The Belafonte, ....Building a better CRD Version Pics P4

Glend · **Posted:** Wed Apr 21, 2010 7:38 pm

Stick it on the Yota, you know you want it to be a KJ!

cmohr · **Posted:** Wed Apr 21, 2010 10:22 pm

Hutch wrote:

Looks good Cmohr, i found a lost sticker in the Prado Glovebox the other day if you want one. I am just around the corner.

Thanks Rob, I actually found my small stash of LOST stickers but I only have 8 or so, so if I can it it sometime, that would be good.

mikey · **Posted:** Thu Apr 22, 2010 5:54 pm

cmohr wrote:

Thanks Rob, I actually found my small stash of LOST stickers but I only have 8 or so, so if I can it it sometime, that would be good.

That was all that was holding B1 together !!!!

CD · **Posted:** Fri Apr 23, 2010 12:06 am

WOW Chris, looks good mate.

I've got some reading to do

cmohr · **Posted:** Sat Apr 24, 2010 11:15 pm

Thanks Matey, Its been a ride.

I also thought I'd post up some pics of the new exhaust system.

New drop pipe down from the Turbo, new 90mm flew tube, 2.5 stainless down to a stainless "Powerflow" muffler, then used the standard stainless tailpipe up over the axle.

Its actually too loud for me, but it does certainly have a real nice note, just too loud.

I used to have a flat spot on take off, unless I reved up to 1800rpm, it would bog down with lag, and then blow a bit of white smoke thru the gears. General driving I would need to rev between 2000 and 3500 1st thru 2nd, up to 3000 in 3rd, and then sit around 2200 in 4th.

Now.. 1000-1100 off the line, no lag, just power, I only need rev between 1500 - 2500 max, plenty on power, If I get up it, reved to 4000 in 2nd, I spun the wheels when I dropped it into third.

Pull is also incresed, just pulls and pulls up hills, 1800 - 2000 rpm, fantastic, and because no lag, no wasted fuel, no bigg white smoke anymore, better economy.

What a difference it makes. The CRD certainly benifits from a free flow exhaust system.

heres a few Pics of the system, I am however booked in for Friday, to have an extra small hotdog size muffler added to the rear. it will run just beside the fuel tank skid.

But anyway.
You can see the new dump pipe down from the Turbo, a 90mm flex pipe, then 2.5 stainless down the back to a small freeflow, then its just joined to the existing tailpipe.

Just a little update. I was happy with the performance of the system, but as I said, it was quite loud, also, it had a bit of a drone, and that sort of hollow sound you hear coming from systems on bigger pipes.

So the exhaust guys added this, as well as a baffle inside to take out the drone, and its 2/3rds quieter now, has a nice solid note too. From first driving i'd say I post about 2% of what I gained with the louder system (but I did gain about 200% - so still happy as.)

cmohr · **Posted:** Sat Apr 24, 2010 11:19 pm

Heres a few photomografs of what I have so far as far as the interior goes, still looking to do some more tho. I'm also looking at a GPS, just a small one nothing tooo fancy.

All the seats and door linings are from the old Belafonte, as I really liked the leather panels, and the JEEP embroided logos, as well these seats are really comfortable, and mine, is the only bum that has sat in that drivers seat, so its like an old friend :lol:

The phone bracket is a Sony car bracket, specific for my current fone, but I'll have to change it with a generic one when I gets me a new fone, but, I'll still mount it there as its a good spot, easy to access and see.

The sport bottle holders I got from Downunder camping, they are just soft ones, with a velco loop that you use to attach them to your belt or backpack, so I just loop that over the seat rail. good thing is they take second to remove, so when you get somewhere and want to take a drink bottle with you on a walk, you just whip em out, attach the bottle to my belt and off we go for walkies with a drink. I also have small hanging pouches, that hold sunglasses or anything else smallish, I got them from the tool shop in Bunnings and just used some cheap caribiener loops to clip onto the same rail.

On the passengers side you can see my MP3 player hanging off the Hi/Lo lever. Its just a camera pocket bag from Wow.

Heres the rear drivers seat whosit. I have general stuff and things in there, as well my First aide kit, nice and handy. I still have the original seat pouch accesable, thats where I keep the Jeep log book, and some maps.

I also reckon, you could, attach some sort of pocket thing to the big space below the rear door handles and the speakers. Thats a big bit of space, perfect for a couple of pockets on each rear door.

For a little more light stuff, I got a rear cargo mesh, and attached it to the rear door, great for light thin stuff just to keep it handy, but out of the way. I also shove wet towels there when at the beach, to keep them off the carpet. You can also see my rear storage box.

