Making a faster fossil, or how I ruined my winter.

A 401 CJ said:

This is like putting a 12 valve in the A-Team van.

I think you just nailed it!

Phase two underway.

Pulled the axle and used a lot of blocks to hold up 35000 pounds of fossil.

Motor out tomorrow night if all goes well.

10 liters of Cat in a 5 liter hole.

The removal is not going well. Something is holding it back and I cannot figure out what. I am past the coax it out with wiggling and rocking and tonite I go to berkeley it I'm just going to pull like hell.  

In reply to bearmtnmartin :

How the heck do you ratchet the force levels up to "pull like hell" when everything's so big and heavy it takes hell just to move things normally?

In reply to Jesse Ransom (FFS) :

I was being a little facetious I guess. I have the motor and transmission on two jack stands and I am pulling them forward with a ratchet strap. Pulling like hell may mean applying enough force to tear whatever water line that is still connected somewhere.

What rear end gear are you running? I have a 4.63 set that i was going to put into my 'lodge but I ended up selling it before installing the gear set. 

TJ Hannink

Des Allemands, LA

In reply to tjhannink :

I am working on that. The problem is that the rear axle I have is obsolete. It is the back axle of a 44,000 pound SSHD set with a 5.29 ratio. That is a heavy duty axle and hard to find tall gears for. And if I do find the gears I have to change other things because the taller gears will not fit into the housing. And no-one can give me good information so I may buy a bunch of expensive parts that won't work. So my preference right now is to swap in a new axle. Which is a whole new set of problems because I need a specific brake cam length in order to fit the brake chambers into the four bag air suspension. And I need quite a tall ratio because the cat revs to 2800 and the Cummins will top out at 1800 and I would like to run at around 1400 if possible. I am looking for a 3.73 or a 3.5 if possible.

In reply to bearmtnmartin :

Would you be able to switch it to juice brakes, opening up newer axle options?

Jesse Ransom (FFS) said:

In reply to bearmtnmartin :

How the heck do you ratchet the force levels up to "pull like hell" when everything's so big and heavy it takes hell just to move things normally?

With access to hydraulics, a determined man can break anything. or "give me a fulcrum and I can move the world"   

or, "I bet he could berkeley up a bowling ball with a rubber mallet" 

Can you reuse the rear axle from the donor semi? Gearing should be a good match as it's designed for that engine.

In reply to 03Panther :

The older Wanderlodge's used juice brakes and apparently they are terrifying to drive. There is a reason commercial trucks use air!

In reply to edwardh80 :

The truck came with a 4:11 ratio which would be ok but it is a hauling ratio and would put me at around 1700 or 1800 rpm at highway speeds. I prefer to be at the lower end of Cummins recommended range which would be about 1400 at 70. But still, I would have used it because I had it except it was a 40,000 pound tandem set, or 20,000 pounds per axle and the fossil has a 22,000 pound axle, so I need to replace it with either that (obsolete rating) or heavier which would be a 23,000 pound axle. I am off to measure one up tomorrow with a 3.58 which will work but will also be a lot of money...

In reply to 03Panther :

As it turned out someone had the transmission out at some point and managed to pinch the steel sheath of the transmission shift cable between the transmission and the bellhousing. I could not see that under the floor so eventually I pulled hard enough to tear the cable and out it came.

The disc brakes on the modern large trucks (albeit not 80K+!) have come a LONG way from those Winnie's. My FL50 (70 specs) has a disk I can bairly lift... ma mate that works on city maintainable and garbage trucks is about twice as strong as me, and says hes done a few he had to get help putting on!

Glad ya got it out! Cant wait to see the new one on its way in!!!!!

This thread reminded me of an old Instagram photo I took.

That's the the tow vehicle on the left.

In reply to nutherjrfan :

I hope you are not foreshadowing.

I just came looking for updates :D

Progress on the weekend. Old motor out....

Big hole...

I tried to get the two side by side but I cannot lift more than one end of the old one.  So this is the best I could do.

New motor in for a test fit!

Plenty of room... if I don't bother with the radiator and charge air cooler.....

If not for the length of the thing it would be a great fit. And access will actually improve because it is so much narrower.look at the space either side compared to the original.

You may notice I removed the turbo, alternator and AC compressor. I may drop the turbo down below the frame rail, and I think the compressor and alternator can go back to their spot after some cutting and hacking. 

I need room for ten inches of Radiator and CAC so I have to decide now whether to push the motor back another ten inches, (don't like that because it will be awkward) or add a nose extension of some kind. Still mulling that over. It also needs to come up a couple inches and I am trying to decide how much clearance I can live with under the oil pan. Every inch lower is more room inside and a smaller doghouse.

Great progress!  Thanks for the update!

10 inches?  I can't think of any way to make that look pretty without changing the entire front face of the RV.

Remote mount somewhere?

What will be awkward about the setback? Cause the front end extension is gonna look like groucho Marx. 

Also, it my folks big motorhome,  the only thing they used the doghouse for was to let the dog ride. What use does the doghouse provide for you? What would the raised a few inches doghouse hurt?

Here is the only Wanderlodge I know with a longer motor installed. 

I don't hate it. But I would like to retain the original look if possible. I am leaning to pulling the whole nose off and adding a 10 inch section to make the bus longer. The other option is to remotely mount the radiator and CAC, and they could go up on the roof....Lots of room up there and I am open to suggestions as to whether or not this may be an option. It is kind of a radical solution, and I don't want to get into a heat rejection/airflow physics problem after I have gone this route and discovered that it won't work. To move the motor back means stepping over the motor to get to the front seats, and it steals valuable room from the interior. And at the end of the day I will spend more time living inside the fossil than I will driving it, so interior comfort has to be more important than esthetics.

Great to see that beast in its new home!

I don’t hat that nose, but I would think hard about moving it back, to leave to original look. With the engine being narrow, without the accessories, can you make the back half of the dog box narrow enough?

03Panther said:

Great to see that beast in its new home!

I don’t hat that nose, but I would think hard about moving it back, to leave to original look. With the engine being narrow, without the accessories, can you make the back half of the dog box narrow enough?

I would agree with this too.  I think it's a much easier path to completion/feasability, and if you make the doghouse structural, who's not to say you can't still make it usable?  

Either way, awesome project.  The sheer thought of this sucker pulling a trailer with some sort of racecar behind it at 70mph like it isn't even trying is... gah.  awesome. 

I kinda prefer the nose to the flat -face look.