2025 Gambler 500 review, Max Essig and Subarus, show 62
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100:24
Concept
kit car
A kit car is a car that you buy in pieces and put together yourself. It's a fun project for car enthusiasts who want to build something unique.
Car
Chevrolet C10
The Chevrolet C10 is a classic truck that many people love for its look and reliability. The 1965 version is especially sought after by collectors.
Term
short block 350
A short block 350 is a type of engine that is popular in many older cars and trucks. It’s known for being powerful and reliable.
Concept
Gambler 500
The Gambler 500 is a fun event where people drive old or unusual cars through rough areas. It's all about having a good time and being creative with your vehicle.
Term
pancake motor
A pancake motor is a type of engine that is flat instead of tall. This helps the car be more stable when driving. Subaru cars often use this kind of engine.
Car
Subaru Outback
The Subaru Outback is a type of SUV that is great for driving on different terrains, like dirt roads or snow. The 2000 version is one of the earlier models that started this trend.
Term
center differential
The center differential is a part of all-wheel drive cars that helps the front and back wheels turn at different speeds. Locking it makes all wheels turn at the same speed, which can help when driving off-road.
Term
all-wheel drive
All-wheel drive means that power goes to all four wheels of the car, which helps it grip the road better, especially in bad weather or off-road.
Part
timing belt
The timing belt helps keep the engine parts moving in sync. If it breaks, it can cause serious damage to the engine, like bending the valves, which are important for letting air in and exhaust out.
Part
water pump
The water pump helps keep the engine cool by moving coolant around. If it stops working, the engine can get too hot and break down.
Company
Smittybilt
Smittybilt makes gear for outdoor adventures, especially for people who like to go off-roading. They create things like tents that can be set up on top of cars for camping.
Term
rooftop tent
A rooftop tent is a tent that you can put on top of your car. It makes camping easier because you can sleep up high and avoid sleeping on the ground.
Term
off camber
Off camber means the ground is slanted or tilted. This can make it harder for a car to stay balanced and grip the road, especially when climbing or going over obstacles.
Term
traction
Traction is how well the tires of a car grip the ground. Good traction helps the car move forward, stop, and turn without slipping.
Term
pinch weld
The pinch weld is a spot on the car where two metal pieces are pressed together. It's important for the car's strength and can get damaged if something gets stuck under it.
Term
Dana 60
The Dana 60 is a strong axle used in trucks that helps support heavy loads and off-road driving. It's popular for people who need extra durability in their vehicles.
Part
locker
A locker is a part that helps both wheels on an axle turn together, which is really useful when driving off-road. It helps the vehicle get better grip on rough surfaces.
Term
torque specs
Torque specs are the recommended tightness for bolts and screws in cars. It's important to follow these guidelines to make sure everything is put together safely and works well.
Car
Subaru EJ
The Subaru EJ is a type of engine that Subaru uses in many of its cars. It's a simple and reliable engine that many people like to use.
Term
miles per gallon
Miles per gallon tells you how many miles a car can drive using one gallon of gas. The higher the number, the less gas the car uses for the distance it travels.
Term
overlanding
Overlanding is a type of travel where you go to faraway places, usually in a rugged vehicle, and camp along the way. It's about the adventure of getting there, not just the destination.
Car
Ford Bronco
The Ford Bronco is a type of SUV that is built for both on-road and off-road driving. It's popular for its tough look and ability to handle rough terrains.
Term
fuel economy
Fuel economy is how far a car can go on a certain amount of fuel. It's usually measured in miles per gallon, so a higher number means the car uses less fuel for the same distance.
Car
Ford Ranger
The Ford Ranger is a small truck that people use for work or outdoor activities. It's known for being tough and reliable.
Term
horsepower
Horsepower is a way to measure how powerful an engine is. More horsepower usually means the car can go faster or accelerate better.
Term
turbocharged
Turbocharging helps an engine produce more power by pushing extra air into it, allowing it to burn more fuel and create more energy.
Term
factory warranty
A factory warranty is like a promise from the car maker to fix problems with the car for a certain time or distance. If something goes wrong, they will pay for the repairs.
Car
Tesla My Model
The Tesla Model Y is an electric SUV that doesn't need gas to run. It's known for being high-tech and can go a long way on a single charge, making it a great option for eco-friendly driving.
Car
Subaru STI
The Subaru STI is a sporty car known for its speed and handling. The 2004 version was the first one available in the U.S.
Car
Fso 125S
The FSO 125 is a car that was made in Poland and is based on an older Fiat model. It's not very common, which makes it interesting for collectors.
Term
oil pan
The oil pan is like a container at the bottom of the engine that holds the oil. It helps keep the engine parts lubricated so they can move smoothly.
Car
Porsche Boxster
The Porsche Boxster is a sporty car that is fun to drive and looks great. It's designed to be fast and handle well, making it popular among car enthusiasts.
Car
Ford Mustang
The Ford Mustang is a classic American car known for being fast and stylish. It's been around for a long time and is loved by many people for its powerful engine and cool looks.
Term
EJ engine
The EJ engine is a type of engine made by Subaru that has a flat design, which helps with balance and handling. It's well-known for being powerful and reliable, especially in racing.
Term
LS swap
An LS swap means putting a new engine from GM into a car that originally had a different engine. People like this because the LS engine is powerful and easy to find parts for.
Car
Toyota Land
The Toyota Land Cruiser is a tough SUV that can handle rough terrain and is known for being very reliable. The 80 series refers to a specific version made in the early 1990s, which is popular among off-road enthusiasts.
Car
Lamborghini Countach
The Lamborghini Countach is a very flashy and fast sports car that many people dream of owning. It's famous for its unique shape and powerful engine.
Car
Pontiac Fiero
The Pontiac Fiero is a small sports car that was made in the 1980s. It's known for being light and having a unique look, which makes it interesting to some car fans.
Car
Rolls-Royce Ghost
The Rolls-Royce Ghost is a super-luxurious car that is very expensive and made with the finest materials. It's designed to provide the ultimate comfort and style.
Car
Ford Explorer
The Ford Explorer is a large family vehicle that can carry many people and their stuff. It's great for road trips and has a lot of space inside, making it a popular choice for families.
Car
Nissan Leafs
The Nissan Leaf is a car that runs on electricity instead of gas. It's good for the environment and can save you money on fuel, making it a popular choice for those looking to drive green.
Car
Chevrolet Spin
The Chevrolet Spin is a family car that can hold a lot of people and their things. It's designed to be practical and is often used for everyday driving.
Car
Ford Mustang GTD
The Ford Mustang GTD is a super-fast version of the regular Mustang. It's built for people who want an even more exciting driving experience.
Car
Ford Taurus
The Ford Taurus is a big car that can fit a lot of people and things inside. It's designed to be comfortable for long drives and is often used by families.
Car
Ford F150
Car
Shelby Cobra
The Shelby Cobra is a famous sports car known for being very fast and stylish. It's a classic car that many people admire for its racing history.
Car
Ford Gt
The Ford GT is a super-fast sports car that looks really cool. It's built for speed and performance, making it a dream car for many car lovers.
Car
Ford F350
The Ford F-350 is a big truck that can carry heavy loads and tow trailers. It's built for tough jobs and is popular among people who need a strong vehicle for work.
Car
Dodge Journey
The Dodge Journey is a family-friendly SUV that has lots of space for people and their stuff. It's a good choice for road trips and daily driving.
Car
Volkswagen Rabbit
The Volkswagen Rabbit is a small car that is easy to drive and good on gas. It's been around for a long time and is liked for its simple, fun design.
Car
Volkswagen Jettas
The Volkswagen Jetta is a small car that is easy to drive and good on gas. It's a popular choice for people who want a reliable car for everyday use.
Car
Chrysler Pt Cruisers
The Chrysler PT Cruiser is a small car with a unique, old-fashioned look. Some people like its style, but others have found it doesn't perform as well as they hoped.
LIVE
Okay, you ready?
We are full-send.
No, we're not.
You sent it?
Yeah.
Where?
Hey, everybody.
Welcome to Untitled Car Project, show 62.
Woo!
On today's show, we've got special guest, Max Essek.
Thanks, Max, for showing up.
Aw, no problem.
Thanks for having me, guys.
Good to see you, man.
Welcome back.
Been a while.
Hi, Max.
How are you?
I'm Rob Spring.
I'm Grant Gonzalez.
How's it going?
Today on the show, we're going to talk, we're going to talk to Max about his recent projects
and probably talk trash on his Subaru.
Oh, now that tracks.
So do I.
Before we get to that, everybody hit follow on the podcast and share it with your friends,
share it with your enemies, share it with your family, and have them share it.
Every enemy's enemy share it.
Yeah.
And buy a shirt.
Hit us up on Untitled Car Project at gmail.com or on Messenger, somewhere on Facebook.
Buy a shirt.
I did repost the swag today.
Nice.
So yeah, we got some shirts, some sweatshirts, zip up hoodie if you so choose.
What else we got?
Oh, go to the Facebook group.
If you're not a member, just click add member, join or whatever it is and I'll approve you.
And show us your car project.
We want to see it.
We'd love seeing projects.
Actions a little low lately.
So yeah.
And then hit us up if you got a cool car project or a build or a kit car or a kit, especially
a kit car.
I want to talk to somebody who's doing the.
We want to see someone who's currently building or finished a kit car.
That would be.
Yeah.
I got a lot of questions.
Yes.
I got a theory on that.
I don't think we're hearing about the projects right now.
Everybody's working on their projects.
No, no, no.
They're out driving them.
Yeah.
Oh, that could be.
I did see a sweet C 10 on my way over here today and it sounded like it had original
like a short block 350 in it, but it had really good rumble.
Up here on the hill.
Yeah.
Light blue with white.
Nope.
Like a maroon, a real faded maroon with I think that was a maroon top to it didn't have
the white hood, but it had the white stripe down the side or that that it was like a six
1965.
So it had the trim down the side, all slammed to the ground.
Okay.
They had like some racing buckets in it.
Question.
I could barely see over the steering wheel.
I was like, man, he must be shorter than I am.
Question.
Yeah.
When it went by, they go.
Yeah.
No.
Okay.
It did not.
Nope.
I got to wonder if he knows who Chad is though.
Yeah.
No, it was really cool.
All right.
Grant.
Yeah.
You have been provided with jokes.
Oh, I pulled one out and then I just put it away.
Are you serious?
It's dumb.
Reach in there.
Well, I randomly grabbed one.
I already know the one I was going to say that came off of this one.
So what's the difference between an African elephant and an Indian elephant?
I don't know.
What?
5,000 miles.
Thank you.
Thank you, Grant.
Dad jokes brought to you by Grant and wherever the boxer jokes came from.