Here is the Mounting of my UHF and some wiring/fuse box for expansion when ever I need something new powered, I can just run it straight from the fuse box, no more having the breach the fire wall everytime you want to add something. Its the under steering panel from my 04 model, as you see it does swing down from the top.

Glend · **Posted:** Sun Apr 25, 2010 1:17 am

Chris you even have some mud on those pedals, where has it been? Looks like its ready for the Savanah Way (or the Desert) hehe.

cmohr · **Posted:** Mon Apr 26, 2010 7:38 am

I had a small issue I had to decide what to do about. The battery.

I had just intended to put in my Optima Blue top, but, small problem, the positive and neg terminals where arse about in the CRD, and the leads were not long enough to just cross over. Looked at a new battery but, had already spend 400 on the battery, and didnt want to spend it again,

I decided, the best and only way was to replace the main heavy duty cable from positive to the starter motor, and extend the power cables to the main power box. I got a heavy duty cable from supercrap, as well as some connectors and some wiring covering.

I pulled apart the wiring harness, removed the short cable from + terminal to starter motor, replaced it with a longer cable, lined all the harness again, extended the + power cable, and then put in the Blue top. It good, because the Blue top has a sep set of power connections for extras, as well, its a 55amp hr deep cycle battery as well. I have also made ready the dual battery wiring, and will get that in during the week.

It all started up no worries, glad I can use the Blue top (and i dont have to spend any more money on another battery) and actually you can barely tell I've done it, except for the new battery terminal connectors, that also have wingnut adapter/connectors for adding wiring without dissconnecting the battery.

No piccys yet, only just did it, but I will get some.

cmohr · **Posted:** Sun May 09, 2010 9:11 am

Just a few more updates.

Finished all the dual battery wiring and now have an Anderson Plug to the Second battery, so if I like I can take it out whenever I want to, nice and simple.

Also fitted some nice little spotties up in the roof basket, I did actually put some bigger round ones up on the top bar, but, that meant that I wouldnt be able to put big flat items up there, and they were actually too strong, i just wanted a nice light spread to the sides of the vehicle, so I got there slimline 55watt ones that fit perfectly between the bars, you have to look for them to see them, they really dont stand out at all, almost hiden, but, great light.

And cleaned up the wiring to the battery, so now the Optima Blue top is in, That strap is just a little extra anti vibration security, the battery is still held inplace by the original tie-down. i have replaced the termial connector with heavy duty brass ones, they had wingnuts on them as well for adding more connection, but I replaced them with normal nuts, as the Blue top already has an extra set of wingnut terminals for adding stuff any time.

You can see the relays form the spotlights mounted on the side along with the dual battery controller. I had Battery World check all my wiring, and its all working perfectly, Car starts on Main battery only, once the main battery comes up to charge, it switches the charging to the rear battery. If for any reason, I do flatten my Main battery, I have a in-cabin switch (in beside my spotight switches, that I can simply turn on, that connects the main and secondary battery together so as I can start the car, then simply turn off that joining, and let the car charge the main battery again. We even checked that, by flattening the main battery, then testing the join, I worked just like a bought one.

Here are a few switches I installed as well, i already had two switches, one for each set of spotlights, but I added another two, these switches also have small LED lights in them so I can easily tell when they are on. One switch (as metioned above) is the one that joins the daul battery system as one. The other runs power to a power socket I have installed hiden in beside my UHF (under the steering column. At the moment I have an extension cord running from it to the back seat area, where its plugged into my jump start battery pack, but, I can use it for anything. Just more controlable power.

I also, not that you can see it, ran power off the lighter socket, to a double point (again hiden under the steering column, that runs power to my MP3 player and Phone charger, it turns on and off with the ignition, so I dont have a heap of plugs or wires, running out from the lighter area, just keeps it all neat and tidy.

Glend · **Posted:** Sun May 09, 2010 9:21 am

Looking good Chris. Where did you put the Provent? It's not behind the battery.

cmohr · **Posted:** Sun May 09, 2010 4:56 pm

Glend wrote:

Looking good Chris. Where did you put the Provent? It's not behind the battery.

Havent done that one yet Glen, only just cut off the EGR on the weekend as well. Makes a bit of a difference with the new exhaust, can feel a bit more go in the lower revs.

Next, provent, and extending breathers. Snorkel.

Window tint, weather guards.

New rear storage with built in battery, 240vt power inverter, 12vt power points and fridge slide.

