Recent content by ShiftNGo

Chapter 27: The Right Turbo & Airbox With my goals achieved but knowing I could do better, I researched my options. I wasn’t planning to buy the correct turbo right now, but I kept finding this T3/T4 Chinese turbo for $140 with an exhaust A/R of .48. I was sure that is what I needed to make...

Next came the step I was dreading. Where do I put the turbo drain? A lot of people choose to drill a hole in the pan and weld a bung on there; but here’s the problem with that, that I’ve learned; if your oil covers up your drain opening and it can’t “breathe”, it will push oil out the turbo...

Chapter 26: Turbo Time This rig has been running great! One thing I would like it to do better is pull itself along in the sand better. I live near Silver Lake Sand Dunes in Michigan. I didn’t build this thing to be a sand monster but as it turns out, this rock rig does very well in the sand...

I happened across a set of old pitbull tires on marketplace that fit the bill and the budget enough to act on. I have been very happy with these in comparison to the hummer tires. With all these updates I was ready to give another test, so I went to Rocks & Valleys in Michigan for a shakedown...

Chapter 25: Air-locker, Idle Air Control, Pitbulls, & Rock & Valleys I had decided I wanted the same air-locker that was in the front of the truck so I bought it and a fresh set of 5.29 gears from Yukon. In the name of upgrading, I also started with a brand new V6 housing instead of the 4...

This was meant to be sort of a torture test on the drivetrain. I wanted to know what it was capable of. At one point I had all 4 off the ground because I was bumping so hard to get up a rockface. Nothing but smiles! This thing was awesome. Then came a challenge that required grip and what I...

Chapter 24: Rear Axle Limitations A friend and I packed up and took a trip down to the badlands offroad park in attica, Indiana. It was the best 1.5hrs of wheeling I ever did up to that point! So, let me unpack that last sentence. It climbed like crazy, even with 20-year-old hummer tires. BUT...

Finally, it was time to tackle the last thing I promised myself I wouldn’t climb on a rock until I had done; the boatsides. I really wanted this to have hidden fasteners for no good reason other than I didn’t want rocks mucking them up. So, I took a little extra time to build them in with...

The next order of business had bugged me for a very long time; the bent rear axle. This was how I purchased it. Looks like it banana’d from the truss welding the prior owner had done. I probably made things worse because some of the welds were very poor so I set my welder to HOT and burned them...

Chapter 23: Fuel Injector Upgrade, Seats, Rear Axle Straightening, & Boatside Creation With the big projects out of the way, it was time to tackle a few smaller things. I had a leaky injector, and I had concerns that the injectors may not be able to support future mods so I chose to look for...

Overall, I was happy with the results, so it was off to paint.

Chapter 22: Rear Sheetmetal Winter was here again (2023), and it was time to work on the daunting task of tinning in the back of the Truggy. Not hard really, just time consuming as hell. It takes a patient mind, and I’m not always at a point I can take this on. I decided to cut the outside...

Then, I did my first stupid thing. Much of this landscape is swampy up here. I never really planned on this being a mud rig, but I’m not going to shy away from some water either. My family ties to this area date back well over a century. My dad recalls stories from my grandad telling him that...

Chapter 21: First Wheel I was able to get this put together just in time to take it up to Silver Lake Sand Dunes to do some testing and tuning with the timing and fuel maps. I thought the dunes would work well because I can run wide open throttle for the whole RPM range and see how the changes...