Builds 4508 - Ultra4 Racetruck Build (1 Viewer)

[snivilous]

I got a TON done today. First and foremost being I got the truck to run! I spent the morning tearing the passenger doors down until my parents got back from town and showed up with a new air intake tube from the post office. With the last part of the puzzle needed (I had been using my sister's 80 as a parts truck when I had tried to start it a week ago, and ended up just buying a new intake hose off ebay for $25). I used the shop vac and some fuel line to suck the cylinders dry and then tried to crank it.... no luck. The engine sounded like it would turn half way and then struggle at TDC. I pulled the plugs back out and all of them had oil on them still. I wasn't sure what to do at this point so got a little creative.... Since the shop vac obviously wasn't sucking out enough oil, I decided I would pour gasoline in each cylinder to clean the oil out. My thinking was that the gasoline would clean up the oil, and would also provide a lot of liquid I could easily vacuum out vs the sticky oil. I did this with all the cylinders and also put a new battery in instead of trying to jump start the old battery, and turned the truck over a few times while vacuuming to try and get as much s*** out of the cylinders as I could.

Long story short, it worked like a charm! I cleaned the plugs off with alcohol and threw them in and the truck fired up like there was nothing to it!

It smoked like a mofo for awhile, though not surprising since it literally had 1+ quarts of oil in the cylinders (based on how much I had to fill the engine back up with). I put a camping chair in it and drove up the road a little bit, and she ran like a charm! Sounded totally happy, and not even a check engine light! (Though granted those usually pop up after a few miles, not a few minutes, of driving)

I took it through the gears and low range and everything seemed to check out great!

---Questions, since I haven't researched at all yet, what does the "2nd" button next to the shifter do? I assume the PWR button is like in my 4Runner and makes the tranny shift at a higher rpm? But the 2nd start has me at a bit of a loss... And in low range the light pops up for ABS and the center diff (transfer case) locking up, is that normal? Is there not a direct way to engage 4WD (lock up the center diff) without putting it into low range? I don't really care about ABS since it'll be a race vehicle and will tear all of that out, but I guess I'll have to go and make a override switch for the center diff unless I'm retarded and don't know where that switch is (like I said, zero research so far and I know barely anything about 80s).

Anyways, after taking a lunch break for awhile I came back to the truck and started working through stuff again. I finished pulling the wiring out of the doors, which lead me to pulling the passenger fender, which lead me to cleaning up the intake system a bit, removing the cruise control stuff, removing the windshield wipers and fluid spray system, and then I found a horn for an alarm I guess the previous owner put in. So I got to go through the wiring and tear apart the dash to pull the alarm system (truck fired up without issue after I pulled it, so I guess I didn't mess up).

The passenger side is starting to clean up nicely. I'll figure out what emissions stuff I can remove and hopefully clean up the drivers side a bit.

At least since the 80 isn't super new, the wiring is pretty easy and straight forward to pull out and not worry about it ruining something. This weekend I will probably order some wiring from Painless so I can start hot wiring the ignition and integrating the master kill switch.

And then here is how the truck wrapped up the night:

I wasn't really planning on taking the dash off completely, but halfway through chasing wiring and crap I didn't want, I decided I should so I can replace the cross member piece with the cage plus be able to 100% remove any thing (like the ventilation system) that I won't use to help save some weight and complexity.

I will probably order seats this weekend and also a quick disconnect steering wheel. Using the 80 wheel would be cool, but it's not practical really. I still plan to use the majority of the dash to keep the control area still "obviously an 80". This weekend I will probably order tubing, or pick some up next week, so I can start laying out the cage. The truck is coming apart very nice and easily so far (knock on wood), so I'm exciting to start transitioning from tearing down to building up. I am flying to the East coast tomorrow, so there won't be anything exciting until Wednesday. Happy Memorial Day!

 

[RustyNailJustin]

What are you using for latches? The only kind of latches I really picture are like tool box latches or bathroom ones, which I feel like probably aren't what most people use haha

On the front doors I use the factory latch as my primary and a spring loaded pin for my secondary. For the tube tailgate o use 2 spring loaded pins.

