The Build of "porkchop"

[cruiserbrandon]

Good Morning everyone,

My name is Brandon Mueller, I am a technician for my family owned business here in Pueblo, Co. Mueller's Auto has been in business for 32 years and I have been a technician for 10, 7 of the most recent years I am classified as a "lead" or "master" technician although I cant imagine why they would want the blind leading the blind (kidding I take my job very serious). We are a 3 man crew with a paraplegic service writer who got me into wheeling back when I was around 12, which is about the time I had a dream of an early 80's Land Cruiser with a massive diesel, huge axles and ridiculous tires. The service writer I tell you about has no use from the waist down and has been on every camping/wheeling/snowbashing trip we have put together, in fact he is the one that organizes most of them so really cool dude. Now the other half of the story, when I was born in 1984 my Dad found out I was a boy and wanted to raise me up to hunt and fish and get outdoors, so at that time the fj60 was the beefiest rig he could find and the 1983f fj60 I grew up with was the only vehicle he has purchased brand new right of the lot, so I have a lot of history with these cruisers. In mid 90's he sold the 83 to build the shop we are in now and my bread and butter so it made perfect sense that when this 84 identical cruiser in bone stock form with 225000 miles on it fell in my lap for $1500.


Then bought a parts rig with a 4 inch lift soa and a sbc with the intention of going a little wild but opted to swap the 4" sua in and do some work to the 2f

parts rig (frame was pretty rusted)

and the frankenchild

Ran the 35's for a while and wheeled the snot out of it


Then recurved dizzy, adjusted valves (and had a little fun with the valve cover) and rebuilt carb, got me 13mpg in town 15 highway with 35's



The wife above Teluride

also stepped down to 33's

Theres the history I will get you the future here very soon, got to get to work

 

[cruiserbrandon]

present and future plans

Now the plan, first let me explain I love my 2f and stock axles, would absolutely build them in a heart beat and be perfectly happy and one day may have an all original fj60 just to keep and restore, this build is about "can I do it and why hasn't someone else tried it". That being said I am doing my best to make this amazing but everything I'm doing is out of the box and frowned upon by just about everyone who know everything on pirate
hence why my build thread is somewhere else (ya that will show them). I expect to succeed but am completely ready to fail and see why no one does this and yes I have done about 3 years worth of research saving up and collecting parts. Here we go

THE PLAN

Military specs J engine code 6.5, originally built by Detroit, refined by GM. This motor is originally turbocharged but as I will explain later I intend to supercharge it.

4l80 with custom controller

magnum crawl box from ORD (gotta keep business local)

np205

dana 60 front with 4.88's and ARB air locker

14 bolt rear with 4.88's and ARB air locker

stretched to 118" on air bag suspension and 42" radius arms

Intend on running Military tires on the street since they're cheap and If I can afford them 42's for when I wanna go full out. If not some good 38's or 40's just depends on funds.


Tear Down




Pretty much the entire RUFF STUFF catalog on the floor

 

[Corbet]

I like the direction this is headed.

 

[baja1d]

I dig it

 

[cruiserbrandon]

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[URL=http://s704.photobucket.com/user/jeepin6824/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20151128_192349_zpstpgrukep.jpg.html]







So that is where I am at right now, so let me explain what I have learned and why I went this direction.

Engine

So the 6.5 has gotten a bad rep, why? They are overworked and expected to be cummins or powerstroke type of power and abuse.

They are the perfect LIGHT DUTY diesel that can be an awesome engine with the right mods, the military specs version has 2 times the amount of nickel in the block making them less susceptible to blowing head gaskets and overheating, in stock form they weigh less than a big block chevy by 50 lbs, other than the water pump, externals are all small block chevy including motor mounts, alternator, power steering pump and other misc stuff making them very easy to find upgrades for externals.

