Rebirth of Monster Mudder

jlbayes said:

Longer rod I assume? Sorry if I missed it.

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I'd assume so. I don't think you'd get enough compression to ignite the fuel otherwise!

Shorter deck height could be done but I doubt someone would hack that much off LOL

Yes, we are using longer rods....

Not much of an update, just about 8 hours of sanding on the grill mold. Looking really good and almost ready for primer. Hope to get it painted this week sometime.

Wow, been a month since I've been on here. Haven't had much time to much of anything with the race truck. Had my son's truck down several times because of his transmission. Started off with him loosing reverse. Thought ok, band needed adjusting, struct fell out or servo stuck... nope. The little lip on the pivot part of the fulcrum broke off. So had to pull his transfer case and rear tail housing off his truck to fix it. Got it fixed but found quite a few bolts wouldn't tighten up on the pan... So while we waited on heli coils to get in to fix his pan, his truck leaked. Thought that was where the leak was coming from. His truck left him on the side of the road one morning, so we parked it till we could get it in the shop and work on it. Heli coil kit came in and we fixed the pan on the trans, filled it back up with fluid and he went to test drive it... Had to pick him up 2 miles from the house. Wasn't the main leak. Finally figured out he didn't get the bolts tight enough on the tail housing extension and it blew out the gasket at the pressure port there. So pulled transfer case again and tail shaft housing, fixed the leak and it's been on the road since.

While that was going on, had to drop the gas tank on the wife's avalanche and replace the fuel pump assembly since the regulator went out on it. Got that fixed and while I had it up on stands, searched where the noise was coming from while it moved. Thought it was a ujoint... nope it was coming from the transfer case. So ordered parts to rebuild and got it rebuilt. Turned out it was the rear main bearing, was missing several balls in it.

After all that in the shop, it was a disaster so several days were spent just cleaning, hauling off trash, cleaning and putting tools away.

Bought a few new tools, picked up an 80 piece 3/8" impact set for my new dewalt 3/8" cordless impact and had to order a new paint gun. Decided to try the new 3m system and got to use it for the first time tonight spraying primer on the grill mold pieces. That thing shoots ultra nice and took me about 2 minutes to clean it up afterwards. Liking it so far.

Rods and Pistons were dropped off yesterday to start the new engine build with Austin, should be ordering the cam and a few other parts in the next day or so.

My wife and I started running the lounge at the American Legion we are members of on Friday nights. It was deader than a door nail on Fridays, trying to get people in. Before we started lucky to sell 6 bucks worth of beer, first night we did 36 bucks, granted most of it was mine. Last Friday we did over 200 with the start of a karaoke night.

Part of the mess:


Cleanup:


New clamp storage


New 3/8" impact set


3m paint gun






Primed Mold parts

Good to see ya back at it. I like that 3/8 impact set. Those little guns are get'n stronger and are murder on my craftsman stuff.

I like it too. Ordered it from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LNH7728/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I've been slowly replacing my crapsman tools with Carlye ones since the quality of crapsman has gone down hill. I can get the Carlye in town and don't have to drive an hour to get a tool. Just had to get a wobble joint replaced from Carlye yesterday. Didn't break, just lost the allen screw out of it.

I need to get me a bigger rolling tool cart for the most used of my tools, the little cart I'm using now it stuffed full and need more room and the 3 big tool boxes are full as well. Would like to turn this smaller cart into a wiring tool box with all my connectors, wires, etc in it or maybe a body working cart...

Really like the new 3m paint gun. Shoots great and so damned easy to clean up afterwards. Shot a heavy coat of primer on Friday and wet sanded the pieces over the last 2 days with 400 grit. Tonight I shot the first coat of Yeller single stage. Will wet sand starting with 800 and see how far I get and if I need to apply another coat.

Last night was carving pumpkins with Turbo, she was entralled watching me carve up her little pumpkin she picked out and then carve up Nana's and Mine.

Cam, Tappets, main gasket set and oil pump are ordered. Will order Head gasket with fire ring kit this week. and ordering a t6 flange from steed speed so I can cut the t4 off and weld on the t6.

Looking very nice! It seems like when it rains it pours huh? Keeping the shop clean seems like a never ending battle. Haha

Those pumpkins look awesome. If I tried that, it would take at least six pumpkins and I'd still probably have a mistake. lol

Not much time spent on the truck or out in the shop. Last week I was scrambling mon thru thurs evenings getting our frozen tomatoes turned into something that could sit on a shelf. Ended up making 51.5 quarts of pasta sauce and 5 pints of mild salsa for my wife. I was tired of looking at tomatoes by the end of it. The rush was because I had to have room in my 3rd freezer for over 300lbs of burger I picked up friday from the beef we had processed.

On the molds, I ended up wet sanding with 400 as I found quite a few pin holes that 800 would have taken forever to get cleaned up. Finished wet sanding last night with 400 and shot a new coat on the mold parts. Will start on 800 grit tonight and see where it goes.

My day started off with a phone call from the post office. My order of noise makers were there. So I have company out in the shop for the next couple of weeks till I move them out to the big chicken pen. I need to finish butchering the old birds this weekend and getting them in the freezer and do a major cleanout and repair on the pen before moving the new ones out. Bought 17 cherry eggers (2 males, 15 females), they lay a large amount of brown eggs and what we had before. 10 female americana, they lay multi colored eggs. blues, greens, etc.. and 10 female meat type chickens that we will butcher in a couple of months.

