F(Z)J80 v8 (2 Viewers)

[SNLC]

Oh ya, also been thinking and shopping and exploring ideas on exhaust and headers a lot lately. Really don't think I want to spend much money on this motor since it is old, outdated and MPFI. 5.3's or better are becoming really cheap these days. So I am really leaning towards upgrading the engine all together rather then dump money in mine. I got another project that needs a motor anyways that the vortec would be perfect for. A lot on my plate so doubt I will do an upgrade any time soon but I think that is the route I am going. Why not!? I already got the split case and adapter for 4L60e.

Cheers

 

[SNLC]

Procar seat showed up today. I bought directly from Scat, took less than a week to get here. Pretty stoked on this, 23yrs on my stock one and 245,000 miles!

Cheers

 

[jeffro109]

Going to need seat review details...mine need new foam or new seats alltogether

 

[SNLC]

Have not had a chance to install the seat yet, but sitting in it, it is comfy!


Scored a HUGE load of parts yesterday from a buddy. Everything from sun roof to dash cap (uncracked) to interior bits to heater parts and much more. Basically it was a whole gutted 80 and I took about 70% of it! Some of the small parts I needed to clean up my interior but most is simply spare parts.

The Y-link from RS also showed up last week. Going to be a little while before I install it, waiting on a RHD steering arm from Australia.


Cheers

 

[SNLC]

Been very busy but finally got around to fitting my new seat. I used some stock mounting brackets, welded to the Procar Universal Slider kit. Right now I have the seat bolted in as high as I can, I am 5'10" and have a few inches above my head. I can lower the seat two notches if I find I hit my head on the roof off-road. I really like the high seating position though, it is about 2" higher then stock. About 2-3x more adjustment in the slider over stock making for tons of room if you have long legs or if you are really short it slides all the way up to the dash. Overall, stellar seat. Oh and the seat is super comfy!

Cheers

 

[SNLC]

Just had a great two days in the dunes with friends. Amazing weather for this time of year. My Cruiser performed perfectly, no issues whatsoever. A year ago I was over in the dunes and had some rubbing issues in front, mostly tire to wheel well arch. Now, not a single rub anywhere. I ran 8psi all weekend and the truck hooked up excellent in the sand. Love the seat, height wise it is just right for me. This Cruiser is really starting to come around and get to where I want it in terms of the build. So much so that I may have derided to keep it long term, I really like the truck.

Couldn't have asked for better weather.

Cheers

 

[jeffro109]

Seats look right at home in there!! How's the lumbar support on those seats maybe even compared to the OEMs? It may just be due to dead foam, but I usually find in my 80 that I need the driver seat lumbar out a bit compared to other cars I'm in.

 

[SNLC]

Seats look right at home in there!! How's the lumbar support on those seats maybe even compared to the OEMs? It may just be due to dead foam, but I usually find in my 80 that I need the driver seat lumbar out a bit compared to other cars I'm in.

Lumbar is awesome on the seat, it has adjustable lumbar. Way better than stock seats in a 91. Although I got to say the older cloth seats seem to way outlast the leather ones. My passenger cloth is still good with no rips or tears in it. Not bad for 250,000 miles. The driver was starting to go though with some rips and tears and a bit of compressing. I had a spare seat around so I cut off the mounting brackets and welded them to the Procar universal mounts. Fits very nice, like it was made to be there.

Cheers

 

[SNLC]

I am starting to prep the Cruiser for a one month trip to Baja. Next month I am headed down for some camping, surfing and fishing. Oh ya beer drinking too! May even run a trail I have been reading about. I spent a month in Baja back in 2009 so know what I am in for and looking forward to it!


I just purchased today from Kurt @ CO an Engel MT45, transit bag, National Luna battery kit and some 100-series brake pads. I have a slide for the Engel as I used to have one in my Taco. I will be running an Odyssey for my 2nd battery.

I need to get a rear bumper and tire carrier as my spare is in the back of my truck. I think I am going to take it to CBI off-road. I would build my own but really do not have time before I leave. CBI has done work for me before and they have quote me a fair solid price for what I want.

I will be doing some Fox shocks before I go too, I have needed shocks for some time now. That and the Y-link steering conversion with a cut & turn on the front axle. I have got an exhaust leak to fix too. I also really need a new air box as my set up plain sucks and I know how dusty it is down in Baja. Need some camping lights out the back of the truck and a very minimal platform in the back for the fridge and storage. Oh and I need a rack up top for boards.

