I think you are going to need either a bigger cooler or more of them.
That cooler just doesnt add enough volume to the system allow it to cool between the pump and ram.
Have you thought about a filtration system that will add more volume?

 

Whats up man. I'm the one that was talking to you at gitcha gumee with the white tj. I just paid mine off too and I'm doing the same thing, almost. I have some 14" sway a ways and am pushing the front forward a few inches also. I have a set of 60's (copying your 40 spline rear we talked about) and building a 3 link with track bar in front and 4 link rear. I'm not running the 39 though, probably the 36 iroks. I just cant bring myself to put the tank in the cargo area. Do you think your geared too low? I'm putting in a flipped 300 and was thinking if I should put in the 4to1 now or see how it works stock. Whatcha think?

 

I was looking at the fancy all in one filter/cooler/reservoir that a few places sell, but I'm being kinda cheap and don't want to pony up the $140 or so that it goes for.

I was at an auto show this weekend and looked in the vendor section for an external PS resevoir but had no luck. I might drop by a local race shop and see what they have. I've seen a couple reservoir only units for about $50-60 bucks, so that would keep the price down, but I might just crack and plop down the $140 and be done with it.

Bruce - The only part of my gearing I don't like is when cruising between trails. With the stock trans, my 1st gear high is too high, and I hate running in 3rd gear low range for extended periods of time. If I drop the axle ratio any lower then I lose the ability for a good launch, so I figure that a doubler will make it just right for the in-between stuff. This was really noticeable up at GG with the hit an obstacle then drive for a bit pace that we ran, also down in Tellico running between trails.

 

What are you running for gears now?

 

4.88s.

 

Congrats! Getting the title from the bank was a big day for me as well - not to mention the freedom to destroy an otherwise perfectly respectable daily driver.

 

Well, I gotta say that part of the title is a joke amongst my friends and me. While we were doing the d60 swap last spring, there were countless references to the fact that it's an 01 and not paid off as we put it together.

My friend's wife likes to point out CJs that are in better condition than mine on trail rides. This TJ has not live an easy life so far, and it's not gonna get any easier.

But it was nice getting the note from the bank.

I think I might have found a cheap solution to the PS reservoir. There's a few imports that use external reservoirs, including Accords and Troopers. I'm gonna try and get to the local junkyard and see how big they are and see if I can't grab one for super cheap.

 

Ok, a lot has changed since I started this thread. I figured out the shocks I bought off the local guy were Doetsche Tech 2.2s. I went so far as to get the coilover kit from them and even the springs, and then decided to go with Swayaway 14" Air shocks in the rear.

For the front I went with different springs on the 14" swayaway emulsion shocks and ended up with 350# 8" over 200# 16" springs with a 4" tender. This would provide me with about 4.5" up and 9.5" of down travel.

Here's some pics of the fuel cell mods. Nothing different than what others have been doing with the RCI 2161. A neighbor of the guy where we built the jeep did the machine work on the outer ring.

 

I then drug my jeep over to my friend's garage where we did the work. The front was moved forward about 7" and the rear back about 4". This ended up with a wheelbase of just over 105".

On the front, we cut of the brackets we did last year when I first setup the 60 and was re-using the RE LA parts. I based the setup on my friend's CJ we did last summer. We broke the rules by putting the upper link of the 3-link & panhard on the driver's side. We did his that way, and it's working fine; maybe not engineering perfect, but fine for a trailer queen rock crawler.

We put together some new shock mounts and put on the brackets for the hydro ram. We also redid the upper arm mount on the axle side since I'm running heims instead of the stock-ish TJ setup.

We set it the hydro ram before P&T and GoVols blew out their stock Ford knuckles, so it runs the ram from the bridge to the high steer arm on the passenger side. The ram is behind the knuckle to make room for the trackbar. I've got plating my stock 60 knuckles on the short list of stuff to do.

One the frame end we did all new brackets. To minimize tire rubbing, the lowers are under the frame. The upper is mounted inside the frame, with enough room for the driveshaft. The pinion doesn't move much through the travel, pointing up a little as it drops. The lowers are fixed length arms of 1.5x0.5" DOM with Mad 4wd cartridge joints. The upper and trackbar both have two QA1 3/4" rod ends.

The shock hoops were made out of 1.5"x0.120" DOM with a crossover snaked between the radiator and engine. It's a tight fit. (Sorry, forgot to click a pic of the crossover.)

 

So then we worked on the rear. We redid the 4-link after some problems snapping the rear driveshaft. The new links are all 40" long with a Mad 4wd cartridge joint on one end and a QA1 3/4" rod end on the other, all out of 1.5x0.5" DOM.

We reused the upper frame mounts from the last round, but removed the RE LA skid and made new lower mounts. They now mount on the inside of the frame a few inches ahead of the lowers. They are kicked in a bit. Playing with the 4-link spreadsheet, it should be about 5* roll axis and just over 100% antisquat. The big thing was that it all fit.

