Worlds Fastest Comanche

We will be taking the Comanche to the ECTA trials on May 22 and 23rd in Maxton NC. Here is a link to the web site http://www.ecta-lsr.com/ They have a 2 mile strip, you go from a standing start, and they check your speed at the end of the first mile, you then have 1 mile slow down. If you are in the area, stop by. Ill be happy to show you the car, and i wouldn't mind having a cheering section. If we get enough people maybe we can call it a Pow Wow

Speed week at Bonneville is Aug 12-20, We plan to arrive with the Comanche on Friday the 13 ( that doesn't sound good). Racing starts at noon on the 14th. We will be running this year. See Pete M's posting on what happened last year. But if you are on the west coast or in Neveda, Utah, Idaho or Colorado I would recomend you come out for at least a day to see what it is all about. If you have never been to a land speed race, you don' know what you are missing. it is nothing like you have seen before. (dry) camping is available for free. The hotels are totally booked, so if you pan to stay overnight you will have to camp. This year I will be camping with my wife and son, so if a few other Comaches show up we can set up our own area.

I broke my rear window getting it out and am going to replace it with Lexan so i can cut the holes for the roll bar. My problem is that i need to know the approximite size I need to cut the lexan. A template would be nice or a tracing on brown paper. Anybody got a window lying around, even a slider? It looks like the bottom is flat, sides are straight, and the top has a slight bow in it. I think i could get by with a drawing showing the bottom width, top width, the height from the top corners to the bottom, the height in the middle, then the height at one or two points between the center and one side. I could approximite the curve from these points. The Lexan was over $100.00 s i don't want to screw it up and have to buy another. If you can help, let me know. Thanks

Heading down to the Badlands April 9th and camping out, Friday and Sat night. I will be bringing an MJ. Anybody else interisted?

Do you have a D44 or D35? A dorman 610-441 will probably work. the shoulder on the stock stud is 13/32" and the 610-441 has a 15/32" shoulder. I don't thnk a 1/16" (.0625) would make much difference. The dorman stuff is cheaper, but hopefully the Moser stuff is better steel.

The rules require that you run a lug nut with a 1" hex. The nut is taller than stock, and sits about flush with the end of the stud. They want to see a few threads sticking out.

Been doing some work on the Race truck, one issue we had was that when we removed the power steering box and put the manual steering box in, it did not have a flat on the shaft for the Ujoint coupling to fit over, My son took a cut off disc to the shaft on the box and removed a good chunk of the shaft. I was not happy, you don't want flakey steering at 150mph. I purchased another manual box (GM 70's vintage). The Ujoints on the steering shaft were shot, they didn't have any rotational slop, but the U joint body would slide back and forth in the yokes. I still had the problem with the flat on the factory coupling. I looked at purchasing a replacment Borgeson http://www.borgeson.com/ shaft, but they wanted like $389.00 for it. I ended up purchasing new U joints and a Borgeson 24" telescoping shaft. Each item was about $75.00, so $225.00 for the 2 joints and the shaft. It all went togather pretty easy, i had to cut about 6" form the shaft. I did look at the stock shaft, and it looks like it could be reused. The end near the steering box is set in rubber to reduce vibration, but if you remove that joint, and clean the shaft up, a standard 3/4" Double "D" style u joint will fit. Borgeson does make a anti vibration joint if you wanted that feature. The steering column on my truck has a 1" Double"D" shaft, and the factrory steering shaft also was a 1" double "D" So again, you can purchase a Ujoint with a 1" double "D" on both ends and replace the factory joint. The Borgeson joints for the 1" double "D" have 1 short set screw and 1 long set screw. you need to drill one side of the shaft so the long set screw will seat aginst the oppsite side if the tube. This acts as a mechanical lock and does not crush the tube. On the steering box end, you need to make sure you get the correct U joint for the steering box you are using. Most of the GM steering boxes are interchangable, so you can go with a variable ratio, or quick ratio, or whatever. Generally the box will have a 3/4" shaft with either 30 or 36 splines. My manual box had 36 splines. So the U joint i purchased was 3/4" double "D" to 3/4" 36 spline. If you want to save some money, you can get the joints from Speedway motors http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Steering-U-Joints-3-4-30-Spline-Small-GM-P-S-1978-and-Later,31389.html They are about $65 dollars Vs $75 for the Borgeson stuff( From Summit) Another item I had to address was the length of the wheel studs on the rear. They are very short (on the D44) and the stud does not pertrude from the lug nut enough to make the tech people happy. I ordered some Moser Engineering #8368 studs. They are about 1/2" longer than the stock ones. I have not received them yet, but they say the Knurl diameter is .625 on the new ones and the Knurl diameter on the stock ones is .620 I don't know if .005 is a big deal, hopefully the hole streched when the stock ones were pressed in, and the new ones will go in without a problem. The worst is i will have to drill them out slightly. The studs were about $18 for a set of 10. Might be a good replacment if your stock ones are shot or too short for aftermarket wheels. Still some other items to address, but these were 2 of the big ones.