Cheers

 

[SNLC]

I have been wanting to do most of this stuff to my truck all year but until I actually had the cash free and clear I held out. Plus as you can see by earlier posts there was a lot of other stuff I needed to do.

CBI is currently making me some sliders. They were just a bit to much for the rear bumper so Reevesci is making me one.
Got some Fox 2.0's for all around, custom set up from Down South, 12" since that is what I need for my amount of lift. Went with a King steering stabilizer since I couldn't find much else in the size I need besides OME.
As mentioned above Kurt has MT45 and NL 2nd batt kit in route to me. I also got OEM rotors from him and 100-series pads for the front. Thanks Kurt!
Poly Performance has supplied some small Baja Design LEDs and a Vision X LED for my camp lighting.
Sierra Expeditions is supplying ARB awning, Odyssey 1700T 2nd batt, jerry cans, Howling Moon trash holder, new ARB camp chairs (mine are all toast) and a few other small items.
Front Runner is supplying my water jug and the spare tire grill, must have the grill for grilling fish!
Toyota supplied me with all new bushes for my rear arms and both panhards. Also new wipers for my knuckles. Also a few other things my truck needs in small repairs.
REI supplied me with Thule bars and feet so I can carry some light stuff up top.

That is about it. I still need to round up standard items for the Chevy engine to do some maintenance and fix my exhaust leak. Summit or Jegs probably supply all that. I might buy a Road Shower or just do a cheap solar shower, have not made up my mind yet. Not going to get to starting on installing all this stuff until around Christmas. CBI currently has the truck to do the sliders and I won't get it back for another week or so.

Departure date is set now to the 15th of January. A buddy is coming for about 10 days in his truck and has to take time off work so we had to set a date. We will leave the night of the 15th which is a Thursday and I expect to be drinking cold beers and eating fish tacos in Mexico by 3pm the next day.

Cheers

 

[SNLC]

How is this for beefy!? My new steering stabilizer

ARB awning showed up today, yikes it is 8.5ft long! At first I was like, whoa way to long but after checking with a tape measure, it is just about as long as it can be and still mount up fine. Stoked.

Sliders are on, Jason showing up with my new rear bumper this weekend. Stoked.

Just got the Cruiser back today fr CBI. Think I will go burn the midnight oil in the shop and start making room for the truck so I can get prep for this trip started.

Cheers

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Thanks again Ian, excited to see how it all comes together for your trip!

 

[SNLC]

Fox shocks are installed. Seems one of the old OME front shocks was pretty toast. Have not driven it yet, got the Cruiser torn apart in the shop but the Fox seem very nice.

Checking out the Y-link steering components last night. RS sent inserts with the kit. To ream the steering arms requires about 5mm of material to be removed for the 1ton tres to fit. To fit the insert requires more than 10mm of material to be removed. That seems like way to much to me and does not leave much meat around the tre hole in the arm. So I just purchased a reamer, not using the inserts.

Oh ya, front driveline is pretty trashed. Going to send it out on Monday for a rebuild.

Bought a UMP 8" canister filter housing and a few intake pipe pieces. Going to be hard to fit it and will have to move an item or two but I need a good air filter housing badly.

Starting in on my overland camping build in the back on Monday. In the meantime I have been cleaning the interior with a magic eraser and installing a few small items. Like courtesy switches. Bought new ones of those nearly a year ago but never installed them. Only the drivers was still working, rest are shot. New switches are nice and work great.

Cheers

 

[half k cruiser]

@RMP&O does that steering stabilizer work with the stock steering setup or is it only for your new Y-link ? I'm pretty sure my OME is toast and I havn't had much luck finding anything other then there stuff.

 

[TRAIL TAILOR]

Your rear bumper sir. The rig is coming along mighty fine.

Ian can post up the rest when he gets it installed.

J

 

[SNLC]

Nice Jason, looks great!

Brake light switch bracket fab'ed and installed last night. Should be good to go now. I put it off for so long because I hate laying on my back on the driver floor and reaching up into the dash. If you have followed the thread/build you will see the problem with the original Chevy brake switch was the bracket to mount it was all jacked. To short which caused the switch to hit the steering collumn mounting, eventually this was the death of it. I fixed it by making a new bracket that lowered the switch so it clears everything up in the dash. Nice and straight now, solid and good to go.

