Project Mutt

[Garvin]

All that above brings it up to the end of September. So the beginning of Oct was the rebuild again, oh how I hate engines...

 

Took the engine out to check everything out just to figure out that 11 or 12 of the lifters were destroyed, as well as the cam. One of the cylinders had a very bad score in it that would require quite a bit of boring to get out. I really didn't want to spend all that cash on a rebuild as I didn't have the cash at the time. So I picked up another engine that was a known good engine that I heard run. The engine I picked up was a newer TBI engine that was converted to carb already. Swapped all my goodies over to this engine and put a few coats of paint on her.

 

The old engine ripped apart and ready for scrap.

 

 

And with the AX15 attached.

 

 

Got the bay at the garage on a Saturday and slapped her mostly together.

 

 

Routed a bunch of lines on the top.

 

Also put a few 45's to get the oil relocation lines that connect to the block away from the upper control arm and to get a nice straight flow as the last thing I want to do is kink an oil line.

 

And then a few pictures of the exhaust. I told the exhaust shop that I wanted the exhaust above the frame rails since I wanted a completely flat stomach and I think they did a pretty good job. :thumbsup:

 

 

After a few weeks of working on her only a few hours a week at the shop, I got her started. She was quiet. :D Got her inspected and brought her home finally.

 

[Garvin]

I took her on a shake down run about a week or two later and got water in the oil without knowing it. :wall: Didn't find the water in the oil till after I got her home, 30 something miles later...Changed the oil that night and thought everything was fine. The next day she started spitting oil bad, like 1-1.5 qt's in 20 miles. I decided to open up the PCV valve and that solved most of the spitting oil issue but now she would burn the oil instead. No where near as much but this was still a problem!

 

Decided I could live with that issue for a month or so till school ended for the quarter and I went on winter break. Had a few rubbing issues in the rear on hard corners on the road so decided to take care of that problem.

 

 

Had a little fun in the mean time since I was itching to get out!

 

 

Few days later, had the Jeep just die on me on the way home from school. Alternator took a crap on me...Had a nice argument with the guy at the parts store as he said it was fine on their machine but it sure as hell wasn't charging my Jeep! He warrantied it out since the bearing had some noise to it, put the new alternator on and with a jumper box, the Jeep started right up and drove home without an issue! That same day, my fuel and oil pressure gauges just dropped, like they got disconnected. That wasn't the weird part...The coolant gauge started working, without the sensor being wired up! Not sure what ghost got into the wiring but everything worked fine again a few days later.

 

 

About a week later, out of the blue, my buddy called me up and asked me if I could use a Dana 300. Oh hell yes, and for free! So that doubler project got researched a lot more. Decided I was going to stay away from that until I graduated though.

[Garvin]

That takes it to about the end of November, when the real fun starts. I'll post up the rest when I get more time.

[87Warrior]

Awesome project. I have enjoyed your detailed posts. :D

[Garvin]

:rock on: Awesome project. I have enjoyed your detailed posts. :D

 

Thanks, makes life easy when I'm just going through another build thread for a local Jeep club I'm kinda in. :) If you want any other pictures, I can post up some more or explain parts in more detail.

 

Lets see if I can catch this up to where I am now with the current parts. The Jeep will be back on the road by the end of this weekend, just stupid little stuff to go now.

 

So back to the build! This is going to be atleast a few posts since there are a lot of pictures.

 

Picked up a set of one ton axles (Ford Dana 60HP and Sterling 10.25) for cheap with the intentions on putting them under my '92 at a later point. They've been sitting for nearly a year at my place and finally found a use for them. Cleaned up my canopy (doesn't look like it in the pictures but you should have seen it before!) and rolled them in to start going over them. Opened them up and the fluid was CLEAN. :banana:

 

Ripped the rear apart and found the brakes to be in great condition so I decided to roll with them (later to find out the only issue was one wheel cylinder, I'll get to that later). Cut off all the brackets and cleaned up the rear axle and painted her, all so perty now. :D

 

Little comparison on the sizes. The small one is a Chrysler 8.25 and the large one is the 10.25, both are completely stock with stock tires.

 

The Sterling all mocked up. The shocks are just hanging from the factory upper mounts in the pictures, more on the shock mounts later.

 

Made a set of leaf plates because I had extra steel laying around and was cheap. If I were to do it again, I would have just bought the plates...

