nobggrnchvy Goatbuilt Ibex

[thrillbilly85]

Imma keep hitting "page up" on my Lenovo

Haha. Honestly I'd be doing the same thing, if I knew what it was I'd be doing. I've got an Aces FI system on my 383, and when everything else is done, I'm gonna have to learn how to adjust stuff.

Cold start and idle before it's warmed up is just like you'd expect with an old Edelbrock 600 AutoZone special. I even have integrated ignition timing I can fuck with. You'd think a 39 year old could have a relatively decent grasp on what to do, but I don't know shit about shit, other than it seems like its rich AF at idle when it's cold. The fumes will choke you out.

 

[Bggrnchvy]

What's up with the finned valve covers that you can't use? It looks like the coils are inside the covers???

Super boomer covers.
Specially made to retain the heat and burn coils.


But looks cool

That

For the best they don't fit, but damn it, if they did I was going to run them! At least until I lost a coil pack and got mad

 

[Bggrnchvy]

Goal for the weekend was to get the drivetrain attached.



I drilled out and sleeved the mounting holes for the tranny crossmember.



Then the repurposed Goatbuilt bushing mount got chopped up and burned it. Thank you for easy bench fillet welds to make me look like the welder I am not.



Then it got bolted in place, and compressed with a floor jack and the tabs burned to the frame.



As you can see in the last picture I also cut down the NWF tail housing mount and made some tab edits to fit. Note to self, when you use a floor jack to set clearances, block them out as the jack may bleed down overnight and you might weld it all in just to find out you need to add 5/16"





Then there was the rinse/repeat of prepping some 1-1/2" .120w for the uppers and burning them together.




That let me get the front axle actually under the rig just before I had to call it quits. I ordered the lower links, they should be in a week or two and then I can get to work on the front suspension.

 

['84 Bronco II]

Looks great! I really dig the way you did the engine mounts and incorporated them with the engine skid. Are you running plain DOM for those uppers, or some fancy heat treated 4130/4140?

 

[Bggrnchvy]

Looks great! I really dig the way you did the engine mounts and incorporated them with the engine skid. Are you running plain DOM for those uppers, or some fancy heat treated 4130/4140?

All that is the Goatbuilt chassis, I am just the monkey welding it together.

Yes, plain DOM for the uppers. Here's to hoping they never contact a rock Lowers are treated 4130, or will be when they show up.

 

[Bggrnchvy]

Front bump cans mocked up using a drop of 2" .25w tube.



Goatbuilt winch fairlead mount in place with a Brennan's Garage fairlead.




Trying to do a better job of wiring on this rig than the last one. Old dirty cooler is just to show what they come from the factory like, that was the PS cooler out of the last rig. The clean one is the transmission cooler for this rig and I prepped the pigtail with a Deutsch connector used kapton underneath to strain relieve the wires a little and stuck the loom in place with some adhesive lined heat shrink. Then mounted the Deutsch connector to the fan shroud which hopefully keeps the wires from breaking off at the motor side. It's no Bonneville car, but hopefully I can keep the sparky gremlins at bay.



4130 treated lowers came in. I just finished boring the high misalignment spacers out to fit the 5/8" bolts (I got a pile of 9/16" HMS's from a friend) so I can get the rods ends to fit the tabs. Hopefully have them in shortly.

 

[Bggrnchvy]

All the links are in and they fit with a couple of threads showing.

There's a big space between the fuel cell and the back of the rear seats that's open to air on 4 sides, but impossible to really get to. It tapers from the top so it's bad for storage, the shocks are on both sides so access is pretty terrible and the rear truss comes up at full bump and eats the lower few inches. It seems like a good spot for a cooler, hopefully I can get some air flow from under the rig and then out the top/sides. It may need a duct to direct the air out and up after the fan pulls it through to cooler to keep it from recirculating and killing the efficiency.

