Project V8 Jeep Crawler

**84prerunner** · 07-24-2011, 03:38 PM

i wasnt able to make it out but the owner took it to Gorman this morning. Fab wise everything worked perfectly and he absolutely loved it, said hes never owned anything he could go so fast through the whoops in...lol.

Appears that the new master cylinder or a fitting is leaking fluid all over in the engine compartment and the rear end is making some bad noises. from the description on the phone it sounds like bad wheel bearings. It is also getting a little hotter then i would like, trans and motor both peaked at 220ish while running a 180 thermostat.

**panda24619** · 07-24-2011, 05:47 PM

is the radiator not cooling it down like it should? but hey you got to expect these things. still looks bad ass. minor fixes and itll be perfect! still you guts did a great job on it.

**84prerunner** · 07-24-2011, 06:29 PM

i think it might have a bad radiator cap, pushing coolant out.

**Motiracer38** · 07-31-2011, 10:41 PM

Blame Alon.

Everybody wins!

**84prerunner** · 07-31-2011, 11:47 PM

of course, its always alons fault.

working on this thing tomorrow.

**84prerunner** · 08-02-2011, 12:12 PM

replaced the rear wheel bearings yesturday, they looked pretty toast. that got rid of the noise he was hearing. threw a new radiator cap on which seems to be holding pressure better then the old one. there was nothing wrong with the brakes, just some left over fluid form when i swapped masters. going back later this week to do some other odds and ends.

**Demo1986** · 08-02-2011, 12:20 PM

I would have seen the jeep that day it was a Gorman but I had issues installing my bedsides so I didn't go. I should have just gone.

**84prerunner** · 08-05-2011, 11:00 PM

just heard the owner took the jeep out today and did miller jeep trail in gorman. 0 issues and wasnt a challenge from what ive heard.

**panda24619** · 08-06-2011, 12:20 AM

Originally Posted by 84prerunner

just heard the owner took the jeep out today and did miller jeep trail in gorman. 0 issues and wasnt a challenge from what ive heard.

cool! you guys did a really good job on it. the more i look at it the more i like it. and i dont like yjs. i cant wait to see some videos of that thing.

**84prerunner** · 08-19-2011, 11:07 AM

finished up some odds and ends on this thing late last night. it not has a big CBR trans cooler with a fan mounted in the back, a PS cooler and filters on both the trans and power steering. no pics, but ill take some next time i see it.

**84prerunner** · 08-28-2011, 08:52 PM

more shitty pics:

**84prerunner** · 09-25-2011, 12:39 AM

Beast is going to big bear in the morning!

**84prerunner** · 09-25-2011, 08:56 PM

had its first date with rocks today. some rock rash, a flat tire, and some bent shit but it made it back alive. more later or tomorrow.

**ET Chaser** · 09-25-2011, 11:24 PM

Pics or it didn't happen!

**TRD SRP** · 09-25-2011, 11:39 PM

how u bend shit in big bear the trails up there are easy

**84prerunner** · 09-26-2011, 08:58 AM

Originally Posted by TRD SRP

how u bend shit in big bear the trails up there are easy

driver error

**84prerunner** · 09-26-2011, 10:00 AM

Ok so here is how the day went.

We got out of the shop in LA around 9am and headed towards big bear. Somewhere along the 330 we stopped at a little restaurant with a deep creek in its name lol. After breakfast we headed a few more miles up the road to a turn off for Crab Flats campground. drove in a little ways and unloaded the jeep. Took a few miles of fireroads to get the the trail head for Holcomb Creek which was MUCH worse then it looked in the vids but i knew it should be a cake walk for the jeep. Now keep in mind the driver and owner of the jeep has NEVER rock crawled in his life or watched much crawling at all so we make it about 5 ft in the rocks before getting hung up on both the t-case skid and rear pumpkin at the same time. I was saying " RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT!" the whole time but he went straight lol. After backing up and getting him to listen he chose the line i pointed out and drove right through without another issue. The rest of holcomb went without any issue other then running into a ground of 7 jeeps, 2 of which where stock and had to wait around an hour for them to get through and obstacle and out of our way. We finished holcomb with no other major high lights.

Once we got to the west end of holcomb creek we took the connector to John Bull trail (very fun trail). This was my first time ever doing this trail, and ill say the youtube vids make it look like less then it is in person. We started up the trail and before long hit some rocks, nothing major, the jeep walked through most of them without an issue. We got to the last big downhill rocky section on the trail the driver got a little throttle happy trying to show off for a lesser built jeep the was having major problems. that sent us right into a "trench" about 3/4 the height of the front tires, stopped the jeep instantly (pretty hard hit) with a loud hissing sound. I instantly knew it was a tire going down. We hurried off the hill just as the tire was pretty much flat and got out to change it. Looks like the tire got pinched between the rim and the rock during that hit. While changing the tire i also noticed that hit bent one of the lower front links , after a little investigating i knew it wouldnt be an issue. We finished the trail around 5pm and drove about 20miles on the main roads through town back to the trailer. The jeep is surprisingly stable even on those mountain roads as long as you stay under the speed limit lol

So the lower link bending was a weak link, guess i underestimated the strength of .120wall DOM but im stalling calling it driver error. The good news was all of the over heating issues are solved, the big CBR trans cooler kept the trans under 180 all day, only turned the fan on 3 or 4 times all day and within 5 mins it would drop from 180 to 150. Moving the trans cooler to the back also solved our motor cooling issues and it never got over 190 all day.

All in all ill say it was a good trip for still being considered a shake down run. only the 3rd times its ever been in the dirt.

**84prerunner** · 09-26-2011, 10:05 AM

Other thing i thought was pretty cool, it never lifted a tire off the ground. i only saw the it articulate enough to get a limit strap tight once.

**1969f100** · 09-26-2011, 04:02 PM

Nice.

Why not .250 DOM links??
When I think of lower links on a crawler I think beef the shit out of it then beef it more. I have seen so many .250 DOM and even wrapped .250 links bent on used rock crawlers i'd think .120 would be out of the question.

**84prerunner** · 09-26-2011, 04:17 PM

im fixing the bent one and sleeving the non bent one. the one that bent will be .360wall, other will be .240 most likely. both rear lowers are being sleeved with 2" .120 as well. Im new to the rock crawling chit, first 4wd build ive ever done but ill agree they never should have been .120.

**1969f100** · 09-26-2011, 04:22 PM

so does the owner like crawling?

**84prerunner** · 09-26-2011, 05:03 PM

said he loved it

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