it lives - part 2

Mike B.

audiobliss wrote:

Wow. There is a ton of information in this thread.

:eek:

Yeah ,but some of the "tuning" for a S/C doesnt quite jive w/me.

jdhdiggs

audiobliss wrote:

Wow. There is a ton of information in this thread.

:eek:

Use at your own risk...

Jstas

Wait a minute. I never tried to get anyone to believe that my truck was bad ****. I never even stated that. Don't try to make an issue out of something that isn't there.



Also, I trying hard to see where anyone mentioned anything about 'the "tuning" for a S/C'. All anyone was talking about was what would happen if an engine setup for supercharging was run without the supercharger.

I'm also trying to figure out why it is risky to use any info in this thread? No real info for configuration or tuning was given. All that was discussed was engine management systems.

PoweredByDodge

God all frickin mighty!!!!

Let it go guys.

my 2 c and then my truck comments....

2c --> I am not knowledgeable of turbo's or superchargers in any way to be able to factually contribute to this conversation. But again, I will debunk anyone who feels the lightning is a "average" or "just above average speed/performance" vehicle. I have actually had the opportunity to test out some of them... and I don't mean at dealerships. I have yet to get into another truck (actually even any modern muscle cars either) that light up the tires and barrel down the straight like the lightning does. The SRT-ram didn't quite get it right - it's too tall, too much body roll, too much truck. It responds like a brick with a jet pack strapped to it... the lightning moves like a panther. It's one of the few things in life that I am willing to just say, "I don't know exactly why, but it works, and therefore I like it". My guess would be that same motor built "normal" without the goodies would be a pig just like most other small block v8's out of the box. But that's not the point. Everything is a pig until you pay close attention to its details, engineer parts to add, and re-engineer existing components of it - so as to tune it for maximum performance (while also keeping in mind htat you have to pass emissions tests and all that jazz - and you don't want to build something so wicked that everybody ends up dead behind the wheel).

onto the other stuff...

I'll try to answer all of these in some sense of order...

1- WHY 2 WHEEL DRIVE??

..... There are a few reasons. First, the entire build of this truck was to recapture my first truck's essence. I didn't fall in love with dodge because it's some kind of great vehicle or something (no you cannot quote me on that); i just had an old beat up ram that i really got attached to. The damn thing was a D-150 2 wheel drive with a slant six and a 727 torqueflite stock. 130 something piddily horespower. So when I went truck shopping, I could only find ONE damn truck that wasn't a piece of crap... same year, same body, same everything, except it was a 4x4 with a 13" lift (body and suspension) and 35" swampers on it. body is immaculate (dented but no rot anywhere, very solid, perfet for restoring) and the frame is like a rock. Now, even after I pulled all the damn lifts out, I still had a truck that was at STOCK 4x4 height... which is a healthy 5 or more inches taller than the 2 wheel drive trucks of that day -- there were two blocks in the rear (stock), a 3" and a 2". The front had a 5 pack leaf set that looked like most rear ends. In the 80's, 4x4's were beasts of burden, not daily drivers... they were built accordingly. So... I wanted to get the height somewhere near what my old truck was. So I took the 2" block out of the back. That made the damn truck lower in back than in the front. Then I took 2 leafs out of the 5 leaf pack (yes I checked to be sure the 3 leaf remainder will be strong enough for daily driving - no it won't handle offroading or wild abuse) and added "helper leafs" ... this allowed me to loose 1 1/2 inches from the simple metal that the leafs were made of, then another 1/2 inch from the removed strength of the super duty leafs. I then redrilled the shackles to allow me to "shorten" them... this gave me another 3/4 inch drop in the front. The helper leafs dont "kick in" till you put some weight on the front end. So they don't affect height, but they'll help out of I hit a wicked bump or something. I then had to relocate the power steering gear box (simply redrilled the mounting plate for it so that it can be about an inch an a half above its previous location -- keeps hte steering geometry stock so i dont have to play with it). Now in doing all this it became apparent that the dana 44 up front was in the way, literally. I do not have a very powerful motor - its not some 500 horse beast... so why waste parasitic draw on a transfer case? So I was able to kill about 800 pounds by getting rid of the dana 44 and the transfer case. I also saved money because those were now parts i didn't need to replace. I gained room under the chassis for plumbing and exhaust and **** as well - made the job easier. all i did was torch the spindle mounts off and weld them onto a solid 3" diamter / 0.75" wall pipe (which cost me 230 bucks new). So stock geometry is the same everywhere. Also - I wanted a venerable torqueflite - and you cannot have a TRUE torqueflite with 4wd.