 

[ppc]

2nd start keeps trans in 2nd gear for starting out in slick conditions, ice, snow etc, to limit wheel spin and reduce torque
Locking the center diff disables ABS (light illuminates)
You can add a CDL switch to manually control lock in High, pin 7 mod to eliminate lock from occurring in Low. Wiring harness and plug already exists in dash. Search is your friend on all these topics.
Be cautious about what you remove in the wiring harness as the control systems may be more complex than what you think.

 

[snivilous]

I spent all weekend in Kentucky with relatives and got back today around 2pm. I spent a few hours working on my girlfriend's old car so we can sell it soon and get it out of the garage, once that was taken care of I pulled the 80 in since it was raining and started working on it.

The first major thing I did was finish tearing out the dash cross beam.

After that I set to work tearing out everything behind/under the dash, meaning all the climate controls essentially. This then lead me in a circle of working with the engine bay and the inside of the truck. I was able to take out some of the A/C system, so all I really need to do to fully remove it is to tear the compressor out.

I finished tearing out the fan assembly on the inside as well as the A/C assembly. This left the heater core. I spent awhile screwing around with all the hoses in the engine bay, I got most of them and took the heater control valve out. The remaining hoses/hard lines run to the rear heater. I may end up just leaving those hard lines in unless I can easily reach all the bolts holding them on since it's obviously a tight squeeze between the engine and firewall there.

And that's about all the work I was able to get done today.

I ordered a pair of PRP seats from SRQ Fabrication, those were a pretty penny... Also ordered a NRG steering wheel and quick release, and lastly ordered some electrical switches. So essentially I've ordered a lot of the items I'll need to start planning out the cage. I realized today that I'm ripping out everything the dash bolts into normally, so if I intend to keep the stock dash I'll have to put mounting hardware on the cage.

I'm debating if I need/want to buy a tube bender; anyone know if the harbor freight 16 ton one will bend 2" .120 wall? There's no benders for under $1000 near me used it seems like, and there's only a couple pieces I'd MAYBE want to have bends (pillar hoops essentially) so don't know if it's worth getting a bender or just notching/slitting the tube to bend it. I also want to buy a good welder, the current welder we have is a little Harbor Freight 220V welder which is a POS. I can do decent (imo) welds with it, but a good welder would be way nicer. As far as cage mockup it'll be fine for tacking it together, so I don't necessarily need to buy a good welder before I start buying tubing, but I do need to decide if I want to use a tube bender or not on the pillar hoops. The seats should take a few weeks to show up, so not a huge rush either way, and obviously still quite a few things to tear off of the truck before it's time to go crazy on the cage.

 

[I Lean]

You do need a tube bender to bend your tubes. Don't bother with the HF pipe kinker. I'd also shy away from slitting/mitering your tubes. If you don't want to buy a bender, just find someone to bend the tubes to your specs and build the rest.

 

[RustyNailJustin]

I bought a JD model 4 air over hydraulic about 10 years ago and it was money well spent.
In this case and the time crunch I can for see you being in to get this built and shook down I would consider having a shop that is familiar with Ultra4 Racing to do your cage.

 

[BlueCruiser84]

agreed. My first "cage" took me a reeeaalllyy long time. Getting a feel for the bending and the bender and not wasting feet of tubing.

Paying a shop to do you main cage will pay off if you are on a time crunch. Then you can go back and add in triangulation, etc.

 

[snivilous]

I'm not too worried about the cage. Last year I did the cage for my 40 series from a Red Line kit that I ended up modifying quite a bit. So it's not my FIRST cage, but I'm obviously not an expert by any stretch.

The cage is one of the things I've been looking forward to the most on the 80, so I'll stick to doing it myself unless I get hung up. I'm not too worried, the only thing I have zero experience with is using a bender, but since only a few sections will be bent I'm not that worried about that hanging me up. I looked at the JD2 benders today, I'm thinking of getting the Model 3 bender and then getting the kit from Swag offroad to convert it to a hydraulic setup. Craigslist had me thinking that benders and good welders cost a lot, I was looking at Millers website and a Millermatic 211 is only a grand which doesn't seem bad.

To reiterate, I'm not trying to be cocky that I'm a cage and fabrication master, but building the cage is probably the single most exciting thing I'll do on the truck so I intend to do it myself. And I understand a little daily driven FJ40 is a lot different than a raced FJ80. Ultimately, as long as the truck is race legal at the end of the year I'll be happy, which is 80% getting the cage done. So if all I finish by the end of the summer is the cage and the suspension is rough and untuned and basically stock, that is totally fine with me--I don't need to be fast, I just want to get into the race. I appreciate all of the suggestions and advice a ton and you guys are a lot of help giving me ideas!

