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Tigger update - got shocks, smoked Dana 20

While fourwheeling with the Frontier club in April to Park Lake I managed to shear my driver's side U-bolt plate in half up front. This meant the shock could no longer be used in this spot, either.. which meant Tigger now had no front shocks, since the passenger front was damaged and seized up years ago.







I drove it home and parked it.







Just before our Father's Day run, I replaced the U-bolt plate.. but put a passenger side plate on the driver's side, so still no shock. I trailered the Scout to the trailhead, but had problems with trailer-sway for the first time, owing a lot to the Scout just swaying back and forth without any front shocks, and with the battered rear shocks canted inboard at a severe angle.



Shop Update

I have been derelict on updating the site.. partly because I keep hoping to recover my pictures from the old HDD.. but I'm about to abandon hope. ;)



The shop is nearly done!!

800 with one window permanently down

Winter arrived last week, so I finally decided it was time to put the hardtop back on my wife's 68 V8 800, "Oscar"



We dragged the hardtop into the garage, then I used 4 ratchet straps to hoist it up, backed under, and got the top installed without too much trouble.



I remember looking at the rolled down windows and thought, "I should roll those up.. nahh, we'll just do it in the morning.."

Married

The time has finally come and passed. Saturday, 10/4, at 4pm, Michelle and I were married to many a "It's about time" :D



It's been a hectic and stressful few months of preparations and organizing, but it's over now, and by every account I've heard, everything went just fine. :)



We owe a huge THANK YOU to our many friends that helped with the planning, organizing, performing, and clean-up of the big event and reception. They made the party a success.



Our bridesmaids and groomsmen were fantastic and made everything wonderful.



Of course, we were also fortunate to have so many friends in attendance, some traveling great distances. My father, grandfather, and both grandmothers made the long flight from Pittsburgh. The Comers and Korstens came up from Denver. The Culleys from Idaho, Dave Nuenke from Rapid City, the Beyers and Jarretts from Wisconsin and Minnesota... and plenty of Montanans and closer travelers. Our thanks for making the trip and sharing our day with us.



I've begun uploading pictures.. Wedding Album from the various digital cameras we had on hand. We'll have the official photos when we return from Honolulu...



Garage Update

I still haven't recovered the data from the failed HDD..



But, the shop is coming along, slowly, but surely.



I finished painting the floor.



Shop Album



I used 4 gallons of Behr white epoxy floor paint, and a lot of time cleaning.



I now have two trenches dug from the house to the shop to run power, cable TV, ethernet, phone, and gas, though nothing is in yet.



I've also started putting up outlet boxes and wiring some receptacles inside.



Killed the 392... but found the problem.. Taurus fan comments..

I've read numerous posts on other boards of people raving about how great the 3.8L Taurus electric fan is.



So I picked one up for $25.



Installed it. Played with it. Hooked up two 30amp relays in parallel to switch it on, and used a manual override under the dash, and a keyed-on temperature switch to automatically operate the fan.



I can report that it did an fine job cooling my built 392 around town, and did OK for the first hundred or so miles of mostly flat towing.



It didn't do well in Yellowstone on long slow climbs, or Wyoming on the other side of the park.



This, with a freshly recored 3-row rad, RS 180 stat.



At Willy C's, I removed the air conditioning and auto trans coolers from the grille area (AC doesn't work, and the front clip is from an auto truck, now installed on my stick truck).



Don't think that made much improvement, but propping the rear of the hood open did seem to help. I did this by adjusting the hood hinges on the '74 pickup as far as they'd go, pushing the rear of the hood UP.



Definitely improved hot air flow out of the engine bay.



Still liked to get hot climbing hills with 90-100 deg ambient temps.



I killed the 392 on the second day, just before RMIHR.. after RMIHR we swapped in a stock 392.



The Taurus (and cocked-open hood) did MUCH better with the stock motor, with similar temps.



I only stopped once to let the engine cool, pulling Fremont pass into Leadville, CO.



Otherwise, the motor ran 200-220-ish (lost my mechanical gauge when swapping motors) at 65-75mph (3000 to 3500rpm) at 14-15,000lbs with ambient temps between 90-105 (Moab, UT was in the "low 100s".. )pulling grades and on the flats for 900 miles through the Rockies.



I need to get the correct tranny mount into my truck, and then I'll look at using the deep 74/75 shroud I have and put my clutch fan back on.



I might keep the Taurus fan at the same time, for use when idling in traffic, or for cool-down at fuel stops, but I think I need to go back to the mechanical for primary cooling purposes.



I don't want to put the fan in front of the radiator (pusher), because I need the room for the A/C stuff.. and with the 74/75 engine set-back, I can JUST get the Taurus fan AND clutch fan in place.



If I upgrade to a 4-row, I'll have to have the mounting flanges offset to put the rad forward a bit, to keep the clutch from hitting the electric fan motor.



Note that the Taurus draws ~40amps when running.. I upgraded to a Delco 12si 94amp alt at the same time, and 4-gauge charge wire, just to make sure I could keep up.:D

RMIHR Bound

Wednesday AM we're heading to Colorado.



The 392 is in and running. The truck appears to be in good shape, Oscar has both tanks working and good steering..



A temporary Gallery has been setup - Gallery with pics of the 392 project, while I continue to hold out hope of recovering some of the data from the dead 60-gigger.. :(



Crash and Burn

No, I'm not talking about Matt n' Dave..



If you're wondering where the pics have gone, or why the Image Gallery doesn't work, and where my site's been for the last few days..



I lost TWO hard drives last week. One was a 10gig, with the main OS for this server on it, along with the database for this site (and others).. I saved the DBs, and re-installed the OS on the new 120gig drive (and upgraded the server m/b and memory, too).. then found the 60gig drive chock full of my IH pictures and videos ALSO DIED..



That was almost a week ago, and I'm still watching my workstation chugging through the bad sectors marking the bad areas, hoping that when it's all done, I can still salvage some of my data.



I'll hold off re-installing the Gallery and starting over until I can see what can be saved.. in the meantime, I'm taking new pictures.



Hope to finish putting the 392 together and get it installed this weekend..
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