Well, I took "The Beast" (as my Jeep driving friends call it) for her maiden voyage with the new power plant. I had just finished the break-in period of 300 miles per the manual and changed the oil for the second time. I drove up to the Guadalupe mountains near Queen, NM for a trail ride with our recently formed Guadalupe Off-Road Club. The performance was outstanding from the new Ram Jet. I cruised at 75 to 80 MPH running about 2500 RPM most of the way there. She ran around 190-200 degrees the whole way. I would have made better time but a couple people flagged me down to take a look at her along the way.
Once I finally made camp with the rest of the crew I got to try out the pop-top for the first time. The wife had bought a twin size air mattress which fit the top with plenty of room to spare. The extra room worked great for crawling up and keeping the essentials nearby. I'll eventually go to a thinner pad style mattress to lower the profile and widen the sleeping space out when the wife joins me. The rig rocked a bit in the occasional gust of wind but it put me right to sleep. (A couple Benedryl helped out as well.)
The next day we put in a good 8 hours of trails south of Queen. I found a decent mud puddle about a mile in and promptly baptized the Ram Jet. No sense in putting it off!
She ran at 200 degrees most of the morning with the slow speeds and slowly climbed to a max of 220 in the heat of the day. I made sure and gave it a rest every so often but it never would climb past 220.
The ECM made it nice on steady inclines where I could just leave my foot off the pedal and listen to it maintain throttle without any help while she chugged up the hills.
I can't say enough good things about this engine for my application. It truly is a beast! I did find that the new fuel pump and return line setup pressurized the tanks pretty bad which caused really bad fuel vapor smell during the whole trip (which I still haven't recovered from). I'm looking at installing charcoal canisters as my first step to mitigate the vapor. I also found that the firewall is just that... a wall of fire. I nearly scorched my feet during the long runs so I've started more research on a product to fix that issue. (thinking lizard skin on the whole tub with dynamat at the firewall and tunnel)
Overall it was a huge success and it was fun to have Jeep folks stop me on the trail to take pictures of this "funny looking Jeep with the steering wheel on the wrong side". I was fortunate enough to share the rear of the line with another Toyota enthusiast in an FJ Cruiser who couldn't stop admiring her which just made my day.
I have a long way to go to get "The Beast" where I want her but it sure is worth the effort. Trips like this make the long nights and frustration seem a bit more enjoyable. I can't wait for the next trip...
On to the next phase of the build: Dual Batteries! Auxiliary Fuse Boxes! ARB Compressors! Oh My!