The second one in the group of 3 has "SRT 4" on the fender. back in the day, when they had the stadium trucks, they were limited to 3L , so Hesco destroked a 4.0L down to 3.0L using a billet crankshaft. It revved to 7,500 rpm no problem. The Baja 7X class is limited to 3.0L That would be an interisting ride. I was wondering if it made more sense to go with a 2wd and reduce the front end weight, rather than go 4wd and have a heavy front axle and low hanging diff.

How come you don't see coil springs in the front on these things?

DXR motorsport is still around, looks like he races Mitisubshi trucks now. I guess their is no money in racing 20 year old trucks. I wonder if he still has the Comanche? Hesco has a shop truck that has the Baja stuff on it. Here is a link http://www.hesco.us/customergallery.asp?action=form&formID=1725&recordID=90227

I was looking for a project to follow the Bonneville Comanche. Baja sounds like a good idea. Comanches have run in the past, here is some information i found on th 2003 race. I would like to get some informaion on other MJs that have run. This would also require a good size support team. Anybody on the west coast interisted?

I think a Rubicon (D44) axle bolts in ( pre 2006) they go for about $2,000 at bone yards. They do come with 4:10 gears and an electric locker. You will still have unit bearings.

Try http://www.car-part.com Pete

The 5 on 4.5 kits have been around for a while, I think i have one in the garage. Theu use Ford Ranger/ Explorer lockout hubs. Here is a link to the Warn version http://www.reiderracing.com/product_info.php?cPath=6016&products_id=9339 you may be able to order just the spindles bearings and flange from WARN. Milemarker makes somththing similar for about 1/3 the price, but it looks like it uses some type of unit bearings.

I came across these replacment knuckled by Reid Racing http://www.reidracing.biz/DANA30.php They will let you swap CJ (76-77), Fsj (72-74?) or GM full float spindles and disc brakes onto your MJ. I like the CJ stuff with the bolt on hubs. You do end up with a 5 on 5.5 or 6 on 5.5 bolt pattern depending on what you use. Match it up with an explorer rearend with wheel adapters and you have a pretty stout rig. or you could match it up with the Mopar performance J8 dana 60 rear for a little over $2,700 http://www.moparsupercenter.com/p5155083.html no more unit bearings!

The Subject says it all. I picked up a MJ but the bed is shot. I am willing to go a few hundred milies to get one, so if you are in Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa or Indania send me a PM

We had some problems with the oil system on the engine, so I did not post any dyno numbers. The problems with the motor were posted on the stroker site, so I am not hiding anything. I stand by my statment that the MOPAR stroker is half a product. To get maximum performance out of it you will have to change and add stuff. Most of the Comanches built were Renix EFI. It is not easy to find a ODB1 Comanche. So if you want a HO head on your pre 91 comanche ( stroker or not) you really have 3 choices. 1. Keep the Renix, go with a later intake and throttle body. if you have an automatic you may need to buy the TPS adapter from hesco. For a stick vehicle the later tps should work. You will have to use the renix sensors, i think their could be an issue on the later head with one of the temp sensors, doesn't seem like a big deal. The exhaust manifold will work, but you may want to go to an aftermarket exhaust for better flow. 2. Pull the wiring harness computer and gauges out of a later model cherokee or maybe a ODB1 Comanche and rewire the truck. If you have an automatic you will need a TCU ( transmission control unit) from the later vehicle. I have stick vehicles, so I am not sure of the compatibility of the different TCUs to the different vintage transmissions. 3. Buy the ODB2 wiring harness from Hesco, I think it is about $500.00 This is the same harness used on the MPI conversion kit. Not sure of the support for the auto trans. In all cases you will need a new intake and trottle body, maybe a throttle cable or two, a stroker will need bigger injectors. Seems like keeping the Renix would be the cheaper and eaiser way to go.

