ZMotorsports Shop Projects 2.0

[gearhead1960]

I think the backyard needs some grandbabies running around in it.....

 

[zmotorsports]

I think the backyard needs some grandbabies running around in it.....

I think that will happen soon enough.

 

[gearhead1960]

I think that will happen soon enough.

 

[Finallygotit]

I think it needs some puppies!

 

[zmotorsports]

I think it needs some puppies!

Oh HELL to the NO! That'll destroy a yard and I'm not about to follow one of those shitting machines around and pick up after them. It's bad enough when one of the neighbor's noisy shitting machines takes a dump on my lawn and they keep on walking.

 

[LXCam]

Oh HELL to the NO! That'll destroy a yard and I'm not about to follow one of those shitting machines around and pick up after them. It's bad enough when one of the neighbor's noisy shitting machines takes a dump on my lawn and they keep on walking.

/me patiently waits for the day when the grand babies want to put a slip-n-slide on the lawn.

 

[zmotorsports]

/me patiently waits for the day when the grand babies want to put a slip-n-slide on the lawn.

I've already told my future DIL, I'll let the grandkiddos do whatever they want but no one else is allowed on my lawn.

 

[Finallygotit]

Oh HELL to the NO! That'll destroy a yard and I'm not about to follow one of those shitting machines around and pick up after them. It's bad enough when one of the neighbor's noisy shitting machines takes a dump on my lawn and they keep on walking.

Whoa! Easy there Mike, let's not blow a gasket there bud. I didn't say they had to be "your" puppies. I was thinking more of the day when your son and DIL had youngsters AND puppies.



(Note to self, to push Mike's buttons, just mention his lawn and puppies in the same sentence.) (wink)

 

[zmotorsports]

Whoa! Easy there Mike, let's not blow a gasket there bud. I didn't say they had to be "your" puppies. I was thinking more of the day when your son and DIL had youngsters AND puppies.



(Note to self, to push Mike's buttons, just mention his lawn and puppies in the same sentence.) (wink)

Sorry Dan, that's the hot button for me.

 

[Finallygotit]

Sorry Dan, that's the hot button for me.

No ****? I wouldn't have known.

 

[zmotorsports]

No ****? I wouldn't have known.

Just wanted to remove all doubt there Dan.

 

[Finallygotit]

Just wanted to remove all doubt there Dan.

Thanks for the laugh. I needed that today.

 

[zmotorsports]

Thanks for the laugh. I needed that today.

Anytime.

 

[rmack898]

(Note to self, to push Mike's buttons, just mention his lawn and puppies in the same sentence.) (wink)

That there was funny and may have cost me a keyboard.

I too needed a good laugh today, thanks Dan.

 

[Finallygotit]

That there was funny and may have cost me a keyboard.

I too needed a good laugh today, thanks Dan.

 

[zmotorsports]

My son moved to his new home two weeks ago today and all that was remaining was his toolbox. He asked me if I would mind helping him move it this morning and then work on his Jeep.

This is where it has been located for the past two years now, just inside the man door of the shop.




The top box and a few bottom drawers were loaded into his truck and the bottom box wheeled up onto my utility trailer.




Off to its new home.


That really opened up some space in the shop.


Thanks for looking.

 

[WoodsTruck]

Looks like you have room for a new project...

 

[lilscorpion]

He asked me if I would mind helping him move it this morning and then work on his Jeep.

You’d be happy to help tho you’d prefer to keep it right where it is and he can come (visit and) use it anytime he wants. Good talk now let’s work on that Jeep!! [emoji6]

 

[zmotorsports]

Looks like you have room for a new project...

I’m sure eventually there will be another project. I’m just trying to get caught up in current ones at the moment.

 

[zmotorsports]

You’d be happy to help tho you’d prefer to keep it right where it is and he can come (visit and) use it anytime he wants. Good talk now let’s work on that Jeep!! [emoji6]

Thanks Matt. Yeah, happy to help and I told him there’s no sense in having them here, he can use mine whenever he comes over and this way he has some tools at his place.

 

[shortykorte]

All that free space, perfect for puppies. Sorry Mike, couldn’t resist.
For your a-hole neighbor, maybe motion activated lawn sprinklers are the ticket.


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[C2tuck]

Ahem...why isn’t that badass perfectly welded and powder coated bumper missing from the rear of his Jeep??

 

[zmotorsports]

Ahem...why isn’t that badass perfectly welded and powder coated bumper missing from the rear of his Jeep??

We haven't had a chance to install it since we got it back from powder coating.

We removed the OEM bumper cover the other day to both install the new rear bumper as well as diagnose a small EVAP leak that he has.

