received a shit load of weld washers cause apparently I just love to weld and I still have wire left on my 4th 33lb spool on this build.

 

[1Sinner]

Heims and tube ends showed up. Back to the rear to make the links.

Can't wait to find the sneaky hidden fitment issue that's just waiting to yell "I'm here".

Edit: Also received a shit load of weld washers cause apparently I just love to weld and I still have wire left on my 4th 33lb spool on this build.

That's the way it always goes