Devastator's upgrade

[CentralWAbaja]

Nice to see you drop in and say hi

[Devastator]

Nice to see this site is still going. Made anymore trips to Glamis CWB?

[CentralWAbaja]

Was down last Christmas/New years. Might get down for the same time frame again this year, maybe the week after New years?

[Devastator]

We'll be at the dunes, (on the exact opposite end of Glamis), from 12/27 thru 1/1. I went to Glamis for 1 day last year, and, literally, cracked both of my front rims. Man that place is rough! Would be cool to meet up at the Swingset or something sometime.

[CentralWAbaja]

Yes we'll keep that in mind.

[Devastator]

Awesome!

[Devastator]

Wow! The torque from this engine is AMAZING! The few problems I had were: My suspension wasn't adjusted correctly for the increased weight of the Ecotec engine. I also had a blown out front shock, so I'm having them all rebuilt and looking into re-springing the rear shocks. I weighed my sandrail with some pallet scales and, with 2 people in it, the front weighed approx. 500 lbs. and the rear weighed approx 1500 lbs.. The unsprung weight of the rear trailing arm assembly was approx. 90 lbs each.
I had about a cup of oil leak out between the trans and engine, which I am confident leaked from the engine rear main seal. The seal didn't leak before so I suspect crankcase pressure, since the 2.4L Ecotec was never designed to have a supercharger on it. I've added an exhaust powered vacuum system to the engine and hope that will fix it. Flag lights had a grounding issue...as usual. Have a plan to fix it, but keep forgetting until I'm at the dunes and my lights keep changing colors. Brakes are still sketchy and have been for several years. Now that CNC is no longer in business, I'm going to try and get parts to fix my CNC master cylinder. Sometimes I hate being me.

[Leatherneck]

How did you weigh your buggy? I bet it was night and day with the power. It does suck with a major player like CNC going belly up.

[Devastator]

I took my buggy to a friend's shop where he had pallet scales. They went up to 5000 lbs each! My son in law and I also bought a heavy duty, portable, digital, crane scale for weighing his crawler and my buggy in the future. The power from this engine was great! The torque, however, was ride changing. It is soooo much easier to drive than before.
I had my shocks rebuilt before last trip, (Thanksgiving), and discovered that there was almost no valving in the rear shocks to speak of. My rebuilder suggested valving that he installed. WOW! That made for a smoother ride. While I was waiting to have them rebuilt, I bought a set of used Fox 2.5 bypass shocks from Racedezert.com. During the last trip, I had a friend ride with me and he commented on how poorly my suspensions was working, even after I'd raised the preload to a suitable ride height. He suggested moving my lower shock mounts further out on the trailing arm, (about 3-1/2" from their current location). I was embarrassed to admit that I'd never considered this but would jump right on it when I got home. So, that's where I'm at with the suspension now - moving shock mounts and adding bypass shocks.
My vacuum system helped reduced the main seal leak but didn't eliminate it. It's tolerable for this season, but I plan to fix it next summer. Adding a ground wire to the flag did nothing for it, since it grounds through the plug. Duh! I think adding a ground wire hurt its feelings though because it has now taken it's own life and stopped working completely. Going to cut into it and see if there is a built in fuse or broken wire, but I suspect I'll need to buy a replacement.

[Devastator]

I have a video of my doing "too much wheelie" up a hill, but no idea how to post it here.

[Leatherneck]

I have a video of my doing "too much wheelie" up a hill, but no idea how to post it here.

YouTube then post the link here.

[Devastator]

Too much wheelie video:

https://youtu.be/nRhgHXdjJwY

[Devastator]

I don't ALWAYS do a wheelie.:
https://youtu.be/s_mNA9x_zFU

[Leatherneck]

Too much wheelie video:

[bbvideo]https://youtu.be/nRhgHXdjJwY[/bbvideo]

Dragging your butt killed it huh? I always heard wheelies equal broken parts. True?

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Too much wheelie video:

[bbvideo]https://youtu.be/nRhgHXdjJwY[/bbvideo]

Dragging your butt killed it huh? I always heard wheelies equal broken parts. True?

So do long duration launches .

Lee