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Official Project "Blu" buggy proj. thread

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108K views 425 replies 95 participants last post by  Marvelicious  
W
#1 · (Edited)
Well, I finally got my garage cleaned out enough to bring the truck in so 4rnRick and I could get started on it.

For once, I remembered to take a true "Before" picture that I can reposition for a good "After" picture.

Here is our donor vehicle, a bone stock 1985 Extra Cab. Complete with canopy (which is for sale cheap and in good condition, hint, hint...)

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Complete with REAL bullet hole in pass. door. :D

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Man, do I hate prior owners that do craptacular jobs of wiring. There was actually a Toggle SWITCH on the dash for turning on the dash and running lights. Tons of spliced in wiring, cut wires that were unwrapped and dangling, and best of all, totally live 12V wiring directly to the battery for stuff, I mean like 8 tiny wires coming off the battery for the lights and stuff. Looks like the column switch had gone out so they hardwired everything. Rick went through while I was removing body pieces and pulled out all the wiring pictured below. Looked like multiple stereo installs and an alarm. Shockingly enough, after he yanked all that wiring and soldered the dash harness wires back together that had been cut, the truck actually started right up.

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We weren't sure if we could get away with this, but we did. Yanked the ENTIRE drivetrain in one shot. We bagged and capped all the open ports and hauled the entire thing to the pressure wash station in the back of my chevy and cleaned it up.

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Rick donated 4 rather large heims that he got from work (gotta love "obsolete inventory") They will make our 4-link rear end hold together. Yup, that's 1" mmmmmm beefy.

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W
#2 · (Edited)
Okay, so here comes the problems thus far. We knew the tranny was missing 5th gear. We split off the T-case and set the tranny aside to deal with later. We also need a new clutch we found out.

There was a noticeable rattle when I would blip the throttle by hand. Right at the top end of the RPM you would hear a rattle as it came back down. Turns out that may have just been valves as the valve were anywhere from .010 to .015, none of which were the right speck for the respective valve exhaust/intake. What did surprise us was that when we finally took the cover off there sat a dual row chain. This is supposed to be an '85 truck remember. I can't be sure without looking again, but I think my '81 has cast steel rockers not aluminum. I got ahold of Ted at engbldr.com and he said that 79-82 have the dual row chain, but dual rows will fit 83-84 also (pre efi blocks). So now we're wondering what engine we have here??? This engine was supposedly "rebuilt" about 90K ago so maybe someone stuck a dual row on or this engine is an earlier year? The aluminum rockers didn't come from a first gen though I think...(If I had a nickle for every "oh yeah, it's rebuilt" that I've heard from sellers... :rolleyes: ) I'm happy, hell dual row chain is sweet. Metal backed guides on both sides! I'll post the casting #'s in the block here too if anyone has suggestions as to what this engine is I'm open.

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There is one more machined surface with 22R stamped in it also.

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Okay, since we had to fix the standard oil leaks in the head gasket (timing cover/block/head overlap area) we pulled the head. #3 piston has more buildup than the rest. All plugs looked pretty good, a little bit rich, but not bad (improperly tuned weber I'd guess), but the #3 piston has more crap on it than the rest. I shone a light down #3's intake port and can see that there is a bunch of crap around the valve stem, like the stem seal wasn't so good. Would a leaking stem seal make the piston look like it does? The truck wasn't smoking at all. Power felt normal. the top of the piston looks wet, but that was from us spilling stuff down it while removing the head. All the exhaust runners were uniform with no oily residue or excessive carbon etc.

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Top of #3

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Here's the intake side of the head. It had an offenhauser intake on it for the weber. Note the acutal pop can block off plate on the EGR. :rolleyes:

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And the exhaust. Only one stripped exhaust stud. YEAH!!

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End of Day one. About 8 hrs work for the two of us.

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Any way, off to a good start. I'd appreciate any ideas/help on engine identification with this thing. I need to get a gasket kit and I'd rather only have to buy one. We're going to get this thing running again and then dive right into the 4link. But all that is covered in another thread that Rick started last week.
 
4
#4 ·
Heres the link talking about the initial goals/ideas for this build up:
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=219322

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List of items to be done......

-Engine- 22R with weber
Inspect and cheaply rebuild if nesseccary
Maybe install a Engnbldr.com cam
Remove Egr and cat
onboard air - York.

-Tranny-
Inspect and remove 5th gear. Possiblly fix.

-Transfer case-
Install Dual Cases (2.28)
Lift transfer case 4-5" for flat belly
Make full belly skid pan and crossmember ~ 21" off ground
square front shaft and heavy duty rear shaft

-Tires-
(4) 33" Mud Tires & (2) 33" Boggers of sand
But suspension will be fitted to clear 37's

-Front suspension-
Rears up front in stock hangers and extend shackles
Ford Shock mounts or tube in a engine cage
Longer shocks (talk to Sky about Blistens for cheap)
Double up brake lines & extended diff breahers
Crossover steering (low or high steer possible)

-front axle-
Dissassemble and inspect.
keep 4.10 gears
leave open or install lockright
truss axle tube and knuckle bells, weld steering stops,
pipe cap, shave drain plug
Smurfield with stock inners

-Rear Suspension-
4 link coil
Aerostar, XJ, YJ, ZJ coils
Longer shocks (talk to Sky about Blistens for cheap)
Double up brake lines & extended diff breahers

-rear axle-
Dissassemble and inspect.
keep 4.10 gears
Weld up spider gears
truss, shave drain plug, pipe cap
possibly rotate rear diff up and install rear cv joint?

