Exhaust mostly done. Ran out of mig wire while assembling the tailpipe, but otherwise complete. Know what sucks? Being the only guy you know with a welder, and having redneck friends and acquaintances (ie: forever out of MIG wire).
I'll redo the downpipes later. This was just a temporary fix to get things rolling.
Pretty well tucked.
Sorta wish I'd gone with a slightly bigger muffler. Its still pretty loud.
Intake tube and filter installed. I bought a cheap kit from upgr8, as it gave me all the angles I needed, but their filter could never be used off road. I'd barely trust it to keep rocks out. Grabbed a spectre while I was picking up mig wire.
This is the kit:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00M14WY3O/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The filter is absolutely useless. It's pretty much a prefilter. As I said, I'd trust it to keep out rocks larger than about an inch.
Engine bay is still a mess. Still have to do the following:
* Find proper coolant hoses and stick a new HVAC system in (right now, my coolant goes to the A/C core because my blend door has a big hole in it). When I was still up north, this was a problem when it was -45C.
* Clean up wiring - rework harness. Still have to remove tonnes of stuff from the LS harness. Just wanted it running before taking out all the unknown plugs.
Steve did the lions share of the wiring, but was pressed for time all week and wants to redo everything. The Jeep chassis wiring is retarded so we'll probably start on that side first so we're not trying to adapt the engine harness to the stock disaster. The PDC will get removed and replaced entirely, so all the wiring will land on the firewall, which opens up that space for my on board air stuff.
* Finish hood. Still waiting on word back from the fab shop about whether or not their bender can handle my intersecting bends. I'm open to suggestions on the scoop, both temporary and permanent, so I can at least take it for a test drive without getting pulled over.
* T-case linkage. As mentioned in an earlier post, a direct linkage works flawlessly for shifting from 2wd all the way to neutral and back. It also shifts into 4L perfectly, but won't shift back because the shifter ends up right on top of the t-case lever. I think I might be able to fix this just by extending both levers about 3/4". As it stands though, this will be last on the list as I don't have a front drive shaft yet.
* Front drive shaft. Yea, I could take it to a shop to get it shortened, but where's the fun in that? Plus, I'm still pretty determined to keep this all under $4000, and thus far, I'm pretty sure I'm still under that number (I'll have to tally it all up when I'm done, but I should be at around $3500ish now).
I used to work for a welding shop that specialized in high pressure oilfield pipeline modules. What we did was build 50-100' modules that just bolt together (way more efficient than working in the field as we don't have to worry about all the site hazards, and we have all the materials we need on hand in our shop). The big thing here, is that our joins had to be ****ing perfect. They were pressure tested up to 20,000 psi, then x-rayed, and then checked with a laser to make sure they're within' 0.001" over a 100' span. I figure if I could make that work (given the right tools), I should be able to get a drive shaft level at 3'. Of course, I don't have a level surface to start with, nor a pipe stand, or even a way to make perfectly straight cuts. *shrugs*. It's a Jeep and never rode smooth anyway right?
* Tailpipe. Already cut and measured (in that order). Should just need to be tacked up and need to find a good flexible mount. Definitely have this done this afternoon.
. I'll revisit that issue some day. For now, if my hood scoop ends up working out, I'm pretty happy with the truck intake.
