OFFICIAL* Dante's Peak Suburban Build *

[campfire]

Do we actually know what's wrong yet?

No. His public FB post reads:

Rest in Peace Big Red



It is with heavy heart that I say Big Red has developed terminal cardiac issues. Today at 12:30 hrs she started to make a rattle noise as rpm reach optimal shift once shifted no rattle. After shutting the motor down to check things underneath and finding no issues; when restarted it had a slight tap sound.
Checked oil and it was ok so I limped back (36 miles) and as I got closer to home it became more of a rattle growl that could be felt in shifter. The rattle tap sound no longer was in rpm up side it was now in all phases. I even had the tap sound kind of like a timing chain might make as it was failing.
I had almost no power by the time I got home. She served the off road community well. No I must go and cry like a child whose ice cream fell on the side walk.

Didn't really give any relevant details. In talking to him he added:

There are metal shavings in the oil I wiped off dipstick. Remember I am in DFE and no friends near by.

But still not much info to go off of. He's dealing with enough other stuff in life that I don't think the truck is a very high priority at this point.

 

[Richcz28]

Dante's Peak Suburban Build ^ We did it Trophy won

campfire, you started this current drama by insulting ORD. Now you're dragging it out.

Unless I misread that and it's actually Lawrence's post.


Why are we going through all this trouble of discussing an engine swap without any actual knowledge of what is wrong? I keep up with Facebook. I thought you had spoken with him by how you presented your information.

 

[sweetk30]

YOU SOAP OPRA DRAMA QUEEENS

THANKS FOR TRASHING THIS AGAIN .

 

[campfire]

campfire, you started this current drama by insulting ORD. Now you're dragging it out.

Unless I misread that and it's actually Lawrence's post.


Why are we going through all this trouble of discussing an engine swap without any actual knowledge of what is wrong? I keep up with Facebook. I thought you had spoken with him by how you presented your information.

Sigh. How does this build attract so much drama?

First off, that contentious quote is something that Lawrence wrote. Not me. That's why it's in a quote form with his name at the top. I never intended to bring ORD into this discussion at all. I was trying to illustrate why Lawrence is trying to avoid further drama. And it looks like I ended up sparking even more drama. The part that bugs me so much is that the origin of the engine doesn't really have much bearing anymore. If it broke it broke. Lawrence swears he treated it right, and it broke, in a way that he believes to be catastrophic.

I changed the oil and filter every 6,000 miles and never beat on it so I have no clue why it died unless it was just old and tired to begin with.

I have no reason to make any further deal of it than that. Nor does having a multi-member bandwagon out to defend ORD from insults contribute to the resolution of the issue at hand.


Second, how does that post manage to insult ORD and miniwally and Ryoken and Rich all at the same time? Is there anyone else offended by my posting tonight?

Over the last several days I have been corresponding with Lawrence via messages. Turns out that the last 4 days have generated 3700 words' worth of messages back and forth. About the truck, about housing, about our trip, about non-truck difficulties, and about life in general. It's all mixed together. Most of the stuff that is relevant to this thread deals with his inability to perform the engine swap by himself, without proper tools, in his driveway (not gonna happen). It sounds like there aren't any engine shops for quite a distance, but he's asked the local general maintenance shop if they can do the swap for him. There is no money for engines or hiring mechanics, so he's planning on parking the truck until he can pawn enough items to get the funding to move forward. He already was tired of having the truck, (because of the strings attached), and wanted to go back to just having his smaller truck. He is also getting burned out by maintenance, as it's getting more and more tiring for him to work on the truck when it does break. He said he's able to handle general maintenance & repair, but is no longer up to engine swaps.

Anything else you wanna know (before this thread goes back to a peaceful discussion of engine kablooey problems)?

 

[ryoken]

you guys really need to work on reading comprehension...

I never said a damn thing about being insulted, I just pointed out that quote certainly could have been offensive to Miniwally...

 

[campfire]

you guys really need to work on reading comprehension...

I never said a damn thing about being insulted, I just pointed out that quote certainly could have been offensive to Miniwally...

Sorry. I did read through that afterwards and realize I should have worded that differently. Looks like you beat me to it.

 

[Richcz28]

From the tapatalk view and the perspective of the ord comment it appeared you wrote it. Sorry for that.