My wife gave those to me.
Very nice.
That's a good guess right there.
She had them on her desk at work and we were talking about it and I'm like, if you're
done with those, I can sure use them.
No doubt.
That's awesome.
Okay.
Max, how's it been, man?
Oh, busy, busy, busy.
It's been like over a year.
I know and you guys are still out here doing shows.
Congratulations.
Thanks.
Appreciate it.
Yeah, yeah.
We're trying to hold it down.
Yeah.
Trying not to run out of material.
Well, it's given me a lot to listen to in the shop, Turn & Ranches.
Very good.
We appreciate that.
Let's talk about that.
Oh, where to even start?
The most recent ones, the oldest ones.
Let's talk about the most recent.
Most recent was resurrecting a car affectionately known as Betty White for the OG Gambler 500.
Okay.
Okay.
It's a car that I built with a buddy of mine, Alexander Stevens, here last year and he
ended up after building it, selling it to someone who promptly blew the motor up in it
and sold it back to him.
Oh.
Is it a Subaru?
It is.
You got me again.
That makes sense.
It is a Subaru in the sense that it says Subaru, but it is quite far from your normal pin.
This thing sitting on about six inches of lift and 32 inch tires.
Wow.
That's awesome.
Still pancake motor?
Yeah.
What body style?
It is an outback.
Okay.
Like 90s outback?
2000.
Okay.
So it did all right, actually.
We've actually got tricked out with breadboard and a couple of resistors.
If you know what you're looking at, you can actually lock out the center diff in these
things and transfer them from symmetrical all-wheel drive into a full-time setup just
for trail fix.
It's a great way to keep wheeling when you mess something up or you don't have quite
enough actual articulation to make an obstacle.
But I was astounded over the course of the last month working out of town.
I just had the weekends.
We managed to yank the motor out, get it rebuilt, had put new heads on the thing.
And when the timing belt snapped, it bent every valve in the motor.
Oh, wow.
So had it apart, got to add another set of head gaskets to my infamous wall.
Nice.
But the motor rebuilt realistically.
It was quick and dirty.
We pulled it out, we left the bottom end alone, just put new heads on it, rebuilt the ones
that were there, new timing kit, new water pump, all the assorted gaskets, ended up throwing
the thing back together.
It took me better part of a couple hours worth of work and close to a weekend's worth of
after the motor was in getting her dialed.
Oh, wow.
But following a couple of little stupid things and a very, very last-minute break job at,
oh, I think I wrapped up 11.30 or 12 o'clock the day before we left.
Always fun doing the last minute.
Is there any other way to do it?
Grant is Mr. Last Minute.
No, it ended up just being a ton of fun.
We got the thing together.
We set off from Doomsday Brewing out in Washougal on day one.
We met up with a convoy of folks who said they were all heading that direction.
And as it turned out, we had to make a pit stop along the way.
So we had to split from our convoy.
We dipped out to Hood River to grab a few things.
And then ended up going south and jumping on the historic Barlow Trail, where we did
the proper gambler thing and promptly filled up a couple of extremely large trash bags
with pretty much everything left on trail.
That's good.
Rumbled on through pickin' tires and trash until we hit the White River.
That was a camp for night one, beautiful area, wide open.
If you have a vehicle that can access it, I highly recommend this area.
It's a Northwest wonder for sure.
The river is right alongside the campsite.
You've got beautiful trees all around you, the cool breeze going.
From there, we woke up the next morning, packed out, made our way down to the OG, and finally
laid into proper gambler town, which as I understand it, and please fact check some
of this.
But loose counts of it, we had roughly 5,000 or so people in attendance, hauled out almost
200,000 pounds of trash, 16 vehicles, two RVs, and a boat out of the desert surrounding
Madras.
It was one heck of a turnout.
Where did you put the boat?
Right in a pile with the rest of the BS.
So you put it all in a pile and then eventually what the county comes in takes it out?
Is that the deal?
Sorta.
So when you arrive into gambler town, there's usually a series of 8 to 10 extremely large
dumpsters that are all fairly well labeled.
You've got dumpsters for trash, dumpsters for metal.
There's a specific lot set aside for dead and abandoned vehicles that have been recovered.
The boat, the RV, everything ends up kind of over there where they bring in some of
the local volunteering companies that will haul them out and get rid of them after they've
been marked by, I believe it's state police tell ya, it's been abandoned long enough
you can get this off a public land.
Sure.
Yeah, they run vins or something.
Absolutely.
Gotcha.
No, that's good.
I know that the gambler is set up as an event to clean up the forest, basically, and have
a good time.
And that's exactly it.
This year we decided to play it a lot like the OGs.
Typically, yes, gambler towns set up on day one and people will start to trickle in and
arrive, but back in the day that was the get is you go out into the forest and you get
on gravel as soon as you can, you cover as many miles that way as possible.
We like to play a game called pavement is lava and just keep your rubber on anything
that's not that lava.
So we ended up picking, I think, me personally and the one person that came with me pulled
about 110 or so gallons of trash out to the giant 55 gallon contractor bags.
We kind of ran out of room with all of our provisions and our recovery gear and everything
else.
They ended up strapped on top of the rooftop tent on top of the car.
I found a pretty decent last last minute deal on a Smittybill RTT and for the price I couldn't
say no and it ended up on the gambler.
It's a Smittybill RTT.
It's a rooftop tent.
It's a soft design one.
So it's kind of a clam shell that you flip open once you got it out of the bag and it
opens itself up into a big tent on top of the rig.
I think my brother has that.
In fact, I know he's got that soft one that folds down.
There's a ladder on the end of it.
Yes, correct.
And I've had one for years now.
I've used it for overlanding and I just didn't want to move mine off of crossbars and onto
another vehicle.
And luckily for me, the deal I found was good enough.
I wasn't going to say no.
I was just going to get it and slap it on there.
Ended up being excellent.
And one thing that RTT people will tell you is once you've done it, there's no going back.
You're not going to be a peasant.
No more ground dwelling.
You're going to sleep up there where life is good.
Yeah.
That's funny.
Right on.
So when did Gambler happen?
Oh, let me hear you.
Was that?
Well, just give me a month.
Oh, shoot.
That was this month, I believe.
Not really.
July.
Oh, June.
June.
Last month.
End of June.
Yep.
Right on.
OK.
So that was recent.
June 2025.
Good job.
Mm-hmm.
Good job.
How many times have you gone to Gambler?
I believe that is my third or fourth Gambler event.
My second OG.
And I've done the Gifford cleanup a time or two.
And that one's coming up, I believe, next month.
The car is still in great shape.
She didn't end up really having any problems along the way.
So that's awesome.
I was going to ask you how the car fare.
So you made it through.
No problem.
Surprisingly good.
I only managed to get the thing stuck once and it was kind of my own doing.
So I can't be mad.
I didn't even take gear to get out.
I was climbing through a section that was a little off camber
and climbing up over a rock.
And one of my rear tires ended up dropping down into a hole,
which caused it to lose traction in the front kind of bit onto the rock I was climbing.
And it just decided the best spot that it could put this rock was directly under the pinch weld.
It ended up wadded up under there behind the tire where I could get any traction.
It took us probably 25, 30 minutes to get out of that scenario.
And at the end of the day, the fix was quite literally it's teetering.
I'm going to grab this bumper and lift on it.
I need you to grab that rock and yank it out of there.
Nice.
Do you have any worries of what the car could potentially fail out during the journey?
You know, as a little afraid of the motor letting go just because it was a
pretty last minute dirty garage rebuild.
I certainly didn't use a ton of torque specs with it.
There were more than one as applied.
But at the end of the day for those Subaru EJs, it's really nothing for an NA motor.
They're pretty simple machines.
Nice.
How many miles did you cover?
I believe by the time we came in at the end of the week, we had covered 525 or six miles.
Wow.
That is awesome.
So it was a proper 500 mile trip.
How nice.
How did you have enough gas for that?
Where do you refuel at?
Do you have to?
We made multiple stops along the way.
Our last pit stop was right before we hit gravel, which covered realistically the better part of
a day and then getting down to the gambler into the OG.
And when we were passing through Madras, we did have to touch some pavement.
And that was our best opportunity to dip back to the roads and get some go juice.
Get some fuel.
Yeah, right on.
Yeah, I was always kind of wondering how that worked.
You're like, if you're far enough out that it's a hassle to go get fuel or you bring
a fuel with you, you know.
A lot of folks did.
Yeah, do you keep fuel on board just in case?
I did not for this particular scenario.
Probably should.
In my defense, unknown to me at the time when I set off, I figured this thing on 32s was just
going to be a pig.
It was going to suck down the gas.
And much to my own surprise, the car actually managed about 30 miles to the gallon for the
entire trip.
That's incredible.
On those tires, that's the same.
Giant tires.
And locked.
Yeah.
Well, electronically locked.
Oh, OK.
You turned it off on the.
Yeah, I was toggling it for any kind of pavement.
I didn't want to scrub or blow up that center diff.
Yeah.
So I got a question for you.
But because fuel is so scarce out there at times, does anyone keep like a fuel tank sealant
or like flex tape or whatever just in case you have an accident like that?
Flex seal?
Yeah, that's incredible.
I know.
Make your own jokes at home.
But yes, everybody has an unfuck this.
Now trail kit that includes some flex tape, some bailing wire, a couple of basic hand tools.
Zip ties.
Zip ties are on that list.
And in true gambler fashion, I highly recommend a Sawzall.
You never know when you'll need it.
I'm sorry there's duct tape on there.
Oh, duct tape is on there.
I packed some of that myself.
Yeah.
Boot tape, gray tape, any kind of tape.
When it comes to the Sawzall, is multi-blade is whatever one takes or just a Saw one?
Saw saw?
What are they mainly used for?
Cutting down limbs or what?
We've seen a few limbs and a couple of downed trees.
Realistically, what we need is something to unmangle body parts.
A bit fender.
Yeah, skilting necessarily match ambition.
There were a lot of vehicles that ended up wadded up pretty good.
Just on some trail, they probably should not have been.
Unfortunately for us or fortunately, however you want to look at it,
there was a last minute move this year.
We ended up in Madras at a place that became affectionately known as Camp Moodust.
Moodust?
It was, I believe, an old cattle ranch and there was that thick, thick layer of silt
on top of everything that you just touch it and it explode into the air.
That's cow shit.
Yes, it was.
Wow.
Wow.
Yeah.
What prompted the move, didn't get the original site?
I believe part of it was permitting the other thing that really contributed
to the last minute changeover, I believe, is the Overland Expo.
Happened to also be in Redmond this year at the Fairgrounds.
And I'm wondering if perhaps they didn't issue the permits because
two of those events in one place with that kind of attendance
Too many.
