'84 Dodge Rampage Build Thread

[SteveM]

Nothing too fancy, but I did manage to get the first of the floorpan repairs at least partially welded into place today.



Here's the view from inside the passenger compartment.



And here's the view from underneath.  This patch panel is the area between the subframe rail and the center tunnel.

Steve.

[SteveM]

...more parts.  Today I received a "big valve" VW diesel cylinder head.  It's from a 1.9L indirect injection engine (non-TDI)  They are pretty rare in this country, as this engine was never offered in the USA within a production vehicle.  It's basically the Big Block of VW indirect injection diesels.



Not as rare and cool as the V4 Dodge Brothers type of stuff, but cool in it's own niche.

Steve.

[Jon]

How far through the body repair are you Steve?
Looking pretty good what you have done.

Is there much info on hp resuls of porting those heads?

jon

[SteveM]

Jon:
    The big holes in the floor (where I cut away the rust) are the primary areas needing repair.  I would estimate that I'm 1/4 of the way done with the floorpan repairs.  The subframe rails have been reconstructed, but I still need sheet metal to tie the balance of the floorpan to the subframe rails.

    With respect to the heads, there is not a lot of data, but there are some people who swear by the results of a good porting job.  For my application, the biggest benefit will be the larger valves and ports, as compared to the smaller displacement engines.

Steve.

[SteveM]

Nothing too dramatic, but I did manage to find a little time to work on the driver's side floorpan repair. I'm doing what I can to match the factory profile.   This is definitely not the glamorous part of the built.  That being said, taking and posting the photos is definitely helpful for the overall documentation of this car/truck.  The repaired floorpan section and subframe rails are definitely much, much stronger than the stock setup.



Lots of tack welds.



After filling in the gaps between the tacks.



The view from underneath. 

[SteveM]

Again, nothing too spectacular, but I am making some progress.  I got the passenger's side floorpan section welded in place.  The repairs have been wtih 0.062" thick steel, as compared to the roughly 0.030" steel in the factory pan.  The sections outside the subframe rail will be done with 1/8" sheet, topped with 1/4" thick steel where the roll cage will mount.




Steve.

[gkabbt]

Steve,

As usual, repair work looks really good. As I said before, any kind of progress (fast or slow) is still progress.   
Work is progressing on my truck at Rod Crafters and I'm going out there tomorrow to see what Larry and his guys have been up to.

Gregg

P.S. A belated Happy Birthday..... .....Hope you had a few for me   

[SteveM]

Gregg:
   Thanks.  I had a great birthday, everything was rolling my way.  I went on our local bicycle team's "Shop Ride" in the morning.  It just so happened that the Scott bicycle company had dropped off some high-end bikes as demo's for the day.  I got to do our shop ride on a $9,000 top-of-the-line Scott Foil aerodynamic road bike (carbon fiber everything).  My butt is spoiled now.

   Then I got a call from the machine shop manager who is going to do my diesel "big block" cylinder head.  I'm heading up there next week to talk about the details before they get into the work.  The guy seems excited to work on the project.  They have built plenty of race-winning VW engines over the years, but no racing diesels that they know of.

   Then my wife and I went to a Trivia Night fundraiser for our kids' school.  Our table won the whole thing, put $240 in our pockets, and a certificate for a free loaf of bread every month for a year from Panera.  It was a very good day.

Steve.

[gkabbt]

Steve,

Sounds like you really did have a good B'day....$9,000 for a bike, Yikes!!!

My B'Day was back on 04/02 and I turned the big 60. I had told my wife, friends and co-workers that I did not want anything special.
My wife sent me 1 dozen Roses and it was the 1st time I have ever received flowers.....really weird feeling for me.
We did have a small celebration at work (cake and ice cream) and co-workers on my Team gave me a Bobblehead of myself. Probably one of the coolest presents I have ever received. I need to get some pics of it and post.
That evening, my wife and I went for a quite, low key dinner.
All-in-all a good day for me also.

Gregg 

[SteveM]

I dropped the cylinder head off at AMT Racing Engines, just outside of St Louis, yesterday afternoon.  They are the local VW gurus, although they have never built a VW diesel for a land-speed application before.  These guys know their stuff pretty well, having built a lot of VW drag race and engines for VW SCCA cars.

They also told me about a unique project they recently worked on for another Bonneville attempt.  The combo was half of a Chevy V8, cut "the hard way" to make a V-4, and the owner was using Subaru overhead-cam heads on top of the Chevy (I didn't think to ask if it was a small block or a big block).

Steve.

[Tman]

Nice road bike, I haven't been on a real road ride in 10 years......................the mountainbiking is just too good out here! I know nothing of these diesels but am interested watching yours.

[SteveM]

I have a mountain bike, but have only ridden it a couple of times in the last year.  I have to choose my hobbies carefully, as there is only so much time.

I did get a chance to get out on the local Time Trial series last night.  Here I am in the TT, probably similar to my Rampage project - trying to go as fast as possible with relatively low power.  Not in the same league as the heavy hitters with the big power, but fun, just the same.



At least I'm in the game.

[Tman]

Haven't done a TT in 20 years! But it was the first type of racing I did at 14. Got spoiled and saw the Coors Classic in 83 on a family vacation.

[SteveM]

Cylinder head is at the machine shop.  I have been talking to the injection pump guy and the turbo guy.

Through the magic of Photoshop, I now have a pretty good rendering of what I want the finished project to look like.

Now I have to get my nose back to the grindstone to make it look like this....

 

[Peter Jack]

Nice job. Now all you have to do is Photoshop it onto the salt!

Pete