4 link, ORI's, narrowed D60w/only 2.5" lift, 5"+WB stretch, 2" floor lower, P/S....,

[DirtDonk]

Whew is right!
Never knew there was a need for a separate battery for other than memory when the main battery is disconnected. Strange that it causes it to run crappy, but at least that's a good indicator of it being time to change the battery.

But soldered in? Strange again.

paul

 

[nvrstuk]

Yeah, I had a ton of excuses and a couple good ones for not getting the permanent tune/chip done.

New engine, couldn't drive for 6 months, only had FWD for 11 months. Whatever! lol

Soldered in battery is pretty archaic for sure. You can send in the soldered Qtrhorse and get credit for it when exchanging it for a newer model with the replaceable battery.

So I've got two local buddies now that are getting their priorities straight now that I set the example and are getting their chips burned asap. I'm borrowing one of them. lol

Between finding the cracked flexplate with the chunks falling out of it just a few days before we left for Moab and then to have the battery die on my Qtrhorse just a few days after we got home. Whew is right! Dang lucky neither of those trip ending scenarios ended out trip.

 

[ssray]

Is that a 3v battery? Looks like CR2330A? Would’ve been a good reason to carry a little gas soldering iron. A little jury rigging with a couple AA batteries might git ya home...?

Scott

Yeah, I had a ton of excuses and a couple good ones for not getting the permanent tune/chip done.

New engine, couldn't drive for 6 months, only had FWD for 11 months. Whatever! lol

Soldered in battery is pretty archaic for sure. You can send in the soldered Qtrhorse and get credit for it when exchanging it for a newer model with the replaceable battery.

So I've got two local buddies now that are getting their priorities straight now that I set the example and are getting their chips burned asap. I'm borrowing one of them. lol

Between finding the cracked flexplate with the chunks falling out of it just a few days before we left for Moab and then to have the battery die on my Qtrhorse just a few days after we got home. Whew is right! Dang lucky neither of those trip ending scenarios ended out trip.

 

[nvrstuk]

exactly ssray. They are for temporary tuning only. My temporary seems a bit longer than most. lol

 

[ssray]

Ahh...So if that keeps tuning map data you’d be up the creek anyway if you didn’t have a laptop along.

Hey, been there...I’ve farmed all my life...if the baling wire is holding, don’t mess with it. ;D If it breaks go get some #9 wire.

Scott

exactly ssray. They are for temporary tuning only. My temporary seems a bit longer than most. lol

 

[nvrstuk]

Good life strategy SSR... but I can't leave anything alone. People buy new cars/trucks for new features, etc whereas I rebuild my Bronco again and again. Never wanted to stretch it into a 4 door thank goodness. 2 kids were enough (wife and I actually talked about not enough seats for more kids) and with only 2 they fit in the back bucket seats just fine.


When you get the Qtrhorse, piggy back it onto your Stang computer, have someone remote tune it and use Binary Editor, run it for a bit, datalog that tune so your tuner can see how it's all working, then if it's working and running great have the tuner burn a chip. Unplug the Qtrhorse, plug in the burned chip and done. No batteries ever to worry about.

After doing a qtrhorse I'd never have someone burn a chip based on my engine parameters only w/o actually datalogging it. Garry can tune it exactly the way it should be based on real time data.

Our daughter fixes everything with blue twine !!! lol Nobody bales with wire on 3 wire bales anymore around here. Strap on the large 2K bales.

 

[nvrstuk]

Garry did tell me a cool trick (he's got more than a few!)

IF I plug my laptop in with the OBD port/cord and connect a battery pack (the ones that look like a small butane style cigarette lighter) it will keep the Qtrhorse alive, course you need to have the tune in it but the Qtrhorse current draw is so low (remember, my battery lasted 6+ yrs- who knows how old it was when I got it??) that the battery pack should last quite a while.

Remember tho, you had better take your laptop with your tune because once the battery is dead you need your tune loaded up.

Emergency use out of the boonies anyway!

 

[ssray]

Good life strategy SSR... but I can't leave anything alone. People buy new cars/trucks for new features, etc whereas I rebuild my Bronco again and again. Never wanted to stretch it into a 4 door thank goodness. 2 kids were enough (wife and I actually talked about not enough seats for more kids) and with only 2 they fit in the back bucket seats just fine.

ROFL “Bronco family planning” And only two more Broncos to find when they want them. Mine hasn’t had as much use, but will celebrate its 50th birthday next year and I will have owned it 50 years in 2023. Hard to imagine.

Our daughter fixes everything with blue twine !!! lol Nobody bales with wire on 3 wire bales anymore around here. Strap on the large 2K bales.