I grabbed some scrap 10ga 304 plate and made some fast and dirty mounts with the iron worker. Not to self, the .5 in 7.5" spacing matters and should not be forgotten or you get to drill extra holes.



After tacking it in, I pulled the rear seat and panels to weld the mounts out and then put the cooler in. I need to probably put some PEM nuts in, getting the nuts on the backside isn't terrible, but it isn't easy.



Finally got the tube disconnects into the over engine crossmember, now that I know about where they needed to sit width wise. I added a 1/8" to get the fit in the nodes tighter.

 

[Bggrnchvy]

Picking away at the front end.



Turned down some HMS's so the rod ends on the mini tie rods will fit in tot he welded plates on the steering knuckles. I took it all off on one side to bias them just little bit closer to perfectly horizontal @ center.

I fit up the low profile upper shock mounts and mocked up a coilover to verify before I welded out the bump stop mounts. I should have 1/4" of clearance on the shock shaft even accounting for the bump stop integral pad deformation and the plate dipping 1/4". Also gives the upper control arms about 1/4" of clearance from the engine crossmember and the driver side upper link from the accessory bracket.

It all got welded out and my daughter stopped in for a few minutes to stare. Yes, I shouldn't be wearing sandals and she should have something to cover her legs, but she gets more UV rad swimming at my in laws for an afternoon




Waiting for a shipment from Goatbuilt with the front sway bar (and a bunch of other remaining items) to finish the front suspension so I jumped to the easy task of assembling the engine accessory brackets they make. Bolt on stuff is almost as fun as weld together kits




I went with Radial Dynamics for PS stuff this go around.

With the coilovers in front and back now I can figure out limit strap placement and get the adjusters in and the straps ordered.

 

[mobil1syn]

Yes, I shouldn't be wearing sandals

is there any other way to tig weld?

 

[Bggrnchvy]

is there any other way to tig weld?

Not comfortably in 90° heat

 

[GiS]

One thing I've noticed on a few different rigs that only ran three clamps on the ram - the endcap on the end with no clamp tends to unthread and leak. Or unthread to the point that the whole endcap is spitting out. If you notice it leaking later, it'd be worth putting a clamp on the diff end to lock that endcap in place. Or use wire or some other idea to retain the endcap from being able to unthread...

This is really interesting to me .. I have a ram cap that is unthreading on me and low and behold, its the end with a missing ram clamp (running only three).

 

[Bggrnchvy]

Radiator showed up and I dropped the e-fan I procured onto it. The shroud fits great...just a little tall.



Off with its head. I put the fan on upside down (I'll have to close secure the flaps, but likely would have anyways) so it extends past the radiator on top instead of on the bottom which would interfere with the ram at full bump. A little time with the oscillating tool and an aluminum burr on a 1/4" grinder cleaned it up.




Got to work fitting the rad so I could see how the fan would fit the chassis. A little chunk of 3" al channel works to align the two tank saddles combined with some ratchet strap fixturing.



Test fit the fan and rad and it all clears. Not much room on top of the ram, but to be expected.





I already drew up the filler plates for the fan and grabbed some aluminum rod to turn into threaded bungs to weld to the rad tanks to secure the fan.

 

[Bggrnchvy]

Lots of little bits.

Radiator and fan are buttoned up. I welded together the blank off plate and riveted to the fan shroud. It hooks to the radiator top lip. I turned some bosses and those got welded to the rad tanks to bolt the fan body on.




Otherwise it has been laying out the engine compartment.



I flipped the intake and made a hole in the firewall to bring the air filter into the people compartment. It's going to be louder, but it makes room up front, keeps water off the filter (as much as can be expected) and lets me run a good sized paper element filter. A long 4" aluminum 90 was cut down and I rolled the ends to retain it and then stuck the MAF on the end with the filter. It's all together but still needs an under dash mount.