 

[RustyNailJustin]

Yea go for it. I only suggested it to assist in the build time. My number 1 observation of people new to the desert racing game building cars is understimating the amount of time it takes to get a car done and make it live through a race. The number 1 thing that has made me successful in ultra 4 is paying attention to details and relentless testing, tuning to not only be fast but be reliable.
In 4600 class you will be pushing hard at KOH just to finish on time. Getting into the top 3 is the next level of commitment.
I am just trying to share some of my observations and lessons over the years to assist you. I am stoked you are doing this. 4600 is a growing class and this year there will be more cars than ever in class which is a great thing!

 

[RustyNailJustin]

Also be super sure you completely understand the cage requirements per the rule book. I would say 80% of unbanned chassis are scrambling after their initial inspection with tech. Once that chassis is banded tech is much easier and you only have to do an annual inspection. It's no fun thrashing on the lake bed days or hours before the race to get your car banded! Trust me that week is a lot of work andhaving a hard time getting through tech will up the stress level considerably.

 

[snivilous]

Also be super sure you completely understand the cage requirements per the rule book. I would say 80% of unbanned chassis are scrambling after their initial inspection with tech. Once that chassis is banded tech is much easier and you only have to do an annual inspection. It's no fun thrashing on the lake bed days or hours before the race to get your car banded! Trust me that week is a lot of work andhaving a hard time getting through tech will up the stress level considerably.

That is definitely one of my biggest fears, along with just plain getting lost/missing schedules since I've been to races but haven't even pit for anyone or done anything besides spectate. I have a powerpoint with each section of the vehicle and snips of all the rules that apply to that piece I'll be working on. I'll have lots of questions once KOH gets closer since I have no idea where to go or who to talk to besides what the rules vaguely state for getting things inspected, I appreciate all the help!

 

[RustyNailJustin]

You are welcome to join us for pit support and we can help you through the week and tech. We have tons of bad ass volunteers that make the logistics work for us. We combine our efforts with the Sky Manufacturing team in modified class, 4521.

 

[snivilous]

To start things off I ordered a JD2 Model 3 tube bender, 2" die, a Swag offroad hydraulic ram mount (which literally shipped with tracking number within 8 minutes, including a phone call verifying my address, I was impressed) and also a JD2 tube notcher. Truck wise, today I yanked the heater core followed by the rear heater.

I pulled some of the coolant piping out for the rear heater along with some heat shields, though can't quite get the last heater hose on the firewall. Gotta love inline engines where there's 1" of room between the engine and firewall... I kinda doubt I'll ever get those pipes out, but every other coolant and A/C line in the truck has been removed.

I then went and jacked up the roof.

Kinda sketchy, at least nothing could fall and kill me though (or less likely). Old 48" hilift wasn't quite tall enough, so had to add that extra 4x4 cube. I used a big block of wood at the top to try and distribute some load instead of just crushing part of the roof with the jacks claw. It actually worked out great, I had to go back a second time since I was an inch short of what the passenger side was, and after that it was as close to perfect as I was gonna get it.

After that I removed some miscellaneous brackets and wiring/door sensors and then removed the back windows. Sadly I destroyed the framing on the passenger side (the glass panes themselves are fine) until I found out at the very end that the entire window assembly is literally just pressed in place. Drivers side I just went around with some flat heads and popped it all out as one big blob. Following that I yanked the spare tire and corresponding assembly, then the hitch, and finally removed the bumper pieces that were irrelevant.

RustyNailJustin, would I be able to set the fuel cell where the spare tire used to go? More specifically I was thinking of cutting a square hole in the body and setting the tank about halfway down so it wasn't in the cab, but still easily accessible and lower the CG a bit. I don't recall the rules saying anything about cutting the body like that or the gas tank being there, but I'll check...

And that wraps up today...

 

[RustyNailJustin]

The bed floor needs to stay intact with the exception of tube passthrough for the cage. Let me reread that portion and give you my interpretation. Also emailing the tech or consulting the 4600 class page and asking is always a good idea.
When we build 4619 I asked the same question and was told by tech no.

