Buck's 1/6th all metal Willys Jeep

[danielbuck]

Originally Posted by Mike Flea

Was the original a Spicer or a Dana? and did you swap it to get the disc brakes, or for a better gear ratio?

The axles were orignally Dana 25 up front, and Dana 41 in the rear. It's now going to have Dana 44 in the front, and 9" in the rear, disk brakes all around, 4.10 gears and lockers.

I did it mostly for strength, but also for better brakes (easier to service too), as well as to make it more capable (lockers) and to change the ratio. The original 5.38 ratio was way to much, even for larger tires. I have a turbo diesel in there for the motor, and the overdrive unit apparently didn't like the torque, so I took out the T90 3 speed and overdrive, and put in a T98 4 speed with no overdrive on the back of the transfer case.

I broke the passenger side rear axle shaft of the D41.... on the street. haha!

[Mike Flea]

What kind of diesel, how many cylinders?. I don't know a whole lot about diesels, but I was just watching a show on Discovery channel with a bunch of guys that hop up diesels, and they were building a'48 or so Willy's pick up, and they put a 4cyl Cummins into it

[danielbuck]

Originally Posted by Mike Flea

What kind of diesel, how many cylinders?. I don't know a whole lot about diesels, but I was just watching a show on Discovery channel with a bunch of guys that hop up diesels, and they were building a'48 or so Willy's pick up, and they put a 4cyl Cummins into it

It's a small 2.2L Kubota motor that was originally a generator for the refridgeration unit on an 18-wheeler frozen trailer. And I've put on a Subaru turbo and some other rednecked nonsense.

The fit was real good, it weights almost identical to what the original flathead did, and is about the same size (straight 4cyl) And a guy in Canada (Overland Diesel) makes adapter plates for these motors.

I'd love to put a 4cyl Cummins in my TJ, but California would not let me register it with a diesel motor when it was original gasoline

[Mike Flea]

But even with the Kubota motor, won't you have the same issue with registration?

[danielbuck]

Nah, in California anything older than 1974 (or whatever year it is, somewhere around there) is exempt from smog inspection, so you can do whatever you want. But the TJ still needs to be smogged.

[GraniteBandit]

I don't think you can put a truck engine in a TJ either. My friend fell into this California BS trap.

Nice 9" though.

[danielbuck]

The big jeep is doing good! The axles work great, and the larger tires are nice. (33") Having trouble with my compressor though, so no locker action yet. Took it to Moab earlier this year, and then all the way cross the US and back, nearly 6,000 miles in an old jeep, and no problems.


Time to focus a bit more on the RC jeep.


So, I could try and re-use the coilovers from the original Exceed kit, but they have plastic ends, and I'd really like to have everything be metal.

Are there any aftermarket suspension that would work decently for the weight of the metal body and axles? Right now the weight is over 13lbs without the battery, interior, and armor. I'm going to mount them from the top of the axle tubes, up through the body onto the cage with hoops. So the height isn't really super critical, I can mount them however. Ideally I'd be able to find a coilover that is thin, almost real-world 1:6 scale, like a tall FOX coilover or something.

Any suggestions for the coilovers? I'll measure how long they need to be at ride height. I don't need a whole lot of up travel though, so I may not actually need a very long shock.

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[Mike Flea]

I had a set of T-maxx shocks on mine, with the gray Axial springs, but they leaked all the time, even after I rebuilt them. Switched to 4 102mm Proline PowerStrokes, much better, even reduced the torque twist I was getting

[danielbuck]

ordered some 110mm shocks and springs from RC4WD, I'll start messing with mounting them when they arrive

[BigSki]

nice video clip! The small oil burner doesn't sounds all that different from the original flat head in the exhaust note. Can you post a pic of the motor?

[danielbuck]

got the shocks mounted, and the steering arms. I need to do a bit of cutting here and there, but it's sitting on it's own weight now. I'm using the stiffest springs all around, blue markings on them I believe. Need to order some motors for the axles next. Any suggestions?

[danielbuck]

Originally Posted by BigSki

nice video clip! The small oil burner doesn't sounds all that different from the original flat head in the exhaust note. Can you post a pic of the motor?

Yea it sounds like a cross between a delivery truck and an old tractor. The camera didn't pickup the turbo sound very well, it whistles pretty good, I should call it the Whistling Willys. It drives great, I drove it across the US a few months ago, nearly 6,000 miles. zero problems.

It actually sounds alot different than the old flathead, but the diesel just sounds so right in the jeep, it sounds like it belongs there. Almost everyone who asks me about it (who doesn't really know anything about old jeeps) assumes that the diesel is original, until they see the Japanese lettering on the manifold

I love the motor. It's the same 2.2L displacement as the old flathead, and it only weighs about 20lbs more than the old motor. Plenty of torque, and the 3,000RPM limit isn't all that much of a hindrance even driving in varying speeds of traffic in LA. It's running 15lbs of boost, non inter-cooled. I'm hearing about some folks running 30lbs of boost, compound turbos, and other big setups on these motors without much trouble, so I'm sure I could probably dial up the boost later on, if the turbo is big enough to build more.

I hear of some folks dropping in 4 cyl Cummins motors in these little jeeps, thats a lot of weight up front, I think those are probably double the weight! I like the Kubota.

[BigSki]

Thanks! That is a tidy package, much cleaner than most of the V8 conversions that I've seen in person.

[Mike Flea]

Nice work , Dan, on both the 1/6 and the 1:1

[twissted]

There are some nice Willy builds here. Your looks like it also will be a great build. Keep up the nice work.

[danielbuck]

I have a few free weekends coming up soon, I hope to get back and finish up the RC Willys. I need to cut the front of the frame to make room for the steering.

Had a nice weekend in the TJ jeep, I need more weekends like this












And we got my friend's 4 door jeep to have some fun too It's amazing how well the long 4 door jeep does out there, I think the longer wheel base really gives it an advantage in many spots. Me giggling in the background.

[dadrab]

Nice build(s) going on, man.

While the 1:1 is mighty nice, I really like the 1:6.

[rs10man]

Old thread but what a great build, anyone know if it was ever finished?

[danielbuck]

Originally Posted by rs10man

Old thread but what a great build, anyone know if it was ever finished?

No, I never did. I ended up moving to a different city, so alot of my projects got put on hold. I've just not got my my (still 1 car small) workshop mostly back up and running, so I'm starting back on my fun projects again, especially now with all of the free time I have had for the past month or two, haha! The RC jeep is still there on the shelf waiting for me to get back to it... eventually

I don't know when it will be, but I'm definitely going to get back to this at some point. I picked up yet another full-sized project, a 33 chevy pickup, that'll be a slow burn too, haha

[rs10man]

Life gets in the way! And I know how the 1:1 projects go, for myself I just have too many hobbies if that’s even a thing. No time for all of them.

Would love to see you continue with it. Awesome you still have it considering that’s 4yrs ago