Builds The M-80: A Ultra 4-Stock Class-Go Fast Build (1 Viewer)

[Krazytoy]

Land Cruisers are in my blood, and so is desert racing, combine the two and you get the M-80, A 1993 FZJ80 Go Fast Build.
I am going to build a FZJ80 to race the Every Man Challenge for Ultra 4 racing series. For those of you who are unfamiliar the website it is located here: http://ultra4racing.com/. This 80 will be built to race in the 4600 class which is the stock class, the rules for this class are very strict and if you would like to read the rules they can be found here: http://ultra4racing.com/racers/rulebook/. The first race I would like to run King of the Hammers in 2015. The plan is to also run a few races in the Yellowstone Racing Series, Bonneville Racing Series and maybe just maybe a few SCORE events, with a very, very distance ultimate goal to race the Baja 1000 with it someday.
I am just your average working guy that has a full time job, a wife, and 3 kids so this is going to be a very grass roots operation. Sponsorships are very much welcomed and appreciated, if interested please email me directly at jasondginn@gmail.com. ← Shameless Plug!
I have had several Land Cruisers throughout my life, actually my first vehicle was a 69' FJ40. Recently I have built a 80 with more overland stuff in mind and even more recently I had a real nice 100 series that I just sold to help finance this build.

Well just the other I day I found a stock 1993 80 with 280K miles and has the factory lockers for a song. The 80 is not perfect by any means, but I does run fantastic for 280K miles it is fairly rust free and the body is pretty straight. The plan is to gut it, gut everything that is not needed and try and get as much weight down as possible. So here are the plans:

Ruff Stuff Axle Housings, Hell Fire Knuckles with the Hi-Pinion 80 front, 5.29’s, cromo shafts and hopefully ARB’s
Ruff Stuff Rear Axle Housing, 5.29’s, cromo shafts and hopefully ARB’s
Rebuilt& messaged 1FZE, Custom Exhaust, I have to keep the “stock” engine and no induction is allowed
Stock Transmission
Stock T-case, T-case can be changed but I don’t see a reason to.
Big ass transmission and power steering coolers
3 link front with aluminum links, 1.25” & 7/8” rod ends and king 2.5” remote reservoir shocks, coils springs must be retained
4 link rear with aluminum links, 1.25” & 7/8” rod ends and king 2.5” remote reservoir shocks, coil springs must be retained
Wheel Base must remain within 3” of stock
Cannot cut inner fenders or the body unless for the cage
Class tire size is limited to 35” tall tires, have not decided what to run, but whatever they are they will be mounted on 17” beadlocks.
Gutted interior with full cage front bumper to back bumper
Aluminum dash
Mastercraft 3G seats
Fuel Cell mounted in back
Parker Pumpers
GPS
Intercom

First thing up will be to clean the crap out of it and try and get all the grease off it before it goes in the garage and up on jack stands. First thing I am going to do is the suspension, so I will be cutting off all of the factory bracketry and then setting up the suspension, after that it will be getting the cage and all the required safety components. Last but certainly not least will be rebuilding the engine and stuffing everything back in.

Many of you may not agree with my choice of vehicle and think that the 80 is just too big, too slow or whatever else, but I have my reasons and I am sticking with them, plus there has never been an 80 raced (to my limited knowledge) at the King of the Hammers. Oh, and the fact that the class is usually won by a Jeep… I hate Jeep’s.

Here she is bringing her home yesterday; let me introduce the M-80 Jeep Killer!

 

[Corbet]

Looking forward to seeing the results.

 

[scottryana]

Great job! Can't wait to see it

 

[SNLC]

Sweet! Subscribed!

I think it will take a pretty heavy floggin' and do well.

Cheers

 

[Krazytoy]

Thanks Guys!

Sweet! Subscribed!

I think it will take a pretty heavy floggin' and do well.

Cheers

It should with your crazy a$$ in the passenger seat!

 

[nukegoat]

having just driven the "hammers" last weekend, you're gonna have a hard time with the weight/size of the 80, 35s, and the wheelbase.

keep a good attitude, though, and I'm sure you'll have a blast with the project.

 

[Tapage]

Honestly .. we all here understand ( and few probably love ) the 80 series limitations .. but at the same time we recognize the most important thing here it's reliability .. go ahead ..

 

[scottryana]

As stripped down as those cherokee's are, if you did that to an 80 as well and stripped out all the lux features like HVAC, electric windows, sunroof, heavy electric seats, stereo, glass, etc, I don't see you having any more problems then the cherokee's. There is cutting allowed as long as it isn't the inner fenders so clearance shouldn't be a problem realistically you could run basically stock height or an 1" lift and clearance the fenders, and then do as much of a flat bottom skid as you can. Going to be some trial and error getting the right springs for rate and the shock valving but should be a blast to drive.

I would maybe consider a 5 speed swap and a different tcase to get the power that the 1FZ makes to the ground, the A343 sucks up a lot of power.

 

[devildogcruiser25]

Jason, this is going to be awesome! I can't wait to see what you do with it.

 

[Roc Doc]

Keep track of the weight. Weigh it at a truck stop so you can see front and rear weight bias. Most of the weight you're going to be able to eliminate is going to come from the rear so weigh it as it comes out, and keep that in mind as you add your pumper, and other stuff. I haven't looked at the rules for a while, but I assume you'll have to run a fuel cell, so this is another prime candidate for rear mounting, and with all the window glass out, you can put a dry break to one side and still have room for spare tire/jack/tools/recovery gear, etc..

Gunnin' for Currie eh?

Good luck.