 

[chasetepher]

Hey Mike,

Gotta say, I've been working through this thread for the past few days and I'm only up to February of 2018 but I'm super impressed with all that you've built, and your willingness to share. I'm not sure if it's been mentioned elsewhere, but what size is your lift? It seems to handle the Duramax with no issue, and I've been trying to size one that will lift our quadcab Powerstroke truck. The standard 9K lift technically has about 2K lbs overhead, but I don't know if that's generally considered to be enough.

Thanks for any insight!

 

[zmotorsports]

Hey Mike,

Gotta say, I've been working through this thread for the past few days and I'm only up to February of 2018 but I'm super impressed with all that you've built, and your willingness to share. I'm not sure if it's been mentioned elsewhere, but what size is your lift? It seems to handle the Duramax with no issue, and I've been trying to size one that will lift our quadcab Powerstroke truck. The standard 9K lift technically has about 2K lbs overhead, but I don't know if that's generally considered to be enough.

Thanks for any insight!

Thank you very much for the comments. I am flattered that you have been working your way through my thread and chose it to make your first post on the forum.

As for my lift, it is an Ammco 10k pound two-post and easily handles my Duramax which weighs just over 7k pounds. I've had my brothers 4-door dually Cummins Dodge on it as well, which is probably the heaviest truck I have had on it.

 

[chasetepher]

Thank you very much for the comments. I am flattered that you have been working your way through my thread and chose it to make your first post on the forum.

As for my lift, it is an Ammco 10k pound two-post and easily handles my Duramax which weighs just over 7k pounds. I've had my brothers 4-door dually Cummins Dodge on it as well, which is probably the heaviest truck I have had on it.

That is good info, thank you sir! I know the DRW trucks get pretty heavy, so it's reassuring to know it handled that.

Yep, I like to read and learn, and this forum and your threads are great for that. I'm in Texas, but the Ogden area is sort of a second home. I've rode PowMow and Basin nearly every winter over the past 10 years and I did the Ogden half marathon in 2017. A wonderful area, I love seeing what you do up there.

 

[zmotorsports]

That is good info, thank you sir! I know the DRW trucks get pretty heavy, so it's reassuring to know it handled that.

Yep, I like to read and learn, and this forum and your threads are great for that. I'm in Texas, but the Ogden area is sort of a second home. I've rode PowMow and Basin nearly every winter over the past 10 years and I did the Ogden half marathon in 2017. A wonderful area, I love seeing what you do up there.

That is awesome.

Thank you. We kind of like the Ogden/Northern Utah area which is why we've stuck around. I've only been to Texas twice however, once to Palo Duro for a RV Rally and once to Big Bend/Terlingua area also for an RV/Jeep rally.

 

[chasetepher]

That is awesome.

Thank you. We kind of like the Ogden/Northern Utah area which is why we've stuck around. I've only been to Texas twice however, once to Palo Duro for a RV Rally and once to Big Bend/Terlingua area also for an RV/Jeep rally.

Sounds about right. Plenty of RV's in the state, but they mostly seem to be trying to get out, not in. Not as much to see here, except the spots you mentioned and maybe Austin/Central Texas/Hill Country area.

I've reached the Mysterious Brown Box, I'm hoping the guesses of "LS Mowter" are correct. If it has found its way into something fun and you need more oomph, I happen to work for a company that builds turbos for LS applications.

 

[zmotorsports]

Sounds about right. Plenty of RV's in the state, but they mostly seem to be trying to get out, not in. Not as much to see here, except the spots you mentioned and maybe Austin/Central Texas/Hill Country area.

I've reached the Mysterious Brown Box, I'm hoping the guesses of "LS Mowter" are correct. If it has found its way into something fun and you need more oomph, I happen to work for a company that builds turbos for LS applications.

I won't spoil it then but I hope you like what I did with the contents of the big brown box.

 

[zmotorsports]

I was planning on finishing up the EVAP issue on my son’s WJ tonight but the LDP (Leak Detection Pump) didn’t come in today. The driver forgot it from the warehouse so when I showed up to my local NAPA to pick it up I got the deer in the headlights look.

Oh well I have plenty of other stuff to do.

I removed the grille on my Jeep as the lower core support has been showing some signs of paint wearing off and a light coat of surface rust was evident when I pressure washed it the other day.

This was visible through the grille and bugged me.


After removing the grille I sanded the metal support down and masked the area.






That looks much better.






I then shifted gears and started removing components to get to the injectors on my son’s 4.7 V8.


Everything out of the way and ready to pull the fuel rail and injectors.

 

[zmotorsports]

Tonight I completed the replacement of the EVAP LDP (Leak Detection Pump) in my son’s WJ then tested it with the smoke machine.


