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Varg In Jeep's Clothing

Aaaaaand she’s torn apart again.

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I’ve been going nuts trying to locate the final oil leak. I thought I finally pinpointed it coming from the distributor on the back of the head. To get to that, I had to pull everything out from under the dash again; the new intake tube, airbox and plumbing, and the dog house over the distributor. I pulled the distributor, and it was dry around the bore. The O-ring was doing its job.

There was oil above the distributor which meant I still had a leak coming from the valve cover. I got it separated and found a 1/4” spot over the rear cam hump that had no contact.I should manage to get it resealed and reassembled tomorrow.

Some really good news… I had to take the charge pipe off to get the valve cover off, so it gave me a chance to look inside the turbo after 20-something heat cycles and a few good beatings. I pulled this unit out of a junkyard 10-ish years ago, and I’ve been nervous about its condition since.

Turbo and charge pipe dry inside, with only this tiny ring of oil on the edge of the outlet bore. Score!

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Well, THAT oil leak was cured. It got a healthy dose of right stuff that showed a consistent squeeze-out around the valve cover.

I still have a few tiny ones that I just can’t pinpoint. The problem with running full synthetic oil is that is spreads on surfaces like a virus and stays wet seemingly forever. Everything looks damp, and little stalactites of oil form on every low-hanging point but rarely drip. I might have to wait till there’s a coating of dust on it and look for the clean spots.

For all intents and purposes, I’m calling this turbo swap DONE. It’s given me no reason not to trust it so far, and it’s running the same/as good as it was before the swap, just with more power. Oil pressure even reads in the same range as before. Engine temps have actually been reading cooler, but we have yet to see how it does when ambient temps climb.

Next up is the rebuild of the other steering knuckle. I’ve been procrastinating because it’s a suck job. But I’d rather electively do it here than at a camp site out of necessity.
 
One last detail I was putting off was the shroud that bolts to the back of the grill. It needed to be trimmed to accept the oil cooler. You can see the sharpie lines…

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I considered leaving it out, but the horns and a relay mount to that piece, and there’s no room for them without it.

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Another small detail that has been bugging me; the new fan clutch I purchased last summer was identical in every way EXCEPT that it was spaced away from the engine and toward the radiator by 1/4” more. The fan has never touched the radiator, but it was super close.

I removed the top brace and cut 1/4” out of the center. (The hole in the center was square before.)

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There’s a good 3/8” gap now. Much better.

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That’s as far as I could move it and still have an acceptable gap at the notch in the cage.

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I’m excited for nicer weather so I can get out and enjoy this thing.
 
I’ve been having an issue where if this thing sits for a week or more, it won’t start; it just clicks. Voltage isn’t really low enough to not start, so I think I have a combination of a tiny draw and a bad connection somewhere. I added another ground strap that was still on order when I finished this up, we’ll see if that helps.

In the meantime, I ordered a jumpstart booster pack (and protective case) to throw in the tool kit. It’s just a hair wider/longer than a dollar bill. I’ve wanted one for a while anyway. It also doubles as a flashlight and device charger. Great peace of mind for $80.

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Before the turbo, my maximum velocity through the air around me was a constant that was limited by the power of the NA engine. The speed was around 75 max. With a 15mph headwind, I could do 60. 15mph tailwind? 90! My hood would dance around, but I never gave much thought to the hood latches, and what danger they posed if they decided to let loose.

After the turbo, doing 90 into a strong headwind had me questioning them, and my safety. The hood would bow up like a rainbow and the latches were clinging to life. So I grabbed another footman loop and put it in the front edge of the hood for a center tie-down. Much better!!! Hood stays still at any speed I can throw at it. I’ll get a smaller clasp at some point; this is the only one I had on hand.

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I took her out for a trial off-road run yesterday to see how the new setup feels in her element. I went up to the CDA National Forest out of Fernan. This climb used to kick my butt. The 2nd/3rd dance for 8 miles straight up to 4100’, all paved and twisty.

It’s a whole different experience now. 3rd gear all the way without effort, often even grabbing 4th on the straights.

I went up to check snow levels. They’re surprisingly low for how worthless our winter was. I was still on pavement when I started hitting patches.

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The dirt sections were a dream. One long uphill section where I had about 1/4 mile of visibility, I really opened her up and hit 70 before I had to back off for a turn. Awesome!!

On my way out, I pulled off at the saddle to warm my hands and unlock my hubs. Some dirt bikes popped out of one of the trails. One of the guys in the party blasted up one of the hillclimbs out of the lot. A forest service ranger came flying from across the lot with her lights on, and came out screaming. She was being stern, but educational, explaining the laws without being mean or throwing fines at them. Then two more guys came out of the same trail and blasted up the same hill right in front of her, and she blew her top!

I caught a pic of the two guys doing the walk of shame over to her.

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I recently had the same issue with leaking voltage that killed my brand new yellow top battery in a couple of days. To diagnose, I closed the shop door of the shop and shut off all of the lights so it was dark, and then removed the positive battery clamp from the battery post. I could see a little spark when I touched the battery clamp to the post, so I knew there was leaking voltage. So, I started removing fuses from the first fuse box one at a time, but the little spark was still visible, which meant none of the circuits in that fuse box was the problem. Before I moved to the fuse box inside the jeep, I pulled the wire from the alternator plug (post 1 if I remember correctly) that goes to the positive post on the back of the alternator and the spark went away. I tested a few more times to confirm, and a new alternator solved the problem.

