Ironman 5.9 Race Jeep

[IronmanAndy]

We took this right before rolling onto the trailer to leave for the race. Note the new door bars for driver/pass. protection. we also ran the aluminum arms from currie instead of the steel to save a few more lbs.


I intend to re evaluate the weight and reliability of the jeep as a structure. We also have to find a better way to cool this monster as over heating has kept us from finishing our second race now.
A

[CrawlerReady]

Looking good Andy!!!

edit: as for the overheating, what fan are you running? I'd look into running a Taurus if you're not already, and then maybe a hi-flow water pump? Also if it's the stock radiator, I had really good luck with the all-metal 3-core one I switched to.

[Jeep Whore]

the next thing if you need to get rid of more weight would be that stock seat. and get some buckets.

[IronmanAndy]

We decided at the beginning of this whole build that if we could not race with seat warmers..... we would not race!

We are running an aluminum stock replacement rad with a )(*&)(*&( who the hell knows brand electric cooling fan. The problem is the trans cooler runs in the rad. We keep spending our budget on things other than a trans cooler. That is the next purchase.... Oh after my king 14" 2.5 smoothie resi's for the front and the king 2.5 x12 triple B's for the rear. We are building a long travel setup with trailing arms like a desert truck for the rear. Its getting a little bob action and I am looking to shave about 300 lbs more of roof and ass.
A

[AgitatedPancake]

Honestly, I just walked through my local junk yard until I found a pretty sweet trans cooler back when I had the automatic. It ended up dropping the pan temps by like 30 or more degrees all across the board and was dirt cheap. Get that thing out of the radiator, I had a trans cooler line fail INSIDE the radiator which mixed coolant and ATF destroying the clutches in my tranny.

While your at the junkyard get the "taurus" fan off pretty much any 3.8 ford/mercury, just make sure it's the 3 wire model for the high and low. I've read reports on the net claiming that it pulls almost 4000CFM on high. I have one on my WJ, the 5.9 I just built and many others on MC!


Tyler, I feel like I recall you having some heat issues on the lakebed @ KOH this year, have you resolved that?

[IronmanAndy]

This is what happens when shocks get too hot..... and you jump the jeep



And this is when you have to stop every lap for timing at the start finish line and #13 has no brakes and rear ends ya.

[IronmanAndy]

And then the top comes off

[AgitatedPancake]

That sucks about the shocks! I had a buddy do that exact thing to a set of bilstein 5125's, we thought he musta tweaked them or something, but I wonder if they were super hot, because he was definately flogging on it for a while before that.

You kinda lost me with the roof chop, unless you had some serious damage up there you got rid of. I just like the lines of SUV's, enough to keep them until you absolutely can't anymore haha. Though I'm sure you saved a good bit of weight doing it. Any plans to rebuild the rear half of the cage to use all the new found space?

[IronmanAndy]

We are getting rid of everything we don't need. Including the roof. This is race specific so it needs to be a lot lighter and have much better rear suspension.

Here is some more chopping from today.







The rear is getting totally re done. Stay tuned for an un natural attack on a ZJ

A

[biggoofy]

Looking good man! Might wanna take that DT sticker off your fender lol

[MUDDTRACKS]

Looking good man. For the over heating-do you use water wetter? It will drop the temp 10-20 deg. Shit works damn good.

[IronmanAndy]

water wetter?

[96RedZJ]

water wetter?

Lazy bitch..

http://www.redlineoil.com/Products.aspx?pcid=10

Sent from my DROIDX

[IronmanAndy]

well hell yeah i knew i could keep cruising peoples pages and you would post a link for me. That's not lazy, that is delegation.

The rad is getting moved to the back and a separate trans cooler. The coolant will be plumbed through aluminum tubing to disperse more heat. If i still have issues I will look into making my water wetter. Its a good Idea. Thanks

[rstrucks]

Didn't take long to go from full body to that. Looks like you could shed about 30 or so lbs of roll cage tube now.

[ELLLLLIOTTTTT]

Looking good Andy!!!

edit: as for the overheating, what fan are you running? I'd look into running a Taurus if you're not already, and then maybe a hi-flow water pump? Also if it's the stock radiator, I had really good luck with the all-metal 3-core one I switched to.

Taurus fan works great... as long as you remember to turn it on.

[IronmanAndy]

We have an aftermarket fan and aluminum rad. We are always in the higher revs with this thing and beating the piss out of it. Its gonna be hot. The biggest problem is the stupid trans fluid running into the rad. That is getting eliminated as well. Trans cooler and rad with be rear mount. lots of fans
A

[IronmanAndy]

More chopping today after close:







The weight comes off fast if you eliminate everything. I am going to try and keep track of the weight that goes back on and only use what we need.