In stock form they can handle 4k rpms with little issue, and with some balancing they are capable of 5k and still be reliable, look up Bill Heath, he holds the diesel land speed record with a modified 6.5 at around 400 hp. Not acceptable for everyday use but 300 hp is perfectly acceptable for 200000 miles with little issue. The military option has the 4911 injection pump which can easily put enough fuel for 300 hp with enough air which brings up my other point SUPERCHARGER.

The 6.5 is an indirect injection motor with very high compression (22.5) cummins is 18.5 that's why this is one of the only 4 stroke diesels that really wake up with supercharging, cummins and powerstroke need 30 psi to build power and superchargers become very inefficient after about 15 which is exactly how much the 6.5 needs to build good power with no turbo lag. A company out of California installed a BILLET supercharger in an fj80 with a 6.5 swapped in and saw huge improvements in power, it would beat a modified turbo 6.5 by 2 car lengths in acceleration to 80 mph, it also drastically improved the efficiency, the fj80 with 33's was getting mid 20's for fuel mileage. I have a friend who has a Suburban getting 27 mpg with 37's on the highway with a highly modified 6.5 and a Banks sidewinder kit pushing 12 psi and it moves very well.

So my plan is to use new technology in an eaton m122 off of a late model mustang, it will be very easy to adapt and with a very aggressive waste gate ran off of throttle I should be able to get mid to high 20's running 37's and have power to do whatever I want.

Now airbags for suspension, this is probably gonna be my hardest one to figure out. The airbags will net 11 inches of adjustable travel depending on the type of wheeling, it will also allow for forced flex and the option to level in off camber or steep climbs, Since I am running a radius arm option I will also be able to control squat and anti-squat on the fly. I think everything else is self explanatory so stay tuned and feel free to offer constructive criticism in my down time. My wife is 9 months pregnant so I will try and keep this up to date as much as possible but there may be a couple weeks at a time where I may get nothing done. BTW I have had lots of practice designing suspension on scale crawlers and I don't care what people say this radius arm based crawler would walk right over the top of the 4 link, 3 link and any other link based suspension out there.

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[LXBRADY]

Me likey

 

[74fj40]

Looks good. I don't disagree that radius arms work well, but I have seen themany cause a lot of binding, some guys will pull 1 bolt on the upper axle link on one side or some will build a hinged arm. A lot of rover guys have hinged radius arms.

Either way, cool build and looking forward to seeing the progress!

 

[cruiserbrandon]

Looks good. I don't disagree that radius arms work well, but I have seen themany cause a lot of binding, some guys will pull 1 bolt on the upper axle link on one side or some will build a hinged arm. A lot of rover guys have hinged radius arms.

Either way, cool build and looking forward to seeing the progress!

I'm only running one upper link so binding will not be an issue, I am thinking about welding the brackets for the other side and maybe if I'm snow bashing or doing mud bogging or just on road driving I may put both uppers on to save bushings and such but when doing anything significant for flex one side will be gone. My Dads Grand Cherokee has a setup very close with just one radius arm and one side is a simply lower link and its stupid flex with coils. He only runs 33's with 5 inches of lift cause anything bigger would be all up in the body when it flexes. Thanks for your input though

 

[74fj40]

Absolutely. One link is a great idea! Keep up the great work.

 

[DanS]

That's some outside the box thinking!

I dig it.

Dan

 

[cruiserbrandon]

Question for everyone,

suspension travel?

I really want to have a measurement and see how much average for a crawler and see how it compares to 11 inches. To me that seems like a lot but with up travel and down travel is 11 overall more than normal?
Less than normal?
If anyone is feeling froggy and wants to add pics of flex and measurement of overall flex that would really help me to understand where to put my bump stops and limiting straps. That's at the springs, leaf or coil and how far in from the wheel mount if possible.

Air bags are very temperamental about they can only be compressed to 8 inchs and can only expand to 19 inches, overextended or over compressed will result in immediate failure costing me $150 per air bag so I really want to get it right. If all you guys out there are happy with 8-10 inches of travel I may just go conservative and set everything before max and min to save me a headache.

