1983 Jeep Cherokee street fighter project - Page 19 - Lateral-g Forums

ghinmi · #**181** 06-20-2018, 01:24 PM

Got some skinny front tires for my birthday because my previous drag fronts got destroyed with the red Jeep.

Have just a few 17" Corvette wheels.

Got a break between snow storms and made a few hundred mile road trip at the end of March. Dropped off a big block Chevy to a shop east of Lansing and visited a friend's body shop. Kind of a big deal, the first time I'd really left town with the Jeep.

ghinmi · #**182** 06-20-2018, 02:01 PM

After a bunch more ice/snow, I finally got to go on a bigger adventure. Met up with my buddy Jeff at a local cars and coffee and we cruised down to Ridetech in Jasper, IN for Ron Sutton's workshop. What a great learning opportunity, he really knows his stuff! Second year in a row for me, first time for Jeff. We learned a lot. After the class, Jeff had to split but I stayed around for the Cars and Cones party which was a lot of fun.

Jeff's Mustang. Cleveland powered with a clutch pedal!

We drove a little hard on the trip but still both averaged almost 20 mpg which isn't bad.

After the Cars and Cones, I headed south to Bowling Green. Visited some friends, checked out the Corvette museum and track, and got a tour of Holley.

Only casualty of the week for either of us was a failed header gasket on the Jeep. I'll call that a win.

ghinmi · #**183** 06-20-2018, 02:09 PM

Stopped by Autocraft's new shop in Grand Rapids. Good to see them doing so well and expanding, they did a great job painting the Jeep. That's the owner Mitch's Roadrunner, it's got a stroker big block and runs pretty darn good.

ghinmi · #**184** 06-20-2018, 02:18 PM

I can't stay away from the drag strip. Finally got a chance to go to my local track. The DA was great but I was having issues with the boost controller. Ended up going 10.71 @ 126.9 on only 8 psi. The changes I made on the new Jeep seemed to take care of the issues I had with the red one just crushing the back tire and not getting any wheel speed. Not bad for the first outing. Super happy with the 1.47 sixty foot.

ghinmi · #**185** 06-20-2018, 03:21 PM

Cruised down to US12 Speed and Custom in New Buffalo with some friends. They were having an open house and dyno day so most of us made dyno pulls. Made 580 whp and 654 ft-lbs.

Oh, and Eric and I won all the money on dyno guesses.

ghinmi · #**186** 06-20-2018, 03:49 PM

Autocraft had the Jeep for a few days to do some touch up and get it prettied up for their open house at the new location. Fun day for sure! And the cleanest/nicest the Jeep has ever been (or will ever be, lol).

ghinmi · #**187** 06-20-2018, 04:00 PM

Made a trip to National Trail Raceway near Columbus for the Great AMC day. Got to see a lot of my AMC friends and do terrible at bracket racing.

ghinmi · #**188** 06-20-2018, 04:12 PM

A completely unexpected surprise at the Great AMC Day! Todd Blake showed up with his sweet '73 Wagoneer. They just got the engine together before the event, it has been years since it has been down the track. As far as either of us know, his Wagoneer and my Cherokee are the only J-Series Jeeps that actively drag race. His Wagoneer has a fox body front end, ladder bar rear, and an Indy headed AMC 401. Probably the coolest set of pictures I've ever taken. We also got a chance to line up and race but unfortunately neither of us made a great pass.

ghinmi · #**189** 06-20-2018, 04:21 PM

On the way back from Columbus, I stopped by the new Onondaga Dragway to make some passes. Cool small town 1/8 mile track. Made two passes. First one spun bad but still ran ok numbers. Second one it broke the CV joint going into 4th gear. Had to get a tow home for the first time ever. Luckily I was only 90 miles from home instead of 350 miles if it would've broken the day before.

ghinmi · #**190** 06-20-2018, 05:40 PM

After a quick and frustrating/disappointing phone call with The Driveshaft Shop, I have decided to cut my losses and throw their whole driveshaft setup in the garbage and go a different direction.

Huge thanks to D&D for the quick hookup on parts and Capizzi for doing the install on such quick notice. Also D&R for the driveshaft. It's now converted to a Magnum T56 slip yoke style setup. Was a fun ordeal to install since the u-joint is larger than the old driveshaft diameter and I had to move the engine/trans to the side to clear the suspension crossmember.

This little part was the biggest road block to the whole conversion. Tremec shipped the wrong part in the right packaging and I spent a whole day driving all over the state to track one down.

Fixing the header adapters the right way since I had more time.