Builds 80 series where to start! Again.... (1 Viewer)

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LX was in the paint booth today. Every piece is primered and ready to lay down paint. They took over parts ordering from me and a box that's probably 2'x4' showed up, every piece of rubber and gasket on the body except for the door handles is being replaced. Door seals, window runs, rear hatch upper and lower, quarter windows, weather stripping on the windshield, rear glass, cargo windows, etc.

It really is a lot more than I expected but it's going to be pretty incredible when it's done!
 
3 of the 6 exhaust ports roughed in. Waiting on some tapered sanding rolls. To finish off these 3. I am planning on doing 5, leaving 1 and comparing the finished flow rate on a flow bench to OEM.

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For informational purposes... how, what are you using to do it and for what purpose are you doing this? (I know why, but my builder said it really wasn't needed because of the forced induction (not that I agree with him, but I understand his point))
 
This is a pretty standard gasket match and port job. If you look back a couple pages you can see that I outlined the ports in Machinist blue and traced the gasket against the head. The head casting does not match the gasket. In high performance terms this means you have a big slow down of intake or exhaust gases. This is especially important in a turbo engine! Your engine builder either doesn't want to do it or is just plain wrong. I have seen big turbo cars pick up 60+hp just doing a gasket match. If you have slowed exhaust you have worse spool, if you have obstructed intake you require more psi of boost for the same horsepower. So that is the what

The how is a very time consuming process and one that most engine builders don't want to do because they can't get people to pay for the time it takes. You start by getting the gasket outline this shows you roughly how much material you have to remove form the outside of the port. Then you look inside the port and look for any casting flash, obscured valves, big machining ridges, etc. You get inside the valves and ports with a carbide cutter on a die grinder and start removing the excess material and creating better air flow. Once you have roughed them in, you move to a tapered sand paper roll and finally a 280 or 320 polishing wheel. Some people get really carried away and do a lot of port reshaping for better flow. On a lot of common heads i.e. chevy, ford, etc. There is enough data out there to show how to shape the ports for best performance in our trucks without a lot of trial and error and extra heads I am just keeping it to a major clean up.

Look at the example below the first valve area shows really odd machining in the casting. Almost like the two didn't line up properly. Once it is cleaned up you can see the air has a much less obstructed path.

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Not to mention thermal advantage. A smooth reflective surface will allow the hot gas to go by with less friction and heat soak from the exhaust. Makes for a much cooler head.
 
Just swung by the paint shop. I guess tomorrow is our paint day. Lol

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Couple of details I like.

Hood vents above the turbo
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Intercooler cutout in the bumper
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"Ground effects with custom metal on front fender"
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I guess looking at the pic it is kinda obvious, but I'll ask anyway... You're keeping the window area the factory matte black?
 
Nope, it will be gloss too. This is not final tape, it was just for the high build primer. This will all be sanded down one more time. The black specks show you if there are low spots that aren't getting sanded off. Then the doors will be removed and it will be final taped for paint tomorrow.

I guess looking at the pic it is kinda obvious, but I'll ask anyway... You're keeping the window area the factory matte black?
 
Looking great Ryan. Attention to detail on point as usual. Hopefully no more big hangups in the rest of the build.
 
Oh I am sure there are going to be huge hang ups. I mean I really should just expect it. And really my venting on here is just to keep me sane'ish. I know when doing this kind of stuff nothing is ever easy, but I kind of like the challenge. Easy would be an LS crate motor, easy would also be boring in my opinion. Just think if Icon instead of throwing an LS and 4L60E in all their $200k trucks if they modernized a 1FZ and did a modern 8 speed behind it. I mean s*** the GT-R shops have a complete billet aluminum block for the 35. IF Icon was doing that, a billet aluminum inline 6 with efficient heads, COP, etc. How badass would that be?! I would feel like $200k is warranted. Lol.

Looking great Ryan. Attention to detail on point as usual. Hopefully no more big hangups in the rest of the build.
 
I'm surprised at how much I love the stance of your truck. Looks like it would be a nice height for my wife!! I'll have to see what she thinks of driving a 20 yr old lowered turd (mine not yours!) vs. a new Honda CR-V.
 
Oh I am sure there are going to be huge hang ups. I mean I really should just expect it. And really my venting on here is just to keep me sane'ish. I know when doing this kind of stuff nothing is ever easy, but I kind of like the challenge.

I have no idea what that's like :o
 
This was a very very clean bronco, lots of work put into this and the guy sold it cheap...

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Assuming they did the paint on the Bronco? I've been looking into different greys if I repaint my 80. That looks pretty close to what I've been searching for..
 
Yeah it was a cool color, lots of grey in bright light with just a tiny touch of brown in low light. But I doubt they would give the color code away. Lol. Hell they wouldn't even tell me the actual color code I was getting. I had to go pick up the paint from the supplier (to save a few hundred on markup) and when I got there the supplier was like, "oh this is the good stuff. We sell a lot of paint but this is the good stuff".

It better be! $over 800 a gallon! They asked me what it was going on, I kind of just told them an old Land Cruiser since I didn't want to say a mid 90's SUV. lol.

The manager popped her head up from the back. She was excited to hear that. She has a '75 40, used to have a '69 40 but it was a rust bucket and she is looking for a 45 troopy to paint baby blue because her dad used to have one.

Because I listened to her Land Cruiser stories she knocked the price from $1300 down to $952, for a gallon and a half. Haha!
 
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