 

[Rezarf]

Looking forward to more! Cool build.

 

[nakman]

Are you thinking of suspension travel in terms of shock travel? Or are you talking how much up and down the tires will go?

 

[Hulk]

Excellent thread. Keep it up, man.

 

[cruiserbrandon]

Are you thinking of suspension travel in terms of shock travel? Or are you talking how much up and down the tires will go?

Actually stock travel would be very helpful, fully droop the shocks and tell me how much shaft is showing and where the shock is mounted. Pics are very helpful

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

 

[AxleIke]

11 inches of travel at the bag will be a bunch more at the wheel, especially on full widths, when the axle articulates. If you aren't planning on jumping it, 11" will be fine. Put bumps on to keep the bags happy.

14" is pretty common on linked setups with coilovers on bodied rigs. 12 and 16 are done as well, but 16 is often difficult to use with fenders.

Lots of people run the same 3link you have on your front with no issues. Guy in this club has one on his 40. Makes packaging convenient. Just make sure the lowers are beef.

 

[cruiserbrandon]

Thanks for the responses, I understand due to pendulum action that flex will be substantially more depending on how far in the springs are mounted, I have no intention of jumping this thing since its gonna weigh probably 8k when I get all done with armor and heavy duty everything. So I think 11 is just fine, they do make longer travel air bags if I feel the need they where just anywhere from 175 to 250 a piece and as much as 17" with a triple convoluted air bag that you can literally pancake but they also need massive amount of air, are like 12 inches wide and work on up to 600 psi which I cant think of many simple air compressors that will push that kind of pressure.

Got a lot more done and am almost in the "holding its own weight" category.
Most if this is for mock up and will get re-done(the panhard bracket for example) to make it cleaner, just making changes to get things right






Spent lots of time making sure the steering linkage was perfect and I'm pretty happy, its way up out of the way and parallel as it gets, unfortunately the panhard bar it kinda short do to trying to fit everything. If I get much bump steer I will redo it but for now I think its worth trying.






The previously mentioned ugly panhard bar bracket and spring perch I made to work, a little welding and grinding and the spring perch will work but the panhard bracket I will just redo since theres no making that pretty since all the welds and grinding will be exposed.


After getting everything tacked I cycled the suspension up and down and flex roughly 8 inches on both sides so 16 inches total and was able to move all the bolts still so absolutely no binding, pretty excited to see how well it handles and works on the trail.

Well my wife is breach with the baby so we scheduled a C section for Tuesday of next week, it will probably be February before I get a chance to get really serious about final welding and getting the motor and stuff where its gonna stay but if I get a chance I will get some more done and update.

 

[cruiserbrandon]

Sorry it took so long for me to get back on here to post, but I got a fair amount done just hate how long Photobucket takes to move around photos so I wanted to wait until I had enough time to post it all in one sitting.

Pulled axles out and built some trusses to reinforce the upper link and for housing strength, I have no intention of jumping this thing but its nice to know i could if I wanted to



This truss was sourced from ruffstuff for the 14 bolt and its a monster



Put some junk coils under it to get it on its own weight for now, ride height will probably be a couple inches lower and cut the heck out of the body to clear the tires I want to run 42's




Temporary cut to clear the $100 rollers I got, military 36's that are closer to a 34 for comparison

Ton of flex and plenty more possible with the sheet metal clearanced

 

[cruiserbrandon]

Also built some motor mounts and got the motor stuck where its gonna be

 

[OilHammer]

Wow! Nice skills you have there!
Ok, I have a stupid question. I don't know squat about suspension design, but all of the panhards I've seen are a lot longer than the one on your front axle. Any particular reason you deviated so much there from "normal"?
Basic geometry rationale, is that the shorter you make a diagonal, the more it alters the axle path as you move the assembly up and down....but putting it all the way to the wheel means you have to clear the frame, right?