 

[scottryana]

This is great, I thought about doing something very similar, back before I started my hotrod project. There is A LOT of weight you can strip out of an 80!

Most of the jeepspeed guys don't run a rear hatch even.

I have stripped my street driven 80, down to under 4500lbs and it still has glass, rear hatch etc. I would bet you can get very close to or even slightly under 4000lbs before you start adding safety gear. The 1FZ feels completely different when you lighten the truck. I was accelerating up hill at 85 on the hwy the other day.

I would focus on doing everything as light as possible. Wheels/tires, body protection, cage, etc. balance things out moving the battery and fuel cell to the rear. The stock suspension is going to give you pretty good lift just loosing all that weight. Hopefully stock springs will work and you can just dial in some great shocks.

The exhaust is heavy, I would drop it and run a short dump in front of the rear tire. Get under the hood and start pulling s*** that's not needed, all the AC, evap canister, heat shields, cut some holes in the hood between the bracing, yanking the wipers and motors. Cut the big chunks of frame overhang off the front and rear and tie them together with tube. Not sure if you can but maybe get rid of or significantly trim the inner fenders? Can you loose the headlights? They are glass and not great anyways.

I imagine power adders for the engine aren't allowed but engine modifications are? I would look at like some 12:1 Pistons, aluminum rods, light wrist pins, a quick gasket match and port and polish, throw a cam in, run something simple like megasquirt or Haltech 500, to raise the redline to 7000 and adjust fueling for the extra air. Add a transgo shift kit and 5.29's with 37's and this thing would be a blast!!

This is a very cool build, excited to see how it goes!

 

[snivilous]

Didn't get much done today. I got the steering wheel and some switches in.

It's super ricey and seems like something a 16 year old would put on his Civic, but I must admit it's pretty fun to play with and should make climbing out of the truck a little easier.

I took the remaining rubber blanket/insulation off of the inside of the firewall. That was kind of a bitch since I had to unbolt the two pedals to yank it out fully. Then removed the windshield wiper actuators which was annoying since I had to pull the hood, I'll just leave it off for the time being. After that I started to focus on the rear hatch which I haven't touched so far. I gutted the top half and decided it'd be cool to have the handle/latch still functional. The stock assembly is a cluster of locking and moving mechanisms.

So I simplified it a bit, and it works like a charm! Top half opens and closes just like normal but everything else to add complexity is removed.

And that's literally all I did today... I went to the local welding store and talked to the dude's a bit, my name is on a Millermatic 211 which I will be picking up tomorrow! All the stuff from JD2 should be here on Wednesday too. I talked to some guys on the 4600 facebook page about fuel stuff since I was looking at tanks today, probably buy a 32 gallon Jaz tank this weekend. Between the initial electrical controls (battery kill, ignition, start), the steering wheel, the fuel cell, and once the seats show up, I should be able to go full bore on the cage though that's a couple weeks out.

 

[snivilous]

On Friday I went and bought a Millermatic 211 to hopefully help step up the fabrication game. The thing is a HUGE improvement over the old Harbor Freight welder I've always used. I was even able to do some decent (imo) overhead welds on the first try which I've never been able to do with the old welder, and the beads in general are way better and fatter and far more consistent.

Yesterday my dad and I went into Denver to a new steel yard that Filthy Motorsports had recommended. I bought 63ft of 2" .120 wall DOM (which was everything they had in stock) as well as a 4x8ft sheet of 1/4". Additionally we went to Harbor Freight and bought a bunch of random s***, with the main intent to buy the 8 ton air/hydraulic jack that will be used to convert the JD2 manual tube bender to a hydraulic setup--which on that note yesterday the hydraulic ram mount from Swag offroad showed up, so I am just waiting for the actual tube bender (should be here Wednesday).

I haven't really taken many pictures since I've just working through the truck in preparation to begin caging. I grabbed the dash and threw it on, luckily there's some little clips on the top that go into the body so it'll be easy to mock everything up.

Today I removed the A/C compressor, welded up two block off plates for the heater inlet/outlet from the engine (which the front one leaks, I'll have to make a new gasket for it). I've been able to remove all but one hose from the heater system, which I'm not sure how to remove the last one but pretty stoked that everything else was able to come off fairly easily.