Might have been too much for that town.
Sure.
Interesting.
We did end up dipping down to the Overland on Sunday just to lay eyes on some of the
cool equipment, you know, Oogle and Ogle.
Do your window shopping.
Look at suspension parts you can't afford.
Some $100,000 plus overlanding rigs that are fully equipped.
And oh, Mercy, I got some real side eye in the Subaru out there.
Also, you're out driving yours.
My question, my question is the $100,000 plus overland rig is so nice.
Who's going to take it out there and do what you're doing?
Which one has the balls?
There's not many people that will.
I believe Donut Garage took one out and promptly blew it up on trail and needed saved.
Nice.
That shows the quality right there.
I like that.
No, no, no.
It doesn't matter.
Yeah.
It was on the trail.
Yeah.
$100,000 on the trail.
On the trail.
Yeah.
That's mad respect.
I give them that.
Yeah.
The other one that I kind of love.
Because honestly, I've got a good off-road rig sitting out there.
It's not hitting the trail.
No, I'm not.
Because I'm not that way.
Wow, that was really loud.
Yeah.
Because he didn't buy it for that.
No, I didn't.
Key words are yet.
Because I believe last time I was on, we discussed what vehicles we wanted to see more of on the road.
Yeah.
And you bought exactly the vehicle I brought up, which is the new Bronco.
I love these things.
I'm so excited to see one.
How is it measured up to what you thought it would be?
Oh, I love that thing.
I mean, I love driving it every day.
I have not taken it off-road, not even a little bit.
I mean, but to be fair, I said I wasn't going to do that.
Yeah.
I didn't buy it as an off-road rig.
I'll take it up in the snow.
It did handle snow this winter quite well.
But yeah, I mean, it's comfortable.
It doesn't get great gas economy, fuel economy.
You know, it's like 20 miles a gallon.
That's not bad.
Pretty steady.
I mean, that's a pretty good size.
33 inch or 33, 36 inch tires.
Yeah, that's not bad.
Shoot, my Ford Ranger gets all of 11 downhill on a good day with the wind at my back now.
Yeah.
Well ahead of me.
Huh.
Rob, did you ever get the fact that you-
tuned for that?
Or are you planning on getting that?
I have not looked into it.
Okay.
That's like another 100 horses or 75 horses that equal.
Which is interesting.
We're going to get sidetracked here a little bit.
We always do.
You know, it's the 2.7 little V6 turbocharged.
You're already pushing the crap out of it.
Why do I want to add another 100 horsepower to it?
Because then you're at 400.
But why?
But why?
Then you're going to push it harder and the potential for destruction is greater.
I mean, it's still under factor warranty once you upgrade that.
For the, you know, the remaining mileage that I have on it, which is what, 25,000?
Do they extend the warranty?
They might extend the warranty when they put the tune on.
But I'm not trying to let me go.
I just don't feel like it's worth it.
Not for my application.
Do you have any worry about the fat?
Like because the 2.7 are having a lot of recalls.
Well, I've been watching that.
Watching all the recalls and this and that and everything and knock on wood so far.
Everything is earlier than the model that I have.
Yeah.
It's, it's up to the 23s.
I have a 24.
Yeah.
And none of those recalls, even, even the various, I mean, yes, the motor stuff,
but there's been a few other recalls for them too.
None of them have hit my model.
So I'm pretty happy about that.
Looks like maybe I missed that.
Yeah.
But I do watch it.
Yeah.
Well, I think that was wise buying a vehicle later in the production run to let them kind
of work out some of the bugs of the newer, newer run.
Well, especially with it being released during a COVID vehicle.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's fair.
When the world was shut down, how good were your parts?
Ask your tie rods.
Yeah.
Well, yeah.
I mean, sure, they were getting parts everywhere they could.
That could have, I don't know that for sure.
Like if the valves were a different source than their original,
or if it was just an original flaw.
Yeah.
Who knows?
I mean, because they do upgrade shit over time.
Yeah.
So.
Yeah.
Oh, absolutely.
The manufacturer gets tired of fixing it under warranty and says,
fine, we'll do it in the factory.
Yeah.
Anywho, little sidetrack there.
What other projects you got going?
You got other Subi projects?
Oh, Subaru's not so much aside from the red car.
And it still is sitting.
It's still sitting.
It did see new parts this year, though.
There are new parts bolted onto that car.
Is it on wheels?
Yes.
Actually, it's on a set of kind of exclusive rare O4 STI BBSs.
That is, in fact, they're not.
They're silver.
But this was the only year the STI was released in America
with a 5 by 100 bolt pattern instead of the 5 by 125.
You know why they did that?
Yes.
It was actually the first year the STI launch out here was O4.
And by later in the generation, especially the GD chassis,
the kind of STIs we grew up knowing in the US,
immediately after that year five, they changed the bolt pattern
to the 5 by 125s.
So this is kind of a weird exclusive rarity.
And still being on a bug-eye chassis, it appealed to me.
When I acquired my parts car as an O4,
it had a lot of the stuff that I wanted.
And for me, one of those was the rims.
For just being kind of an odd set of...
They're nothing fancy, really.
But for a manufactured set of Subaru wheels,
if you wanted to buy one of these in the aftermarket right now,
you're looking at about $1,000 for a set of these rims.
Wow.
I get a kick out of that.
I think it's weird that they're the odd bolt pattern.
You see a lot of them for sale on Marketplace,
people who don't know what they have and they'll post them low.
Or vice versa, you see a lot of the 125 BBSs posted
for similar prices when realistically,
the market's only demanding $6, $700 for a set of those.
So what parts did you get and where's the process?
This car has been in the works for how many years?
$5, $6?
$4, $5, yeah.
In its recent setting state, as much as I hate to say that.
And I do intend to get back to it.
I had a couple of big hang-ups this year
in that my daily kind of went tits up.
I covered, we'll get into it more here in a minute,
but the race truck build did happen.
I promptly got taken away.
But it wasn't super prompt, but yes it did happen.
Anyway, go ahead.
No, I do intend to get back to it.
Some new parts have gone on.
The one that sadly excites me the most
and it's silly and simple and very cheap
was a proper set of hood struts for this car.
For years, I've lifted this hood up
and pulled out the stick and propped it,
just like a civilized human being.
And finally, I got tired of it and it was time.
So I broke down and spent $60 to get a decent set of struts
and now it's one finger pop and shh, there it goes.
So you added weight, took away the racing aspect of it.
It was lightweight with a single pole.
I've also acquired a large three inch X-Core Moroso radiator for it.
That should certainly help with cooling.
We're in the process of kind of putting the bay back together
bit by bit right now.
I'm looking for STI boosters, the new STI.
There is a difference in the clutch systems in these years.
It's like the O2 had a clutch that was a pull style lever clutch.
And then the newer one on the STI has the push style piston
that pushes on the fork to disengage your clutch.
And minor tweaks, but you have to make the upgrade.
It won't work if you don't.
And I'm really hoping to abuse that six speed this year.
It's got the shorter gear ratios.
They're built significantly better than the glass five speeds.
And hey, whole year, haven't blown a head gasket in it.
Because the motor is sitting on a stand right in front of it.
Yeah, I was going to ask if the motor is even in the car.
It is not.
I tore it out.
I believe last time we talked about some of the findings,
I hadn't delved too much deeper into it.
But last time I had it apart, I did pull the oil pan off it.
And sure enough, in the pickup baffle was half of one of my main bearings.
So I fully believe this block without even splitting it,
I'm just going to write it off.
There's no way this thing is still intolerance.
If that motor locked up hard enough that I can't turn it,
she's probably tatered.
Oh, you can't even turn it?
I can't turn it with a three foot breaker bar.
Oh, she is locked.
So you get a four foot breaker bar?
Yeah, well, I did add a jack handle to the end of it.
And rather than spin the motor over, it was tightening the crank bolt.
Okay, well, there's that.
Do you have a line on a new block yet?
Yes and no.
So I've been debating heavily with going with an RA short block,
just for what they are on out of the box, the price points, the ease of use.
You can make pretty good numbers on them.
But I'm still kind of hung up in this vision of the Colin McRae super rally sport machine.
And I want that four and a half, 500 horse,
which is going to mean going closed deck to hold that power.
The RA's can push that, but they're not going to do it reliably.
You start pushing those numbers.
I mean, it's a super, you don't expect reliability.
That didn't, fair enough, fair enough.
And I'll give that to you.
But at the same time, I am going to take this one back from you.
When they're tuned and they're running right and everything is happy in them,
nothing in the world runs and drives like a Subaru does.
That Boxster rumble, the all wheel drive potential, the boost.
To a Subaru guy, sure.
That's like me saying nothing drives like a Ferrari.
Nothing drives like a 4.6 Ford Mustang.
Yeah, all right, all right.
But the EJ is kind of legendary.
This has become a synonymous infamous motor for these cars.
It was so good that Subaru jammed it in a rally machine from,
shoot, what was the first EJ turnout?
Late 80s, I believe, maybe early 90s, and they didn't.
93, 92.
And I don't think they retired that thing until well into the 2000s.
So we know what you're looking for anyway.
Well, looking for bigger and batter.
I'm still kind of at that same point where price is my hangout point.
Well, yeah.
I mean, we're all budget racers here.
I'm surprised Rob hasn't brought up the LS.
Smell it again.
LS, swap that, baby.
You know, there is an 06 STI out here in the northwest that runs an LS with an adapter plate
to a six speed, so it's technically still all wheel drive even.
That's awesome.
It's a really cool project, very unique, very neat to me, but
maybe a bit further out of my wheelhouse than I'm comfortable with.
No, man.
We can find you an LS1, drop it right in there.
Are you talking about Sam Elbert's car?
You can find the connections to get an adapter.
So Sam Elbert's car is all Subaru except for the Ferrari motor in it.
Yeah.
Oh, he said an LS.
Oh, no, it's an LS project.
I have seen this car, though.
I believe he's run in some of the rallies.
Yes, no.
And as is amazing, the sound of that thing ripping through the forest is unparalleled.
Oh, it's definitely got a distinct note.
Yep.
Yeah.
Oh, whenever you want to get past the LS into something a little bit more extreme,
there's always a 4-6.
Well, I'd like it to run reliable.
Yeah, yeah.
He did say he wanted it better than a Subaru.
So every Ford I've been around that has blown up
runs perfect minutes before it blows up.
Minutes.
Man, it was running so good.
And then all of a sudden it wasn't.
As a car guy, I feel that because I'm the dude who's driving down the road and you hit a bump
and after three months, your engine light suddenly turns off and I panic.
Oh, God, something's wrong.
Something's going to go.
What just happened?
Yeah.
