The Budget Buggy - Take Two

N-Smooth

Smooth Gang Founding Member
Location
UT
This thing will be even cooler when it has more than 100 hp. Hahahaha really thought I'm excited for the turbo!
 

Coco

Well-Known Member
Location
Lehi, UT
Thanks guys! I am getting really excited for it as well. I am thinking anywhere from 8-10 PSI will be the range I am aiming for. Should be enough, but not too much to cause any issues.
 

benjy

Rarely wrenches
Supporting Member
Location
Moab
Not trying to discourage this at all, but does the buggy need it? When you climbed the tube in Delta, I was thinking you didn't, but then again I've never driven it.

Also - seeing as how the title of the thread is budget buggy, I'd like to see a spreadsheet of all costs involved :D
 

thefirstzukman

Finding Utah
Supporting Member
Caution, you have passed Steve selling time and are approaching Colton selling time. Please list with in 30 days or the earth will implode. I suggest selling it to me for $ 1999.99
 

Coco

Well-Known Member
Location
Lehi, UT
Lol there is no plans to sell it :)

It does need it for higher end stuff. On my low end, not at all, but for obstacles like the waterfall in hanging tree, and the Matterhorn at delta, I definitely need it to help keep the motor flowing, and tires spinning. The tube at delta was a bit of a surprise for me, and the fact I was able to do it with less throttle than I thought I would. The Matterhorn though was definitely one where I needed the extra speed.
 

N-Smooth

Smooth Gang Founding Member
Location
UT
The thing does climb really well. I'm still astonished by how well it climbed Rock Pile but I totally see the need for more power to create wheel speed for certain obstacles- like you said.
 

Coco

Well-Known Member
Location
Lehi, UT
Well yesterday and today have been really busy, but the buggy is running with the turbo! Everything is SOOO tight, but it's all in there and works. We got a couple more things to do on Saturday to finish it up, (tune and see what boost I am building, and adjust accordingly, and time the motor properly) but once that is done it should be running better than it ever has, and have the power as well.



With propane, the mixer needs to be as close to the turbo as possible for throttle response. This is a draw though setup as well. You can already see it is tight!





You can see in this picture I had to re-locate the steering reservoir, and coil to where they are now. The res basically went where the coil was, and the coil got moved to where it is now.



And some vids of it running (with better ones coming once it's 100% done)



 

gorillaxj

Always building hardly wheeling
Location
SLC
Awesome, what Mitsubishi turbo did you go with? Interested to see how you like it, have a similar setup in the works for mine.
 

Coco

Well-Known Member
Location
Lehi, UT
I got them from o Reilly if I remember right. They did have to order them in though, but any of the parts store can do that. I know car quest has them too
 

Coco

Well-Known Member
Location
Lehi, UT
Yesterday we finished up the turbo project. I bought and picked up a new distributor of eBay as mine wasn't advancing correctly, so we put that in, tuned the whole setup, and I built the exhaust. She runs better than she ever has before!! Currently we have it set to boost 7 PSI. I'll be doing some offroad testing this weekend at cruiser fest, and see how I am liking it.




No pics of it completed and wrapped, but that's alright.
 

Coco

Well-Known Member
Location
Lehi, UT
Bringing this back up, hope no one minds :D

Well after a long first season, I pulled the buggy in for some maintenance, and fixing/strengthening is certain areas. The buggy has been working extremely well, no complaints there, so mostly just fixing some things.

First thing I did was go through the front axle for a freshen up, and some upgrades. My inner axles seals went out on both sides, so that just made that decision easier. I also inspected the RCV shafts while they were out, and regressed them with Opti-Lube Gold grease.



Trail-Gear also came out with some new FJ80 goodies, and hopefully that's a sign they are continuing into the FJ80 market. While I was in there, I put the TG wiper seal and rock ring kit on there to help keep dirt and gunk out. After shearing my 6 ARP studs off at OSRC, and ultimately ruining that knuckle, I did some research, and found out that those particular ARPs were backwards as far as thread length goes, and cause the studs to loosen up. After finding this out with OSRC, every trip after, I always checked them, and they almost always were loose. I looked into Front Range Offroads ARP studs, and new Diamond drive flange kit. FROR says they have had people running 40s on those studs with no failures, so picked some up. They definitely look, and feel much stronger than the others. The full length stud in the hub alone makes it worth it.



Lets just say OSRC taught me, and showed me some weak points on my buggy, and I am focusing on strengthening these weak points. Between the many owners, builds, and abuse this chassis already has seen, and what I still plan on doing with it, I needed to beef up the lower rock tubes. I took a piece of 1-3/4" I.D (can't remember thickness insert later) tubing, cut it in half, and welded it to the bottom of the bars. After that, I focused on bracing up the rocker bar, with the arm/shoulder bars. I couldn't brace it up as much as I wanted, due to my seats, but feel this result will work great. I continued the tube from the second A pillar down to the bottom bar, then tied that into another vertical bar in front of the seat.




During OSRC (see what I mean by a good teaching event?), when I rolled on the first course, it bent in the right side front A pillar. Since I plan on doing much more competing this year, I figured this needed to be addressed. I made a post on Facebook, asking people's opinions on it, and it was pretty much split down the middle; with people saying to leave it, and the others saying replace it. I decided it I better replace it, for safety for one, and in all honesty, the bend was driving my OCD nuts :rolleyes: tonight I cut out the old pillar, and will be sleeping the new one, and planning on adding a piece of steel with dimple dies in it to brace both A pillars together. Hopefully this bar will come together better than I am thinking it will be.




Once all the fabrication is done, I'll be cleaning up the chassis and panels for a freshen up as well. I also plan on going through all the fluids and giving all the hardware a once over as well.

Did I mention I am hoping to make it down to St George at the end of the month? Got some work to do!!!

More to come, that's it for now :)
 

N-Smooth

Smooth Gang Founding Member
Location
UT
That brace under the second A pillar (or A.5 as I like to call it) is smart. It's actually something that's always bugged me about F-Toy's.
Are you planning on filling that whole section between A-pillars with dimpled plate? Seems like that would damage visibility a fair bit. Just a thought
 
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