[Garvin]

Got my set of front coil/shock/LCA brackets in the mail from Ballistic Fabrication.

 

Spent a long time trying to figure out how the rear shocks were going to get mounted and just decided to make my own mounts.

 

And just cause.

 

I was planning on going Humvee 16.5's with 37" military MTR's but got a smoking deal on a set of 16.5" aluminum rims with a set of four 15/38.5R16.5 Ground Hawgs. Got a set of 33's on the rims for free and sold them. Basically have $100 into these tires and rims, then about another $100 in beads and mounting.

 

Took the engine apart to fix my blow by issue, chose to change the piston rings to solve this issue. While I was in there, decided to check out the main rod bearings.

:wall: :wall: :wall:

 

Had some grooves in the crankshaft also so just decided to get a new crank and bearings.

 

Since I was doing everything with the engine still in, decided to make more room. :wrench:

 

Poor mans engine bar.

 

Everything going back together. :D

 

Remove the IronMan4x4 shackle and put the stock one back in to lower the rear. Can't really see it too well in the picture though.

 

Cleaned and wrapped the exhaust with the heat wrap, took a lot longer than I thought it would take to clean that oil off...

 

Looks like an engine again!

[Garvin]

With all that essentially done (didn't want to start the engine since I had jack stands under the stock LCA mount and the front was overhanging, knowing my luck I would get a nice kick and the Jeep would fall over), it was time to start on the front axle. Cut off all the factory brackets and started mocking up the front brackets. I have yet to see anyone use this style axle and get the coils straight. With me being stubborn and determined, I set out to try to do that. Measured like 20 times, cut a few times, and clearanced some areas and finally got the coils where they were going.

 

I chopped the leaf spring perch off (part of the pumpkin) to get the bracket in where I wanted it. I don't like to cast to weld and prefer not to.

 

Can see how the coil mount had to be clearanced some to get it on.

 

Just cause I like pictures. :D The cardboard is a mock up of where the truss will be going.

 

Cleaned and painted. Took forever to get 22 years of dirt and grime off of this axle...

 

Start of the truss.

 

Picked up a set of hubs, rotors, and factory lockout hubs for $100 and they threw in an extra factory lockout hub. Got them all painted and installed. Cleaned the rotors and installed new pads and calipers.

[Garvin]

Finished the truss (sorry, not many pictures on that during the build) and rolled her under. Got the Jeep on the springs and caster set then slapped the Ground Hawgs on.

 

Added 1.75" spacers on the front to level her out.

 

Then chopped the lower section of the bed off, it was so beat up from the PO that it wasn't worth saving.

 

Got my joints and brackets from Ballistic Fabrication. Had an issue with the Midwest joints so they sent me the QA1 at no additional cost. :bowdown:

 

Track bar built and installed. Got pretty darn close to perfect on length and angle. :D

 

Test fit the front drive shaft back in.

:fs1: :fs1: :fs1:

 

Figured I'd need to chop it down but was hoping with the stretch that I wouldn't have to. Installed the extended SS brake lines I had and modified the lower end to fit on the F350 calipers. They decided to sit perfectly where I wanted them to. :banana:

 

Mocking up the steering stabalizer. Got the brackets from a FSJ Dana 44 I used to have, figured I kept it for a reason.

 

Had a little argument with the 350 and lost a few eye lashes but got her started yesterday. Just need to fine tune the carb, fill the coolant all the way, and run the choke cable then the engine will be done.

 

So that's where I'm at now. Have plans on getting the Jeep back on the road by the end of this weekend. More updates will be coming in the next couple days.

[knever3]

Nice work!

[Thunderbear]

Wow. Just wow. Incredible work.

[Garvin]

Thanks guys, I'm still fairly new to all this so it isn't exactly the prettiest. I also don't have too many tools and the patience to make all the little intricate bends so I've just been doing everything that an angle grinder and welder can build.

 

But I guess it's time to update it since I actually have progress.

 

Started off the update replacing the passenger side rear wheel cylinder, that took entirely way too much time because of the drivers side. The brakes inside the drums are amazing huge. Everything, including the springs, are freaking huge. Everything is also mounted differently so it took a little while to figure out what I was doing (never dealt with one ton axles before). Once all that was figured out, I decided to bleed the brakes to make sure everything was good, that's where everything went south on the drivers side. The bleeder decided it didn't like the hex shape on it and round itself out. After 30 minutes of fighting with that, decided just to take the wheel cylinder off since I couldn't get vice grips in there. Took a whole 10 minutes to get everything apart and back together...So that fiascal was over!