Yeah, it's always.
Light burnout.
Yeah, maybe.
Best case scenario, the light burned out.
Yeah.
It always runs really good right before destruction.
Yeah.
No doubt.
Yeah.
So yeah, that project's been on the burner for a while.
It has.
And she's seen a couple of new parts.
I've kind of wheeled it around my shop a few times and sort of started to restart this
and got back into I put a few things on and then suddenly car ADHD.
I have a carcane problem and another project.
I like that.
I can identify with that for sure.
Yep.
I think everyone here has that problem.
Don't look at me.
He doesn't even have a car.
I don't.
We've tried to fix that situation.
Yeah.
Actually, my wife and I tried to recently fix that situation.
Really?
Do tell.
Almost bought, almost got a Toyota Land Cruiser, the 80 series.
So like a 91-92.
We went and looked at them with that inline six.
Yeah.
And the only reason we didn't buy it was because it didn't feel like it had much motor left.
So are you looking one with a healthier motor or what?
All right.
I mean, rebuild.
Yeah.
I was trying to think in that, but the whole point of it was going to be
so my wife can take the dogs to and from work.
So we were looking at it, opted out of that one.
We've got a couple other ones we're looking at.
Maybe not.
So is that what led you into the Porsche and the driveway?
He's not looking for a project car.
Well, no, not actively.
But let's be honest, as car guys, if anything ever rolls past us and the price is too good
to say no, we're going to treat it like a Sarah McLaughlin commercial.
We're taking this neglected baby home.
Truth be told, I'm looking for the project.
She's looking for the turnkey.
Yes.
Yes.
I was not going to say anything.
Glad you did.
Yeah.
All right.
Well, that's fair.
It's hard to say no to projects, but there's sometimes you have to.
Me and Rob have been in heavy discussion about like, yeah.
Let's just discuss how far your quote unquote Lambo project has come.
Shall we?
We have to bring it up.
You have done more work on all of your cars or any one of them.
I will let this be known in the last year than he has on that thing.
I think legitimately since October almost every weekend has been due to car building of some kind.
Or for a month and a half straight was arcade.
Okay.
Well, and I'll give you that rebuild on the Jurassic Park machines.
Very cool.
Thank you.
Is it done?
Oh my gosh.
No, because I put on pause because I was focusing on Liger and focused on Tonyo's Mustang.
A squirrel ran by.
I had to get the cars ready for race season.
Honestly, the Jurassic Park games were the first squirrel.
Yes.
Yeah.
I almost had him get that Lambo out of there so you could have another project.
That was working out of my driveway.
That was working on the Lambo for like three months solid.
Maybe longer than that.
It was so close.
I know.
It was so close.
And I'm waiting until probably September before start because it's too hot to work in the shop now.
Yeah, it's awful.
Like it's weekends are possible if you get the early enough but with the organ heat and with an insulated shop.
It's you can't work after work on that especially working out all day already.
I'm not sure how you work there.
Anybody here hearing the daylight hours anyway.
Oh, more excuses.
Okay, perfect.
More excuses.
Well, good races on.
We can make a list of excuses and see who gets to the bottom of them first and actually finishes something.
I will say the Lambo project from where it was last put was I am currently working on the adapter plate
between the transmission engine and getting it so it actually is safe and because the engine did run
before I messed all this but make it so it actually mounts perfectly to it.
And that that's left is brakes and cooling because of radiators in front and stuff.
So it's near there, you know.
Framewise, I've got everything well done where it wanted to.
So anybody listening, if you're interested in a half baked Lamborghini Countach project.
Kit car.
Let's call it what it is.
It's a glorified Fiero.
Yeah, it's a kit car.
Hey, to be fair, it's an 88 Fiero.
That's a very big.
It's an 88 Fiero with a big Countach body on it.
If you're interested, contact us at untitledcarprojectedgmail.com.
You can take her home.
Grant will accept a reasonable offer.
Reasonable offers accepted.
Flat raspberries and a crisp high five.
In.
Make it strawberries and yes.
There it is.
There it is.
All your listeners just ride on in to untitled car project and let them know you're interested.
That's right.
Let's move on to the next one because this one is quite interesting to me.
Somewhere down the line when we had you here last, we mentioned autocross race truck.
Yay.
We did.
And you took it seriously.
I hate to say that I did.
We love that you did.
I hate.
We have influence.
We absolutely love that you did.
Yeah.
So in regards to that, it kind of turned into when you guys issued the challenge,
I chuckled my way home about it and then sat down when I got there and I inevitably over the
course of a couple of beers got to looking at my old farm truck and said, you know,
this truck's been through enough at this point.
It's kind of just a toy.
Why not?
Let's try it.
Let's see what it's going to take.
Let's see if I'm right.
Yeah.
So I started building and my very first build on this thing,
it was 100% budget friendly.
Everything I did was on the dime for the dollar.
All in this car or truck rather ended up with a flip kit in the rear.
It ended up on lowered springs.
I put a JDM drop set of front arms on it.
Ended up rebuilding the entire brake system.
I took care of all the maintenance.
It got a newer clutch set up that was rated for a little bit more power.
It was a little bit stiffer.
We got the motor kind of running back to the point where it should.
It was still the 4.0 or was it a 3.0?
Neither.
It was a 2.3 Lima.
This is the four cylinder.
It was a 96 and it or 94.
The bed was off of a 96 splash.
The nose I ended up pulling off of my parts truck.
It was a 2000 that had the sport clip.
I'm just fond of that front end and decided, why not?
I've got one here.
What's it going to take to graft it on?
It looked good.
And realistically, it was a lot of weekends of comes home for the weekend,
wanders into the garage.
You spend the better part of a day or two wrenching on it.
If you do happen to be home during that week as getting home by 5.36 o'clock,
I'd go spend an hour and a half, two hours in the garage.
All in.
I think it cost me almost four grand to get this truck like race ready,
where I was happy enough with it that I wasn't afraid it was going to grenade on the road.
And then I went through the process of talking to my local wrap shop
and spent way too much money to get it wrapped in kind of a dumb wrap.
But I liked it.
And not long after that, it was actually just just before race season this year.
I ended up making some less than good life choices and coming up a very,
very steep and windy curvy road to the top of the mountain on which I live.
I was very comfortable on this road.
I was having my own initial D moment.
And I let my inhibitions go.
And unfortunately, driving this car at 9 tenths on public roads is not the answer.
I caught a bad bump.
The rear end walked away.
And I was going just fast enough that I couldn't save it.
I parked the truck backwards down the ditch and caught a tree on my way through.
Now, that wouldn't be so bad.
I wasn't a ton of money into this thing.
No one was hurt, luckily.
That explains your missing arm.
Well, don't grow back.
Don't worry about that.
Unfortunately, where the tree had hit and it wasn't that bad of a hit,
but it did hit in the cowl and a pillar of the truck.
So in order to save this thing at this point, I'm looking at a re-body bare minimum.
And if I'm honest, the frame was already twisted from accidents previous.
So at this point, it's just a fancy parts truck.
I'm back in the market for another one.
A 94.
I'm really looking and leaning towards single cab.
I know they're not big person friendly, but the shorter wheelbase, the saved weight,
it seems better for the autocross setup.
There's less room for a cage.
I sent you a couple.
You did?
You did.
And I took those very seriously.
But following that wreck, I ran into a bit of an automotive funk where it just,
it hurt my heart walking into my garage because I would open up the shop and I'd see
five vehicles, four of which I'd built and I thought were pretty cool at the time.
And not a one of them had run.
I experienced that all the time.
So it is not a fun feeling.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, rather, after a bit of woe is meeing and weighing out my options
and figuring out what I wanted to do, being particularly heartbroken.
My white Ranger, the one that I believe we talked about last time, my overlanding truck,
was my daily for the better part of a half decade, finally gave up the ghost.
4-0 blown head gasket compounded with a failing transmission and rebuild, I think,
number five or six of the front end.
I finally had had enough and a buddy of mine talked me into going out and we're going to go
look at Rangers today.
Let's find something cool.
Let's get you back into it.
I don't care if it's a project for the race truck or a daily.
Let's find a Ranger.
So we sat down and we did the thing and he's a bad influence.
So I spent way too much money buying a new work truck Ranger.
Oh, OK.
Number four in my fleet currently.
This one is a Gold 2002.
It's a 4-0 XLT 4x4 with the extended cab.
And it has a custom Bradley built flatbed on it, which is kind of slick.
I don't believe Bradley built ever actually made a bed for these things.
So somebody put in a lot of work to make this thing fit.
And if I'm honest, the craftsmanship is amazing to me.
This is one of those instances where some other mad scientist has got their hands on it
and you're not upset by what they did.
Yeah, that's cool.
That's good.
They did a good job then, yeah.
I ended up doing just a little bit extra to it because, well, I can't leave anything good alone.
So I had to redo the front end.
I put a new bumper on it, a period correct brush guard.
I put some ditch lights on the thing.
It's sitting on four inches lift and 33s right now.
It's fairly well equipped for towing.
But if I'm honest, right now it gets most of its life as a work truck.
It's just big enough I can fit most of my elevator pallets onto it
and it'll drag them anywhere I need to go and back.
Nice, nice.
So still in the market for a replacement chassis?
I am, I'm 94.
I don't care if the motor is in trans or good or not.
Frankly, I don't care about the body that much.
My bed is still very salvageable.
That'll end up moving over to the new rig.
I do have a...
Just need the cab, really.
I really do.
I need a cab and a frame that are not too messed up,
which realistically on the current market, it's not that bad.
I could be out of one of these things for 1,500 bucks in decent, Nick.
Too grand if I want it running and want a spare drivetrain for it.
What about pick and pull?
I haven't actually browsed the local pick and pull.
The biggest problem I have with acquiring one of these things right now
is if I buy one in a non-running condition,
I'm not cool enough to own a trailer to drag at home.
Oh, he's got one.
Well, you can't put it on your flatbed?
It's not quite.
I've been looking at dollies for like the last month, religiously.
If I can find a dolly for like less than a grand that's not totally tatered
and I can license properly, I'm probably gonna jump on it
and move on to finding the replacement rig.
You know, you haul rent you one for 20 bucks.
Yeah, I do.
Well, yeah, but rent or own, I'd rather abuse this thing.
For 20 dollars?
I've got 18 rigs on my property and some of them have to go to the scrap yard.
Only one is far more profitable to me right now.
Sure, yeah.
But you know, if you gotta have one to get a race truck at home.
Do you spend the 20 bucks for this?
That's valid.
That's valid.
That's pretty easy.
Yeah.
Well, if you planned a really good day out,
you could rent a car or two and bring another one home.
That's true.
All for 20 bucks.
