Charonblk07's build thread

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DavidRam

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Well, I am just the kinda guy to buy and try out your design when/if it comes together! Lol :)
 
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charonblk07

charonblk07

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Just stopped in to the E-mortal custom shop in Calgary to discuss the suspension work that I'm in desperate need of to correct the back end geometry and to give me some real axle/frame clearance. Plans are now to keep the Spohn adjustable bars to simplify replacement parts but it'll be custom bracketry for the control arms, relocating the swaybar brackets, adjusting the panhard bar location and moving the axle bracket. She goes in for surgery next month.

After discussing with the fabricator I really don't have enough suspension travel to make the addition of a watts link worth the extra effort, once the panhard bar is relocated there should only be 1/2"-3/4" of deflection side to side at my current ride height which is more than capable of being handled by the spherical joints of the Spohn bars once it's all repositioned.

Also got to have a look at the front end and see what's making all the noise up there, thankfully it's not the CV joints, but the front axle and stub shaft now have a bunch of play in them so they'll need to get rebuilt but it'll be a project in due time, the back end needs the work sooner rather than later; the upper control arms have been smacking off the frame and now all the control arm jam nuts have come loose which is causing a big racket as the bars are able to move a lot more on their own. Once it's all setup properly those jam nuts are getting a tack weld to hold them in place.
 
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charonblk07

charonblk07

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I've been delinquent in keeping up with my build logs. I finally finished the audio install and when I fired everything up my 600/4 started popping fuses. I need to send it out to JL to get it repaired because there seems to be a short on the power supply and there are no repair shops locally that will touch a JL product. I haven't run this thing since it was in the car crash 2 years ago so that could have been a contributing factor, but the 900/5 that it was stacked on is fine.

I build my on-axis tweeter pods and they're roughed in but not fully finished yet.
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Then they got wrapped and glassed together
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I have them sanded down and installed just to get things tuning but since that's now down the drain I'll be working on them for the next couple of days to get them smoothed out and painted.
 
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charonblk07

charonblk07

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Took the truck into the local U-wrench to get it up on a lift to work on some stuff that is a real PITA to do on the ground since it's quite low.

I have been dealing with PML to test their front diff cover for the Chrysler 12-bolt. The thing is very well made and looks great. I don't know what all I can show yet, but I'll just drop one pic

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I also installed my bump steer kit in prep for the suspension rework and alignment that will start next week.
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While I was under there I did an oil change as well, seemed like a good thing to do. Downside is it was kinda smelly, smelled like exhaust and was very very dark, which makes me think I need to get the smog pump wired back in to start evacuating the crankcase. I pulled it after I had a lot of oil infiltration and never got it back in. I've been running a road draft tube but it's been throwing an evap leak code.

I also swapped out my BBK 85mm for a stock TB to try and cure the high air flow codes I was getting that would throw the lightening bolt and could only be rectified by turning off the engine. Since I swapped the TB it's had no issues, so at least I'm slowly getting rid of some of these recurring codes I've had for a long time.
 
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charonblk07

charonblk07

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Truck is now in the hands of E-Mortal Kustoms for the next 2 weeks. By the time I get home from work I'll have a new rear suspension, looking forward to seeing what kind of change it's gonna make.
 
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charonblk07

charonblk07

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Got some pics from the shop of the work so far. I'm stoked about it, love the open bracket look as well. This is just the 4-link so far and they should be getting the panhard bar and sway bar brackets relocated tomorrow.

suspension2_zpsee2b4412.jpg

suspension1_zpsb7469894.jpg

suspension_zps9a10ace2.jpg
 
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charonblk07

charonblk07

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Alright, some more progress shots. Sounds like it's all done, but I'll get to take a look at it on Monday when I go to pick it up. I'm happy that the Spohn control arms were able to be reused, makes replacement parts easy to deal with as opposed to custom parts.

Suspension7_zps8ce8f063.jpg

Panhard bar relocation bracket, frame mounts are the same with this location.

Suspension4_zps964f42e0.jpg

Suspension3_zps712e5e1c.jpg

New frame mount for the sway bar end links. Now I can use the end links that came with the McG's kit if I ever need replacement parts as opposed to custom or adjustable links.
Suspension6_zps3c90a980.jpg
 
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charonblk07

charonblk07

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And now for the end product. Shop owners texted me these last night and it looks like what I wanted. From the measurements we worked out for the upper control arm, the instant center should be about 2ft behind the front wheel at resting height, it's hard to judge from some angles in the pics, but it does look like that's what I got. That puts the instant center right on (or close to) the line of thrust.

Here are the new control arms looking properly setup again: lower bar parallel, upper angled down slightly.
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Then here's the before of the panhard bar
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And after the new axle bracket
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I'll have to see the rear in person but it looks like there's still a slight angle, I might drill another hole higher on the frame mount of the panhard bar to correct it, or just be happy with it, we'll see how it goes in the future. Also, now that this is all done, I can see if the rear PML diff cover will fit.
 

DavidRam

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Looks great!