 

So with the brakes keeping their life fluid inside the system now, it was time to tackle the next project, the rear wheel wells. If anyone wants to attempt to do this, don't do what I did. Figure out what you're doing before you start cutting!

 

Out they come!

 

Passenger side trimmed and resting in place.

 

Drivers side trimmed and resting in place.

 

Since my welder was being a pain in the @$$ and it's a bit too big for sheet metal, she got put back in with a bunch of tacks.

 

That's where the rear is sitting right now while I get the motivation to work on it again. Need to pick up some more sheet metal to finish all that up. It looks ugly right now because I haven't cleaned it up and filled in the gaps yet. To throw out some numbers, the rear wheel wells were extended back 9 1/8" on each side.

[Garvin]

So with the rear done (or atleast done for now), it was time to work on the front. The front axle is a little wider than the rear so flares were in order. These are more along the lines of temporary flares just to keep the fuzz off my @$$. These will be getting swapped out to tube flares once I get to the point of making the bumpers and rock sliders and get the lift height dialed in. I will also be adding spacers to the rear to even out the stance.

 

Front first had to get trimmed, only one pic to give you guys the idea.

 

The flares all cut and ready to be installed, hard to tell but all will become apparent soon enough.

 

Can see the clearance now, plenty of space to lower the Jeep 2-3" later on.

 

Pretty much finished. She's kinda has a hint of a CJ10 with those flares.

 

I'll save you guys the boredom of the stupid little tid bits that took forever along the way and go straight to the poser shots.

 

 

 

Basically where I'm at at this point. Running around getting the little things fixed and want to drive her for a while before thinking of taking her out of commission again. I've had this Jeep since May '09 and have only driven her for about a month and put 1000 miles on her, it's time to enjoy being one of the non-conformist vehicles on the road.

[codymanche]

Are u going to keep the daully set up

[Garvin]

Are u going to keep the daully set up

 

The rear axle is still a dually axle but the front has been converted to SRW. The pics with the dually rear was just me messing around with stuff for fun. :D

[89Comanche4x4]

Is this truck going to be street legal?

[JeepcoMJ]

cool, but you need to redo those rear shock mounts if you want any flex. otherwise you'll bend a shock every trip out.

[Garvin]

Is this truck going to be street legal?

 

Yes, this Jeep is street legal, or atleast will be. Just need to add rear flares, mud flaps, finish the bed and lower her as I had planned. This Jeep is actually my daily driver. The hardest part of the whole build was keeping her street legal, would have had a field day if she wasn't going to be.

 

cool, but you need to redo those rear shock mounts if you want any flex. otherwise you'll bend a shock every trip out.

 

I don't see why it would hinder flex at all. The bolts are 90" from each other so it can rotate back and forward and side to side. The only real difference from the way the factory setup is and this one is is that my shocks are now angled less so there isn't as much lateral forces on them to really cause them to bend. I do want to put a little reinforcement rib down the back of the top mounts just for peace of mind though.

 

If there is something I'm not thinking about here though, please bring it to my attention.

[Garvin]

Figured I should update this since I have a bit of time to kill. I'm just going to post the highlights and finished shots. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. The Jeep isn't quite finished with the current phase but it's getting there (few little things and then trouble shooting any issues).

 

Replaced the master cylinder with a Grand Marquis one, much larger bore to flow more fluid to those one ton brakes.

 

Welded an extra reinforcement onto the track bar bracket to prevent any flex that was in the frame, stiffened up the steering a lot.

 

Decided to flex everything out to see how she does. The front shocks had 3" up and 3.5" down. Wasn't very happy with that but she flexed out great considering the limitations (warning lots of pics).

 

Passenger Side Up.

 

Need to trim...Could get atleast a few more inches out of the rear once it's trimmed.

 

34" from the inside of the tire to the ground and ~36" from the outside to the ground.

 

Can somewhat see the control arm hitting the frame there.

 

The rear tires are both still planted on the ground. :mrgreen:

 

Drivers side up.

 

~5.5" from the tire to the fender flare at full stuff, should be able to fit the 42's easily.

[Garvin]

So it was time to have a bit of fun with the jigsaw again.