The separation that we used (~6" at the axle, ~4" at the frame) causes the pinion to follow the t-case output pretty well.

Since cleaning brackets off the frame is a PITA, and the LCA mounts caused interference with the frame, I sawzalled the back of the frame off right behind the 3rd body mount. I trimmed it on an angle so the lowers wouldn't interfere.

The back half of the frame was replaced with 1.75x0.120 DOM. We built a U that went from between the rear cage mounts and under the body. Then built two S's that went from the frame up to the new U's along the bottom of the body. Throw in a crossmember and replace the other body mounts and we were set.

The axle kept the LCA mounts, but we had to rework the upper mounts on the bridge. We used 3/16" thinking that with the bends we put in them, it would hold. Wrong. It had buckled so we banged it back in place and plated over it with 1/4" and put on the new mounts. The brakes are the same, with just a new piece of hard line on the upper to connect it up.

The shocks in the rear are the 14" SAW air shocks. We made up the mounts so we could mount them off the U we bent earlier. There's about 5" of shaft showing to keep up/down travel the same front to rear. They are kicked back a little and are almost straight up and down from the rear view. I'm running them with stock oil level and 200psi on the passenger side and 210 on the driver's.

 

But there's still plenty to do. I've got to clean up the rear welds and paint it up. The shock mounts on the rear axle need to be clearanced a little because they interfere with the shocks a bit. Then I have to paint all the bare metal I haven't gotten to yet. I've also got to tighten up all the bolts that are finger tight (at best..).

The fuel cell needs to be bolted down. The front brake lines need to be finished off. Right now the hard lines are hanging to allow the calipers to be mounted, but it's not really trail worthy.

I need a t-case skid, a friend is letting me borrow his old stock one until I make a new one. I have a T-18 that I would like to swap in place of my 3550 to get a better 1st, so I'm waiting until I determine when that's going in to build the new skid so I don't have to rebuild. Right now a ratchet strap is holding the t-case in place so I can move it in and out of the garage.

I have to see if my tail pipe from the last build will work as is, need mods, or go new. I am stock from the engine to the cats, and then I was running only a tail pipe because I couldn't fit a muffler. The cats do a good job of muffling, so it's not obnoxious with only the pipe.

I also need new links for my rear swaybar and make the mounts on the frame for them. I'm sure I'll need limit straps front and rear, too.

And finally, I have to finish trimming the front and rear fenders. The rear were hacked to fit the tires, but need to be made pretty. The fronts are untouched, but will need the standard cut fender treatment.

 

Lookin' good -- a couple of questions about the front end:

1) it looks like you have a high steer arm set up for tie-rod behind the axle... ?? is this the plan? if so, is there clearance

2) you rolled the front pinion way up...is that going to have negative effects on steering? it looks like the castor is rotated way forward...

But sure looks tough from the stance!

 

Looks good. I will be interested to see how the front suspension works for ya.

Go Vols: he is running the ram off the rear on pass side. so he had to swap the high steer arms. so the other one has to face the rear. But I will let JohnnyJ answer details

 

Looks TALL! Also, I don't understand why you angled your SAW shocks back and out? I take you to took into account missallignment for their travel?

Otherwise, it looks good!

 

Yeah, it's a little :massey: at the moment , but I'm not sure how I could drop it without putting the front coilover through the hood or hanging below the axle, which I really didn't want to do. (edit: besides tweakin spring rates, which I might also do..) I can't run the adjusters up without having the springs come loose at full droop. It at least still fits in the garage. :emb:

When we did the mock-up for placement, we had the shocks with no nitrogen in them (bad idea for future builders). When I cranked them up to 200psi, I gained some height in the front, much to my dismay. I may play with them at different pressures (lower) to see how it affects shock performance while lowering it down a little. It was actually sitting a little lower in front than on coils before charging them up.

The the front shocks are angled a little funny because of the height increase from mockup, they were pretty near vertical from the front view in mockup, and I could probably adjust the track bar to get it back. They are kicked back to try and drop ride height and make it look fast . When we set them, they were clear of the frame, so no binding or touching the frame even at full droop (though that's unlikely that I'll get both to go full droop besides in the garage).

As for the angle of the pinion and such, I'd have to check it again. When we set it up, it was pretty near flat, may need some tweeking like other things to set it exactly where I need. The upper torque arm has quite a bit of adjustment.

As for the high steer arms, I'm just using the pass side to be pushed by the ram. It'll likely need some plating so I don't end up with a broken knuckle, but like I said, a friend is running the same setup on his CJ with no problems so far. He's real happy, and compared to my RE LA, his setup seemed to hop less on steep climbs. Mine is almost a geometrical copy, except my torque arm is on the pig rather than above the driver's LCA as his is setup. I'm running 1-ton chevy stuff on the stock locations, though I may flip them to get more clearance.

