The Wanderer

[SuperBuickGuy]

Are you going to run an intercooler on this? I keep hearing that it's almost impossible to fit an air to air intercooler on these.

eventually. it certainly is a challenge but there's plenty of room

[silver_bullet]

I wonder if I have to paint the air intake red.....

Whatever trips your trigger....why the hell not....

[SuperBuickGuy]

Whatever trips your trigger....why the hell not....

perhaps I should throw some stickers at it too?

[silver_bullet]

If you want it to be a cartoon billboard....

[SuperBuickGuy]

last piece so I can do the bulk of the work
an adjustable bypass valve - the one with the turbo is 20 psi, which is about 8 more then what will blow up the 6.5....


old turbo


and down at the bottom is what took most of the work to change (oil drain)


the hose


and viola


there is a difference between 1/2 ton and 3/4 ton.... fixing it now


mods to the newer cross over


interestingly, the kit I bought had a reducer - I didn't need it, but needed just a coupler... that was in stock


it works fine.... now for the air cleaner and pyrometer

[SuperBuickGuy]

a brief update. there would be pictures, but that would require a camera. Not sure where it is living at the moment - so you'll have to trust me on this. Turbo works great, 5 psi (which is a good number for shaking it down). Sadly there is no turbo whistle yet (I know, I know, throw that thing away). I got the snorkel for it, and Sunday I plan on building a cold-air box to connect up all the bits. Amazon Prime failed me so I didn't get the parts when I needed them... ah well, one snafu in hundreds of great deliveries is darn good odds - though why it has to happen when I need the part now; I dunno.

[SuperBuickGuy]

OFF-ROAD MARCH 1994 THE WANDERERS # 62


HEADLINE: THE WANDERERS
SUBHEAD: CLEANLINESS IS NEXT TO DIRTYNESS
BYLINE: BY RICK SIEMAN

(NOTE TO ART DEPARTMENT. SUGGESTION FOR ILLUSTRATION. HOW ABOUT A DRAWING OF A SHOWER CURTAIN HOOKED TO THE BACK OF THE WHALE, WITH CARL'S BARE FEET SHOWN BENEATH THE CURTAIN, AND A MULTITUDE OF CARTOON-TYPE CURSE WORDS COMING OUT OF THE TOP OF THE SHOWER?)

