Howdy-new member

[OlympicYJ]

I'm Wes. I live in Grays Harbor up the Wynoochee Valley. The South Olympics are my playground. I joined this forum because of all the good local information and wouldn't mind sharing some of mine.

My rig is 93 YJ 2.5L with 30 inch Cooper STT's, bumpers and mounting plate made by my dad and a Warn 8274. This summer I hope to be going 33's, Rubicon Express 4 inch lift, Ford 8.8 rear axle with an OX locker, and build some sliders for fending off stumps and trees.

Here it is.



I'll be setting up an avatar soon.

[Jerry]

Hi, Wes, welcome to the forum!
Jerry


"THE MORE YJ'S THE BETTER"
OUR 1992 YJ

[OlympicYJ]

Thanks!

Your engine setup is what I'm shooting for! 350/TH400/Atlas 4spd. How do you like your OX? and how well has your D30 held up to the 350? You probably drive it with a fairly light foot right? Yupp the more the merrier!

Wes

[Steve]

Welcome to the forum

I look forward to hearing more about your adventures. I'm just scratched the surface on exploring down in your area and since it's relatively close to my house, I'll be doing more. Especially waiting for the high county snow to melt.

Steve

[Jerry]

Your engine setup is what I'm shooting for! 350/TH400/Atlas 4spd. How do you like your OX? and how well has your D30 held up to the 350? You probably drive it with a fairly light foot right? Yupp the more the merrier!

The V8 is okay, but not worth the expense unless you happen to have a spare engine, transmission and drive shafts sitting around. A six will produce almost as much torque as a 350 so unless you are specifically into running sand dunes my advice is to stick with a six. The OX works great, but make sure it is adjusted correctly otherwise it won't engage. I was going to switch out the Dana 30 at the same time I did the Dana 35, but my mechanics as well as some 4x4 buddies talked me out of it. They told me D30's should work ok as long as I didn't go bigger than 35" tires.

I'm with Steve, I would like to read about some of your 4x4 adventures in the lower peninsula. There are so many private timber company roads over there and the few times I have tried to make sense of them I end up making wrong turns. Sort of like a maze.
Jerry

[OlympicYJ]

Thanks for the warm welcome and I'll try and do a general write up on past trips. There aren't any long trails up by Grisdale but gravel bars and old roads. Snow wheeling is about the best that a person would get.

My 2.5L is gutless and I always planned on going the 350 route. My 2.5 gets about 18 MPG a inline 6 gets about 16 MPG and a 350 can come close to that. I may be able to get an engine block from my uncle and cousin. They race at Elma and he has some blocks setting around and he is moving soon so....I wont do the swap for a while though. Yeah I'm keeping the 30 until I can build a front 44 to the same width as the future 8.8. I may be getting into dunes also and in the snow it will especially help. I heard that about the OX but once people got them setup right they really liked them. What I like is that they don't rely on electricity, no solenoids to go bad, and no airlines. If the cable gets torn off I'm sure I could jerry rig it to engage.

I hear you on the roads but I grew up riding around with my dad all over that country and done a bunch on my own. I still get screwed up occasionally. Last summer I was trying to head up to Dust Peak on the road that leads over to the Skoke. and I took the wrong road. Of course it was at midnight. Started out with high 70s and wound up with 98 miles on it once it was all said and done.

[Photog]

Welcome.

If you build a V8, build it for bottom end torque, not top end horsepower. 2 bbl fuel injection, small diameter intake runners, truck cam (medium lift, wide lobe spread), high volume oil pump, small diameter headers, small diameter exhaust pipes. You will also need to make the cooling system as efficient as possible, with 4 core radiator, and a good fan and shroud. The tranny will need an extra cooler or two, and a low-RPM-stall torque converter, with lock-up, if possible. Stiffen up the shift sequence, and the bands will live longer also.

With a setup like this, it should pull super strong right to 4500 RPM, then it will run out of steam at 5000 RPM. This will keep it useful for dunes also. Most of your useful driving will be 700 to 2500 RPM, and this will work great for that. An MSD is also helpful, in this lower RPM range. Set up your EGR properly, for fuel efficiency and horsepower.

It should also get really good fuel economy, for a V8.

Again - Welcome to the forum.

[OlympicYJ]

Thanks for the welcome.

Pretty much what I had in mind. To save money at first I was thinking of going with the holley truck avenger carb. Low end torque is high on my list. Also the electric cooling fans. I do need to learn more about auto trannys but before I do the swap I'll have a few years to get up to speed. Not to mention I know plenty of people that can help me out.

Thanks again.

[Photog]

The old 2 bbl factory fuel injection systems are cheap, and don't have any flooding problems. The CPU is easily modified for a perfect fuel curve, etc. And you don't have to get 8 port-type fuel injectors. Symplicity.

It should be about the same price as a new carb, and easier to dial in.

[OlympicYJ]

I'll have to look into it. Thanks for the info.