I want to start caging soon, though looking through the truck will have to figure out how to tie into the frame. The rear isn't a big issue since no one sits there first of all, and second of all the frame is a lot wider in the rear than the front. Where the front seats will be, the frame looks to be about right in the middle of each foot well so not sure what to do about that... Justin what are your thoughts? How did you do your truck?

I was thinking either have the A pillar tubes go through the floor then curve over and mount to the side of the frame? Or put stand offs (like body mounts) that are super beefy and then the pillar tubes can just go straight through the floor. I like the second idea better... Then where the stock dash cross beam goes, I'll have a tube go across there where the steering column will get mounted to, and move on from there. I'm also debating if I should do a engine cage of some sort? Not sure if there's much use for that until I mount shocks up. And lastly, I was thinking of doing custom bumpers but I like the looks of the 4x4 labs weld it kits for the front and rear. I might do them since it'll be a lot more time efficient, and I think they look cool and appear to have good angles.

 

[snivilous]

Had a lot going on this week so haven't been able to do much work on the 80. I got the JD2 tube bender in and assembled it with the hydraulic jack adapter as well as making a base plate for the whole thing, which is a pain to move around since I have a "portable" tube bender that weighs probably 150lbs with the base.

The thing works awesome though! Today I messed around with it a bunch and think I'm getting the hang of it.

Earlier in the week I pulled the truck out of the garage and sprayed it down with the pressure washer. I still need to take it to a good car wash to get all the oil off of it (I don't like to use soap in the pressure washer since we have a well nearby, so doesn't really help much with the greasy areas).

Today I pulled the rest of the rear wiring out, though still have to keep the harness in place for the fuel pump and also need to figure out if there's any reason to keep the passenger side harness (it crosses over near the shifter to tie into the driver's side harness); otherwise all the wiring in the back of the truck is yanked out. Once that was done I started caging finally! Yesterday and today I played around with the cage in CAD, which was a pain in the ass in SolidWorks so I ended up just parameterizing cage requirements for myself. I did a quick long hand and then a FEA of the cage stand offs from the frame I'll be doing. Originally I thought I would need the stand offs for the A pillar and B pillar, but turns out I just need it for the A pillar.

Due to the "complex" geometry of the A pillar tube, I decided to start with the B pillar and build the cage up from there and work front and back. Since today was my first time really using a tube bender it was kind of slow for the first B pillar section, and then the other side was fast since it was the same piece copied.

Since the frame curves outward after the front seats, I decided to have the B pillar tubes mount directly to the top of the frame, though to do this I had to have the tubes jog outwards a little bit. Not ideal structurally, but in my opinion it's a better option to making a stand off bracket off the side of the frame so the tube could go straight down. The tops of the tubes are cranked down pretty far, I over bent the last bend but it doesn't matter since I'll notch them before they start curving down.

The plan is to make two tubes that run front to back on the top and follow the outer roof edge essentially, once those are made the B pillar tubes will get notched and tie into those, and then have cross braces that connect both B pillars. From there I will have the beginnings of the roof structure in place, and will be able to add in bracing on the roof of the cage as well as from the frame upwards. Like I said before, I decided this was the best way to go since I can easily make/locate where the roof pieces of the cage will go, so once they are in place I can more easily make/measure pieces like the A pillar tubes to mount to the roof structure.

I was going to notch the B pillar tubes and see about mounting the outer roof tubes, but after setting up the JD2 tube notcher and playing with it, I realized all the hole saws I have aren't deep enough to cut through the tubing so I'll have to buy some deep hole saws to move forward with the cage.

From now on is the grind of getting the cage done over the next few weeks/months. My ultimate goal is to have the cage done before I head back to college at the end of August. I am feeling the heat of getting the truck done in time to race KOH, I am hopeful though keeping my expectations realistic that I might only be able to "prerun" and play on the Hammers when KOH comes around.

 

[I Lean]

Keep a grinder with a cut-off wheel near your notcher. When you notch as deep as you can, just chop off the chunk on top with the grinder, then continue your notch. It also helps if you cut the tube so the notch doesn't cut very much material off--you might be able to break off the top half of the notch with pliers, then finish the cut.

I've never bought any deep hole saws, since they're pretty expensive and hole saws are a consumable. I've done plenty of notching with the above methods though.

I'm loving your progress so far, looks great!

 

[RustyNailJustin]

We cut the factory body mounts off and replaced with cage to chassis mounts. Cut weight and gave us a good tie in spot.