-Bed / frame / gas tank-
Remove stock bed and canopy and try to sell
Might be cool to keep the bed sides like a truggy/buggy
Cut frame off and intergrate a tube bed
Maybe shorten wheelbase to 98-102"
Relocate stock tank behind cab and above driveline
capability of mounting two spares for dune trips
metal storage box and jerry can mount

-armor-
front bumpers with double hitch for tow bar and portable winch
rear bumper with triple hitch for towing and portable winch
Rock sliders
internal/external roll bar intergrated to bed hoop and possible engine cage

-Misc-
removable mudflaps and flares
recovery gear/manual/spares
offroad lights
CB and stereo
 
J
#5 ·
FYI, my 83 had aluminum rockers, and when I rebuilt it, I used a double row chain (fit stock inside early tchain covers). You may find all kinds of differences on the 22r vs. re stuff. My bud had an 88 carbed, and at all appearances it had the early style stuff too, but it was an appearance thing.
 
4
#10 · (Edited)
As for the wiring - This was what I removed from the truck that a previous owner had installed, and not anything for the engine or factory lighting. Its amazing to see what some people will do to try to fix a problem!!! and the previous owner is a person/family that builds and races Sprint cars, so I was very amazed to see this type of work on a DD; Exposed wires just twisted together, multiple wires to make a single run, wires of all different sizes, factory harness cut with no splicing room left, no fuses, no wire ties, not even electrical tap on the connections! And then as we where tearing the engine down we found losts of missing bolts and studs and several locations that bolts of all different lengths where there should only be one length. Also some stuff was gorilla tight while others what just barely holding on! Go figure, I HATE PO's sometimes!!!!

Heres some sketches that I did quickly of how I think it will turn out. Just have to wait and see, the design has already changed some from the orignal ideas we had....

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I think our goal is to have this ready to roll Late Spring to mid Summer '04.
 
T
#11 ·
Booger Weldz said:


gary is a slut!
Click to expand...

Thanks, coming from you thats a compliment (right?):flipoff2:


Rick looks good. I am partial to keeping the bed I think they look better that way but I am sure which ever you and Pete pick will come out looking good.

Cant wait to see the progress if by some miracle I find some free time I would like to come give you a hand (not like you need it) just ask Booger I am good at holding beer and watching other people work.
 
#14 · (Edited)
You have an early 22R.

I just have to ask, What qualifies this as a buggy?:p

Looks like it will have entirely too much sheet metal, glass and stock frame to be a buggy.:flipoff2:
 
W
#16 ·
Randy said:
You have an early 22R.

I just have to ask, What qualifies this as a buggy?:p

Looks like it will have entirely too much sheet metal, glass and stock frame to be a buggy.:flipoff2:
Click to expand...
Well, more like truggy, but since we are 4-linking the rear end and caging the thing it kinda falls between buggy and truggy and since it's probably going to end up smurf blue maybe we should just call it a SMUGGY . :D

Ben, let me get back to you on that. I may have a hook up locally, but I'll keep that in mind. Thanks.
 
4
#17 ·
Project Smuggy - I like it.....

Pete

I think we should run this type of 4link in the rear. I guess people are calling it ' DSI/AMJ link '. Or maybe atleast a variation of this?

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=182951
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=124233
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=196864

I'm not totally sure on the "best" position/location for the mounts that connect to the frame, but the axle side looks prety straight forward. I'm just not too sure of having the upper mounts all on the same location and no vertical seperation.

What do you think?
 
4
#19 · (Edited)
Figured I will list some other current links that are related to this build up.

DSI/AMJ Link Design :
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=221689

Help me nail down year of this engine.. :
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=221100

Why would a head be welded here? (Pics) :
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=221844

*.PDF file of rear suspension design:
http://www.pirate4x4.com/d1/tech/4link/para_uppers_traing_lowers.pdf

4-Link design comments needed |/\| or XX:
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=2470924#post2470924

Tranny ID: Also what does ADD stand for? :
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=2474573#post2474573

Proj Blu: new tranny, t-case shift rods won't fit, PICS Ideas? :
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=222758

What 'budget' coils would be 'best' for a double triangulated 4 link rear suspension?
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=2489522#post2489522

Installed crawler adapter, possible problem? Marlin?
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=224571

Crawler Adapter Assembly Instructions here
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=2497401#post2497401



And just some Keywords:
"Project" 'Project' Project
"Blu" 'Blu' Blu
"Smuggy" 'Smuggy' Smuggy


Heres the dimensions for a stock 2nd gen truck:

85 xtra cab, 22R, bone stock
235/75R15 Tires, ~28" in diameter
112.5" Wheelbase
16.5" to frame
10.5" to belly (stock crossmember)
66.5" to top of cab
8" to bottom of diff (not including drain plug)
25" to the center of the crank pulley bolt
 
P
#21 · (Edited)
wow:eek: that is some :cool: sh-t .

however it seems that you have too much time on your
hands. you need to start wrenchin it looks awesome.:D :flipoff2:


on further inspection i would like to see the roof supports flipped
around. for some reason i dont like the way the windshield supports and the roof supports join at the same location in center of the roof header. my .02c what do i know:flipoff2:
 
W
#25 · (Edited)
Here's where we got to tonight. Painted the Block after we picked it up on Saturday.

Tranny/crawler/t-case is fully assembled.

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Here's the last look at pistons as clean as they will ever be.

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Here's the engine as far as we got on Sunday afternoon/evening.

It's coming together really well. We had to fart around quite a bit tonight finding the right length bolts due to the prior owner not putting the correct length bolts in many of the holes, but we got it figured out and clean.

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