Yep, that's fair.
Could make money out of that deal.
There is a high probability.
I've got several rigs that are ready to go at this point
and a few of them I still need to pull some parts off of.
I don't know when I became the Ford Ranger guy, but it happened.
And I've got this intent knowledge of this silly generation of tiny trucks now.
And it's like, yeah, that truck's bad.
The motor's out of it.
The transmission's failed.
The body's kind of tatered.
But I know, based on the door jam and crawling underneath it,
that that their parts truck has a limited slip rear end.
And I've got an explorer over here that's got disc brakes.
I mean, this could be the setup.
Yeah.
You need a YouTube channel.
Oh, there you go.
Max the Ford Ranger guy.
There you go.
Well, I'll never have anything on Rick's Rangers.
If anyone's familiar with him, any of the listeners,
this guy's a bona fide guru for these things.
He's been making aftermarket parts for him for years.
And there's a good chunk of his catalog hanging underneath that race truck.
Oh, nice.
Okay.
So I do want to talk about the stuff that you did to that truck
before, because did you come out to two events or one last year?
I believe I made it to one event two days though.
I was there Saturday and Sunday.
Okay.
For both of them, I did make the drive from my place in Woodland, Washington up to Shelton.
I was a couple hours of drive and I had just finished the truck the week previous for the
end of the world rod run in Long Beach, Washington.
I made my last minute drive out there and over the course of that drive,
I determined that the truck was a little too low even.
I was actually rubbing my rear tires on the bed.
Oh, wow.
And to fix that, of course, the day before I ended up coming out to the event,
I did remove some of the lowering blocks on it and brought it back up
and added an extended swing shackle to the rear end just to try and get a little more
height out of it and some degree of actual up travel back in my suspension.
Yeah.
I was at a point where it was a little too low.
You hit a bump and you could hear the axle housing bouncing off of the frame.
That's good.
How many, so you still kept the leaf springs on that, right?
I did.
I kept the leaf spring package on it.
I did do an axle flip, so a traditional ranger of these years is an undersprung axle
where it sits kind of down underneath the leaf.
And for the leaf flip kit, what I ended up doing is you kind of take out your U-bolts
and you drop one end of the leafs, you roll that axle back up on top of them,
you reattach your leaf, you center the axle, get it set where you want it, and there's a
kit you kind of drop on top of the housing where the leaf used to set.
And then you U-bolt underneath the thing and it comes up and through that.
Oh, interesting.
So it was quite a simple setup, if I'm honest.
Is it tough for the geometry of the driveshaft enough for that?
Not even a little for this year, right?
As much as I hate to say that, that was a project I did significantly more than half
drunk in a garage and still managed to make it done inside an hour.
Realistically, the suspension on that truck is very simple because it is on beams instead of
a proper A-arm setup.
Just some lower beams from JDM ended up bringing down the front end.
I think my total drop all in all was like a 3-6, ended up bringing down 3 in the front,
6 in the rear, which got it sitting pretty good on the tires I had.
They were 17x10s.
They were XD Black Series IIs, which came on my old overlanding rig when I'd first bought it.
And I kind of did the, oh, these are ugly, I need bead locks.
So I went out and bought proper wheels and had these squirreled away in my garage.
Part of the reason I used them, I was keeping my budget low and they were free.
I thought they actually looked good on the truck.
I think they flushed out the wheel wells really well.
They were maybe a bit wider than I needed for the whole 90-something horsepower that truck made.
Having that kind of wheel and tire, it was everything I could do.
I have to put it on the rev limiter and dump the clutch to get it to try and spin one.
But still, you had good cornering traction with it and that kind of stuff.
Absolutely.
Even on street tires, I believe you were there for that event.
And for a little truck with almost no power, it really did scoop pretty good for what it was.
And I was a little, I brought a knife to a gunfight that day.
There wasn't anyone really competing with less than 100 horsepower.
And I just had fun driving the tits off of that truck.
I was going around corners, all the tires are squealing, the diff was welded.
I believe we had a lollipop on the second or was it the first or second day it rained?
First day it rained, I believe.
What's a lollipop?
It's a down single cone in the middle and you've got to loop the cone and come right back down.
Yeah, that was first day.
First day.
And with the welded diff street tires in the rain, everyone else was struggling to really put down
a time because they've got proper power and real tires.
And I just, I didn't have a single shit to give.
This thing was too much fun.
So I drove it like I stole the thing and that was my favorite obstacle that day.
I believe it was my second pass.
I started to come in slow.
I was like, okay, I can go wide and I can hold my speed.
Or, or, nope, clutch dump.
Back in kicked out and I got to turn around that cone just staring straight over the hood at it.
I'm like, oh, this is, this must be what drifters feel like.
This is cool.
You had to talk to me food you are a moment.
A proper Ian moment, but not quite that skillful.
Yeah.
Nice.
So other than, all right, you lowered the truck.
You said there was a bunch of aftermarket underneath it.
What'd you put underneath?
A bunch of it was actually the lowering components.
I ended up relocating the radius arms.
I ended up moving the transmission higher up into the cross member,
which did slightly change my opinion angle in the rear.
And I accounted for that when I put the axle back in, when I did the flip,
I actually reclocked it and moved it slightly further into the leaf springs
to regain a proper pinion angle.
You've got to be kind of careful if you lower these trucks too much.
At a certain point, you will lower it.
And even if your suspension clears the rest of the frame,
the drive line can and will hit the back of the cab
where it ejects out to the diff.
That's true.
And I kept it just short of that moment.
Nice.
So I welded the rear diff.
We did a lot of little stuff.
Most of it was maintenance.
I think every single bushing on the thing had gotten replaced before the end of it.
The sway bars were tightened down.
I was looking at bumping over to some bigger batter ones.
One thing that kind of came to me after the build started,
I started looking more heavily into what can I do to modify this thing?
What are my options in the aftermarket?
Yeah.
And much to my surprise,
90 plus percent of the Mustang parts from these years bolt right onto the truck.
So that's the same with all years.
Yeah.
I mean, that's forward in their modular components.
I tried to tell you guys.
Yeah, screw you and your your exploder.
Did you hear about that challenge episode?
Enough.
I did.
Enough.
Stop.
Hold on.
I'm not even going there.
So future build, when you do resume the project, are you going for more?
Are you going to go for more power, more handling, more because
watching that car on course, you could definitely use the stiffer sway bars
and any other kind of, I mean, I know you've got, you've got i-beam suspension or whatever it is.
That's going to be a tough one to overcome.
And it will be.
There are options though.
So one of the things that I expressly looked into with this truck and one of the things I've
actually acquired kind of in preparation for before I ended up wadding the thing up,
I did acquire a 2014 Mustang GT all-aluminum rear subframe.
And I was looking to convert this thing on a Z-cut on the chassis to an independent rear
suspension, relocate the tank and I was looking very, very hard for the price of the new EcoBoost
four cylinders.
They're remarkably affordable.
I know they fit in that area and it's not hard to push 300 horse out of those things.
So EcoBoost is a turbo?
Yes, oh yeah.
315, 320-ish horses, right?
Give or take.
So Mustang also had a four cylinder turboed Fox body.
Yes, they did.
That might not be a bad option either.
Well, except for price because it's kind of a rare, it's kind of a rare bird.
It might be a lot harder to find.
And the big thing for me with this EcoBoost is they were available in just every thing.
You know, I afford F-150 random, the Mustang had an EcoBoost, the Taurus had an EcoBoost.
There's no shortage of vehicles.
You can find these things in a pick and pull right now for 1500 bucks with the ECU and turbo included.
So I was looking really toward kind of that modular platform.
One of my goals with this build is to continue that Ranger regimen where parts are just readily
available.
They're dirt cheap.
It doesn't matter where you break down.
You can walk into your local 7-Eleven and say, oh, I need this part for a 94 Ranger.
And they're going to go, all right, give me a second.
Let me look in the back and come back out and go, all right, well, I've only got three of them,
but I'll cut you a deal on it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think that sounds like a cool project.
Put that EcoBoost in there.
That's kind of a neat idea.
I think the EcoBoost with the independent rear suspension on a Z cut stiffen up the chassis a
little bit.
This truck could be weighing something like 26, 2700 pounds, making 300 horse.
I think that's enough to make me, I'm not going to say a contender for top spot,
but it's going to make me fast enough that I'm going to run out of skill before the truck
runs out of ability.
So I've got to ask, how hard is it to graph that independent suspension on there?
Because I've heard of the Cobra IRS systems from the terminators being grafted onto Rangers,
but I've never heard of the S197 or not.
It's actually pretty slick the way it works.
Looking at the rear suspension setup, the grafting is simple.
All I've really got to do is put in a couple of level plates to put the four major through
bolts through it.
And then after that, I've got to build some purchase for the springs.
But beyond that, there's almost nothing to do.
The independent rear suspension on those is based entirely on the subframe itself.
So the body's kind of irrelevant.
And with a truck like this, I'm going to gut that bed anyway.
It's really just going to be bed sides at that point.
And I've got infinite room to fab up whatever I want.
My thought is if I Z cut it about a foot behind the cab, I can add some extra rigidity.
I can box the frame, get it good and stiff for the rest of it.
And then from there back, I can kind of build an independent suspension based on that subframe,
line up the bed to where I think, yeah, that ride height looks good.
Welded in place, add a couple of gussets and I'm off to the races.
Literally.
Yeah.
Well, here's to hoping.
Here's to hoping.
We'll see if we get her done in time to make another race this season.
Oh man, that'd be awesome.
I mean, you're pushing it, but yeah.
I doubt we'll make it all the way through the independent rear suspension.
Right.
But at the point that current truck is, if I could acquire a shell and have it in my garage
this weekend, I'm probably only looking at a week, maybe two of parts swapping to have
a feasible race truck again.
Do you have your eyes on a chassis?
Yes.
Okay.
There we go.
I've found a 94.
It is a single cab.
Short bed.
It's currently, it was a long bed.
But I know for fact that short bed will bolt right up to it and a Sawzall will take the extra
foot off it.
There we go.
There you go.
I like it.
Yeah, because it is behind the axle.
Correct.
Okay.
Sweet.
Well, that makes it easy.
Nice.
Yeah.
I've been eyeballing them.
I haven't forgot about it.
I promise.
Yeah, yeah.
You want to get back to this, but the recent builds with buying the gold truck.
Yeah.
I mean, life happens, right?
We all run into those issues.
We're just very interested, invested in the project.
Yes.
So for learning purposes, what's a Z cut?
So a Z cut is going to be where we're basically making a cut off of the rear frame
just behind the cab.
And what we're going to do is add in a plate.
We're going to kind of box the end of it with like a six by six chunk of steel.