Taking the Cruiser for a test drive shortly.

@RMP&O does that steering stabilizer work with the stock steering setup or is it only for your new Y-link ? I'm pretty sure my OME is toast and I havn't had much luck finding anything other then there stuff.

I believe the original is longer. I am doing the Y-link so not concerned with what the stock set up is like. King makes these in 2" increments though. The above King is an 8" throw damper. Measure the OME and check if the King has one that will work.

http://www.polyperformance.com/shop/King-2.0-2.5-Performance-Series-Steering-Stabilizer-p-27290.html

Cheers

 

[TRAIL TAILOR]

Ian, freight will be here tomorrow to pick-up and have to you by Tuesday. Wish I could bring it up, but the weather is just not cooperating for us. Looks like you are in for some more snow plowing next 2-3 days.. Storm looks to be headed from SLC to you, instead of me... HA! I'm sick of shoveling right now. We've gotten about 14" in the last 3 days. Suppose to get another 2-6" tonight..

It's palleted and boxed.

Sent you a text on some info needed for the freight company.

J

 

[SNLC]

Great and thanks Jason, I will be installing it this week sometime. Thanks for everything!


Drove the Cruiser today. New Fox shocks are awesome but feel odd to me. Must be that the OME were pretty trashed and I was used to it. Not only did the OME have the issues I mention above but they only are taking 40psi or so to compress them so they were pretty much done. Ten years out of them though and now a nice upgrade. Going to take some seat time before I decide more on the Fox but so far I like them, easy to re-valve too.

Brake light switch seems to be working excellent. I also installed a scan gauge last night and am diggin' it. Fuel tracking and other features will be useful!

Cheers

 

[SNLC]

Oh ya and I thought I would mention this since I just did a shock change out.

I took a decent bashing in another thread on here, can't find the thread now. Basically I stated that something other than the shocks should be limiting the suspension, on any truck. People laughed and talked s*** stating that on an 80, it is the shocks that limit the suspension. And that if I worked on my own truck I would know this. Since I can't find that thread and don't really feel like arguing with people anyways I will just post this here.

200psi Fox 12" 2.0's show up the other day. Right in the box in the owners manual it states in big bold black letters, these shocks are not designed to limit suspension! What do you know!? Guess I wasn't just tossing some BS out there on the internet. So, they are a pain in the ass to compress. Seeing as they are pin to pin on the front no way to put a ratchet strap on them or similar to help compress them. Don't have a nitrogen tank on hand to refill if I drain. No options in the rear to strap them as far as I can see. So I lift the frame up and droop out the suspension. Hey look, sway bar and steering is limiting droop in the front, well beyond the limits of the Fox which have 7.5" of down travel in my truck. Seeing as how I have 4" of up before the bump compresses and the shock has 4.5" of up the bump is the limiting up factor, as it should be. Now the rear, lift frame, let axle droop, hey what do you know, the sway bar is limiting suspension droop! Surprise surprise! Ok so, I have 5.5" of up on my new 12" shock, seems legit. Sway bar will limit droop well before the shock drops out 6.5". So I am good to go, not going to be limiting my suspension with my shocks, just like it says in the Fox owners manual they came with.

Now granted, if the sway bars are removed it will droop more. Lot's more. But why would you remove the sway bars on an 80? To rock crawl it? Why would you rock crawl a truck with this much body and is so heavy? I don't get that. And if you are rock crawling your 80 you should know how to set up the suspension as well as not be all that stock in the first place. So again, shocks shouldn't be limiting it in that scenario either unless you farked it up. My truck does everything I want and ask of it. If I want to play in the rocks I use a different truck that I don't care if I smash it up. My 80 is just to nice and pretty to smash up when a $5000 4-runner or mini-truck does it better. So I will always have sway bars and I will never be beating my shocks to s*** because they are what limits my suspension.

Done the same thing with leaf springs, ie set it up so shocks do not limit suspension up or down. Shocks are not meant to be the limiting factor in any suspension and I challenge anybody out there in iH8mud land to show me one that is designed to do this.

Haters and know it alls, eat that!

Cheers

 

[Krazytoy]