Ironman 5.9 Race Jeep

[IronmanAndy]

Some of you guys may already know about our products but you may not know about our "new" race jeep. We've acquired a 1998 5.9 Grand Cherokee and have begun the process of turning it into a fire breathing, mud drinking, rock gargling MONSTER! ...well at least that's what we are dreaming of.

Anyway stay tuned as we build it up and I'll post pics and tech in here as we develop it.

Here's the current mods:

• 8.8 rear with 4.56s, mini spool, & Great Lake Offroad cover
• WJ 30 with 4.56s, Detroit Truetrac, Ford exploder Sport Trac rotors
• Fox 2.0 4" Air Bumps up front & DIY limiting straps
• some random aluminum rims with 33" BFG MTs
• Ironman fixed uppers & lowers on both ends
• Ironman quick disconnect fire extinguisher mounts
• Aluminum Radiator (ebay)
• Ironman tie rod & drag link
• Ironman trac bars front and rear

[ajmorell]

Why the WJ dana 30?

[IronmanAndy]

The Wj D30 was available for 140 bucks. (toasted R&P) It has the high steer knuckle and dual piston brakes as well as a much wider track width so the front would be wider for a tighter turn and a triangulated stance.

We had roughly 5-7 days to put this thing together for the first race so we just had to take what we had and run with it.
It held up fine but I think my hub spacing may be a little off using the ZJ hubs with the WJ shafts because the hubs came a little loose maybe 1/32".

The WJ 30 is actually supposed to be stronger than a regular 30. Who knows? With 33s and a true track I doubt much will break after I truss the thing up next week.
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[IronmanAndy]

Here is the day we picked her up for 750.00 I almost cried I was so happy to have another one of these bad boys!


Here is a little race action after we put her together Please ignore the front bumper, We snatched it off a cherokee as a last minute bumper option 30 min before we pulled it on the trailer.

[FearTheDentist]

I think my hub spacing may be a little off using the ZJ hubs with the WJ shafts because the hubs came a little loose maybe 1/32".

When we build my WJ 9" we matched the width of the D30 and used ZJ hubs on WJ shafts- ended up having to use spacers to get the hub positioned properly and also to get the brake caliper lined up (I ended up just using a couple of stacked washers for the caliper, and IIRC a 1\4" spacer from JKS for the hub).

[IronmanAndy]

Thanks for the advice.
We spaced the hub 1/4" and I machined some spacers that are .100 thick for the calipers.
I am afraid the spacing on the outer stub is off by some because both unit bearing hubs came loose.
I measured them compared to the ZJ and the the threaded section is longer but that would not affect the compression on the unit bearing. It may be that the unit bearings just ate it from being romped on too much.
We are going to get this thing trussed up and re-assess the air bump/shock locations and link it up and then test drive for issues with the hubs. Any other thoughts are greatly appreciated.

[FearTheDentist]

Any other thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Err...If you want my honest .02, I wouldn't invest a whole lot of effort in the 30. In the long run I have little doubt you'll be better off nursing it along while you whip up something a little more reliable. I'm hardly an expert, but I'm not real optimistic about that thing holding up for long in race conditions on 33's.

[IronmanAndy]

Yeah that's our plan as well. We have a D44 & D60 in the shop that will eventually be installed in the 5.9. The problem is that the 44/60 isn't a matching set so we will have to do a bit of work to get them playing nicely together. For now the 30 works and it's already built we just have to fine tune it for now.

here's a few more pics:
Gusseted 8.8 rear


Post race, man that bumper looks goofy! lol


Gutted the rear of the jeep and it actually raised up a bit in the rear.


Anybody need 5.9 interior parts???


Now those coveted hood vents are actually useful!

[ZJ4.Slow]

Nice! This will be a good build considering I just saw your XJ for sale

What are the lift specs?

[IronmanAndy]

did the bumper look familiar? hint hint...

[ZJ4.Slow]

did the bumper look familiar? hint hint...

Lol, is it from the XJ, just stinger-less?

[IronmanAndy]

Exactly.... and we took the d ring mount back off to clear the XJ grille. Lift specs are not really known as both coil bucket set ups are not stock and provide some lift. We are operating more on center of gravity from the ground, tire height, and and up and down travel.
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[IronmanAndy]

MORE PICS

Coming down the final hill before the finish line. We took a bad line and landed the entire weight of the 5.9 on a boulder with our Ironman tie rod. So we just bulldozed it out of the way and kept driving! Oh and the tie rod, it's still going strong!.


The 5.9 cresting the main hill at the www.ECORS.com race

[CrawlerReady]

I love the angle the first pic was taken on. My favorite thing is when pictures are taken on an angle to make them more dramatic

[IronmanAndy]

Well we didn't take the pic so...
anyway check out the video around 5:35



You'll also get to see when our radiator clamp came off and for some reason nobody caught us on video going fast at all?! But whatever next race, they will.

[CrawlerReady]

Just giving you shit buddy....gotta be able to handle it here

[IronmanAndy]

It's all good, no problem bud! BTW, nice build yourself that rig sure has evolved!

[IronmanAndy]

I spent about an hour removing the 4 hitch bolts that we rusted solid. I had to weld the inner nuts to the rear bumper brackets and weld the out nuts to the bolts and then use a bolt breaking impact to remove them. With the hitch and bumper brackets discarded I decided to remove all the unnecessary sheet metal below the pinch seam on the body to get a ton more ground clearance. All body behind the tires is even with the top of the 33" tire. Pics to come.
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[IronmanAndy]

Here is a crappy cell phone picture of the rear trim before bumper build.
I am going to try and integrate a gas tank skid into the bumper and use thin was tubing (.095 wall) and maybe 14G pate to fill in the gaps to cover up the ugly and add a little gusset action.

[Jeeptech01]

Do you happen to know what brand the random aluminum wheels are?

[IronmanAndy]

I believe they are an old school American racing wheel. They are 15s but clear the WJ calipers and are very thick everywhere I would want them to be for strength. They were free.
I don't know anything more than that. I could look into it if you are curious beyond my info.
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[Jeeptech01]

Cool. I should be able to figure it out. Thanks.

Nice rig BTW.

[blackjack12982]

Looks pretty sweet! I've been digging those front arms...

[IronmanAndy]

We were going to run the radius arms in the front but I wanted to shave some weight and add to the coolness factor so here is a Teaser pic (crap cell phone picture) Of some 2" solid 7075 T6 links I machined this afternoon for our 3 link we are going to run up front.



We will have a 3 link up front and a 4 link rear. Both with pan hard (track bars) I will try to replace all of the steering and track bars with 1.5" 7075 aluminum.
We are removing the entire (fully functional) AC system tomorrow. If anyone needs any ZJ AC parts lemme know)

with all of the AC removed we will have one less pulley on the engine and shave about 40 lbs. Swapping all links to AL will save us another 40-60 lbs easy.

With the sway bars going back on and the cage going in I am trying to purge as much weight as possible.
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[IronmanAndy]

We removed the rear doors and they weighed in at 90lbs each and the fronts at 106 each... we removed all of the rear seat belt equip and the rest of the carpet behind the front seats. All in all we shed about 450lbs from the race weight today.
We bent and placed the b pillar and c pillar tubes. pics to come.
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