71K5 - BP71K5's Just for fun build

[bp71k5]

Update: Final shield installation

Once I started making the next mockup, I found it was just as much work to create the mock-up as it was to make the final version. So that's what I did.

Here's the first mockup, a fiberglass mat cut to size, and the new outer layer.


The outlayer was cut larger and then the edges were folded over to capture the inner layer and the fiberglass.


Then the edges were crimped together.


A view from the end to show the compound form.


Some sheetmetal screw "quick nuts" installed on the folded edge.

 

[bp71k5]

I cut a 1 inch long threaded spacer to support the shield on one side and fastened it down from inside the cab. I shared a hole with the small plate that covers the clutch rod pass-through.


I had to unbolt the inner fender to access this section of the body. It makes a perfect spot to screw down the folded edge of the shield against.


And a few shots of the location in the engine compartment.






It feels pretty sturdy and should be pretty durable in there. I'm not thrilled with the finish of the aluminum, but maybe some heat resistant paint or coating might look a little less shiny.

Should be able to take some measurements in the next few days and see if it works well enough to be worth the $15 I spent on it.

 

[AJs72K5]

It feels pretty sturdy and should be pretty durable in there. I'm not thrilled with the finish of the aluminum, but maybe some heat resistant paint or coating might look a little less shiny.

Why not prime it and shoot it with some high temp Hugger Orange engine paint to match the firewall?

 

[Greg72]

Interested to see the final temperature measurements....

That's the exact idea that has been rolling around in my own head for a while now for above the exhaust and tranny areas. Recently this thread has become like my own personal research lab.

 

[BGKYK5]

It looks like the bottom of the heat shield doesn't "seal" against the firewall, correct? That is what I'd do. You don't want water/stuff to be trapped in there and don't want the additional conductive heat transfer either. Looks good.

 

[bp71k5]

It looks like the bottom of the heat shield doesn't "seal" against the firewall, correct?

Correct, about 1" space between them. (enough for a spray hose to get in there and wash out any mud that coul get in there.

It also will help attach it to a second shield under the floor if it needs it. The hot air will then get channeled farther back toward the bed.

AJ, Engine paint might be a good option, but as you can see from my master cylinder, paint doesn't hold up very well for me. I'm kinda sloppy with my motor fluids. I'm going to see if it grows on me before doing anything.

 

[bp71k5]

Final temperature results

Update: Final temperature results:

I took a final round of measurements. For some reason it's drizzling rain so it was kinda tough to find time to warm it up and measure.

I'll summarize all three tests here:
Test#1 (aluminum foil under floor, firewall exposed)
Ambient = 75 degrees
Firewall = 113
Front half of floor = 94
rear half of floor = 91

Test #2 (Aluminum firewall shield, floor exposed)
Ambient = 77 degrees
Firewall = 93
Front half of floor = 110
Rear half of floor = 93

Test #3 (Double wall aluminum firewall shield, floor exposed)
Ambient = 72 degrees
Firewall = 92.1 (drivers side 5" up), 92 (drivers side 10" up), 95 (pass 5" up), 106 (pass 10" up)
Front half of floor = 111(Drivers), 88(passenger)
Rear half of floor = 92.5

Comparing test#2 and #3, the results are pretty similar even though it was several degrees colder outside (ambient). I'd like to take more measurements on a much hotter day to see if that affects things, but the weather isn't going to allow that for a while.

An interesting find is that the lower area of the firewall on the passenger side is much coolor than the drivers side even without a shield on that side. The spots I was measuring were pretty similar, but measuring some spots higher up under the dash, the passenger side was much hotter than the drivers side. So the shield is doing it's job.

I suspect the temp difference on the passenger side firewall is caused by two factors:
1. The drivers side has the exhaust pipe routed underneath and the passenger side has nothing.
2. The passenger side has the factory air conditioning\heater box on that side and it's blocking some of the air.

I also discovered some wiring that was in the line of fire (pun intended) from all that heat on the drivers side and it had very brittle insulation and was a fire hazard. So I spliced in new sections and routed them behind the shield to better protect it.

That's it for now. On to some vacuum leak detection and oil leak fixing.

 

[bp71k5]

Update: Storage shelf install

I've got just a few more days before I head out to Moab for BlazerBash 2010. I'm pretty stoked about it, and have been trying to get a small storage shelf installed that will both hold down my spare tire, and provide a spot to bolt down my tool boxes and an ice chest.