 

You know, as I look at the pics, when we first did the mock-up the front torque arm was pretty near flat, so it's gained some height. I'm going to have to figure out how to get it back to non- :massey: proportions.

 

Good job!

- It must have been a pain welding the UCA brackets inside the frame, I broke one of my rear frame upper brackets last week and redecided to make them all from scratch, what a pain! Can you snap a picture of the front upper bracket.

- I might have missed it but do you plan on leaving the tie rod in the stock location?

- Why are you reusing the stock rear sway bar?

- So you are using only 2 body mounts instead of 4 in the rear.

Looks like you got your hands full for a good part of the summer...

 

Good job!

- It must have been a pain welding the UCA brackets inside the frame, I broke one of my rear frame upper brackets last week and redecided to make them all from scratch, what a pain! Can you snap a picture of the front upper bracket.

My welding isn't up to the level of wanting to rely on it for more than tacking or small/simple welding jobs, so I generally con my friends into doing it with burger king or other food.

I'll grab a pic in the next couple of days. Until then, what we did was to use some box tubing cut in half to make a U off the frame to hide the nut in, then we'd make a strap out of 1/4" by 2" to make the double sheer bracket, kinda like this:

- I might have missed it but do you plan on leaving the tie rod in the stock location?

Yeah, I may do a flip like you did. The single ended ram is up and out of the way on the high steer arm on the pass side. The tie rod will stay low because it can take a fair amount of abuse.

- Why are you reusing the stock rear sway bar?

There's some body roll with the air shocks, and for now I've tapped the funds to go with the race car/currie style setup. So, since I already have it mounted, I'll just make up some ends and brackets and run it.

- So you are using only 2 body mounts instead of 4 in the rear.

There two that used to be above the gas tank are still there, the stock rear mounts aren't being used, but the cage is tied to the rear tube, so there's still support back there.

Looks like you got your hands full for a good part of the summer...

Yeah, sure do. I'm sure I'll be tweaking it in over the next few months.

 

that 3-link front is a bad idea..... I heavily suggest you put a fourth link on it or you'll end up ruining a trip I promise. there is just way too much load when beating hard on that front end for one upper to support. I don't care how beefy you think it is it's not beefy enough. w/ 4-links, I tweaked the passenger tower in two places (1/4") and I broke two welds on the truss to axle.....if I would have had only 3 links I'd still be on the trail.

 

that 3-link front is a bad idea..... I heavily suggest you put a fourth link on it or you'll end up ruining a trip I promise.

Even with the panhard bar??? 1.5"x0.5" seems like it would be more than enough. Isn't this effectively a "4-link"?

 

Even with the panhard bar??? 1.5"x0.5" seems like it would be more than enough. Isn't this effectively a "4-link"?

I'm not talking about the side-to-side movement, as the panhard bar will account for that no probs. I'm talking about straight-on loads (i.e. when you have to 'bump' it to get on top of an obstacle). If your hitting a ledge, rock, whatever, hard enough your putting some extreme loads on those links fore & aft. Only distributing that load thru 3 links rather than 4 makes a big difference. 3 links are great for ramp queens & mall crawlers but it looks as if Johnny actually wheels his chit....

 

Hey JohnnyJ, PM me with where you are in RO. I live there too and would love to stop by some time and check out the jeep. Its looking sweet! :grinpimp:

 

Hey P&T, thanks for the comments. I went back and looked at your thread to try and get a feel for how yours was setup.

Was it this setup that bent, or did you throw more gussets and stuff on it later?

Not to rag or brag, but the bridge over mine is a little different than the pics of yours I found. During the initial build up, it was boxed all in with 1/4", and it was taken down to a friend's shop where the full-time welder threw some gorilla welds on it with his monster miller (3-phase super-drool welder.. verrry nice machine and a good operator to boot.)

Not to say that it can't fail, but it has more surface area than the bridge in your pic. Maybe you built more on it and it still failed, not sure. Like I said, I'd like to know more about your setup and not turn this into a pissing match about fab skills.

I understand what you're saying with the push/pull forces taking a toll on the brackets, but I'm not sure if I agreee that that is a mall crawler only setup. I've been looking at this setup for a couple of years, and I've seen it's popularity growing. I helped a friend with this setup last Summer and his is holding up fine; which was a major reason for me to copy it rather than re-invent the wheel.

I will definitely be ramping up the wheeling on this, and I'll keep an eye out for cracks and bends.

 

Hey JohnnyJ, PM me with where you are in RO. I live there too and would love to stop by some time and check out the jeep. Its looking sweet! :grinpimp:

I moved out of Royal Oak, I'm now out in Hartland Twp so I could have a 10 minute drive to work.

...but it looks as if Johnny actually wheels his chit....

Oh, thanks. I try. :grinpimp:

 

Looks good...

Can you rotate your tcase up for a flat bottom?