Never ending Samurai build...

This past weekend I finally got around to wrapping up the velocity stack intake. I'm waiting on some more jets to show up tomorrow to get it tuned back to where it was. All of the jets I've got I've drilled out too large. This was a byproduct of the pitot tube setup and pressurizing the float bowl. That system required a larger main jet for whatever reason. This new setup where the factory float bowl vent on the face of the carb is pressurized by the air in the "hat" should make things more responsive and get me back down closer to stock jetting since all of the small ports at the mouth of the carb will be able to do their job more correctly metering the air flow.

I also started reworking my rear upper shock mounts to allow more like 5-6" of shaft showing at ride height without the rear sitting higher. The front rides great, but with my rears at 3-4" from bump at ride height they are pretty harsh especially since when its under power that ends up around 1-2" showing. Pics to come later.

Well I finally broke something. After being in my rig for over 9 years the 6.5:1 tcase gears finally gave up. Gotta get this sorted out before the trip to Harlan.

I do have a stock case sitting here that might have to make do if TG can't get me another set quick enough. If they deny the warranty for any reason it'll definitely be the stock case going back in. Hell if I'm paying another $550 for a set of samurai gears. Might look at swapping to an AW4 for atlas or Dana 300 options or even a340f trans for a yota case with 4.7's.



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Huge thanks to Ryan (TRD on here) at Accutune for steering me in the right direction with the newest upgrade for my rig. For the longest time I've defended air shocks for lightweight rigs. Mine have worked well for my uses, but I never really had the desire to spend much time tuning them so the most I ever did was add and remove a little oil here and there to observe differences. Honestly the most obvious difference I ever saw was the amount of nitrogen I had to use...it was never a big difference in performance characteristics.

I know I've aggravated Ryan for over a year now off and on trying to make myself pull the trigger on a new setup. Keeping to my normal budget minded purchasing would have left me buying a set of 14" Fox Emulsion shocks from Dave's, but after some more in depth conversations recently I was enlightened as to why I needed to look more seriously at remote reservoirs, valving, and spring setups. The biggest issue with setup for my rig is how light it is so Ryan helped walk me through the weights and his best recommendations for what I would want for my uses.

The 4 new shocks and all of the springs showed up yesterday so I spent a little time this evening putting the springs on the shocks in preparation for installing them tomorrow or over the weekend.

AGAIN...THANKS RYAN!!!

Can't hide money...

Can't wait to hear your opinion on them.

Looks good Can't wait to hear your opinion on the difference

What kind of spring rates did you go with?

fabricator1 said:

What kind of spring rates did you go with?

Click to expand...

Front - 90/125 14"/16"
Rear - 70/100 14"/16"

The rear springs are set up with a triple rate with tender coil. The PAC tender coil on the Accutune site says its spring rate is 25.

My gears showed up in Cali on Friday and from what I was told I should expect the replacements to head my way by middle of this week. I'll keep my fingers crossed...

In other news I got out to the shop today with the intention of getting the coilovers mounted. I knew the rears would be the easiest so I started there. Then I moved to the front to find out what I thought was going to be an issue was exactly that. The way I had braced up the front frame section after doing my 4 link was hitting the backside of the coilovers. So needless to say that had to change. So I cut out one brace and moved the shock tabs to the backside of the tube they were originally on. This was something I had wanted to do for a while to give the shocks a little angle rather than being perfectly straight up at ride height. A lot of grinding an cussing later I ended up with the first one mounted at approx. 9* back and 8* inwards. Nice...next shock.

****...not only is the same brace in the way on the driver side, but the hydro lines coming from the orbital need to be rerouted slightly AND the orbital is going to contact the springs too. DAMNIT...I get all that moved then come to find out the braided line coming out of the shock to the remote reservoir is trying to take up the same real estate as my air filter on the turbo. Not sure what I'm going to do there, but it will either be a short run of metal tubing to move the filter out the way, or what is probably not what Ryan @ Accutune would want me to do which is to remove the braided hose and install 90* fitting at the shock body. I'll figure that out later...


I've already sent a lot of measurements to Ryan to decipher regarding my setup as it sits in these photos. We're already really light on the spring rates on the rear shocks, but its looking like we'll either need to go lighter or shorter on the springs...OR...my next question to him will be what about just moving the shock mounts around to accommodate things. I guess that wouldn't be the right process as that means the spring rate wouldn't be right. For some reason the driver front is also sitting 1.25" lower than the passenger side. Best I can tell the weight shouldn't be biased to the driver side so I'm not sure what's going on there. Of course I'm still trying to wrap my head around coilovers...

Double post.

Worked with Ryan today to get closer to the right setup. The reason the driver front was sagging so much was that shock didn't have any nitrogen in it. I added 180psi to it so it matched the passenger side and it sat level. He recommended dropping the nitrogen in the rear shocks to 150psi to bring the ride height down a little. After taking a few more measurements we determined we needed to drop to a 12" top spring on the rear in order to get the desired ride height. On the front we ended up dropping to 150psi as well and moving the 14" 70lb springs from the rear to the front in place of the 90lb springs. With 1" of preload added it sits where I wanted it.