And then you can kind of build the rest of your chassis behind that.
And you're going to bolt it right to that plate and you're just going to move it up slightly
so that they're based on that plating and the gusset so that your frame kind of makes a little
over, up and over.
And it kind of looks like a Z.
Okay.
Yeah, yeah.
Kind of stacked on top of each other.
Pretty pop set.
In the mini truck community for lowering these things.
Yeah, I've seen that.
Yeah.
I'm just going a little more towards the performance side of it.
Absolutely.
I mean, if you can get the independent suspension under there.
Now, what are you going to do for the front?
The front end, I've got a couple of options.
So if I want to keep it budget friendly and use a lot of the parts that I have,
I know that these drop arms will actually accept the entire knuckle off of a similar year SVT.
I can take the entire thing, bolt it right on there, and there's my big brakes.
It's ready to go.
It's lightweight.
It's got the same bushings in it.
It's a bolt-in application.
And you can run then coilovers for it?
I can.
Yeah.
So there is a coilover conversion for them as well.
It's a little more in-depth, but it is still very doable.
Yeah.
The other one that I looked heavily at that I'm going to call it a pipe dream,
because it's probably more fabrication than I'm comfortable with,
would be taking the front end out of a more modern F-150 and making the thing a wheel drive.
Got that one.
That would be interesting, yeah.
That would be...
It might be a bigger bite than I want to take immediately,
but I'm going to put this in the down the line category,
if I really want to get serious with it.
All wheel drive would be pretty slick.
All wheel drive, 300 horsepower since something that weighs less than 3,000 pounds.
Well, in short wheelbase, and that would be pretty bad off.
Would it be better to do an F-150 rather than a modern Explorer for grafting that on there?
I'm going to go with the F-150 just because it's in production for longer,
and it's more accessible to me.
This is something I'm likely to see in a junkyard ready to go.
What about grafting on a Mustang front clip, because Mustangs have been used for a lot of that stuff.
I hate to say I've seen it, but I kind of love the sport clip.
The 94s had a smooth, they're referred to as a third gen,
and they've kind of got the nice smooth front end that went through several facelifts.
I'm not talking about the body, I'm talking about your suspension.
Oh, the subframe and suspension.
It's feasible. I haven't done enough research to say it's something that I could do,
and I could pull off, but there's a very high probability that, yes,
it's likely to bolt in with minor modification.
Yeah, because once you go with a Mustang front end, the sky's the limit.
You can go up to like 16-inch brakes, you can go into huge coilovers, everything.
For my current application on the drop beams, what I ended up doing is just increasing the
stiffness of the suspension, and then to prevent excessive roll, I did actually put some limiting
straps on it. Oh, okay.
So it doesn't have as much as it could, despite how it looked that day on track.
No doubt. Yeah, it leaned a lot, but it did.
I would imagine straps helped a lot, but then heavier sway bars probably, and I mean,
you're only going to get so much out of it, I guess.
On the I-beams, there actually is no front sway bar.
Oh, yeah.
I believe it's part of the problem. A more modern ranger does actually have the typical
A-arms in the front end, and you can put coils on them. It's got a sway bar.
You could upgrade to a Mustang sway bar or any other option.
But for the year I've chosen that I've kind of fallen into,
there's going to be a learning curve in exactly what I can and can't pull off.
At least until you start chopping it off and putting something else under there.
And I mean, isn't that the end goal of all race cars?
Is how much of this can I chop off and replace with Go-Fast?
Exactly. How many Go-Fast parts can I find, and how do I put this on there?
Yeah.
I have a whole truck in my garage that's going to be like that.
Yep.
Yep. No, that's pretty awesome.
Excited to see it, and I like the EcoBoost idea.
Yeah, that's going to be sick.
That's cool.
Highly affordable, very reliable.
You know, if you put an LS in it, you could go to LS-Fast with me.
I could, and for the weight, I hate to say that, but the LS does actually have a very
similar weight to the current four-cylinder that's in the thing.
Isn't that crazy?
I looked at a couple of V8 options, and I kept coming back to,
well, if I put too much weight in it, being light, it's always going to have issues.
So that was one thing I was going to ask you, is with all the engines that were in the Ranger,
what do you recommend the top engine for that?
Just stock, and then what do you think is also the best engine to put in at top three?
Ooh, tough gets.
So for the year I had, my options were the Lima four-cylinder.
There was a three-liter V6 that was offered, and then there was the four-liter V6 that was
kind of regarded as the big bad motor.
Now, for the spread of them, the Lima was good for, in that year, I believe 96 horsepower,
and the 4.0 was really only good for, I think it was like a 140-something horse,
so it's not a ton of gain to make that jump.
It is a ton of weight.
And being a little truck, that's one of the things I wanted to be really mindful of.
I'm kind of taking the lotus approach here.
I don't need infinite horsepower if I can shave that weight down to a small enough number.
So the motors I'm particularly looking at are lightweight, lower displacements.
I'm kind of a sucker for high-revving BS.
If I can wrap that thing all the way out to 7.5, 8,000 RPM before I grab the next gear,
I'm happy as a clam.
So the EcoBoost kind of took my first four-runner slot.
I did very heavily debate in LS, particularly the LS6.
They're super lightweight.
They've got great power.
It's a really compact motor.
But price point lies, I can get three of these EcoBoosts for one of the LSs.
The other motor.
Can you push 700 horsepower out of it?
Probably not.
Those EcoBoosts, you can build some good power.
You can, but I don't think you can.
I got another question.
I know it's a Ford.
What about a Toyota 22RE?
I like a 22RE.
They're not known to make great power or torque.
Bullshit.
I've seen a factory bottom end push seven bills.
On a 22RE?
Yep.
Give that man a high five.
I want to know how he did it.
Toyota, back in the day, made all of their bottom ends basically race ready from the factory.
The inline sixes, you could push 1,200, 1,400 horse.
The 22Rs, 22REs, you could push 600, 700 horse.
That's honestly a great option that didn't even land on my radar.
My third big motor options, it was somewhere between the 50 and the 46 modular.
Yes.
And I just kept coming back to these are too heavy for the chassis.
Admittedly, they've got the power on the big end if you really want to build to them.
Well, the 46 weighs, the aluminum one only weighs 500 and something pounds.
I can grab the Lima.
That's a hundred and something more than it should.
Yeah.
I can grab the Lima that's currently in this truck.
I weigh a buck 25, mind you.
I'm built like 14-year-old Asian girl and I can bench press this motor.
Oh, wow.
I don't need something that weighs four and a half, 500.
It's just too much.
Any of the savings I make elsewhere, I'm going to lose if I put a big motor back in.
I love the EcoBoost idea.
So with EcoBoost, though, are you going to remove weight savings?
Are you going to remove all the emission stuff on that,
or are you going to keep it so it's still road legal and you can tag it, or how does that work?
I live in a county where it doesn't matter.
I can delete all that anyway.
You're in Cali, right?
Yes, sir.
Yeah.
They don't have one of the DEQs up there.
I can get a road legal title and plate for an ATV or side-by-side in the county in which I live.
Nice.
That's awesome.
Yes.
Yeah.
That's cool.
It pays to live out.
So do you have any idea how much weight you'll be saving,
but can all the emission stuff on it, like for that engine?
I really don't.
I would imagine it's going to be peanuts in the grand scheme of things,
but if I can just, and I think that's it.
If I can make 10 or 15 pounds happen here, there, and another place,
then I'm looking at a respectable enough amount to feel a difference.
I would venture to guess there's some companies that are already building performance parts for those.
Oh, 100%.
The EcoBoost is being used in several spec race series right now.
I bet you can get 200 out of that.
I have a question about the EcoBoost,
since you seem to be rather knowledgeable and done some research.
So you said you like to wrap out that motor, you want to turn higher RPM.
I do.
If you pull an Eco out of an F-150 versus something out of a car,
that F-150 is probably going to have a different stroke than your car.
Or at least a lower RPM.
Yeah.
I would think I cannot guarantee that.
I haven't done enough research into them to really spec out
if there's a difference.
And what sizes of EcoBoost are we looking at, are we?
The one I've been scoping is a 2.0.
I'm actually losing displacement going from a 2.3-Lima to a 2.0-Liter.
Right, but you're turbocharged.
So do they make a 3?
I believe there's a 3.6 that is a, I believe, V6 that was offered for a number of years,
which is a very spicy option because it's a twin turbo setup.
And it makes surprising numbers.
That would be cool.
The EcoBoost, they did a 2.7 and a 3.5.
3.5.
And then I think with the new Rangers, they did a 3.0 in there.
Which is probably a small difference.
You're talking about a 2.0.
So because those were in like the focuses and stuff.
And it's the most readily available.
It was in the most chassis.
The one I was thinking that was mostly was the 2.3 that was in the Mustang one,
because I thought that was in the F-150s and stuff.
And it could be.
I could be entirely wrong on my numbers here.
Like I said, I'm kind of loosely basing this on a bunch of stuff
that I've been half-assed researching into the middle of the projects.
But the more of me you read, you're like, they get all crossed up.
All of my numbers look the same now.
I will say the one thing about the 2.3 that's impressive,
direct injection twin turbocharged engine.
But I've heard from Mustang Forms that you can just do a Tundum, Cold Air Intake and Exhaust,
and jump them up to like 375 to 400 horses.
And I think that's very impressive.
Very impressive, rough to bat.
You said it's a 2.3?
Yeah, wow.
Yeah, turbo.
Yeah, no, it's nuts.
What you can do with those motors is just from factory.
Yeah, that would be really awesome to arrange.
I do know though, because if we had a friend,
I'm not sure if we talked about this on the show,
they rented a Mustang, a 2.3, and autocrossed it.
And from factory, after they got done with the day,
you could see open the hood and the just turbos in there glowing red.
So that's one thing I'm not too sure about is the heat management with that.
You know, what it's going to take to keep that cool,
or like make those turbos last long within the race application.
Sure.
And they're like constantly heavily being ready.
It's probably removing one in.
Let me ask you this too though, in a Mustang application,
you know, that stock vehicle has a very closed engine compartment.
A lot of sound deadening and heat retention material as it turns out.
Plus a heavier car.
You know, you're working everything a lot harder.
Does that.
And I don't know if that affects the turbo,
but I would think it would because it's all exhaust oriented.
Heat soak is a real thing with turbo motors.
Sure.
So in an application like your Ranger might not be as critical,
you're going to have better air flow through the hood,
through the engine compartment, plus a lighter vehicle.
And as I understand it, there are just a ton of these variable quote unquote eco-boost motors.
If I do a quick search here and pull up the local Wiki page,
there was a 3.5 liter, a 3 liter, a 2.7 liter all V6s.