I got what I wanted... a height about halfway between 2wd and 4wd stock heights (i can't go all the way down to 2wd height, physically impossible without huge modifications), a torqueflite, and something to do.

2 - Why spend that much money??

Because it's my baby. I will keep this truck till I'm long dead. I intend to drive it 3 to 5 months out of hte year, maybe 4 - 5 thousand miles a year... and i will keep up on it... every year before it "goes to sleep for the winter" - i will go over it with a fine tooth comb and fix anything that may have been messed up by the year's driving. You have to understand, I took the body right off of it... I power washed and wire brushed the frame after every line was off... put between 35 and 40 cans of 3M rubberized undercoating all over the frame, axles, etc etc... ran stainless steel fuel lines... reused the stock stainless steel brake lines because they actually are like new (yes i was shocked too). Every single part on this truck... and I mean right down to the goddamn bolts, is new -- the only "old" parts are the steering knuckles, the gas tank, the rear axle (rebuilt it), and the gas tank (drained and flushed it -- kept the rubber neck tho, it was clean). Everything else, while it may be ugly in places under there, is either brand new or purchased remanufactured. Oh I forgot - the dashboard, seat, and body panels are not new. But I have a new seat coming soon (stock replica), and I've got every single piece of trim (rubber, chrome, etc - including the grille, headlight bezels, door handles, window trims, weather stripping, tail lights, bumpers, etc) sitting in my attic as new old stock or new aftermarket replacements. I also built my own electrical system right down to the goddamn ignition - from scratch - i've got something like 40 or 50 relays in that truck with a 20 slot fuse block. every stitch of it is new or rebuilt.

3 - drive it or show it or what??

i'm not building it so some freak can jerk off while he looks at it. I built it so I can go romping down the road with a cigarette in my hand and two 6x9's behind the seat screaming all the wrong words to every Billy Idol song I ever heard. Oh - the audio got nixed... I needed the money to repair the motor... ended up doing two Polk DB 6x9's and an MTX road thunder sub - runs off a 4 channel amp (bridged the rear channel to the sub) -- sits in a box behind the seat - looks like a dead ringer for my "first system" in that same truck - looks good - "fits the truck" i think. I even rebuilt the old alpine 7863 with some spare parts so i could put it in there - works nice.

anyway - i built it for me to enjoy - but i am picky - and believe me, when its all spit and polish, it will be more than show worthy - i've seen many show cars, and some are great... but while mine may not be the best ofthem all, it will certainly be worthy of sitting in the lanes with the rest of them - a testament to hard work and conviction - besides, the engine paint job looks better than most people's body paint jobs... and that's AFTER ripping it apart twice in the truck.


definition of "beat on it" -- when i say i intend to beat on it i mean i intend to drive it like i stole it, tear tires off of it like noboy's business, get plenty of speeding tickets, jump over curbs and other small obstacles just because i can, go camping with it occasionally, take it on vacation, and generally just use it as a reliable form of transportation for leisure... i don't intend to ever pull anything with it - the only reason the class 3 hitch is staying on the back (after being welded to the frame and rust proofed along with everything else - see i think ahead!) is so that if i end up stuck in a ditch or something, the tow truck can pull me out by the hitch - and hopefully not do any more damage to it... tow truck drivers are idiots... honestly.


4- body work??

I'm nto having trouble finding a lead fill guy - already got one. truck was lead filled at the factory - thats how i want it done. i dont care about the money. what the hell is money going to get me? my old man is hackin up a lung more and more every day - he sat on that goddamn cadillac for 15 years... it rotted to death. what enjoyment did he get out of it? none - but he wouldn't sell it because he was attached - so i finally got him to part with cash and we put it back together... didn't do anything extravagant like with the truck, but actually the car didn't need it - just needed a good tune up, a carb, an exhaust and a great paint job - he's happy as a PIG IN **** now... and he's saying to me "i should have done this years ago". the great american love affair with the car isnt going to end anytime soon - being practical isn't part of being alive. if i was practical i'd be driving a saturn or a kia rio.

imma get my homie g with the digicam over here hopefully tonite so we can throw some pictures around.

