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The Lab Rat - SFR's R&D Comanche

Well, it's Cinco de Mayo again, and I've been a slacker with no updates for you fine folks recently. To recap what's happened in the last year......not much. I took it to socal fest last year and had a bunch of fun on the trails, but the motor developed a bit of a smoking problem, along with a slight knock. Turns out that it had somehow burned 5 quarts of oil in just a couple thousand miles. Not good. I parked the truck for a number of months while I worked on other things, then pulled it out of storage when my girlfriends car was in the shop for a while. She drove it for a bit over a week before the water pump failed and it overheated badly.

This is not the end however. I had Russ at Bishop-Buehl Racing engines put together a stroker kit for me that I'll hopefully be assembling soon. I've also developed and released our new 3 and 4 link long arm suspension systems, which will be added soon, and I'm about to test fit our new heavy duty trans crossmember and skid plate, so there's lots more in store for this little truck.

I also realize that photobucket decided to ruin the internet this past year and that none of the pics in this thread are working for most of you. I'm working on a fix for this as well, so if you haven't been following along hopefully you'll be able to catch up soon.
 
what specs did you go with on the stroker? Mine engine is getting weak and I need to do something asap.

I'm liking your link kits, need something like that for my Grand.

I did get your trans-mount installed and a new crossmember made, works great. Did have a slight issue as I ordered the centered version but I actually needed the offset, so ended up just welding the lower portion to the crossmember. Those are some good bolts you used.

119A5aFPvcBRUu0NbaWl44s3UsM9a71pPnTKJtK_3t8ge_ymEkn-hpT59AfqlRNr1FjGCMb7jxZ30MFhX2d1CqmgUro1f_aGFaQwdhECVLKS0kV6J1NPXQKWsbR9MqiyZFnJeXdxdtOlJjze2aZkt42c0Xl_g4Nny-fthol3rdGpl41xIggX9687UsFfh_JWaz6cY2z5HkPyBGbNzcw1B2dfg6W1TkdU0UEfS-KtBroM4oTFYocrg1ZIRmO5LNrJsh8cqufzWvT1SsTReM63w27lZyCQ2AEaUa89G01ZqtSbko3fdXeQcZpsoKNyAI7Q6kX6YwY7SkQUDNhnqCvt3yAIDuWbe4ZK57DWSodlUXpGUfPBnJaoRt47iYmgwYpgTW2ogMHmsaJQlFda8xczfQ5TqfWJv4KWjGRQg1rP-CedeZ6HbKmpw1D_jxnHmZExcyJ8DYndpcEY0ndAj1OGadMgm0D3IfQE_eMERvl43hBceD9LJUGLH6b6avMYhgoBsUV-2F-NXy12tR0iYuom-rlqQ-KyozYpaVpLHLSjvIE1QzNNYN8lz9SVEBoz7ONwgKULemjSCbiLNmVbDLYccLuLvFLaXse_5JnPR6avB2MqCdsYxR49uhANBOivTZd5jiK0RcNd_w4puEUHnjA4hByMUEtLNwE_Pw=w977-h1302-no
 
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To be honest, I don't even have all the specs just yet. I gave Russ a call and discussed what I was planning to use the truck for, my needs (like passing CA smog tests) and let him run with it. I've driven enough of his engines to know that it's going to be a beast when it's all done. The parts sure are pretty too.

This won't help you now that you've already welded it in, but we actually revised the design of our trans mounts a few months ago. The new version 2.0 can be assembled 2 different ways to replace both offset and centered mounts. No more issues with ordering the wrong one anymore!
 
Cool, I should call Russ and just chat with him. Bummer he's so far away makes sending anything to him and back though.

Shipping entire engines is a bit tough, and spendy, which is why he does the engine kits. He supplies all the internals and the head, and you reuse your existing block. He gives you a card with all the specs to take to your local machine shop so everything goes together just right.

I'm lucky that I'm nearby and was able to have him machine a block for me, but I purposely got it as a kit because I wanted to do the assembly. Partially so that I could learn something new myself as I've really never done a complete bare block engine build, and partially to document the process and show everyone else what it entails.
 
I had my head stripped, cleaned and magnafluxed for cracks and it's ready to ship to Russ to perform his porting voodoo, along with the intake. Shipping the head from UT to CA via UPS is going to run me just under $70, fwiw.
 
I'm lucky that I'm nearby and was able to have him machine a block for me, but I purposely got it as a kit because I wanted to do the assembly. Partially so that I could learn something new myself as I've really never done a complete bare block engine build, and partially to document the process and show everyone else what it entails.

Hop to.

I'm going to do this at some point and I want to have your writeup.
 
I've been working with Cal on fixing all the broken photobucket links in this thread so that it's not completely useless anymore, and in doing so I realized that I never actually posted any pics of the first trail run! This is ridiculously late, as it was at socal fest nearly a year ago, but better late than never I suppose.

Thanks to David Taylor Photography for getting some good shots for me.
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I, for one, would sure like to have a dead pedal for my XJ. I'd make one myself if I had even minimal fabrication tools, but I don't. I'll gladly lend you my '99 for design purposes if you think it'd be worth your while.


I think I'd like this too.
 
I made one using the diamond plate base from a Harbor Freight air compressor that bit the dust, mounted atop a bar stock frame. I was somewhat reluctant to drill through the floorboard, but after considering all options that's what I ended up doing to secure it. It's probably not the most elegant design, but it does plant my left foot at a comfortable angle.
 
A couple months ago we released our new Long Arm suspension kits, and one of the things we did a bit differently from others is that we do not replace the crossmember. Our suspension brackets are completely independent from the crossmember and mount directly to the chassis.

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This means servicing your transmission and transfer case is the same as it always has been, and you don't have to drop your suspension for simple maintenance like changing a trans mount.

A number of people told us they wanted to replace their stock crossmember though, and they wanted something heavy duty that could be dragged across rocks. After hearing this again and again we decided to go ahead and build one.

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It's constructed from 3/16 steel, mounts directly in place of the stock crossmember, with or without our long arm brackets, and gains nearly an inch of ground clearance over the stock piece. It also has holes for both the centered and offset trans mounts, so it will work for all models, with the exception of the Peugeot trans. NP242 models have not been test fit yet, but should fit as well.

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The Lab rat was one of our test vehicles for this project, and we did find some subtle differences in the frames, even aside from the extra inner mounting points on the MJ. Everything is close enough that we were able to build a single crossmember that will fit both XJ and MJ models though.

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Looks sexy AF!
 
Man Ive gotta convince the boss (wife) to let me buy for the ole xj.......my 1 ton tj is almost done so gotta upgrade the xj lol
 
Cal gave me this thread to read, and I just finished reading through the entire thread in couple of hours.

Just wanted to say good work was done and I like the crossmember design.

Is there any more updates?
 
I’ve been eyeing this setup and would love to see some photos of the install. Anything you can share that might show the installation, ground clearance and maybe some action shots? Will they fit if I have installed frame stiffeners?
 
There is more to update but I've been a bit behind on posting. If you go to the stinkyfab racing YouTube page i posted a couple build videos on the motor. I also designed a new transmission pan skid that will be available soon.
 
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