Builds Canguro Racing's Monica (1 Viewer)

[gungriffin]

Motor, trans, tcase are original. We had to replace the rear axle housing a couple of years ago as it had bent and we couldn't get the rear diff to seal. We've replaced the radiator as well. We got a rolling chassis with the truck so we've had a lot of spare parts we can use. Front diff has been an issue. Lots of leaking and some teeth breaking off. We replaced the stock bushing mounts with solid mounts and we think that has fixed the issue. (we did solid motor mounts as well.) We've gone back and forth between 4:88s and stock gears. Right now we're running OEM gears and housings and had a nice long run with no issues. All suspension links front and rear have been replaced at least once a year. Usually as we prep for the 1000. Drivelines have been replaced once that I can remember after the splines got a little to much slop in them. @cruiseroutfit can probably add more insight. The only other thing I can think of us the unibearings. We've replaced the front and rear a couple of times.

Just curious, can you offer any estimate for the total number of race pace miles on the chassis? This is really impressive to read how well components have held up.

 

[dmc]

Just curious, can you offer any estimate for the total number of race pace miles on the chassis? This is really impressive to read how well components have held up.

I can look again. We discovered a data log on the Lowrance GPS that had 20k miles on it. Safe to assume it's been in there since Geiser Brothers built it. I think we've probably added another 4k since then. I'll look next time we're in the shop but between 20-25k testing/racing mileage on the vehicle. Odometer is static at 10k-ish so it had some road miles on it before the build.

 

[TeCKis300]

Monica handles herself well from the vids I'm seeing online.

Do you guys race with the center diff lock on, or completely open?

 

[gungriffin]

I can look again. We discovered a data log on the Lowrance GPS that had 20k miles on it. Safe to assume it's been in there since Geiser Brothers built it. I think we've probably added another 4k since then. I'll look next time we're in the shop but between 20-25k testing/racing mileage on the vehicle. Odometer is static at 10k-ish so it had some road miles on it before the build.

That is a close enough estimte for me. Especially given that the Odo is frozen! That is cool that it has lasted so many miles. Race miles are just so hard on a vehicle, so to cover ~24k is really impressive.

 

[dmc]

Monica handles herself well from the vids I'm seeing online.

Do you guys race with the center diff lock on, or completely open?

Locked center diff. We'll turn it off for any pavement sections we gut in Baja. We also have an arb in the rear. If we know we have a super deep silty section coming up we'll engage it but there have been entire races where we don't engage the rear locker. It's more often we don't use it. It's probably been covered earlier in this thread but we don't have 4 low so if we were get steep loose climbs the rear locker can help there as well.

 

[Climbingnut]

Locked center diff. We'll turn it off for any pavement sections we gut in Baja. We also have an arb in the rear. If we know we have a super deep silty section coming up we'll engage it but there have been entire races where we don't engage the rear locker. It's more often we don't use it. It's probably been covered earlier in this thread but we don't have 4 low so if we were get steep loose climbs the rear locker can help there as well.

What happened to 4-low?

 

[dmc]

The guts are still there but the wiring has all been removed. We're not sure why it was removed but we've never needed it. To get the truck to work in a race scenario Geiser and TRD had to removed huge wiring circuits. No traction control, no speed sensors, etc. Our gauge cluster is filled with little pieces of gaff tape to cover up all the error lights. Not sure if the 4-low is part of that or not.

 

[Tommy Dwyer]

I find all of this very interesting and informative. As Monica races in a “stock” class (I believe), would be interesting to see the criteria as to what is and isn’t allowed to qualify as stock. Perhaps a link to the sanctioning bodies rules? I know I’d be interested... great thread!

 

[Climbingnut]

Wow! That’s a cool behind the scenes tidbit. Anything else jettisoned that would normally be on a cruiser to make it race ready? That is aside from visually obvious things like window glass, etc.

 

[dmc]

Wow! That’s a cool behind the scenes tidbit. Anything else jettisoned that would normally be on a cruiser to make it race ready? That is aside from visually obvious things like window glass, etc.

I'll have to think about it. One of the things that I find most unique is that because of class rules we still the stock dash and center console. Woodgrain, leather and all

 

[dmc]

I find all of this very interesting and informative. As Monica races in a “stock” class (I believe), would be interesting to see the criteria as to what is and isn’t allowed to qualify as stock. Perhaps a link to the sanctioning bodies rules? I know I’d be interested... great thread!

The truck was built around these rules.

Stock Full – SCORE Race Info

We raced Best in the Desert for years but they killed our class to acquiesce to Ford sponsors so the rules are no longer around. Our class is essentially still there but instead of V8 it's now Turbo V6. They were very similar to SCORE however. We have race Class 8 a couple of times with BITD (a class up from ours) and even won V2R one year.

 

[Tommy Dwyer]

The truck was built around these rules.

Stock Full – SCORE Race Info

We raced Best in the Desert for years but they killed our class to acquiesce to Ford sponsors so the rules are no longer around. Our class is essentially still there but instead of V8 it's not Turbo V6. They were very similar to SCORE however. We have race Class 8 a couple of times with BITD (a class up from ours) and even won V2R one year.

Very nice, thanks for the link

 

[gungriffin]

The truck was built around these rules.

Stock Full – SCORE Race Info

We raced Best in the Desert for years but they killed our class to acquiesce to Ford sponsors so the rules are no longer around. Our class is essentially still there but instead of V8 it's not Turbo V6. They were very similar to SCORE however. We have race Class 8 a couple of times with BITD (a class up from ours) and even won V2R one year.

Did you mean "it's now Turbo V6"?

If the new 300 series was a TTV6 would the team think about a return to the class? Or do you think the well funded factory Ford team will be untouchable? It would be awesome to see Canguro racing pair up with TRD for a factory team to show Ford how it is done!