The first part I had built by Pacific Fabrication. I purposely won't show you the really nice TIG welds on the tube because it makes my welds look even more shameful than they are.



It's just a straight piece of 1.75" DOM with another bent tube welded onto the center. I'll add some thin bars in the U shaped portion that will hold an ice chest and allow me to strap small tool boxes down to it.



At each end, I cut a circular plug and plug welded it onto a 1/4" tab. The circular plug was then inserted inside the tube and the tab was tacked in place around the circumference. The end of the tab has a hole for bolt to attach it to a matching tab on each side of the cage. It'll get a few gussets as well as the corners rounded to match the tube.



The bolt and tab also allow it to pivot up and out of the way to get the tire out. Things are just tacked in place for now, but it'll be tied down with straps near the tailgate and I'll be adding some strap attachment points in a few more areas to tie down larger items as well. I built the hinge area such that it will be easy to remove or modify later on to either add harness attachment points for the rear seats, or even have different options for storage depending on whether the whole family is with me or not. Not super fancy, but it feels good make some progress that will help make the trip out to Moab a little more safe and organized.

 

[bp71k5]

Update: Transfer case venting

I also had a problem with my transfer case leaking fluid. Evidentally the way I had the vents set up, the 205 would push a little bit of fluid up and out of the vent tube. Once the oil got into the tube, a low spot in the tube combined with gravity would keep the oil there and it couldn't drain back into the case. Once the truck was driven over many miles, the oil would just build up in that hose until it found a place to drain, which happened to be the 203 portion of my doubler.

The problem was that I connected both the 203 and 205 vents together and then ran a single long hose up into the engine bay. Over a period of time, the 205 portion would fill with fluid and eventually get pushed into the 203. Once the 203 was so full of oil, it started pushing oil back through the internal seal into the 205 output housing and it was just dripping oil every few seconds.

So I replumbed the 205 vent to get rid of the low spot. I then connected that vent to a TEE that allows any oil coming from the vent to drain down and the air to continue up through it's own vent line. Note the brass elbow and clear section of 1/2" hose. This allows me to get a little extra lube into the 205 (since it's clocked). I can add oil until I see it backing up into the clear tube. This also provides a nice way to keep an eye on the fluid level.

So far it's working pretty good. No leaks that I can see, but I need to do some more driving and keep checking the fluid levels.

 

[ChefBear]

Sometimes I'm like "man, if I could trade my AD/HD for you guys's (you and Greg) OCD I would be like, what was I thinking, never mind"!

Looks great you're really getting that thing dialed in!

 

[Greg72]

Who says I only have OCD? Sometimes when things are............SQUIRREL!!!!


Brian,

Looking good brother!

This isn't your first Moab trip is it? Either way it doesn't matter....I'm jealous, and jonesing to get there again. Have a great time and don't forget to take as many photos as you can.

Do you have any trails picked out already?

 

[bp71k5]

Sometimes I'm like "man, if I could trade my AD/HD for you guys's (you and Greg) OCD I would be like, what was I thinking, never mind"!

Looks great you're really getting that thing dialed in!

Thanks, actually those camping photos you posted got me motivated to try and finish this part. The kids aren't coming with me this year so I don't have to finish the seats just yet.

 

[bp71k5]

This isn't your first Moab trip is it? Do you have any trails picked out already?

This will be #4. The trail schedule is Hey Joe, Trifecta, and tiptoe behind the rocks. I'm going to see if I can get one of those gopro hd video cameras for this trip. All of my normal videos are super shaky and all you can hear is the wind blowing.

 

[bp71k5]

Update: Post Bash results

I didn't have time to post any pictures of the storage shelf before I left for Utah so I thought I'd post them now.

Here's how the back was packed, except for the "trail chest" that was strapped down to the top of the shelf.


Less a little junk. Those two ammo cans hold a 90% of all the tools I need. The cans are bolted to some wooden plates I fabricated.


The wooden plates fit in between the thin metal rods that i added to the shelf frame. The tounge at the bottom keeps them from moving around horizontally and the straps hold it down to the shelf. I can also see the straps from the drivers seat and saw them undone a few times after I forgot to resecure them out on the trail. Being able to see if things are secured turned out to be nice since I didn't have to get out every time and check.