I then had to apply engine vacuum to the vent valve solenoid and activate it using my Snap-on Modus Ultra.

Here is a small vacuum pump I modified years ago using a vacuum pump from an old oil recovery tank that cracked and had to be discarded. It produces about 20 inches of vacuum.


At first I was still showing a very small leak but upon inspection I noted that there was smoke coming from two hoses so I used zip-ties to tighten them onto the spigots. After that the flow meter dropped to zero indicating a sealed system.


Next I moved back to the injectors and removed them from the Jeep and turned them upside down on the bench in preparation for replacement.


Injectors done and top of the engine reassembled.


While my son was helping me we threw the rear bumper on.




Next I’ll prep the tire carrier for installation.

Thanks for looking.

 

[zmotorsports]

Since my last Moab trip in April when I wanted to test out the new tires and especially the drivetrain I have been tweaking the suspension just a bit as I had a very slight interference issue in the rear and a more major interference issue in the front.

If you remember the front was contacting the front bumper upon full stuff and turned full lock in either direction. I cut the front bumper a few weeks back to gain some clearance and then played with my bumpstops on the front to get me as much compression as I could without contacting anything. I think I'm there. I ended up trimming the front bumpstops down 1/2" to a total of 3" tall bumpstops in the front after trimming the front bumper as I had plenty of clearance.

In the rear I also had a little more clearance upon full stuff so I opted to remove about 1/2" of bump stop from the rear as well to get those 37's up a little closer to the fender as well as the rear bumper. The areas at the front of the rear wheelwells where I heated and recontoured the inner fender are providing ample clearance now.

From my experience for running dunes/desert or high speeds the 50/50 droop/uptravel ratio is a good target. For trails and rocks I like to shoot for closer to 60/40 droop/uptravel but have a few guys that prefer to be closer to 70/30 droop/uptravel. I know a lot of people prefer that LCG (Low Center of Gravity) and that seems to be all the buzz lately but in all honesty, it doesn't always work out as a benefit, especially on these long four-door JK's that start out with a low breakover angle. It becomes a balancing act of being high enough to get that belly over obstacles but not so high that the center of gravity is thrown off giving a very "tippy" feeling on obstacles. This leaves me to try and find a balance in the 60/40 droop/uptravel ratio measured from ride-height. I should also mention that my Jeep is not strictly a rock-crawler but a do-all Jeep so I want it to have great pavement manners from winding two-lane country roads to interstates to mountain passes yet still flex decent and wheel great off-road. Obviously if I were building a more specific car for rock-crawling or high speed desert racing those ratios would be different and I would want a lot more overall travel and possibly even go with coilovers to get that increased travel. Also worth noting that I wanted a "sleeper" if you will, meaning something that when the average person looks at my Jeep they simply say "oh that's like every other 4-door Jeep on 37's", yet to the experienced eye one will spend hours looking at all of the small details and the fact that I didn't sway from the OEM lines.

This is why I kept the OEM fenders and didn't hack and cut up my body like many do. I'm not a fan of flat fenders nor cutting and hacking up the wheelwells for a daily driver as I want this to look just as nice in 10-15 years as it does now. I also didn't want to add wheel adapters and space them out an additional 1.5" like most people do, but it did cost me a little bit of travel by keeping my wheel backspacing at 4.5". Again, if I were building a more focused or specific car for desert racing or rock crawling I obviously would have done things differently. When we were with our local club the other night for our meeting I was talking with several fellow members and they were all complaining about how ****** their Jeeps are on the pavement between terrible riding and overheating issues because both are running 40's and the lowest gearing they can get is 5.38 so the little V6 engines are struggling and it is creating a lot of strain on their cars. We are getting ready for the club's monthly run and both are considering trailering their rigs to the trail because of the poor handling and overheating issues, however, this particular trail isn't an out & back trail, it actually exits the trail on the other side of the mountain so they were debating on how to get back to their trailers. Their Jeeps are definitely borderline buggies but yet not as street friendly as most others in the club. THIS is exactly what I didn't want with my Jeep. I can drive it all day long or cross country and then hit the trails and when I'm done playing off-road I can air up and drive all day long back to camp or home. I think I nailed it whereas they have their built for rocks and other driving duties they suffer through. Yes, they perform great on the rocks and set the bar for the rest of us but many of the trails have a mixture of obstacles and not just rocks so their Jeeps are built for the 10% of the car's duties and the other 90% they don't perform well. In my mind that is not a good ratio. They may out-flex me and have a bit more clearance on the rocks but I get over them (or around them) and enjoy the rest of the day in my Jeep. I kept mine as low as possible for low COG (Center of Gravity) yet has enough clearance to get over most of the obstacles on the rated trails that I run. Using the 1-10 scale I usually run 4-7 and an occasional 8-rated trail. Our national club uses the 1-5 scale so we are in the 2.5-3.5 range with the occasional 4-rated trail. I try to avoid the ones that are more suited for buggies and will more than likely induce body damage and I am fine with that.