... oh - and why a 3 speed torqueflite with a 1500 stall converter, 10 to 1 compression up front and 3.91 gears? because i never intend to hit a race track or the salt flats.... but i do want to scare the living **** out of everyone on the road... and there's nothing like zero to 40 faster than you can say "oh ****" to put the fear of god into people. the great thing is - all of that stuff is stock parts (just from different years - hence my big problems with making everything work)

Mike B.

Jstas wrote:

Also, I trying hard to see where anyone mentioned anything about 'the "tuning" for a S/C'. All anyone was talking about was what would happen if an engine setup for supercharging was run without the supercharger. .

I was being sarcastic, but I know for a fact you can drive a Vw that is setup for a S/C (9to 1 comp, injectors twice the factory size,...), without the blower installed, the ecu is just referancing maps from the air flow, TPS(no referance to Office Space), and o2's. It just cuts back the fuel, and adds timing .
Ive learned alot in the last few years tweeking the Vortech V-2 on my Golf, but still not brave enough to flash my own software yet.

I wanna see pics of your "toys".

Jstas

Mike B. wrote:

I was being sarcastic, but I know for a fact you can drive a Vw that is setup for a S/C (9to 1 comp, injectors twice the factory size,...), without the blower installed, the ecu is just referancing maps from the air flow, TPS(no referance to Office Space), and o2's. It just cuts back the fuel, and adds timing .
Ive learned alot in the last few years tweeking the Vortech V-2 on my Golf, but still not brave enough to flash my own software yet.

I wanna see pics of your "toys".

I don't have a whole lot of experience with VW's that aren't air cooled. I do know that VW works a hell of alot of magic in the VR6 ECM and it is quite different from other fuel injection systems. Then again, a 9.0:1 compression ratio is not exactly forced induction friendly on pump gas. However, I have seen more radical stuff in the VR6 engines with people running as much as 10.5 on a turbo setup and still managing to run 94 octane Sunoco Ultra with driveability problems that I wouldn't care to live with in a daily driver. That's just me though.

Vinnie doesn't have too many pictures of his toys and when he does have them, he doesn't post them although he promises to do so all the time!

hellohello

damn, i wanted to see the truck. oh well. So basically pbd, you have the truck set up for acceleration and not top speed, correct?

audiobliss

...I wanna see it...

PoweredByDodge

hellohello wrote:

damn, i wanted to see the truck. oh well. So basically pbd, you have the truck set up for acceleration and not top speed, correct?

pretty much - "quick responsiveness, a nice little growl outa the tail pipe, enough 'juice' to pass most other cars, and the durability to do so for years to come".


and john - "yo mamma" - while i did post something like 30 pictures of the 2003, that gets "no luv from da white man!". i'm waitin for jack to get off his **** and bring the digital camera over -- i'm too cheap to buy my own.

imma dump a whole sheet-load on here just to make you eat a lightly toasted crow with some duck "a la range" sauce -- er something to that effect... mmm duck al la range -- i think that stuff is tasty - i saw it in a chinese place once... looked like cat though. cat a la range. --

Jstas

PoweredByDodge wrote:

and john - "yo mamma" - while i did post something like 30 pictures of the 2003, that gets "no luv from da white man!". i'm waitin for jack to get off his **** and bring the digital camera over -- i'm too cheap to buy my own.

Just bustin' your stones dude.

hellohello

yay... i know whats going on!

PoweredByDodge

my stones were removed in a freak accident - they tried to use one of my fingers to make a new "happy place" for me - but it didn't work out - i've been emotionally traumatized every since - (reference - jeff foxworthy on blue collar comedy trour)

hellohello

^ so in that case you really are grabbin life by the ovaries?

Jstas

PoweredByDodge wrote:

my stones were removed in a freak accident - they tried to use one of my fingers to make a new "happy place" for me - but it didn't work out - i've been emotionally traumatized every since - (reference - jeff foxworthy on blue collar comedy trour)

Ok...then, uh....I was...uh...smashin' your finger?