 

[DHwreckage]

having just driven the "hammers" last weekend, you're gonna have a hard time with the weight/size of the 80, 35s, and the wheelbase.

keep a good attitude, though, and I'm sure you'll have a blast with the project.

i think the big difference here is this is gonna to be a racer not a weekend cruiser to im betting body damage is not going to be a big deal for him where as you running the trail are trying to avoid body damage and wrecking your nice cruiser. or i could be confusing you completely with someone else who took their nice cruiser up the hammers. in either case SUBBED i want to see this beast, to bad you couldn't use a diesel!

 

[jcardona1]

Can't wait to see the linked front end!

 

[Callahan Offroad]

oh this gun' be guuud!

 

[nukegoat]

i think the big difference here is this is gonna to be a racer not a weekend cruiser to im betting body damage is not going to be a big deal for him where as you running the trail are trying to avoid body damage and wrecking your nice cruiser. or i could be confusing you completely with someone else who took their nice cruiser up the hammers. in either case SUBBED i want to see this beast, to bad you couldn't use a diesel!

Most of the time, though, I ran the risk of being hung up on the nose, ass, or belly. Approach/departure/breakover angles are just not fantastic on the 80

 

[ab1985]

Sounds awesome. I'll be following along.

 

[Roc Doc]

Most of the time, though, I ran the risk of being hung up on the nose, ass, or belly. Approach/departure/breakover angles are just not fantastic on the 80

This is what I drove in Johnson Valley.

 

[SNLC]

Understand he is stripping the truck down to almost nothing. Sure we will add some weight here and there but not as much as is removed. I am thinking it is going to come in at 4500-4800lbs. Time will tell. Hell my empty fairly stock 80 comes in at 5200lbs so maybe under 4500lbs will happen.

I am pretty sure you can run a diesel but you would have to import the truck as motor swaps are not allowed. Bigger expense to get going with the truck/build when you have to import it.

As far as a&d angles kind of sucking, you can stretch WB 3". That will help, drag it over the rest, body damage does not matter. Get hung up, I get on the winch asap.

Lets face it, KOH even in stock class comes down to a lot of luck and having a great day. No breakages, not getting lost, making check points, good driver/navigator and so forth wins it nearly just as much as the truck. What Jason has in mind for the Cruiser I think will work pretty good within the rules. I think the truck can survive a day of flogging, that is all it has to do. Top 15 would be stellar as far as I am concerned.

 

[scottryana]

Damn I want to do this! SO many gears turning in my head. Haha. I bet you can strip a lot of weight out of an 80! Going to have a pretty good CG I bet once you get it stripped down to nothing. lol.

So rules say:

Stock engine must be retained, but may be replaced with any available in
make/model/year.

Maybe you do an 80 and I will try and find a 100. lol

 

[Krazytoy]

Keep track of the weight. Weigh it at a truck stop so you can see front and rear weight bias. Most of the weight you're going to be able to eliminate is going to come from the rear so weigh it as it comes out, and keep that in mind as you add your pumper, and other stuff. I haven't looked at the rules for a while, but I assume you'll have to run a fuel cell, so this is another prime candidate for rear mounting, and with all the window glass out, you can put a dry break to one side and still have room for spare tire/jack/tools/recovery gear, etc..

Gunnin' for Currie eh?

Good luck.

Currie races mod class these days. Not gonna beat the $100k plus cars....

i think the big difference here is this is gonna to be a racer not a weekend cruiser to im betting body damage is not going to be a big deal for him where as you running the trail are trying to avoid body damage and wrecking your nice cruiser. or i could be confusing you completely with someone else who took their nice cruiser up the hammers. in either case SUBBED i want to see this beast, to bad you couldn't use a diesel!

Never thought the 80 had big sheet metal, not afraid to dent it either. If I had Currie money I would have lots and lots of TEQ stuff, unfortunately I'm just a guy?..

oh this gun' be guuud!

Thank you sir. I will be in touch.

Most of the time, though, I ran the risk of being hung up on the nose, ass, or belly. Approach/departure/breakover angles are just not fantastic on the 80

Did you run the stock class course?

This is what I drove in Johnson Valley.

Sweet ride! Your turn to build a race rig.

Understand he is stripping the truck down to almost nothing. Sure we will add some weight here and there but not as much as is removed. I am thinking it is going to come in at 4500-4800lbs. Time will tell. Hell my empty fairly stock 80 comes in at 5200lbs so maybe under 4500lbs will happen.

I am pretty sure you can run a diesel but you would have to import the truck as motor swaps are not allowed. Bigger expense to get going with the truck/build when you have to import it.

As far as a&d angles kind of sucking, you can stretch WB 3". That will help, drag it over the rest, body damage does not matter. Get hung up, I get on the winch asap.

Lets face it, KOH even in stock class comes down to a lot of luck and having a great day. No breakages, not getting lost, making check points, good driver/navigator and so forth wins it nearly just as much as the truck. What Jason has in mind for the Cruiser I think will work pretty good within the rules. I think the truck can survive a day of flogging, that is all it has to do. Top 15 would be stellar as far as I am concerned.

I am going to have to revert to my co pilot on a lot of things here, I will chime in as often as I can however most of my time will be in the garage building.

Honestly .. we all here understand ( and few probably love ) the 80 series limitations .. but at the same time we recognize the most important thing here it's reliability .. go ahead ..

Yes, anymore it is a race of survival.m

Can't wait to see the linked front end!

Stay tuned

Sounds awesome. I'll be following along.

Thanks man!

Damn I want to do this! SO many gears turning in my head. Haha. I bet you can strip a lot of weight out of an 80! Going to have a pretty good CG I bet once you get it stripped down to nothing. lol.

So rules say:

Stock engine must be retained, but may be replaced with any available in
make/model/year.

Maybe you do an 80 and I will try and find a 100. lol

Bring it... All you gotta do is build it!

 

[Tapage]

can you remove all glasses and have those replaced with some sort of plexyglass ..?