Thanks a lot for taking the time to post. It is really cool to be able to read about all of this and better understand just how much hard work you all put in to be ready for race day.

 

[dmc]

Did you mean "it's now Turbo V6"?

If the new 300 series was a TTV6 would the team think about a return to the class? Or do you think the well funded factory Ford team will be untouchable? It would be awesome to see Canguro racing pair up with TRD for a factory team to show Ford how it is done!

Thanks a lot for taking the time to post. It is really cool to be able to read about all of this and better understand just how much hard work you all put in to be ready for race day.

yeah. sorry for typo. Now V6 Turbo. The rule also changed to a 10sp transmission. We'd love to race a new Cruiser and show those guys what's up. SCORE didn't change the rules and the new Raptor runs with us. The had a factory funded team race when the current Raptor launched and we beat them by 6 or 7 hours if I remember right.

I live in an RV full-time (and have been doing so for about 4 years) and use a hotspot for data so I rarely get on MUD since I need most of my data for work. I'm at my parent's house for awhile helping out with some health issues and it's nice to be able to hop online whenever I want again. It also takes the burden off of @cruiseroutfit as he's done most of the updating of this thread.

 

[dmc]

just for pics. I'll add comments in the next post

 

[dmc]

 

[Box Rocket]

wish I could have made it. Stoopid work

 

[gungriffin]

I've seen photos getting posted. What race was this? Sharp looking truck and it looks like it was a fun time.

 

[dmc]

We had another local race this week. The BOR Racing Knolls 200 "night race". Started at 5pm Saturday. We crossed the finish line about 1045. For the first time in about 4 years we had issues with Monica that we've concluded were caused by heat.

Race was an interesting one. They started the field based upon the last race finish with full size cars/truck going out first, then UTVs. Because of that we went off the line 3rd. Not present at the last race and thus right behind us were 2 Trophy Trucks, 2 6100 trucks (TT Spec) and a class 10. That's about 3000hp and a combined 15 feet of suspension travel starting 60 seconds apart after us. First lap went great with Ryan Nakaya driving and we managed to keep 3rd place. Smoky and dusty air was our friend. We did get passed by one truck but also passed the 6100 in front of us. Lap two went off without a hitch but Kurt got passed by 3 trucks on the dry lake bed. According to @cruiseroutfit hit was doing 95mph and they went past him like he was standing still. Lap 3 is where things started to fall apart. You'll see in the pics above a very stuck Monica. The Knolls race has lots of dunes. It's partly why we love the race so much. Marc pulled over to let a fast truck get by in a very wrong spot. In his attempt to power through the deep sand he only got more stuck. As mentioned earlier in this thread we don't have 4 low otherwise we probably would have gotten out. 30 mins of shoveling, maxtrax and tires spinning did nothing. They finally got tugged out by a 4400 (KoH truck) and got back moving. Temps were pushing 100 degrees and Marc and Bub had left the truck running the entire time. When they got to the pit we did our first full pit of the race (we'd done 2 driver swaps but that's it). We shut off the truck to do fuel and I hopped in to drive lap 4. A bit slower pit due to fuel, topping off camelbaks, checking over the truck and once ready I went to start it and nothing happened. That's when we started to diagnose gremlins

I started by resetting the power. Next up make sure the transmission was in P or N so it would turn over. Nothing. It appeared we had plenty of power from our lights, gps etc but whenever I pushed the start key nothing happened. We thought it was possible the starter was bad or clogged with sand. The crew broke out jumper cables and moved a chase truck in to place to try and start the truck with a jump and a long screw driver. I'd done this with Kurt a couple of years ago with his 200 so I was aware of what was going on. After a couple of attempts Monica attempted to turn over but would not start. I'm hoping @cruiseroutfit will chime in on this thread to confirm the following because at this point I just hung out in the driver's seat, melting, and pushing the start button when told but I think this is what happened. After a quick check of the scangauge we were not getting any unusual codes. It was not a security issue as when that happens the truck turns over once and stops. We'd had issues with it before. We have a spare immobilizer module in the glove box so we plugged into that. No luck. The truck would continually crank but not start so we were thinking any fuel or spark. Our crew hopped in the back and changed over to our redundant fuel pump. Wouldn't start. They went back under the hood and disconnected the ECU while one dug our spare out of the back of the truck. Kurt commented that the ECU was burning hot. Way overheated. Replacing the ECU is something we would do in a 1200 mile 32 hour Baja 1000 but in a 5 hour race 90 mins from home we weren't going to take on that challenge in the pit. After deciding that would not happen one of our guys climbed under the truck and was going to pop the hose off the fuel filter to see if it was clogged. That never happened as he could feel fuel flowing through it when I powered on Monica. He yelled at me 'try it again' and she started. We button everything back up and after about a 30 min pit I took off for my lap and had no issues. Last lap went the same and we finished the race about 45 mins later than we'd planned. We use to have a piece of ducting attached to the front bumper that directed air to the ECU. At some point it got ripped out and as we haven't race in tripled digit temps we haven't noticed any issues without it. We haven't done a full AAR to determine if that was the actual problem but it seems likely that it was. Sitting in the sand for 30 mins running was probably not the right move but after she had a chance to cool down there were no issues.

We'll start our Baja 1000 prep shortly and no doubt we'll replace the starter and the ducting to the ECU. We do have our spare ECU and may replace the one that gave us issues. Those decisions are above my pay grade.

 

[dmc]

Forgot to mention we had a bunch of Venezuelan cruiserheads come out and hang out for a couple of laps. They were stoked to see the truck and brought their enthusiasm to the race. Good times.