2JeepFamily · **Posted:** Tue May 11, 2010 4:29 am

B2 is coming along nicely, looks awsome but I have ask, have you taken it out and put it in 4 low as I would like to hear about how good the
diesel is in crawl mode.

cmohr · **Posted:** Tue May 11, 2010 9:48 am

Sadly not yet Jas.... :ALONE:

I still have a few things to get right before hitting a track.. still need to fit some transmission and transfer case skids, as the old ones dont fit, even though it looked like they would. And that oil filter is really exposed (as you can see in the exhaust piccies up above) so I cant risk it. But the gearing is nice and low I can tell you that, even in high range, 1st, at idle (750rpm) the car is almost stationary with the clutch fully out and it just crawls perfectly, nice and smooth, so I cant wait to do some steep decents in Lo range.

I still have to grindout the upper control arm pockets as well, for full articulation..and so I get no contact from them.

I'm doing things as I can, and slowly, so I get it right first time. Thats one thing I learnt doing B1, I often rushed in, doing things 2, 3, or even 4 times, each time costing money. I'm in no rush really, and work is also taking up a lot of time at the moment.

But, as soon as I'm ready I'll let you all know, and hopefully we can make a day/weekend of it.

stevemcc · **Posted:** Wed May 12, 2010 6:07 am

I've been looking at my skids in the past few days - and I can't see why you couldn't make a flat plate skid? In fact it would work better from what I can see.

I think Stu had the same idea, way back when - maybe he still has the plans?

cmohr · **Posted:** Wed May 12, 2010 9:32 am

stevemcc wrote:

I've been looking at my skids in the past few days - and I can't see why you couldn't make a flat plate skid? In fact it would work better from what I can see.

I think Stu had the same idea, way back when - maybe he still has the plans?

I'm thinking I'll get a big plate like I was talking about,

Hows the transmission going now Steve???

Hap:) · **Posted:** Sun May 23, 2010 11:02 pm

stevemcc wrote:

I've been looking at my skids in the past few days - and I can't see why you couldn't make a flat plate skid? In fact it would work better from what I can see.

I think Stu had the same idea, way back when - maybe he still has the plans?

If anyone comes up with a flat skid "I'm assuming front skid" I'd love to see some pic's.
I recon you could gain 3/4 of an inch in clearance with a smoother flatter skid!
Would also look heaps better!
Could continue the front angle up a bit further so as it didn't act like a shovel in mud:)
Maybe aluminum? it would need to be fairly thick 5mm or 6mm or more.

cmohr · **Posted:** Tue May 25, 2010 12:10 am

Talking about the transmission skid. My Manual 5 speed has a different crossmemeber for the gearbox, and a standard skid is not long enough. I am going to extend a skid, or make a complete new one.

That front skid, is designed with a crush zone, so as to take a hit, absorb it not pass it on to crossmemebr of diff housing. I agree could certianly go up a bit more in the front, but then it would block removal of the swaybar.

Glend · **Posted:** Tue May 25, 2010 2:16 am

I'm looking at an aluminium piece to in-fill the gap between the engine bash plate and the bottom of the front cross-member (primarily to protect my transmission cooler lines). There are already holes in bottom of the cross-member. It doesn't have to stop an anti-tank missle I just want to stop branches from snagging those lines, and it also would protect the lower radiator hose.

Hap:) · **Posted:** Tue May 25, 2010 7:41 am

cmohr wrote:

Talking about the transmission skid. My Manual 5 speed has a different crossmemeber for the gearbox, and a standard skid is not long enough. I am going to extend a skid, or make a complete new one.

That front skid, is designed with a crush zone, so as to take a hit, absorb it not pass it on to crossmemebr of diff housing. I agree could certianly go up a bit more in the front, but then it would block removal of the swaybar.

Hi cmohr
Yeah... the crush zone feature of the standard plate is something to bare in mind!
However a well designed & made aluminum plate with maybe some side & top face areas "laminated" for double thickness or more! should absorbed some impact.
Like the steel plate' an aluminum plate would still need to be mounted with some clearance between it and the bottom of the front diff.
For serious off-road driving it's probably best to stay with a steel plate with it's crush zone.
As for the sway-bar... that would depend on the need to remove it.
I kinda like the idea of a smooth front skid

cmohr · **Posted:** Tue May 25, 2010 6:56 pm

Glend wrote:

it also would protect the lower radiator hose.

Yeah! Thats the one I'm worried about myself :dead:

You should see just how exposed it is with the ARB bar....

I was talking to Fouros on the weekend about it, when we replaced his rear lower control arms and installed his front strut plates and new Tie-rod ends.

The Belafonte, ....Building a better CRD Version Pics P4

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