I'm repeating myself in an effort to get this back on track. We still don't know that it's broken. It could be many things. The burb needs to get diagnosed before someone drives 12+ hours to fix a non existent problem.

 

[ryoken]

I get it.. you're trying help Lawrence out and feel bad for what he has going on... he's a good guy...

but I certainly don't think he was sold a bad or overpriced motor... I'd be willing to bet the install work was done pretty dirt cheap too...


does he have another driver beside red?

 

[Babaganoosh]

From the tapatalk view and the perspective of the ord comment it appeared you wrote it. Sorry for that.

I'm repeating myself in an effort to get this back on track. We still don't know that it's broken. It could be many things. The burb needs to get diagnosed before someone drives 12+ hours to fix a non existent problem.

Agreed, no sense shot gunning parts until we get a proper diagnosis. Even though I'm all for ls swaps but let's figure it out guys.

 

[campfire]

From the tapatalk view and the perspective of the ord comment it appeared you wrote it. Sorry for that.

Apology accepted.

I'm repeating myself in an effort to get this back on track. We still don't know that it's broken. It could be many things. The burb needs to get diagnosed before someone drives 12+ hours to fix a non existent problem.

This is definitely true. I did start to ask him more about the diagnostics of the failure, but the conversation got sidetracked.

 

[campfire]

I get it.. you're trying help Lawrence out and feel bad for what he has going on... he's a good guy...

but I certainly don't think he was sold a bad or overpriced motor... I'd be willing to bet the install work was done pretty dirt cheap too...

Ya know something? I actually did not understand the offense until you wrote that out. Contextually, when Lawrence made that statement it didn't sound like anyone was sold a bad or overpriced motor. We weren't even talking about the motor or its issues. But re-reading it I see what you're pointing out.

We were actually talking about why Lawrence does not want to accept any donations toward fixing this engine issue. Lawrence's points (as I understand it) were:

1) Lawrence thinks that Russell put significant money into this engine.

2) As Russell's money is invested in this engine, Lawrence is not comfortable accepting any more engine or money donations toward replacing the engine, as doing so would feel like he was not being fair toward Russell's donation (using other people's donations to replace Russell's engine). This was the "short end of the deal" comment.

3) Lawrence does not feel that he is able to repair or replace this engine by himself, so he is going to wait until he can self-fund an engine replacement job.


Quote reposted for reference:
{

I can not ask for any one to do any thing more from ck5 or any place else. I'll just keep trying on my own to save for a year or so to buy a motor. If I would of been beating on it or hitting it hard hammering on rocks or drag racing I could say ok maybe I screwed the dog.

Russell paid good money to buy the motor from Off Road Design and to install it. I feel he got the short end of the deal. To buy another used motor and to pay some one to install it seems like another bad deal. A new crate motor for $1,500 with a 3 year warranty is the safest.

}


And I will issue another heartfelt apology to all concerned. I was not making a statement about the quality of the engine, nor did I think Lawrence was. Thanks to Ryoken for patiently helping me make the connection.


I do feel like a goat, though. This sort of mixup is exactly what has caused Lawrence to withdraw from the board. I've been promising him that it won't happen again. I have failed. Miserably.

 

[campfire]

does he have another driver beside red?

He has a GMT-400 Blazer that he can drive. So I think he's not hurting for a vehicle at this point.

 

[campfire]

Agreed, no sense shot gunning parts until we get a proper diagnosis. Even though I'm all for ls swaps but let's figure it out guys.

 

[ryoken]

He has a GMT-400 Blazer that he can drive. So I think he's not hurting for a vehicle at this point.

yeah, I saw his post on FB... I guess that small snippit didn't quite sound the same when not part of the original convo.. anyway, water under the bridge...


good, glad to hear he still has the other rig.. it becomes much less dire when it's not your only transpo (especially where he lives I'm guessing! )


I would guess dropping/examining the oil and cutting the filter would be a logical next avenue to see just how bad the situation is...

 

[Russell]

Let it be very clear -- I have nothing but the highest praise for miniwally. He stepped up big time a couple years ago. I'm not sure why Lawrence figures it came from ORD as I made it pretty clear where it came from.