Yes, baling wire is pretty much long gone. Electric fence wire would be today’s standard for repairs. Round bales are the norm here. Very few small square balers around. Just used for small numbers of straw bales for bedding use. Very few of the large square balers around due their cost.

On the technology front low power use chips and circuitry have really gotten advanced. I remember a soldered in battery on one of the first computers I built way back but all that powered was the real time clock chip. Now as you mention those little 3v’s can keep memory alive for years. I know there’s some tuners using tablets out there but I don’t believe they are full blown programmables. Would be a bit easier then carrying a laptop. Almost makes you wonder if you couldn’t use a tablet itself as a backup if your engine computer failed. Would take quite a lot for the interface circuits and programming though. As reliable as the ecm’s are, backups probably aren’t practical.

I know there’s uses along these lines as I retrofitted a scale to my grain cart a number of years back. It has a small box that’s hard wired to the load cells and communicates to an iPad app via Bluetooth. It keeps instantaneous track of weights and loads as you empty them. The box runs off a AA 3.7v lithium battery. I’ve run a battery two seasons before having to change it as long as I take the battery out at the end of harvest. It has no on/off switch so must go into a low power mode when the iPad is off. I’m amazed it lasts as whenever Bluetooth is on on my phone or iPad, their battery time really drops. You could have a nice engine monitor using an iPad with interface hardware for sensors using something like this.

Scott

 

[nvrstuk]

Sounds like some cool innovative stuff you are building. Still hard to believe my CR battery has lasted 6 yrs.

 

[ssray]

Sounds like some cool innovative stuff you are building. Still hard to believe my CR battery has lasted 6 yrs.

Whoops...didn’t mean to be misleading. I didn’t build the scale, it’s manufactured by a Canadian company called Agrimatics. I had to replace the axles with new ones equipped with load cells and replace the hitch assembly with a new load cell equipped one as well. The rest was just simple wiring to connect up to the processor/Bluetooth box. Works with iPad, iPhone or Android phones. The combine operator can connect up as well and get the current weight on the cart when filling. Load cell technology is pretty amazing in itself in that you can load 80000 lbs on a semi and be within 100 lbs. Maybe we need crawlers equipped with load cells in the axles to tell you when you’re about to break an axle or driveshaft or the added load of everything is about to take out the transfer case or transmission. Now we’re back on topic! Lol

PS. I do like working with electronics though!

Scott

 

[nvrstuk]

Still sounds like a cool project!

 

[sprdv1]

and of course life gets in the way as well at times..

Keep plugging away brother..

Yeah, I had a ton of excuses and a couple good ones for not getting the permanent tune/chip done.

New engine, couldn't drive for 6 months, only had FWD for 11 months. Whatever! lol

Soldered in battery is pretty archaic for sure. You can send in the soldered Qtrhorse and get credit for it when exchanging it for a newer model with the replaceable battery.

So I've got two local buddies now that are getting their priorities straight now that I set the example and are getting their chips burned asap. I'm borrowing one of them. lol

Between finding the cracked flexplate with the chunks falling out of it just a few days before we left for Moab and then to have the battery die on my Qtrhorse just a few days after we got home. Whew is right! Dang lucky neither of those trip ending scenarios ended out trip.

 

[nvrstuk]

Update on 6r80 adapter weakpoints..


I am still up and running but a friend with a 6r80 in his Bronco with the same Perf Auto adapter kit was driving home and heard some strange noises under his feet and within a minute or two was sitting on the side of the highway, unable to move!

His flexplate cracked, fell apart and pretty much totally came apart from the torque converter. Broke apart in the exact same area as mine did. I was lucky enough to see the cracks and small chunks before it left me DOA.

We talked back and forth, shared pics, he talked to a racing shop that does a ton of tranny work on racer vehicles and they came up with the same idea I had shared with him earlier that day. That there isn't enough contact area between the TC and the flexplate to handle the torque and flex from our powerplants.

A normal TC to flexplate contact patch might be up to 2 sq inches or more since the pads on the TC make full contact with the flexplate.

On the poorly designed Perf Auto adapter kit (no bias here) lol the TC is spaced (has to be) with small studs that are common on LS swap kits also. It's just that the studs that bolt to the TC have probably less than 1/2" to 1/4 of an inch contact between the two. Almost the surface area of a 5/16" nut (minus the dia of the hole). This means ALL the torque of the engine has to be transferred thru that small surface area which I would imagine creates a TON of stress, especially on the super thin flexplates out there.

I think a solid one pc 1/2" thick spacer ring that would be machined to have larger contact surface area btw the TC and flexplate would eliminate this stress point. It would space the TC appr 1/2" from the flexplate that it needs to be but would have larger contact area btw them to spread the torque load.