And a shot of the hi-lift jack. I bolted it down with some simple L brackets. There's a space behind it to allow the shelf to tilt up without hitting the back seat. The space under and above the wheel rim also made a great spot to keep stuff I didn't need often like an oil drain pan (I did loan it out for a day), air tools and fittings, jack stand, and my tow straps/hooks/etc. I found that heavy duty bags are easier to store rather than big hard metal or plastic tool boxes since they can conform to different spaces a little easier.


And the shot with the bed cleared out and ready to haul a load of stuff over from my mother-in-laws house. The shelf worked pretty well and I didn't have any issues with things flying around out on the trails. My only desire would be to add a safe place for a spare gas can. I just hauled the gas can like that on the freeway, and didn't bring it on the trails.

 

[bp71k5]

Rear bumper reinforcement

Not much going on lately, but a little holiday bonus cash for amazon got me a CB radio and antenna along with a power inverter. After lots of trial and error, I decided that the rear bumper is where the antenna will go. The problem is the bumper has no flat mounting spots that work for the antenna, and the stock bumper mounting brackets are pretty flimsy and were practically begging me to fix them.

So... might as well build a new bumper right!?

Off with the existing bumper.


The stock mounting brackets are thin and bend very easily. My ride in Moab proved that after it bent up and crunched my rear quarter panel. Here's the area where I need to mount some beefy new brackets to hold the bumper. You can see the hidden hitch and rear crossmember make it tough to get any material down along the inside of the frame


Haven't got very far yet, but here's some teaser shots. A 1.5" x 2.5" x .25 steel tube fits just about right inside the main form of the stock bumper. Just needed the corners rounded off a bit. This tube ended up needing to be 76" long.




That's it for today...more to come though.

 

[StevoandaRedK5]

That looks like it'll do the trick. haha

 

[bp71k5]

I was able to take some time and transfer the mounting hole locations from the old bumper bracket onto the 3"x2"x.25" steel tube I'm using to mount the new bumper to the frame.

One thing I found as I was planning the bolt locations was that the gas tank and frame make it nearly impossible to get a wrench on the inside of the frame where I'd need one. So I decided to make a way to fasten the 1/2" nuts on the inside of the tube so I can just insert bolts through the frame and into the tube without having to have a wrench on both sides.

The first problem with this plan was that two nuts were interferring with each other from two different angles on the inside of the tube. I bent up this angle piece of 1/8" steel and transferred the two hole locations onto it. I then drilled out one of the holes to just undersize the diameter of the nut and then filed the hole into a nut shaped hexagon.


You can probably see where I'm going with this.


I could tack weld the nuts to the bracket, but access with the welder inside the tube is impossible and I'm trying not to take the temper out of the grade 8 hardware and trying to keep the plating intact for rust prevention. Whenever I weld nuts, they tend to seize onto the bolt in a short time. I was able to use my press to squeeze the nut down into the opening in the bracket.


And it's in there really tight.


You can see in this shot the bracket with a hole on the side wall and one on the bottom. I'm going to do the same thing for the other hole and then make a similar bracket for two other mounting bolts for a total of 4 between the frame and this tube. I've already cut the rear crossmember to allow this tube to slide in, but it's pouring rain and will have to wait for the next update.

 

[BGKYK5]

Slick!

 

[bp71k5]

Slick!

Thanks, but when I realized how many more times I'd have to do that, I decided I couldn't do it 7 more times. That one nut took about 2 hours.

Here's where I'm at now. Rear crossmember cut to let the tube sneak back behind the shackleflip bolts. Note the less than ideal grey primer. Ryoken Green is banned in CA.


I had to notch the top of the tube to clear the upper shackle mount bolt since it landed right at the corner and was impossible to use. I do have a hole for the lower shackle flip bolt though.


And the "nut bracket" tack welded in place. I have another flat bracket deeper down to hold the two bumper bracket nuts.


And some final shots. I still need to remove the hitch to install the last bolt, but I can do that once the other side is in place.

 

[NorCal69]

Note the less than ideal grey primer. Ryoken Green is banned in CA.

Brian,

You can order "Ryoken Green" through West Marine. I have put in 4 orders so far and no problems what so ever.

The bumper sure is going to be stout.

-Mike