Then you drop to the inline fours.
There's a 2.3, a 2.0, and a 1.6, and a 1.5.
And then you go down to the inline three.
Yes.
Where there is a 1.5 and a 1.0.
So there's just, there's so many.
That's a motorcycle option.
That's cool.
They're all modular.
They're all like Legos.
That little, I want to say the Fiesta or whatever it was.
Yeah, the Fiestiva or whatever it be.
Fiesto.
I'll be honest, when they were releasing the ST version of that car,
it was cool enough.
I debated buying my first brand new vehicle for one.
The price point was respectable enough.
Yeah.
But the dealers couldn't offer me good enough financing for me to want it.
Yep.
Yeah, that's a tough one.
Yeah, I like the options you got there.
I mean, even with the 2.3 being able to push that many horsepower,
I have a sucker for the bigger motors though.
Like if you get a 3.5 with a twin turbo, that'd be pretty badass.
If I could.
In that Ranger.
Oh my goodness.
Could you imagine one of those twin turbo V6s pulling six and a half,
700 bills out of it?
It's going to be a smoke ship.
Oh, you wouldn't even have to pull that.
Shoot anything 400, 450 would be a lot in that vehicle.
Well, the 3.5s, they came, depending on what you got,
so if they were in the F150 base, I should say base,
the 3.5s came at 375 horses.
Stock.
Stock until they went into the Raptor,
because they did put those V6s in the Raptors of the V8,
which then made up to 450 from the factory.
And then I think the 3.5 was in the Explorer ST,
and that made 400-ish horsepower right off the bat.
So like the fact is, you're already talking around the 400 level
with a factory twin turbo setup.
Once you move all the emissions system and really push them,
you can get some good horses out of them.
Sure, yeah.
I think the original motor in the Unicorn was the 3.5.
EcoBoost.
EcoBoost.
And they pushed, I want to say it was 1,000 or 900.
That's what I recall.
That was a 1,000 horsepower car.
Yeah, it was.
And then they pulled it and they put a different motor in.
I think it was a 1,300 V8.
Proper point turbo V8.
All 50 or something.
You know, the best way to explain how much power you can make with a 3.5
is that's the same motor that's used in the Ford GT.
They make 660, 650 horses.
Twin turbo.
Twin turbo.
Yeah.
And I know you can make way more than that,
but I'm just saying from factory that you can guarantee.
That's a reliable 600 horse.
You can take that 3.5, build into what's in the GT.
And that was half of my hope with this EcoBoost,
is getting something that parts are readily available.
They're fairly cheap and accessible.
They're simple enough to work on.
And number one, big thing on the head.
It's got to be reliable.
Yeah.
Well, that's something you probably want to look into
as far as the year of motor that you get.
Because I do know that some of those EcoBoost had some issues.
Yeah.
Headbolt issues and stuff like that.
Well, the other trick is I have to find a manual transmission
that I can mate to them.
Now, if I use the EcoBoost 2.3, I have access to,
trying to remember the code, MT104 question mark.
MT82.
82.
Something like that.
But it has a proper 5 and 6 speed
that you can couple right to the thing.
The one that's in it will not.
But there's no adapter for that.
There may be.
Here's the way I look at it.
So the M80, wait, is that M82?
M82 is used on the V8 Mustangs.
I think it was used on EcoBoost.
And we should check on that real quick.
I'm ultra curious.
I'll do the research you keep talking.
If it's an M82, let's just say from a Mustang.
Everything on Ford makes modular.
So if it fits on the M82, which means it fits on the 50,
which means it fits with a TR3650 on there.
So it's with this TR6060 on there.
They make it so if it fits one, it fits all.
That's provided that fits the same as the Mustang.
All you got to do is change the bell housing.
No.
Really?
Yeah.
It's built up.
Like right now on Liger, for example,
it was originally a TR3650 and TR660 builds up to it.
Which I know builds, because it accepts it,
will bolt an M82 onto it.
So that's why they call it the modular engine.
Because everything modulates onto them.
It's Legos.
So I keep telling you guys, that's the best part about them.
That's the only best part about them.
Chevy doesn't do that?
To a degree, they do.
With their engine, they definitely do.
Anything that you could take from one LNG engine
you can go on the other.
To a degree.
I mean, intake is a little different on many of them.
But yeah.
Let's say the LS range, right?
So if you're looking at LS6, anything
that you could have bought factory off of an LS6
will bolt right to it.
Correct.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But maybe not the LS3 shit.
Maybe.
Maybe.
Maybe.
Maybe it will.
I know that there are some differences just from,
I mean, I haven't dug deep into that LS swap whole thing.
Right?
I only just look at the stuff that I need, basically.
But yeah, from glancing at it, it
looks like there are some differences.
But I could not tell you what those are.
I don't know if the bell housing from an LS1
will fit on an LS3 or not.
Right.
So I believe the transmission I'm hunting is a 10R80.
If it's an auto, I still can't figure out
what the code was for the proper six speed that was in them.
It says for this one, it is a 6R80, a six speed auto.
And really, I'm after the manual.
Yeah.
I'm a sucker for whacking my fidget stick and grabbing gears.
Yeah, exactly.
So anyway, I like the concept.
I like the idea.
I think it'd be an awesome build.
Like get after it, send some pictures.
Yes.
Bit by bit.
We'll get back to it.
Yeah.
In the meantime, I blew a big chunk of my budget buying this new daily.
Right.
And for the first time, and I'm not going to say ever, but quite a while,
I actually took my white truck that went tits up and I did the non-car guy thing
and decided I had done enough of this project.
It was breaking my heart to wrench on it.
I've rebuilt it so many times, it was time for someone else to take over the wheel.
And I didn't sell it, but I did put it in somebody's shop.
So it's went under the knife.
We're going to do a couple of things this year.
I'm tired of rebuilding the independent front suspension.
The torsion bar setup is unreliable at best.
I think I've rebuilt the thing four or five times now and I'm just over it.
I've been talking about straight axling that thing for a long time.
And I finally broke down this year.
I talked to a buddy who owns an off-road shop and he said,
yeah, I'll take this truck on.
Absolutely.
Bring it down.
Let me let me get onto this.
So it's, I see a hand up.
Sorry, why are we raising our hand?
Verify that.
That was something you'd like to share with the class.
MT-82 six-speed manual transmission was used in the 2.3 Ecoboost Mustang
engine from 2015 to 2020.
So there you go.
Which one was used with a two-liter?
Two-liter, I'm not sure.
But if you do go the most.
If you're going Ecoboost.
Yeah.
If you're going Ecoboost with the Mustang motor,
at least you have that, which means also you have the ability to go any,
any essentially manual transmission from Ford.
And I'm behind that.
Yeah.
Ford's made a reliable transmission,
like you're saying, even with your Bronco.
If I could jam one of those six speeds in there, I'm,
all smiles all day.
Sure, yeah.
Anywho, so you got rid of the.
I did.
I sent the white truck out.
My buddy's taking it under the knife.
And he's going to do some of the stuff that I'm not going to say I'm incapable of,
but he's definitely more knowledgeable than me.
One of the big things was straight axling this truck.
And I've been talking about it for years.
I've always wanted to build a set of proper super duty axles.
And it finally came time we started talking about the feasibility of it
and the price to acquire and build these axles.
Well, lo and behold, my pockets were deep, but not quite that deep.
So we ended up settling on some Jeep Rubicon axles out of a more modern one.
And it breaks my heart to take it away from the Ford manufacturing.
But for the price point on building these Jeep axles versus proper big Dana Ford axles,
it is surprising, nearly two thirds of the cost.
And you're saving thousands of dollars just in the build.
That's surprising, honestly, because I thought Jeep stuff was pretty expensive.
Yeah, compared to a proper Dana 60 out of an F350, it pennies on the dollar.
And to actually put them into this thing, one of the benefits here is
if I was to go with the big F350 axles, I've still got to build them.
I've got to put in my Cromoly axle shafts.
I've got to add a locker.
I've got to put on a new diff cover that's got the vented fins to keep the thing cool.
With these Jeep axles, because they're coming out of a Rubicon,
they've already got the heat locker.
Most of them, if anyone's wheeled on them before they pulled them,
they're already upgraded to Cromoly.
It's astounding how little it takes to make them work for the application.
Interesting.
One of the things with this build is that the motor was kind of tits up and the transmission was as
well. And I've always wanted to build to a proper V8.
I've been looking at a 50 for this thing for years and I let him talk me out of it.
For the price and availability, I'm going to stuff another 4.0 back in this thing.
I'm going to put that transmission right back together.
And I'm just going to drive Jeep axles.
We're going to try and clear.
I believe we're looking for 37s, which is giant on the nature.
So you're talking about F350 axles.
How much do you have to shorten them?
So that's part of the kicker is I didn't want to shorten them.
I wanted to run full track.
And for a lot of the trails that we run here in the Northwest,
I think that would have been a disadvantage to me.
Have you been to Brown's camp out here?
Not recently, it's been probably maybe seven years.
I highly recommend we grab Rob's Bronco and take a trip out there sometime.
But no, it's just too wide.
There's so many tight turning trails out here that if you don't have a
divorce transfer case where you can do a proper dig to make your 180s around an obstacle,
you're going to be making a Mr. Bean 273 point turn to clear that tree.
And as soon as you do, you've got another switchback going the other direction.
And you're the guy on trail holding everybody up.
Yeah, can bounce back for a second.
So every time I go to Brown's camp, because that was a place I would go to for motorcycle
riding and trail riding for that one, I've never done the automotive route on that one.
How is the terrain out there?
And like, is it, would you recommend it for a first timer?
That's something everyone goes to or?
Absolutely.
So in the off-roading community, Brown's camp is kind of one of the staples out here.
And they've got, absolutely.
This is basically halfway between Portland and the coast out here.
And it drops you right out into the wilderness.
You are technically, I believe, in a national forest when you're wheeling out there.
And there are trails for literally every skill level and vehicle that you can think.
You can be running everything from forestry road gravel that's frankly just a nice road
with a couple of potholes, all the way up to the big end, the extreme stuff.
Think trails like waterfall and the boat ramp out there.
Just if you're not in a bouncer, you're going to struggle.
You're going to take damage.
Now, there's a solid spread.
For me, I've been out there enough times in the last several years.
I've kind of got a decent knowledge of, all right, well, you're coming out in a sort of
stock thing.
Let's go do easy trails.
So let's conquer Cedar Tree today versus, okay, we're heading up.
We're going to waterfall this thing and someone's going to break today.
I don't care who it is, but one of you is getting towed off trail.
Yeah.
Luckily, we're in an area where these things are super prevalent.
I mean, Browns Camp is very common.