All that being said, let me get back to my suspension specs now that I "think" I have everything dialed in.

I increased my suspension travel slightly from OEM specs of 8 inches of travel. I have longer Fox 2.0 shocks installed but I also went one step further and installed limiting straps several years ago as I don't like the shocks to be either my bump stops OR my limiting straps as that is hard on shocks. I had also ripped off the upper control arm brackets from my rear axle a few years ago due to having so much flex so I opted to install some limiting straps and eliminate some of those stresses at the cost of overall travel.

I currently think I have it dialed in perfectly but won't know for certain until I am able to get it off road next month. In the front I have 10 inches of total travel, 5.75" of droop and 4.25" uptravel which nets me a 58/42 droop/uptravel ratio. I can now turn my front tires to full lock at full stuff and clear my front bumper by about 1/2" at the tightest point. In the rear I have 9" of total travel with 5..5" of droop and 3.5" of uptravel netting me a 61/39 droop/uptravel ratio.

I don't have any pictures of the front end stuffed when I tested it a few weeks ago but here are a few pictures of my rear at droop and full stuff including the tightest point. I took these this morning on the way to work and after I took 1/2" of rear bumpstop out as I had some clearance left. I think this is about perfect where I want to be.

Drooped out nearly to the max. as my limiting strap was not completely stretched yet.


Full stuff up against the jounce stop. I think a hard stuff could maybe get it another 1/4” but that’s about it and I have clearance for that.


The tightest point at full stuff and again, I “think” I have built in a little cushion for another 1/4” if needs be such as a hard stuff.

 

[bmxdad]

When you said "Sleeper" I was with you. What Chrysler should have done.

 

[zmotorsports]

When you said "Sleeper" I was with you. What Chrysler should have done.

Agreed. The clean, un-adulterated look. At least for a daily driver/weekend wheeler. IF it were merely a weekend toy I'm sure I would be going all out on body mods and more custom touches.

 

[LXCam]

There’s far too much to comment on Mike. So I’ll just say it’s great seeing you back in action with your thorough stories and explanations.

Just one question. Will we be seeing the finality of the rear bumper/tire rack this weekend. Inquiring minds need to know

 

[zmotorsports]

There’s far too much to comment on Mike. So I’ll just say it’s great seeing you back in action with your thorough stories and explanations.

Just one question. Will we be seeing the finality of the rear bumper/tire rack this weekend. Inquiring minds need to know

Thanks Cam. I don’t know if I’ll get to the carrier this weekend.

I am going over to my son’s future mother-in-law’s to do yard work in preparation for their wedding. She’s a bit stressed that the yard won’t be ready so my wife and I volunteered to go over this weekend and help.

Hopefully next week I’ll wrap up the bumper/tire carrier then continue chipping away at his list.

I hope all of the previous ramblings made sense Cam.


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[LXCam]

Thanks Cam. I don’t know if I’ll get to the carrier this weekend.

I am going over to my son’s future mother-in-law’s to do yard work in preparation for their wedding. She’s a bit stressed that the yard won’t be ready so my wife and I volunteered to go over this weekend and help.

Hopefully next week I’ll wrap up the bumper/tire carrier then continue chipping away at his list.

I hope all of the previous ramblings made sense Cam.


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So let me straight this get. If I remember right you despised all the work turning your yard into a real show piece.

Now you’re going to go help recreate perfection........well as best as humanly possible.

You sir are a gluten for punishment

Bud, there’s no rambling and I always enjoy the details.

 

[zmotorsports]

So let me straight this get. If I remember right you despised all the work turning your yard into a real show piece.



Now you’re going to go help recreate perfection........well as best as humanly possible.



You sir are a gluten for punishment



Bud, there’s no rambling and I always enjoy the details.

Yeah, I’m not thrilled about the yard work but my future daughter-in-law is pretty stressed and I can’t stand seeing her like that so I want to do what I can to help, even if it is yard work.

Tomorrow will consist of removing a tree stump, repairing the area and then hauling bark. Gonna be a long day.


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[Firstram]

It's still better than having anyone step on your lawn. I see what you're doing, crafty!

 

[gearhead1960]

Yard work for the homeowner is a necessary evil if you want your property to look good. A little streaming music and a hoppy beverage always makes it go better. You go Mike!


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