So i install a engine with more displacment than stock, i think somthing has to change. At least bigger injectors. It would probably work better with a bigger than stock throttle body. Maybe a better exhaust? Stock computer will work, but maybe a modified one will work better. Sounds like you are on the ATK payroll

That's not comparing apples to apples. The 4.2L never had multi-port injection, and it used an older ignition system with a rather lousy carburetor. Aside from that, the raw numbers are deceptive. It's a function of what you're looking for. The 258 didn't wind up real quick, like a short-stroke V8 engine does, but it had gobs of torque off the line and it just kept pulling all the way through the RPM range. Yes, we had a few. My brother raced a 258 Gremlin, and we had a Hornet AMX in the family for a number of years. Maybe someone who has put the Mopar efi kit on their 258 can chime in here. The EFI does somthing but i do not believe that the 258 with efi will output more Hp than a 4.0 even though more displacment. If it did everybody would not be rebuilding their 4.0L, they would be looking for those 258s in junkyards to put their HO heads on.

WRONG! I built a 5.0L 4" bore, 4" stroke 13:1 cr I used a 92 WJ block which has thicked cylinder walls. The thinest part of the wall was .090 thick, this was between the cylinders. The thrust side was generally .220 or more. and the drivers side was not much less. the cylinders on the jeep motor are on about a 4.3" spacing, so if you have a 4" bore that leaves you .3" If the cylinders were touching the cylinder walls would be .150 thick per cylinder (.300 total) you do need some space for water to flow, so if the space between the cylinders is 1/8" (.125) this would leave about about enough material for a .080 cylinder wall. the outside of the cylinder is not round, it is oval, with the thin parts in the front and back of the cylinder and the thick patrts on the drivers side and the passenger side. The thin wall only exists for about 3/8" . You do have to sonic test your block to make sure it will work. The 2000+ blocks are the ones you want.

Things change, recently the KB944 pistons have been available for less than $400.00 per set, since they use stock 4.0 rods, the cost of the project is still reasonable and the compression ratio ends up in the low 9's A 4.2 with a 4.0 head is a real bad idea. Because of the small cylinder bore they don't breathe very well. just look at the HP numbers of a stock 258 and a stock 4.0

I never had a need to use the Renix sensors, but i understand that Hesco makes an adapter to use the renis sensos on a later throttle body. It is pricey at a little over $100, but i believe you only need it if you have an automatic trans. I would say that if you are going with a stroker you should go with he HO head, later intake and exhaust. You will have to move some sensors around, but i don't think this is a major problem. The Mopar Crate engine comes with a HO head. so if you use it, you will have to address the above issues. I think the crate engine is half a product. to be areal product it should come with everything you need to make it work, includng a re flashed computer.

The Renix is not a problem, just need to upsize the injectors and put HO intake on it. ATK will be duilding the engine for Mopar, yo may be able to get it directly from them cheaper. I think they want about $2,750.00 for it. If you go to http://www.jeepstrokers.com and do a little reading, yo will see than you can generally build a stroker for about $2K . Hell , the sell tham on Ebay for less than $2K!

We are going, Speed week starts Aug 14 2010 That is a Saturday, but the cars start rolling in on Thursday for tech. Racing starts Saturday morning. You are probably close enough to drive back and forth, but if you want to stay in a hotel, the Casinos in Wendover start taking reservations March 1st 2010. Rooms are not cheap. You can geta a room Friday Night at the Best Western in Wendover UT for $160.00 right now. They are totally booked for speed week though.

A cat or Mothballs