As long as PAC has the right springs in stock I should have them by Thursday this week and that should just about wrap up the setup.

I've still got to finish the tube work surrounding the front shock mounts. Then I need to move on to finishing several other areas before October creeps up on me.

One thing always leads to another. In this case the braided line from the shock to the reservoir on the driver side was trying to occupy the same space as the air filter which was mounted directly to the front of the turbo. That wasn't going to work so I asked Ryan about putting a 90 on the shock...but that would have required tearing the shock apart to do or I could have have a local hydraulic shop crimp a 90 on the braided line, but that wouldn't have worked out either. So I decided to build an intake pipe to move the filter out and away from the turbo and that would allow me to make it clear the hose. Tonight I built a small bracket that will be welded to this new tube and then to the same tube the shock is mounted to in order to secure everything in place.

I may have to go to the exhaust shop and get them to open up the end that goes over the turbo. Right now its a good "press" fit over the snout, but if the motor is moving and the tube is mounted to the chassis that probably wouldn't work out too well over time. If they can open it up a little I could put some rubber hose over the snout and then clamp the tube over it. Thoughts?

I'd get a heavy duty T-bolt hydraulic hose clamp, and clamp it straight to the turbo. wouldn't worry about mounting the pipe or filter.

TBItoy said:

I'd get a heavy duty T-bolt hydraulic hose clamp, and clamp it straight to the turbo. wouldn't worry about mounting the pipe or filter.

Click to expand...

Ya know that thought had crossed my mind...as well as welding a short piece of hollow rod to it then cutting a slit in it and using itself as a clamp. I guess if I'm using the t-bolt clamp I'd still have to cut a slit in it.

Re:

Nah, you said it was tight on there already. I don't think I'd even cut it

In the third picture, it looks like you have clearance to turn the shock around so the braided line can turn under the frame tubing outward. Any possibility of doing that? It should be up high enough to be out of the way for tire clearance.




ADMINISTRATOR

Why do you have to tear the shock down to put a 90 on it?


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CHASMAN9 said:

In the third picture, it looks like you have clearance to turn the shock around so the braided line can turn under the frame tubing outward. Any possibility of doing that? It should be up high enough to be out of the way for tire clearance.




ADMINISTRATOR

Click to expand...

That picture is deceiving...but if I turn the shock around the line would run into the tube. This pic might show it better...

TBItoy said:

Why do you have to tear the shock down to put a 90 on it?


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Click to expand...

Here's what Ryan said when I asked him...

Changing the hose requires pulling the shock apart, draining all the oil out, swap hose, re-fill oil, bleed air out, close shock.
That hose has an o-ring port on both ends so there aren't any available 90 deg fittings. The easiest solution is to have a local hydraulic shop crimp a JIC fitting on. Then use a JIC to ORB 90 deg fitting,
If you don't have a local hydraulic shop we can get the correct hose and fittings from fox.

clemsonjeep said:

That picture is deceiving...but if I turn the shock around the line would run into the tube. This pic might show it better...



Here's what Ryan said when I asked him...

Changing the hose requires pulling the shock apart, draining all the oil out, swap hose, re-fill oil, bleed air out, close shock.
That hose has an o-ring port on both ends so there aren't any available 90 deg fittings. The easiest solution is to have a local hydraulic shop crimp a JIC fitting on. Then use a JIC to ORB 90 deg fitting,
If you don't have a local hydraulic shop we can get the correct hose and fittings from fox.

Click to expand...

Since that shock mount is just tacked in, could you not just swing it down a little lower and adjust the ride height out of the shock?




ADMINISTRATOR

The cooler the air filter is the more power you can possibly make. It may help in the long run to move the filter anyways

clemsonjeep said:

That picture is deceiving...but if I turn the shock around the line would run into the tube. This pic might show it better...



Here's what Ryan said when I asked him...

Changing the hose requires pulling the shock apart, draining all the oil out, swap hose, re-fill oil, bleed air out, close shock.
That hose has an o-ring port on both ends so there aren't any available 90 deg fittings. The easiest solution is to have a local hydraulic shop crimp a JIC fitting on. Then use a JIC to ORB 90 deg fitting,
If you don't have a local hydraulic shop we can get the correct hose and fittings from fox.

Click to expand...

The fittings do exist :

https://www.discounthydraulichose.com/category_s/1043.htm

here are straight ORB M-F 90s.

pretty sure this is the one you need (#6), unless your shock has smaller fittings than I'm thinking
https://www.discounthydraulichose.com/product_p/6815-06-06.htm


if you are super stickler about not getting ANY air in the shock, then disassemble and reassemble with the top of the shock submerged in oil. Make sure and bleed off all the nitrogen charge first of course.