I'm super happy with how that whole deal went down. I bought a good engine as advertised from a person I trusted then and still trust now. It was installed properly at a rate that no one could possibly complain about and it has run very well for Lawrence up until now when it has apparently suffered mechanical failure. There is no way anyone could ever blame miniwally for this or feel like there was any kind of ill intent in selling that engine. I knew exactly what I was buying and what it's history was.

As mentioned above, we haven't yet confirmed what actually failed. Lawrence is not very mobile and is suffering health problems. Even if he had the space available I don't know that he would be able to pull an engine swap off on his own. From what he has told me the oil is full of glitter and the engine is making bad noises / is very low on power. Sounds like a spun bearing to me.

It probably requires more hard parts and machining than the 350 is worth. I don't think it makes sense to install a $1500 crate engine when someone can drop an LS in for that much. It especially doesn't make sense when I have a complete drive train sitting on the shop floor that I can drop in for him at very little cost.

I just need his truck up here so I can do the swap on my own timeline. I don't have the time off to go down there and deal with it for him myself, but I would have time to fix it up right and make it better than it has ever been if I had it in my shop.

 

[NorCal69]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again....you're one hell of a good guy, Russel.

 

[noJeepshere]

I'm going to talk to my neighbor to see if I can borrow his superduty and flatbed to get it to Montana sometime this fall. All involved in helping Lawrence put the motor in it are stand up people, it's annoying that misunderstandings cause so much trouble. Oh well, it's resolved and over now.

 

[y5mgisi]

This thread is simultaneously the best and the worst! I might as well give my .02 as well.

I don't THINK Lawrence was intending to bad mouth the engine, miniwally, or ord. I also don't think anyone in their right mind would consider bad mouthing them either. Engines spin bearings and have all sorts of problems anywhere between 5 miles and 500k miles. Sometimes completely at random. It's a luck of the draw thing a lit of the time. And I'm sure this was just bad luck and nothing more.

That said, it's hard to help someone who won't accept help. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. I have had to beg people to let me help them in the past and they refuse. I don't understand it. Need help? Accept help when it's offered. I feel bad for him sort of putting himself in the position he has within his own mind but I'm not sure anything can be done about it.

I wished the whole time he was getting offended that he could have just said F off, I'm going to enjoy this build! But he couldn't do it. People shouldn't have been crappy to him, but he should also know how to handle dealing with crappy comments.

 

[miniwally]

If I took comments out of context and meaning I'm sorry, the way I read the statement in Campfires post indicated that there were issues with my deal that were reflecting negatively on my family and their business. I won't allow that to happen, my dealings are my dealings. I worked with Lawrence and Russell on the engine deal and tried my best to get what I needed out of it while giving as much as I could afford to give both time and money wise. I'm relieved that my understanding of the past deal was the same as Russell. I'm done with that issue.

I honestly don't know Lawrence much at all, we talked for maybe :30 at Blazer Bash last year and that's really about it. I know he has more than his share of issues to deal with in life and due to past work injuries he suffers more than we know.

One thing to keep in mind for all of you, and I know this from my racing and the sponsorship and agreements that were made with said sponsors.

THE MOST EXPENSIVE PARTS YOU CAN GET ARE THE FREE ONES.

I've seen the past comments about "free parts" etc. Lawrence busted ass on the phone and probably made agreements for everything he received that in the end probably cost more than if he would have bought the same thing outright. He may have spread the pain out a bit instead of laying out lump sums of cash but I can almost guarantee that he has more money into that suburban going to Idaho and various places to be seen than the cost of what he got.

One thing to keep in mind and I think Russell is keyed in, Lawrence needs the burb to end up being an automatic. It has a hydro clutch in it but I know it is hard for him to use. The engine and tranny combo that Russell proposes is the best option, the existing transfercase seemed good.

No matter what when the engine is pulled if the existing drive train is to stay it will need a new clutch, throw out bearing and pilot bearing. They were serviceable when I worked on it but I wouldn't leave them in there through another engine swap.

 

[Russell]

THE MOST EXPENSIVE PARTS YOU CAN GET ARE THE FREE ONES.

There is much truth to this statement. This is why I don't pursue sponsors anymore in my racing ventures. The strings that come attached to their generosity usually costs me 2x what the part is worth by the time I've fulfilled all the obligations that come with it.

I'd rather just pony up, pay retail and be free to choose when, where and how often I race without any obligation to win or otherwise raise attention to myself.