Thanks matt, we will be headed to the junkyard on Monday. Brie

 

I put the Ranger Station rear axle article into my favorites, and printed the important stuff to take to the junkyard with me.
I'll be looking for a post 1995 Explorer with a D2 axle code on it's vehicle data plate, and 4L10 on it's differential tag. THANKS GUY, hopefully, next year we can be on the same track. BTW, I will go with the slotted rotors, but leave everything else stock as you are doing. Brie

 

Hey Matt, how did your race go last month? This is what we have done in the interim. I heard from several Rambler guru's that if I grab the crank and rods out of the 258, and use the head and pistons off the Renix 4.0 I will wind up with 283 Cu. In. displacement, a bit higher compression, and a TON more torque, so GUESS what I DID. I haven't fired it up yet, because
once I bent under the rear of the car and LOOKED, it turns out that there is a Dana 44, with a 3.54 limited slip there, but mounted spring over. I have the perches from an MJ that I took out of a U-Pull junkyard, so that I can grind down the spring over perches off the existing D44, and put them on. The perches on the MJ were NOT welded to the axle, when I put them on the D44 that I have, do I have to weld them? Would it be better for me to just go back to this SUPER cheap junkyard, and GET an MJ D44, saving the existing one for a 1959 Ford F-100 that I'm resto-modding with a 302/C4?
Team Infinity, Mogren, and Krek from the ChumpCar forum ALL think that I should keep the Jeep below 5500RPM, for both fuel milage reasons, and the fact that several people on the site say that somewhere just below 6000 RPM, the motor picks up a wicked harmonic that is NOT conducive to long life. Becides, they all tell me that with the torque monster engine that I can legally build, I should STAY with the ratio that the D44 HAS,
and as Team Infinity put it, "use the TORQUE Luke".
They also think that it is a good idea to try the 904 transmission because it is lighter than the AW4 transmission, is this TRUE???
Once again, THANKS in advance for you experience in this. Brie

 

i think thats awesome...somethin new and real cool,just that rear wing throws me off a lil bit lol but i reckon it works for what its needed for

 

AWESOME

 

dude you're awesome, way to get creative with the xj

 

Well we had a kinda a tough race. About 3 hours in my brand new 282 ci/4.7 liter stroker spit a rod through the side of the block. We went to a junkyard and bought a 245k mile Renix 4.0 and finished the race with that motor. So I'm not real fond of strokers at the moment. We were in 32nd place out of 186 cars when the motor went boom, so it was even more painful that we spent the rest of the day wrenching. I think we finished 102/186, so pretty decent all things considered and we still had a lot of fun.

Here's a pic of the car at Sears Point:



Meh, either way would work, but if if the 44 that's in there already has an LSD, I'd keep it. I would still really encourage you to do 3.73 or 4.10 gears though, and disc brakes would be nice. That's why the 8.8 swap makes so much sense. Cutting off the perches and building your own is really pretty easy if you are even a decent fabricator (and it sounds like you're able to do projects like that).

I just dyno'd my 4.0 and it put down 123 rwhp and 150 lb/ft. Notice how sharply the numbers go down after 4750/5000 rpm? I wouldn't bother revving it past 5 grand...there's NO reason to go anywhere near 6000.






I think they're wrong on both counts. I would go to 4.10s if you could and the AW4 is a superior transmission to a Torque Flite, not to mention being a 4 speed. What seems to be the over riding rule in crap can racing is the more stuff you leave factory (assuming there's not an inherent flaw with the stock components) the more reliable you are...that's why I would highly encourage you to leave the injection, motor and tranny alone.

I'm in the process of prepping our Jeep for the full 24 hour race in Reno May 14-15. We're going to a different tire (Falken Azenis 615K in 245/45R17) and building a slightly tweaked 4.0. It's going to have a Renix bottom end, ported High Output head, mild cam, 99+ intake manifold, bored throttle body and a nicer header. I'm hoping to put out about 150 rwhp/175 lb/ft. We're also adding a bunch of lights and a Savvy Offroad/Vanco big brake kit while we refurb the front end (-2 degree offset ball joints, etc).

-Matt

 

Thanks for all the compliments guys, we have a lot of fun.

 

The absolute BEST of luck to you and your team Matt, I'll be out here in the West Texas Grasslands building my Chumpcar for next year's races, I willl start the season at the Charlotte Motor Speedway race. We just ran Charlotte last weekend, the first half was WET, the rest was dry, and VERY fast. The cars ran 3/4ths of the tri-oval, and a little bit of a road course in the enfield to boot. It was a 14 hour race. It was a first for CCWS to be allowed to run there, and they have asked us back for next year.
With all my heros of NASCAR racing there when I was a kid, to be able to say that I RACED at Charlotte, is a DEFINATE "Bucket List" thing for me. Most of the others, I have gotten a chance to do, I have flown a Ford Tri-Motor, I own and a fly a pre-WW-II Antique, and have flown an ultralight from Florida to the Bahamas, (Lantana, Fl., to West End Airport, on Grand Bahama Island). Once I race a ChumpCar at Charlotte, I can die fulfilled and happy, but I'm in no rush. Brie

 

Dang! This thread is awsome.

 

I've crewed for 3 Chumpcars and always wondered if an XJ would make it out on the track. NICE WORK!