FORWARD: Carl and Emma live the good life. Carl, a retired Navy Chief Petty Officer, drives a huge 4WD Suburban all over the country to explore off-roading areas. The Suburban, nicknamed The Whale, is loaded to the max with every goody known to man. Emma, a very patient lady, tries to keep the short-fused Carl out of as much trouble as possible.
***
When we last left our wandering friends, Carl had just literally blown his boat out of the water while trying to fish with a stick of dynamite. For the ugly details, you'll have to dig up the last issue of Off-Road. Needless to say, Emma wasn't too thrilled at having to swim for her life in two fishing expeditions in a row. To smooth things out, Carl decided to get her calmed down with a little back-to-nature camping.
Carl found a dirt road branching off a secondary highway, and about ten miles back, located a near-perfect camping spot. He parked The Whale under a grove of trees, next to a small stream, and set up camp.
Before the sun set, he had the folding table unfolded and two comfortable chairs in place. The small portable grill was taken off the roof rack, and within minutes, Carl had the charcoal briquettes flaming nicely.
Emma got the steaks out of the fridge and marinated them in a mixture of beer, hot sauce and cheap red wine. She prepped things in the usual manner: a small lean eight ounce steak for her, and three pound chuck steak for Carl. Carl like the cheapest, biggest, thickest, hardest-to-chew steak money could buy. And he liked fat on the edges and bones in the middle. Watching Carl eat a steak was much like watching a pack of rabid wolverines munching on a chubby pig.
While Emma was soaking the steaks, Carl wrinkled up a beer can and tossed it in a plastic bag. "Think I'll go clean up a bit. I got enough road grit in my shirt collar to start a crop of corn."
Emma shuddered at that image. "Save me some water, dear. We only have about 30 gallons in the tank." While Carl was in the shower, she thumbed through the pages of some back issues of Off-Road Magazine.
About ten minutes later, Carl emerged from The Whale nice and clean, but with a big lump on his forehead, and cursing as only an ex-Chief Petty Officer could. Emma was concerned. "What happened, dear?"
"I banged my %*&^$^&**%#@#@+*# head on that #%$#$#%#^$*%# shower nozzle. There's not enough room in there for a full-sized hamster. I almost poked my eye out with a toothbrush and damned near sterilized myself on the hot water handle. I sure wish we had us a full-sized shower."
Emma smiled. "Lookee here, Carl. This story in Off-Road tells all about how to build a shower into your cooling system on most any truck. And there's ads in the back from a couple of companies that sell these neat kits you can install."
Carl popped open another can of Tree Frog beer and grabbed the magazine. As he sucked the beer noisily down, his thick forefinger ran across the page. "Hey, this is pretty neat! But you know what? I think I can make one of these things myself. It don't look all that hard to fabricate. All you really need to do is get a decent sized tank for the water and plumb it into your cooling system. You run your motor, the water gets hot and you take a shower. I can fix up a nice big shower curtain on the back of The Whale and have a big roomy shower, then detach it when I'm done."
Emma shrugged. "Why not just order one of these ready-to-go kits, Carl? They don't cost all that much."
Carl grinned. "Emma, you're missing the point. Every dollar I spend on something I don't have to spend, is a dollar I could be spending on something important, like more of this here beer. It's just a matter of parities."
"You mean priorities."
"That's what I said, woman. You got wax in your ears?"
Emma just sighed and opened up another bottle of Yoo-Hoo Chocolate Soda. When Carl got his mind set on something, it was often best to just step aside and let him go.
The evening was fantastic, and they were treated to an eye-popping red-orange sunset. Carl decimated a hero-size stock of Tree Frog beer while inhaling his steak, and followed it down with a bunch of Slim-Jim sausage-sticks and 12 pickled eggs. All the while, he made sketches on a yellow legal-sized pad for the plans for his new shower.
When they retired in the sizable interior of The Whale for the night, Carl was already letting out belches that hinted of acetylene and methane gas. Emma wisely opened up all the windows and tuned on the small fan, hoping for the best.
***
The next day, Carl headed into the nearby small town for some goodies, while Emma sat back, relaxed and read a mushy romance novel about pirates kidnapping beautiful women and taking them off to desert islands. The pirate on the cover of the book didn't look anything at all like Carl. He had long flowing blond hair, while Carl had a short-cropped red crew-cut. The pirate was tall and muscular, while Carl was short, round and fat. About the only thing the two had in common was thick muscular arms, and Carl had a tattoo of a Navy anchor on his forearm, while the handsome pirate had a tattoo of a skull and crossbones. Emma just sighed deeply and flipped through the pages, letting her mind wander.
***
Carl drove up to the campsite in the early afternoon, bubbling over with excitement. "Take a look at The Whale, Emma! I got three 40 gallon hot water heaters hooked to the roof. They were on sale, and I got 'em for a good price. They're all attached to each other with hoses, so we'll never run out of water again. Now we got us 120 gallons of water to take showers with. All I got to do now is hook this whole deal into the cooling system."
Two hours later, Carl slammed the hood shut on The Whale and wiped his hands clean on a red shop rag. "Done! Now if you'll notice, I hooked a shower curtain up on the back of The Whale. This gives me plenty of room to flail around while I soap up. To keep my feet from getting dirty, I simply yank the floor mats out of the front and stand on that. Purty neat, huh? Now stand back woman, while I give it a test shower!"
Carl fired up The Whale and let it idle for a few minutes until the temperature gauge got up to the middle. He then stripped down to his boxer shorts, and drew the shower curtain closed. A moment later, the boxer shorts were flipped over the edge and Carl yelled, "Here goes!"
The sound of running water ensued and Carl stuck a hand out of the split in the curtains. "Hey, hand me the shampoo, will ya?"
Emma passed the shampoo to Carl and settled back in her recliner. Carl whistled happily, and Emma could see suds frothing over the top of the curtain. But something was odd. A greenish substance oozed out from the floor mat and spread out in puddle.
A half minute later, Carl bolted out of the shower, buck naked, with a huge cloud of green suds covering his head. He was coughing, sputtering and swearing loudly. "What the $%&%*#$%&**#$ is happening here? My head feels like I'm washing it in turpentine! Hand me a towel, quick!"
Emma tossed a thick beach towel to Carl, and he rubbed the greenish mess off his head. "Holy smokes, my eyes are burning! Give me something to wash my eyes out. Anything! Quick!"
Emma handed Carl the only thing she could find: a half bottle of Yoo Hoo Chocolate Soda. Carl poured it over his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief, then looked at the bottle. "Emma? Do you think you might be able to find me some regular drinking water? I don't think chocolate soda is the perfect thing for cleaning out my eyeballs."
Ten minutes later, Carl had his eyes cleaned out and, with a towel wrapped around his sizable waist, studied the situation. "Hmmmm. I think I spotted the source of my problem. This here green stuff is coolant from the radiator. I never figured on that. I'll have to re-engineer this here shower set-up."
About two hours later, Carl slammed the hood shut on The Whale and started the engine. "I'll let 'er warm up for a minute and we should have us a perfect shower." A few minutes later, Carl turned the shower on, and clear warm water sprayed out. He smiled from ear to ear. "Emma? This should prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that you're married to a certified genius."