The steering reservoir and vent PRV were mounted with an off cut from 4" exhaust section from mounting an exhaust brake in the Dodge, a leftover T-bolt clamp from the intake and section of 2x4 box tube.



Rad overflow went on with some shock reservoir mounts and a chopped up generic tab. Some 3/8" heat shrink, some measurement and trimming helps hose clamps not look so...much like hose clamps.



The DSC reservoirs fit the only place these long things fit.



Howe power steering cooler got the same treatment.



I took another section of 2x4 tube and made a mount for the steering filter.



The next mission is to mount the oil cooler and oil filter housing.

 

[abrogate]

I am curious about the worm drive hose clamps you are using. Is that heat shrink over them or is that some type of insulated camp? The heat shrink is a great idea if that is what I am seeing.

 

[Wisconsinite]

I am curious about the worm drive hose clamps you are using. Is that heat shrink over them or is that some type of insulated camp? The heat shrink is a great idea if that is what I am seeing.

Just heat shrink tubing.

 

[Bebop]

Delete that MAF it's useless.
Rest looks great !

 

[Bggrnchvy]

I am curious about the worm drive hose clamps you are using. Is that heat shrink over them or is that some type of insulated camp? The heat shrink is a great idea if that is what I am seeing.

Just heat shrink tubing.

What he said. Just some adhesive lined 3/8" 3:1 heat shrink. Assemble the clamp and things to be clamped, mark the extra tail to trim and where the heat shrink has to stop to not get wound into the screw, remove. Cut the tail to length and deburr, lay out a piece of heat shrink from the roll and cut remembering it will shrink up 1/16-1/8" per inch. I usually cut it so it will lay under the bolt head, then start the shrink on the tail end so that's the origin.

Delete that MAF it's useless.
Rest looks great !

The harness still has a provision for it and the tune is still working on it and not SD so it's staying for now.

It's also just a stock cube engine with a small cam and some larger, but OEM size, injectors so I don't feel like it's going to hinder this engine at all.

 

[Bggrnchvy]

Work continues and has.




Drew up and welded out an oil cooler mount. This plus mounting the oil filter housing on the firewall allowed me to start routing power steering, oil and reservoir hoses.



That lead to pulling them all out after marking clocking and depth, one at a time to crimp and then put them back in their homes. I dipped some 1/4-20 G8 cap screws in vinegar and welded them to tubes to use some cushioned stainless hose clamps to force some of the routing. Working on 3D printing some hose to hose clamps to help cleanup the pathing, but of course the nozzle jammed printing overnight Friday and took out some other parts, so I'm hoping to get those done this week now.




I bought the Goatbuilt exhaust kit and built out one side, added a v band to make install and clocking easier and then was promptly informed I might hate how loud it is. So the exhaust is now at a standstill. Considering putting the rear axle to full pump and seeing if I can fit a dual in/out chambered muffler under the rear seat and then putting mini-cats where the straight through mufflers are now. That means a lot of heat under the front seats though. Alternatively, I could switch these out for some Flowmaster Super HP2s, but I'm not sure how much quieter the 17" ones would be than the straight throughs on now. And yes, the tips will be trimmed back, just not sure where it's coming out now.



Front sway bar slid in. Knocked the last holes off the arm and cut down the provided axle side tabs. Also made some little skids/supports to try and keep them intact.





Other item of note, compressor fits behind the rear seat. I drew up another bracket, fudged the hole spacing (again), fixed it and got the compressor bolted in. Have not started thinking about wiring or plumbing on it yet.

 

[Bggrnchvy]

Studs and clamps I used to route things 'cleanly.'


Engine oil filter head and filter. Filter clears the tube below it unthreaded by a millimeter maybe so it can still be installed/uninstalled full of oil without spilling. I couldn't make a sweep fittings work and had to resort to the block style 90's.


The nest of hoses I need to try and organize with the clamps to be printed. I'm in the middle of swapping out the steering valve for a larger displacement one, which when in place will help some on the firewall side.