Thoughts? Make sense??

 

[nvrstuk]

You can see on the above pic that all the 700 frt lbs of torque from the engine is relying on the clamping foce (normal of the TC nut but now the surface area and flexing (minimal) of the plate cause it to break apart.

I'm hoping my new 50% thicker flexplate holds up. The only 2 flexplates that I know of that have cracked are both the thinner ones.... hopefully it stays that way!

 

[Yeller]

I find it amazing the number of conversions that get kits made that become the go to kit that are not sufficient in design. They wore perfect for the show car that runs from the garage to the trailer to the show field and back. In real world use they don’t hold up. There are a ton of engine swap kits that are the same way, absolutely perfect until do that hard hole shot for the 10th time or just drive it daily for a while and get some miles on it. I quit building show cars cuz I hate continual polishing and don’t own a race car cuz I just want to drive it, albeit hard but I want to drive it. Sometimes too much time is spent on easy and not enough on durability.

 

[nvrstuk]

You are right on Steve! I am a little bit concerned now that I'm not the only guy that's had this issue... Of course, PA denies there is an issue. Exactly what they tell ALL the people that try to explain that the converter snout doesn't fit in the end of the crank either- total denial. Playing dumb.

You know I'm not a polish guy either, I'm a driver. I will keep checking my flexplate every time I am under it checking for loose bolts, ujoints etc . I know a Bronco outfit looking to make an adapter and I hope they jump into the ring and provide a kit. It's a heck of a tranny.

There is another company now (course not 2 yrs ago when I could have used it!) making adapters for a 6r80 to fit SBF and they are stout looking. My concerns about their new approach are twofold with theirs but it isn't a weakpoint from a breakdown standpoint but there are drawbacks...

1- they use a single 2" thick piece of alum for a spacer between bellhousing on the trans to the back of the block. This does several things which make it stronger than the PA kit.

1- no more TC spacer studs which I believe caused my issue

2- no more "huge" hole in the side of the tranny bellhousing so your stock starter fits & creating a potential weak spot in the bellhousing - - although even on forums I haven't heard of it causing an issue

3- no more hassle with the snout on the converter not fitting into the back of the crank and the PA reps saying the TC doesn't need any support

The issues I listed above are potential breakdown spots I feel but there are other drawbacks too.


I will find their site and post up.

https://transmissionadapters.com/blogs/blog/sbf-to-6r80-kit-is-in-the-works

My concern with this this new kit is it uses what looks like a rock solid alum billet spacer for the converter to bolt to but it weighs about 13 lbs. That is a LOT of extra weight spinning around. I know it would affect acceleration & performance but I don't know of any other detriments from a weight standpoint. Obviously it is neutral balanced and since you have more normal contact points btw the TC and flexplate with this kit you won't have cracking/shear issues like the small spacer studs I have from the PA adapter.

It uses a non-stock starter. Not sure what that means other than it's not a SBF starter. I will try to find out if it is OE for some other vehicle that could be replaced when on the road.

A problem for us short WB Bronco owners is it adds 2 MORE inches to the drivetrain and makes rear driveline angles worse.

 

[lars]

Brian, for what it's worth, the SFI approved steel flywheel on my 408 (which I hope to start for the first time this week) weighs over 40 pounds. Then there is the Centerforce clutch, which is probably close to that. So maybe 80-ish pounds attached to the back of the crank. That's pretty close to what I had on my 5.0 as well. What does your current flexplate + TC weigh?

The one thing the worry wart in me would prefer to see is 7075 instead of 6061 for the adapter. A lot stronger. 6000+ rpm makes for a lot of centrifugal acceleration. Having worked in an extremely large centrifuge facility for the better part of 2 decades, I've seen what can happen when parts grenade.

 

[nvrstuk]

Good point Lars. I wasn't thinking of comparing it to a manual trans setup. I know my billet 4r70 converter seems to weigh at least 50% more than my F150 converter. So maybe that 13#'s is irrelevant...

THIS WEEK!!!??

Better call .

 

[my56]

Looking good Brian

 

[nvrstuk]

Thanks Jack.

So today I decided that driving legally would be worth the effort of making new front blinker housings and installing my way cool, (thank you TBParts) LED park/blinker lights.

Not hard, just need to do it. So my SuperDuty trans cooler is mounted up close to the grill and I wanted room for maybe someday installing an ac condensor so... I shortened the original light housings a bunch. They are now a little over 1/2" deep inside measurement.

Super simple and work great and really bright.

What I liked most about these are:

1- shallow

2- retain the original clear lens when turned off but meet the later DOT or whatever code was updated in '69 when vehicles were required to use yellow/orange blinkers instead of the white on pre 69 Broncos.