Full Size Jeep Network

Cool. Congrats. I'm having fits with my pictures.

Had a few slow days at the shop. So, I put one of my employees on scrapper duty. He used a heat gun and plastic ice scrapper and was able to get the majority of the vinyl off. The vinyl on the tailgate did not want to come off, but I plan on painting eventually, so I am not concerned.

Also modified the upper intake plenum. The factory cummins intake interfered with the hydroboost. So, I took 2 of these upper intake and make 1. I cut the one right behind the turn down. I cut the second one further back and then machined them to put an angle in them. So, when welded together they will miss the hydroboost by 1". I have not learned how to weld aluminum, so a friend of mine has both pieces now and is welding them together for me. I will post more pics when I get it back.

Here is what the body now looks like with all the vinyl off. I am going to paint it latter, but first I want to get driving down the road and start enjoying it.

Looking great!

I got my upper intake plenum back from my budy the other day. He did a great job welding to together. I need to get some aluminum welding classes from him. Anyway, here is the modified plenum mounted on the motor. You can see how the angle in the plenum helps it clear the MC. The side view shows that I have about 1" of clearance now between the MC and plenum. I am really happy with how this turned out. Next I will be tackling the turbo and down pipe.

Got these in on Friday from Off Road Design. These are my new front springs specifically designed for the Cummins motor. Pretty excited about them. They have a lot of arch in them, but I was assured they will compress several inches when the weight of the motor sets on them.

Wow, that's beautiful. Sign me up for the same classes you take.

I've been facing the fact that I may have to adjust clearances for my hydro-boost system, also. With the engine sitting so far back I've always half expected this though, so it wasn't a surprise. Now that the cab's back on I can finish the steering column and brakes. I have a couple different ideas in my head for making everything fit.

Sweet springs.

That intake really came out nicely I guess I need to add that modification to my parts list too.

The ORD springs look great! I'm glad to see some none GM guys sourcing parts from them. They make nice products. My brother is a big GM guy and if it weren't for him I would not have even known who they were.

Keep up the good work. I've been enjoying following your progress.

Been working on my Dad's baby jeep. He rebuilt the injector pump, injectors, and turbo for me on my 6BT. So, to swap him out I am putting my Dana 44 and AMC 20 out of the Wagoneer under his 92 YJ. It has been a little more involved project then I was hoping, but I should have it wrapped up next week and be back to working on the wagoneer. Here are a few pics of his jeep. I built the bumpers and roof rack for it last year. It has a 4" lift and is now running 33" tires and wagoneer axles. Dad already has a 4bt sitting at his shop he is rebuilding to put in this. I know it is a baby jeep, but with wagoneer axles, it seems a little more grown up.

It's already nice, but it's going to really be sweet once that 4BT is in it.

I know this is a build thread, but I figured if Resbum could post pictures of his dog I could post pictures of my son and I. It was such a nice day today, while I was on my lunch break we got the motorcycle out and road around the parking lot at my shop. He loved it. He kept laughing and making motor noises. I love being a dad.

Still working on my Dad's baby jeep. Having issues with the steering right now. Hopefully will have it wrapped up shortly. I have a buddy of mine that has built several rigs coming by today to look at the steering with me and see if we can come to a simple solution instead of either spending a lot of money on parts or a lot of time on fab. If someone ever tells you that putting a set of wagoneer axles under a baby jeep is an easy project, they are either full of crap or not doing it right. There is a lot of little stuff that is time consuming, but the steering is the big issue. If you are going to do it, plan on buying a flat top knuckle for the passenger side front from parts Mike. That is the best way to fix the steering issue.

Cool beans.

Okay, finally got the baby jeep for my dad done. I was really happy with the way it turned out. The brakes work better than they ever have. It actually rides better, that may be because of the added weight. Either way, I was really happy and so was my dad. Here is a pic of the jeep done with the new tires and axles. I had to trim the fenders a little, but eventually we are going to go to different fender flares with a wider opening. Here is a picture of it after I took it out and tested it in the mud. I can tell you this much, those Goodyear MTRs with Kevlar are awesome.



As partial payment for doing all the work on my Dad's jeep, he bought me all the gauges for my jeep. He is an Auto Meter dealer. So, he was able to get them for me a little cheaper. I will be boxing them up today along with the dash and sending everything up to Zack at ZM Jeeps. He is going to put them all in one of his dash plates and wire them all up for me. He will take my gauges and make a wiring harness with a large electrical plug and provide the mating pig tail with a wiring diagram. I know I could do this myself, but I do not have time and my deadline to get this project done is getting closer everyday. So, here is a pic of all the gauges shipping out today.

So, now that I am finally back on the wagoneer! I started looking at turbo placement and interference. With the turbo sitting in the stock location with engine sitting back as far as it can go without modifying the firewall, I was going to have problems getting a down pipe in the space I had left. Well, I could put one in, but it would have sharp bends and not be very large diameter. So, I had two options. One was to run a turbo from an earlier model 6bt with the rotary pump. These turbos are not wast gated and therefor are shorter. But after doing some research, these turbos do not build the boost as quickly or as much as the later model waist gated turbo. So, option #2 was to relocated the turbo. So, I decided to go with option #3. Here is a picture of the turbo taken apart. You can see the waist gate. I was planning on blocking off the waist gate anyway. So, why not just delete it all together.



By deleting the waste gate, I was able to gain almost 1.5". Here is a pic of the modifies housing.



We then made a new plate for the turndown to bolt to. We put a nice countersink in it for the turndown to locate in. Then made the clamps to hold everything together. This allows me to rotate the turndown just like I would if I was using the original setup with the band clamp. Here are a couple more pics of it all put together. As I said, going this route gained me about 1.5" between the firewall and back side of the turbo. This was almost enough to run the performance 3.5" diameter down pipe that I had sourced. As it is now I will have to modify the down pipe a little to make it all work right, but that will not be a big deal. Also, why I had it appart, I had the turbo rebuilt.

Nice job

I started working on the down pipe. Here is a pic of the down pipe in place with clearance on the fire wall. I pulled the body off as well and now I can start working on the rest of the exhaust. While the body is off I have some welding to finish up, going to strengthen the frame, add my NWF Black Box, drivetrain brake, and the list goes on the on. Needless to say there is a lot to do while the body is off. But at least it looks like progress is being made.

I also went ahead and mounted my new front springs that I got from Off Road Design. I was originally planning on reversing them and putting the shackle in the rear, but after looking and measuring I changed my mind. If I reversed everything it would give me more front lift than I wanted. I still had to make new rear mounting points for the springs and I am also going to have to make new front shackle mounts as well, but for now it is at least sitting at its final ride height and I am very happy. So far these springs from ORD are very impressive. They compressed almost the exact amount that we had anticipated. The springs should give a great ride and flex like a yoga instructor!



I am going to have to make new front shackle mounts. When I do I will move them forward to give me less shackle angle.

Here are some pics of the body off the frame and the frame rolled out from under the body. A lot of work to do on the frame, but at least it will be easier to do now.