If the spark went away when I pulled one of the fuses, I would have followed that circuit to find the offending component.
 
cj2atruck said:
I recently had the same issue with leaking voltage that killed my brand new yellow top battery in a couple of days. To diagnose, I closed the shop door of the shop and shut off all of the lights so it was dark, and then removed the positive battery clamp from the battery post. I could see a little spark when I touched the battery clamp to the post, so I knew there was leaking voltage. So, I started removing fuses from the first fuse box one at a time, but the little spark was still visible, which meant none of the circuits in that fuse box was the problem. Before I moved to the fuse box inside the jeep, I pulled the wire from the alternator plug (post 1 if I remember correctly) that goes to the positive post on the back of the alternator and the spark went away. I tested a few more times to confirm, and a new alternator solved the problem.

If the spark went away when I pulled one of the fuses, I would have followed that circuit to find the offending component.
Click to expand...
I have had multiple batteries fail. One in my jeep, 3 on dirt bikes and several on devices I repair. All tested good for voltage, but under load the voltage drop was significant to create problems. For the electronics, it presented as intermittent strange faults. These were across different brands and times, but all within the last year.
 
ITLKSEZ said:
A forest service ranger came flying from across the lot with her lights on, and came out screaming. She was being stern, but educational, explaining the laws without being mean or throwing fines at them. Then two more guys came out of the same trail and blasted up the same hill right in front of her, and she blew her top!
Click to expand...
Good for her! I wish there was more enforcement like that.
 
47v6 said:
I have had multiple batteries fail. One in my jeep, 3 on dirt bikes and several on devices I repair. All tested good for voltage, but under load the voltage drop was significant to create problems. For the electronics, it presented as intermittent strange faults. These were across different brands and times, but all within the last year.
Click to expand...
Sad that quality has gone that low!
 
We went camping over the weekend…

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…and finally got the chance to give the jeep a proper flogging. I’m happy to report that everything worked great! Zero issues. The turbo transformed this thing. Every aspect of driving it is effortless. No extra thought is now needed when approaching a hill to add a little momentum in order to make it without downshifting. Gravel corners that were plagued by understeer before are now met with enough power to drift through and blast out of. Good times.

I was able to get a better grasp on just how much its fuel milage took a hit. We drove all day on Saturday, covering about 140 miles of street and trail. This would’ve normally used around 6 gallons, and now it used 7. Noticeable, but still manageable.

It was a tad early in the season to be up as high as we were attempting. We drove across miles of snow before we decided it was too sketchy to continue on our own and turned around when we still could.

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In my eternal quest to occupy every last cubic inch of this engine compartment, and make it ever-increasingly difficult to work on, I think I’ve come close to my goal.

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Notice the hoses, fittings, and valve in the foreground:

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This is a ‘bucket list’ feature for me. I’ve wanted a hot water shower on a wheeling rig since I was a teenager.

Since I don’t have the room -or the need- for a heater in this topless rig, the feeds for the heater core were just looped together back at the firewall. What better use for those lines than to plumb them through a water-to-water heat exchanger?

I found one on Vevor’s website that looked like it would do the trick for $120. I had to laugh when I received it. There were no pictures where the scale of the unit was shown. It was comically large with 1 1/4” NPT fittings.

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I found the one I thought I was getting (for $48 and with $3/4” fittings) and ordered it. I’ll keep the big one; I think I have a plan for that one in the future.

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The only hole I had left in the engine compartment…

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I took some cow mat and carved out a groove for the base of the exchanger to fit in, then I bent a tray for it to fit in. Then I made some CAD templates for the rest of the mount.

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I used a bend from a piece of exhaust tubing as the sleeve that will get clamped the the cage tube. With all the pieces bent and tacked in place, the test fit felt pretty good.

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It was hard to get a picture of the finished product because it’s so tight.

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The valve on top will act as a temperature dial for the shower.

I’ll get pics of my pump setup tomorrow. Stay tuned!
 
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The rest of the story…

I have to cap the freshwater ports to keep dirt out of them when not in use. Since they don’t make a male cap for a hose (that I could find), I had to make one. I got a male-to-male junction and turned it on the lathe to press-fit into a female cap.

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For the pump, the one in the motorhome was old, noisy, and directly under my head while sleeping. I bought the quietest pump I could find and swapped it out. That move was actually what prompted me to pursue the jeep shower.

To keep the pump from sucking up dirt, I built a stainless box that can get tossed in a stream. The stainless mesh is a cheap strainer from Walmart.

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Testing the pump…

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I built a magnetic shower head with a pause valve.

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I finally had all the pieces put together to give this thing a try. I took it around the block to warm it up. I hooked everything up, filled a 5 gallon bucket, chucked the inlet in, turned the pump on, and HOT water came out clouded in steam!

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I closed the hot water valve a little to dial back the temp, and it ran through all 5 gallons at the same temp without dropping the engine temp below 180°, which is where the thermostat rides.

The whole assembly fits in this carrying case, but I might go with one a bit larger. I want to give the pump a longer cord, and I want to be able to fit the green collapsible hose in there too.

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My GF says she has a lead on an interesting shower curtain setup, she just has to find it on one of her Pinterest pages :study:

Super stoked that this worked!!


Oh, one more thing. The valve cover that I cut up and welded has a bunch of little weepy spots, just as I suspected it would. That was the most porous, dirty aluminum I’ve ever seen. Oh well. I’ll wipe it off every once in a while. It’ll keep it from corroding.

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My thought... get a brass blowout plug and a 3gal pump sprayer. Cut the sprayer hose towards the wand and add a brass air chuck.
Put a male air fitting on the wand.
 
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