Andy

[CrawlerReady]

I really need to shave some weight........but I want to avoid this. Don't think there are many other options unfortunately. Looking forward to seeing how you finish it all up!

[SirFuego]

Very nice. Looking forward to see what you come up with -- you planning to bob it for a better departure angle?

I can't remember the class setup in ECORS, but I assume this chop will bump you up a class or two?

[zjeepin]

i spy a 60/14b combo in the driveway...

Losing your heater core is a good way to shave about 75lbs.. the zj heater is effin massive..

Another other way to save on weight is limiting what you carry in the rig such as tools and spares.. leave at camp/pit what you can afford to..

You may also shave a few lbs by going to a fuel cell and carrying a bit less fuel if you can get by with it..

just some thoughts..

You may have some troubles with rear mounting your radiator, but it does help with weight distribution..

i rear mounted mine about a year ago (in a 4.0) and I've finally got all the bugs worked out, i still have a few of the plates I made up to increase the flow of the water pump if you decide you need one let me know.

the biggest issue i had with the radiator was when you turn the radiator around to mount it in the rear the inlet and outlet get swapped, i ended up putting a 5.2 radiator in so that the hot water is going into the top of the rad and cool coming out the bottom.. you may end up needing one for a 4.0 so the flow is correct..fwiw

[IronmanAndy]

I really need to shave some weight........but I want to avoid this. Don't think there are many other options unfortunately. Looking forward to seeing how you finish it all up!

I noticed we lost 600 lbs with the doors and tailgate. Bumpers don't really need to be huge heavy chunks of steel lightweight tubing intelligently placed works better than most would think.
As far as interior, body panels, carpet, speakers, unnecessary tools and crap. All add up to a lot of weight. The less you weigh the better you can get up over stuff and the less you will break. Also try to remember that you want to keep the rig balanced. All of the weight up front makes you nose heavy etc. A balanced rig that is light and low will perform way better than you would expect.
A

[IronmanAndy]

i spy a 60/14b combo in the driveway...

Losing your heater core is a good way to shave about 75lbs.. the zj heater is effin massive..

Another other way to save on weight is limiting what you carry in the rig such as tools and spares.. leave at camp/pit what you can afford to..

You may also shave a few lbs by going to a fuel cell and carrying a bit less fuel if you can get by with it..

just some thoughts..

You may have some troubles with rear mounting your radiator, but it does help with weight distribution..

i rear mounted mine about a year ago (in a 4.0) and I've finally got all the bugs worked out, i still have a few of the plates I made up to increase the flow of the water pump if you decide you need one let me know.

the biggest issue i had with the radiator was when you turn the radiator around to mount it in the rear the inlet and outlet get swapped, i ended up putting a 5.2 radiator in so that the hot water is going into the top of the rad and cool coming out the bottom.. you may end up needing one for a 4.0 so the flow is correct..fwiw

I have not even tackled how I am going to put the rad in the back other than that I plan on plumbing it through as much aluminum tubing as possible to help dissipate more heat. I also will run a separate trans cooler. What plates were you talking about?

As far as changing classes based on my removal of body panels I am still within the rules of class A. The vehicle only needs to be derived from a manufactured vehicle. The rule book requires factory style suspension. ZJs came with coils and links.... I am keeping coils and links. There is no body panel percentage requirement or door rule. Only that a cage is required of no doors.

They leave the rules vague so as to encourage creativity.
A

[zjeepin]

look back in the for sale forum for the plates.. you tack weld or rivot the plate to the impeller in the water pump to make it a more effective pump and move more water, they work really well.

when i first put the rad in the back it would over heat if i idled very long. if i revved the engine for a few seconds it would cool right off, the pump just didn't have the ass to push all that water..

i used hydraulic return hose for the tricky sections and exhaust tubing for the straight sections to add cooling.. now my engine never gets over 180..

[CrawlerReady]

I noticed we lost 600 lbs with the doors and tailgate. Bumpers don't really need to be huge heavy chunks of steel lightweight tubing intelligently placed works better than most would think.
As far as interior, body panels, carpet, speakers, unnecessary tools and crap. All add up to a lot of weight. The less you weigh the better you can get up over stuff and the less you will break. Also try to remember that you want to keep the rig balanced. All of the weight up front makes you nose heavy etc. A balanced rig that is light and low will perform way better than you would expect.
A

Yeah, I've shaved all the doors......tailgate is going next. I definitely didn't originally build my rig with the intention of racing, but we've got a rock-cross short track race twice a year during the Old School Rock Crawl Comp. that I enter and it's some fun shit.

Weight Distribution? What's that?