 

 

Then my shinies came in, Bilstein 5150 12" travels. :D Made a set of stud-to-eye conversion brackets. I now have 4" up and 8" down (compared to the 3" up and 3.5" down before).

 

 

Had a bit of overheating issues so a bit of measuring happened. Still need to do more body work on it but that's low on my to-do list.

 

 

The cowl hood came a bit late and I ended up blowing a head gasket. You know what they say though. If you break it, upgrade it! In went the fuel injection! Decided on a Tuned Port Injection (TPI) setup off an '88 Camaro with the swirl port heads off a '93 TBI (Throttle Body Injection) pickup.

 

 

Had to put a WJ box in to clear the power steering pump.

 

[Garvin]

Mated the Camaro and Jeep wiring harnesses together and installed a 22 gallon fuel cell in the bed.

 

 

And not much in the lines of pictures past that. Got it running but runs a bit rough, thinking a sensor is bad but I need to get everything hooked up to drive it over to the garage I used to work at to steal their scan tool.

 

So that's where I am now. Just need to run the cooling fan wires, loom the engine bay wiring and do a few other little odds and ends and she should be ready to go back on the road.

 

The pictures are a week or two old but will get updated pictures later this week and I'll post them up.

[Garvin]

Update...Been hard at work finishing everything up. Finally got to take her for a ride and all I have to say is wow...She has a lot better throttle response and power than I even expected. It is a night and day difference between the old carb setup and this new one. Got the intake all routed, what a pain that was. Let's just say it's made up from parts between three different vehicles with a little custom work in between. Ran all new wires with a universal thermostatic fan controller, she now runs ~180 degrees on an 88 degree day with the hood closed. :D Going to hopefully finish everything up tomorrow so I can drive her again. Guess it's time for a few pics.

 

Fuel cell finished and wired (that's water on top of the fuel cell, not gas).

 

Intake setup ran. Still need to find a new home for those vacuum canisters and still need to loom the wires.

 

And a little poser shot. Debating if I even want to put the grill back on!

[Abyx]

I hate your fender flares; you should make an exo-cage and tie it into tube fenders. Just make sure that you keep the look of the Comanche. Can't let those wrangler guys have all the fun.

 

Also, go with 1410s, they're better than 1350s. I read it on the internet once.

 

Sweet truck dude! :thumbsup:

[Garvin]

I hate your fender flares; you should make an exo-cage and tie it into tube fenders. Just make sure that you keep the look of the Comanche. Can't let those wrangler guys have all the fun.

 

Also, go with 1410s, they're better than 1350s. I read it on the internet once.

 

Sweet truck dude! :thumbsup:

 

lmao, you're such an @$$. Better be careful of those flares, they might bite back next time!

 

You pretty much know the plans of the rig, you're here enough. Those flares will go when I get a bender and lots (did I mention LOTS?) of DOM tubing on it's way. Keeping as many body lines as I can.

 

I really don't want to post carnage pics but lets just say a shock mount, broke the ear off the drive shaft, front winch bracket and rear main are the culprits. Going to pour crap in the oil to see if it stops since I really don't want to drop the oil pan, have new plans for the winch bracket that will beef it and the front end up massively, new 1350 drive shaft are on the way and the shock mount will get welded back on whenever I feel like working on her again.

 

All in all, we can look back and laugh now! I think you did more laughing than I did when everything broke. lol

 

And for everyone else...Abyx's puny Jeep and mine. :rotfl2:

 

[nygiants]

love the build man i see you're from wrightstown? I'm chesterfield so town right over. i only have a cherokee haven't had the time or money to lift it yet. where around here do you go?

[Garvin]

Thanks. You aren't far at all, have a ton of friends that live in Chesterfield.

 

The good spots are over in Lacey (where all the carnage happened to mine) and down in Wharton. Jackson trails right behind Six Flags is another spot but it lacks a lot of the mud. There's Colliers Mills in New Egypt also but most of the old fun parts have been removed (haven't been back there in years though). Last place I can think of is a small set of trails in Mt Holly right off of 537 (just past Mt Holly Bypass). Lacey has some nice hills (the one taken with Abyx's Jeep is from about 3/4 of the way up the hill) and the only real rocks is over in the Rausch Creek area.

 

I should have the Comanche back up and running today (new drive shaft should be here in a few hours) so feel free to give me a yell if you want to go do some exploring. If you need a hand wrenching or have any questions, you're more than welcome to stop by and BS.