Finished sanding the mold parts tonight, think it turned out pretty good. Sanded the big piece with 800 grit last night and then hit it with 1000, 1500 and 2000 tonight and then did the 2 small ones starting at 800 and ending at 2000. Need to clean all the pieces and then get the areas where they come together sealed with sealant tape and bolt them together. Then I can start the work of filling in the gaps on the edges with modeling clay and smoothing it out.

Then I can figure out when I'm going to try and actually make the part.

Run Ragged seems to be a theme lately. Worked the American Legion lounge with my wife last friday and got home at about midnight. Saturday, finished pulling everything in the garden and covered it all in straw for the winter. Massively pruned back the grapes at the front of the house. Caught up about half my cows and got them tagged, need to do the other half this weekend. Sunday we butchered another 10 chickens, have 3 left to finish off the old ones. Sunday night, we went out to dinner and took my wife and son to a concert. Saw the Lacks, Big Smo, Saving Abel and Demon Jones. The country rap isn't my thing but my wife and son like it. I did like Saving Abel. Think I got to sleep sometime after 1, up at 5:30 and worked in Tulsa, drove home and picked my wife up and we headed back to Tulsa for a quick bite and to see Blues Traveler. See I made a deal with my wife, I would take her to see the Lacs and she would go to see Blues Traveler with me. Well, saw the opening band and about 1/3 of Blues Traveler's set and we had to leave because our daughter went to the ER because she was showing a lot of the symptoms for Meningitis.

Anyway, been a busy rest of the week, but have put some shop time in, walked into my compressor room to get one of my lint free towels to clean the mold parts and it was so piled up and messy that I spent 2 hours just going through stuff and starting to figure out how to organize it better. Ordered some more plastic drawers to add more compartmentalized storage in there and got some of them in yesterday, the rest will be here Friday. Also picked up a cheap door mount shoe holder from wally world and put all my spray paint cans in it and got them off the shelf they were taking up.

Ran to lowes yesterday and picked up a few parts to make 2 better spray bottle racks than the half arse one I had that was only supported on one end by scrap pieces. Much better looking and more storage space.

On the mold, it washed in wax and grease remover and got the sealant tape put in between the 3 pieces and the 1/2" bolts in and tightened to make it one mold. Also took my modeling clay and applied it to the joints to give them smooth transitions.

shelves after some cleaning






Mold sealed and bolted together


Clay added

Finally have the compressor room cleaned up and organized to the point where I can find crap in it again. Finished setting up shelves and putting the last storage drawers on the shelves and hot glueing them in place so they don't move around. Also was able to empty a couple of shelves out in the main shop into the compressor room. Moved all my vehicle cleaning waxes and stuff around that to it's own shelf and moved all the mold and CF making parts and supplies in there as well.

Also started in on dismantling the truck, bedsides are off, battery is off, fuel cell is drained and it and the fuel pumps are off the truck. Need to drain the water lines and radiator next and then the trans coolers so I can pull the bed floor off. The long block should be started to be assembled this week.

The little chickens are getting big and will be moved out to the coop one day this week. Butchered the last 3 old birds Sunday.

Shelf progression:

This is a shot of the state of the shelves before I started organizing them.


Starting to organize


Closer, was just waiting on the rest of the box drawers I ordered


Much Better




Spray bottle rack filled up


Masking paper storage and old guns hanging up


Stripping down the bed


Week and a half older now

"I love Chickens, they turn table scraps and stink bugs into eggs."

Bodacious said:

"I love Chickens, they turn table scraps and stink bugs into eggs."

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I hate chickens, new next door neighbor moved in and brought his chicken pins, the roosters lite off at about 3:45 Am. Is it cause the full moon? If not there might be a gate malfunction that could happen.

Nice work on organizing and such. I'm always a day late and a dollar short on all that. Haha

No idea on the chickens going off at 3:45 am unless a predator is after them or they forgot about daylight saving time...

I hate cluttered up spaces and not being able to find anything. I ended up spending a small fortune on those plastic boxes, but it really cleans up and organizes stuff I want to keep clean.

Finally got to spend a few hours out in the shop tonight. Pulled the turbo, found that who ever put the turbo on the adapter didn't get the nuts tight enough and the gasket blew through. Also found as I was pulling wiring out of the cab, the center of the air temp sensor post intercooler was out of the mount and that would be another issue with building boost. Nothing like a huge hole leaking air.

Finished pulling the bed apart, removed the intercooler, water lines and tank out of the cab. Pulled the shifter, unhooked all the sensors and pulled the data logger and it's nodes out. Unwired the engine and removed the wires. Cab is almost ready to come off, Have 1 bolt left on drivers side in the cab and 3 bolts on the passenger side of the cab. Also need to unhook the brake booster from the brake lines and power steering hoses.

Finished getting the cab unbolted tonight, ended up having to cut one grade 8 bolts head off, 5 years in the mud locked it up pretty good. Used the cherry picker and a long 2x8 to lift the cab off the frame and set it on two moving dollies.

I need to review some rules from orgs and start pulling the drive train to ensure I get the engine set in the right place to meet rules.

How heavy is that cab section and roll cage?