[SuperBuickGuy]

Carl folded his meaty arms and stood back, looking at his handiwork with undeniable pride, then bit off a huge chunk of Red Man chewing tobacco.
Emma studied the massive tanks on The Whale with a worried look on her face. "Carl, aren't those tanks a bit heavy to be up there?"
"Pffooowh shuussuh gvwhat thererrip dhoop zaatth ..."
"Carl! I do wish you'd stop trying to talk when you jam that giant bunch of chew in your mouth."
Looking rather sheepish, Carl chewed briskly for a minute, then transferred the wad to one cheek, looking much like a squirrel that had a baseball stuck in its mouth in the process.
"Sorry 'bout that. Anyways, not too worry. Those tanks only weigh about a hunnert pounds each and the metal strap that's holdin' 'em in place is real strong stuff. Now why don't you start putting the camping stuff away whilst I fill up the water tanks with all this nice clean free water from the stream right here?"
Emma got busy folding all sort of camping equipment up, while Carl ran a long green garden hose over to the stream and hooked up a small pump.
About an hour later, The Whale was fully loaded and lumbering slowly down the dirt road heading to the highway. The turn on to the highway was a basic, bumpy off-camber right hander. Normally, it would have been no problem at all, but Carl never took into account the laws of physics.
You see, water weighs 8.2 pounds per gallon. With 120 gallons of water in those three tanks, that came to 984 pounds, not to mention the 300 pounds plus weight of the tanks and maybe another 30 pounds of attaching hardware.
That made about 1300 pounds of weight, high up on the top of The Whale. And when Carl cranked the steering wheel hard to the right and tried to clamber up and over the 14 inch lip of the paved road, the huge Suburban let out a groan as the chassis twisted.
A moment later, the inner wheels lifted and The Whale hung in the air. Emma let out a squeak and Carl cursed loudly, then The Whale flopped over on its side with a sickening thud!
Carl and Emma clambered out of the passenger door, hearts pounding and eyes wide. While Carl ran around The Whale in circles, jabbering and swearing loudly, Emma opened up her purse and got her small camera out.
Carl stopped and stared at her. "What in the plu-perfect blazes do you think you're doing, woman?"
"What else? I'm going to take a photo for Worst Stuck!"
As Emma busily clicked away, Carl strode off down the road toward the gas station, leaving the air almost blue with profanity.

[silver_bullet]

a brief update. there would be pictures, but that would require a camera. Not sure where it is living at the moment - so you'll have to trust me on this. Turbo works great, 5 psi (which is a good number for shaking it down). Sadly there is no turbo whistle yet (I know, I know, throw that thing away). I got the snorkel for it, and Sunday I plan on building a cold-air box to connect up all the bits. Amazon Prime failed me so I didn't get the parts when I needed them... ah well, one snafu in hundreds of great deliveries is darn good odds - though why it has to happen when I need the part now; I dunno.

If I remember correctly, that gives you a bonus month of Prime, Correct?

[SuperBuickGuy]

If I remember correctly, that gives you a bonus month of Prime, Correct?

But that means I'd have to call cusstomer service. I'm trying to reduce cussing.

[silver_bullet]

ok... 10 bucks ain't worth the aggravation....

[SuperBuickGuy]

moving forward

fixedededed


eventually this gets a snorkel, but for now it gets a heat shield


next up is back to this

[SuperBuickGuy]

for those who are paying attention, yes, one of those 90* elbows is plastic sewer pipe. Two reasons... the aluminum one costs $50.00 and second, I don't think having metal right next to the battery terminal is a good idea.

[Deaf Bob]

Especially when the battery has 2 of each polarity.. Does your's?

[SuperBuickGuy]

Especially when the battery has 2 of each polarity.. Does your's?

nope, just side post. if it were a top post, I wouldn't have to worry about it.