Do yo think you will have to cut the 5th wheel thing off, for the diff cover to fit?? (see pic)

I had to cut mine half off for the MagHytec, though PMLs are more rounded...
 

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charonblk07

charonblk07

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Actually, if you look at the top of the oem diff cover in that picture, you'll see that it's actually bent from hitting the cross member. We found that the axle was actually pushed too far back from the lower control arms and when the uppers were lengthened to correct the pinion angle, it would hit the cross member in normal travel. There SHOULD be plenty of clearance between the two now, and my concern will be with the sway bar and panhard bar. If there is clearance issues with the cross member, then the cross member will be trimmed to fit.

I know PML is asking for pics of their diff covers installed on the 4th gens so they can find out what is needed for clearances for their install guide. Same process I went through for my front diff cover install for them.
 

DavidRam

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Actually, if you look at the top of the oem diff cover in that picture, you'll see that it's actually bent from hitting the cross member. We found that the axle was actually pushed too far back from the lower control arms and when the uppers were lengthened to correct the pinion angle, it would hit the cross member in normal travel. There SHOULD be plenty of clearance between the two now, and my concern will be with the sway bar and panhard bar. If there is clearance issues with the cross member, then the cross member will be trimmed to fit.

I know PML is asking for pics of their diff covers installed on the 4th gens so they can find out what is needed for clearances for their install guide. Same process I went through for my front diff cover install for them.

I see what you are saying... damn that must have been a horrible sound when they hit? How much travel do you have?

When I did measurements on mine, I realized it would hit the cover had I not cut it back.
The swaybar should be fine. On mine, there is only about a 1/4" clearance from the panhard to the cover and PML's covers are a hair narrower than MagHytecs.

When are you gonna be able to drive the truck?
 

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charonblk07

charonblk07

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Pick it up Monday afternoon and we're going for a test drive as soon as my taxi drop me off from the airport.

We figured I'd have 4-5" of travel after this as opposed to 1.5". I'll have to see about the sway bar, we did move the axle mounts around so it's possible that I might need to fab a spacer. I also get to start looking for some new bump stops now that they'll actually do something.
 
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charonblk07

charonblk07

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And this is what my truck looked like for most of the week.

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Figured I blew a head gasket but once I pulled it apart there were no signs on the gaskets or heads that there was any issues. Anyways, I threw new gaskets in and I finally got it buttoned up and so far so good. No signs of white smoke after everything was up to temp, so I'll keep an eye on it and see what happens in the future.
 
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charonblk07

charonblk07

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It's been a long winter for me and not getting much done on the truck... that's the downside of living in a condo with an outdoor parking stall and winter. Luckily we get Chinooks that roll through and change the temperature from -15C to +5C every so often so I've been able to get a few things done.

I've been having some electrical issues lately with things in the box in the bed... turns out that somehow the box is running at +4V, I can't figure out how it's being energized, I've checked every power cable coming off the batteries and the box is bolted/drilled directly into the bed so I really don't know how it's possible.

I'm just going to live with the situation and today I isolated my ground block with rubber washers and amazingly everything's back to normal! Quite annoying as I've been trying to troubleshoot this issue for the past 3 months on and off as the weather permits. I think I'm going to put a dedicated ground strap from the box to the frame and see what happens.

I have all the parts to assemble new heads with the PSI 1511 springs, titanium retainers, stock valves, and related hardware. This setup will be able to safely spool to 7400rpm and once I'm done I'll have a set of ported heads to sell which will hopefully give me enough money to finish some projects I have planed.

I now have external transmission and power steering coolers sitting here waiting to go in, this will allow me to get rid of the cooler between the intercooler and radiator. The big one was the P/S cooler as I'll be doing that swap when I do the hydroboost install so when I take the truck to an autocross or track event I'll have some added cooling for the system.

Lastly, after Jeremy finally released the new '13+ projector switchback boards I have another project lined up. Going to do the 3" FX-R projector swap, boards, and finally wire up the halos that have been in the truck since I did the initial light swap.

So that's the mid-winter update, I know it's been a while, but most days I'm just glad that it starts. Granted, I have to have the block heater plugged in all the time because the truck won't start if it sat overnight in anything below freezing. Stupid low compression/poor fuel vaporization!
 
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charonblk07

charonblk07

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The awesome news ... no more condo parking lot mods!!!
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Decided to get some engine work done while the wife was away. Swapped on a new set of heads
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and while I was in there I wrapped the coolant hoses with the Hose Candy braided wrap and installed the Killer Glass tube, I'm still playing with the KG tube as I had to do some modification to the soft hoses to make it all work and I've had some issues with the hoses staying onto the radiator so I might need to pull them again and run a set of T-bolt clamps instead of the stock spring clamps. Hose candy sure does clean everything up nicely though.

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I also get to say goodbye to the stock wheels with the winter rubber. Looking at this pic, I need to bring the rear down just a tad more, probably 1/2 a coil more to get it perfect. Damn she's a low 4wd!

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98hemi-ram

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Congrats on the new house man!! I've thought of getting some of those hose candy covers some day. They look really good!

Also just looked up those killer glass tubes. They look pretty sweet!! Never seen those before.
 
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