But there are so many other places out here that are just as good for wheeling.
Laddie Flats comes to mind.
A huge chunk of the Gifford is readily accessible out, particularly by like Calama
Horse Camp and Lake Merrill.
Kind of tough to access, but there's just the coolest trails you've ever seen.
I get a big kick out of that.
We'll go out wheel.
You'll be on a trail for three, four hours.
You'll see it's a one way.
It's a dead end.
There's going to be a loop at the end.
And you do a little quick math with your Onyx or your Gaia apps.
And you see, you know, okay, well, what's the elevation I'm going to end at?
What's the surrounding areas?
I'm a sucker for a viewpoint.
So that's been one of our go-tos is just go out, go find a cool road.
And it's kind of that gravel.
Oh, where's that go?
Turns out six miles that direction to the top of a mountain where you've got a 360 degree
surrounding view.
And you can see Mount St. Helens, Mount Adams, and Mount Hood.
The Northwest is a very, very cool spot to wheel.
Good side track.
So I got one more to add to this.
When you show up at those trails, there's a gate that's closed and locked.
And next to that gate, there's a series of rocks.
They call that the challenge trail or pass.
It's called a filter.
Do not fuck with the filter, try to drive over it.
Because if you cannot drive over it, you do not belong on that trail.
I don't know how many times I've seen people fuck with those, move the rocks around,
or whatever, pull them out of the way with the strap to get over there.
And then they get a mile back and now they're stuck in something really bad.
So then why would they put the gate up there and not just put the rocks in front?
So somebody can get back there with a tow truck.
A lot of these gates, and the ones that come to mind for me are the Yakult Burn area.
These gates are put up to closed trail during the off season.
Now what they sort of take into account don't is, yes, there's going to be a filter through.
We call them gatekeepers.
If you can't pass the gatekeeper, you don't belong on the trail.
And a lot of the trails that do get closed off actually have secondary and third accesses.
Around the midpoint, if you know the network.
And out here, it's extensive.
I was saying one of the cool things about that is I can drive up from Woodland to Cougar.
And in 45 minutes, I can enter the trail network.
And I cannot touch pavement again until I hit Chalachi.
And then I can detour, I can go hit four corners.
And I cannot touch pavement again until I spit out all the way down at the Columbia.
There's hundreds, if not thousands of miles out here.
Not all of it's super well maintained.
There's a fair amount of trail that we've had to re-break over the years.
It says it goes through here, but there's a 200 foot stretch where I've got 16 trees laying on the
ground. Luckily for me, or fortunately, I'd pack a saw and we can move that stuff.
I've got the winch, I've got the truck, I've got the saw, I've got the gas.
Nothing stops you when you're overlanding. It only delays you.
Part of it's the journey, I think.
So when I was a kid, we used to go hunting up there.
And I've driven from basically the Calamera River Road up to
what's the highway that goes up to Johnson's Ridge at St. Helens?
God, the Lewis River Road turns into highway, what is that, 26 or 30?
You'll have to explain that for the listener at a distance because...
As the crow flies, you're looking at probably 60 to 70 miles off-road.
As the crow flies, it's probably closer to 100 with all the turns and everything that you gotta do.
Yep. So I've done that drive during hunting season and then you basically cross the
Tudel Highway and go from Tudel to Highway 12, which is...
Where was the other... Randall, up by Randall.
Yes, and that is where the next gambler event is being held, is Randall Washington.
Nice. There is a secondary event, not an OG, they do a lot of spin-offs.
This particular one is called Flivers at the Rivers,
and it's all about cleaning up the Gifford, and it's right in my backyard.
These are trails I'm comfortable on, I know a good chunk of the network.
There's a very high probability that when I leave for this event,
I'm gonna hit gravel in the town I live in and not touch it again until I hit Randall.
Wow. Okay, cool. Thanks for the side tangent.
I had a question for you to wrap up the show, since you are a true project car backyard mechanic.
Okay. What garage or tool storage solution would you add to your workspace?
You know, I've got, I think, four of the little tool carts, and if I was honest,
if I could really spend the money, I'd love to have one of the big matco or snap-on full-sized
boxes where I could just consolidate all of my tools into one spot, and not have to go,
oh, I need a wrench, digs through a drawer, and goes, eh, my engine inates as in the other box,
go to another box, open it up, dig through it, and go, maybe it's in the other box?
Yeah. I'm tired of digging for my stuff. If I had a better way to organize it,
that would be my get. Yeah, a bigger toolbox. A bigger box. A bigger single toolbox.
Question on that one. Is there ever a time where price for a toolbox exceeds the what it is? Yes,
what it's worth. 100% all the time. As a non-professional mechanic, I'm not gonna go spend
10 grand on a snap-on box that's the size of a wall. Okay. That's more than I'm gonna spend
on most of the cars I bought. Yeah. What about one of the Harbor Freight, the big husky boxes,
icons, and yeah, I actually have two U.S. general boxes right now, and for the price,
they've been amazing. There's a lot of things people will say don't buy from Harbor Freight.
I'm behind the toolbox. Buy their boxes, they're worth the money. That's one that's interesting
because like their U.S. general toolboxes, I'm like, if you know, their icon, I think is very
well done, you know. But in terms of toolbox, I'm kind of a toolbox snob. I'm the guy with
the snap-on box. Yeah. Well, you're the guy that paid too much for his toolbox. I ain't paid too
much. Yeah, you did. I paid for my snap-on, I paid, I think, two grand, two and a half grand.
You paid too much. It's a snap-on, you paid too much. The same of any other brand for that price,
you could get twice the box. So, and that's the thing, I'm actually, my snap-on guy has been
pretty adamant about it and kicked me around and he's trying to convince me into a epic with
something size for like 14 grand now, and I'm like, I don't... Get out of here. Yeah, I keep saying no,
it always gets very tempting. Show up with an icon box and see what he says. There you go. Yeah.
And if ever you do, I'll offer you the Gambler 500 price. I'll give you $500 for your current box,
as it sits. Yeah, with everything in it. Yeah. Regardless, I need more tool space though,
because I am running really closely out. I haven't had that issue yet. I've still got enough boxes,
my tools are spread. Now, at this point, I'm acquiring more projects than I can actively set my
eyes on in a given day. And that's kind of been my big downfall, is there are things I really
want to get to, but I've got cars in the way. That means I've either got to move this thing,
or I've got to fix it, or I got to move forward in its build, and it's kind of low on the priority
list, but who knows. So, you need a stacker in your garage. Yes, and we talked about this, I think,
last time. I'd recently acquired a Lyft, and I really wanted to put a tall two post 10,000
pound in my shop. Yeah. And I had a buddy who'd gotten rid of his recent business, and he was
ready to give me one. I did the measuring, and I went, yes, this is it, this is going to fit. This
is my answer, it's an extended, it's a big boy, it's going to lift a full size RAM if I need to.
Then I got it out to my shop, and I started double triple checking my measurements, and
well, I didn't measure quite as well as I had a hope to, and it was too tall to fit my shop. There
was no way I could do it without either undercutting my floor, laying a new pad that was sunken down,
or chopping structural trusses out of the way to clear the thing, and neither one of which seemed
like a great option. So, unfortunately, I sold the thing, and I'm looking into a better replacement
option. That's too bad, concrete's easy. Well, I think the original pad I have is like a
four inch pad, and for the lift that I wanted to put in, that two post, they
require a minimum of, I believe it's eight inches with reinforced rebar, and a six by six around
each foot. Oh, wow. So, I kind of dug into that, and I'm like, okay, well, fuck it, can I make that
work? What's this going to cost me? Turns out the concrete work was almost as expensive, if not
more, than the lift itself. Well, I could believe that. And I just could not justify it for the price.
Well, I offloaded what I had, and I'm looking at better options. Let me tell you, as someone who
has multiple lifts, it's always a good idea to have one. Oh, no, I believe that, and I want them.
There's a reasonable pad. Yeah, you don't even have a lift. Exactly. Rob's got the lift.
What is this guy talking about? I don't know. They give me almost every episode that I don't have
one in my big ass shop. I'm telling you, they really are a game changer. I spent some time just
out around high school, working at the Clark County Skills Center, I was trying to become an
automotive tech, and having a lift 100% is a game changer. Well, I hands down the agree,
and I used to work in a few automotive shops, that was one thing that always was different
than me at home, was being able to lift the car up and go through it. 100%. I will say the one thing
that's for me that I think the biggest problem is deciding where a lift's going to go in your shop,
because I have one pull through bay, and then I'm here and there, and I know whatever's going to go
on there, especially if it's a long term project, it sucks to take up that time. The one kind of lift
I'm looking for that would be nice to go through is a mobile lift, the kind that have like giant
wheels on it can lift, you know, do whatever you need, and then say if you have a project that
needs to stay there, you could set it down on jacks and then move your lift somewhere else.
Absolutely, I think that's really cool. My particular shop setup, I think long term goals,
what I'm looking at is a two post lift on one of my bays and a four post, if not an alignment lift
on the other. I love being able to stack my vehicles too deep in any given spot,
and I think it would be a boon to have my own alignment lift. There have been a number of
times where it's like, it's close, it's not perfect. If I had the lift for it, it would be as simple as
jacks it up, makes three or four wrench turns, set it back down, check your string alignment.
Yep. You should probably lift that you're looking at, double check, most of them are
going to require more than a four inch slab. Like a six inch minimum. Most of them do. Yep.
You're going to have to do that anyway. Admittedly, the four post lifts do require
far less than the two posts do. Yes, but they're far less convenient. They are less convenient
and less accessible. Yep. But they're great for parking because I bought one just for that.
Yeah. Well, good. I need something to put my Volkswagen project on. Right. Yeah. It did bump
my way into, it's a 79 Volkswagen Rabbit. It's a four door. It was the first year that they came
with fuel injection, and this one was converted and swapped. As best I can tell, I bought it from
a buddy who was moving to Texas. I took over the project and kind of said, yeah, don't worry about
it. You do Texas stuff. I'll see what I can do about this. When you get the money, I'll sell this
back to you. Hopefully is a running thing. Well, he didn't bother to tell me quite everything that
had been done to it. So not being ultra familiar with my old water cooled classics, I started
tearing into this thing head over just right into it. And the motor came out and I figured out that
the stamp for these is on the rear of the block and it's up kind of tucked behind the exhaust
manifolds. And once you get it out, it's easy enough to see. Well, all the research I could do
said these cars came with a one six in them and you just pull that motor right out of the top,
pluck it, put it on the motor stand, everything's easy. Now, despite all my efforts, it was not
coming out. So I kept checking and I kept trying. Finally, I got the thing disconnected to the point,
lifted it up and got to crawl underneath it. I'm looking at it with a flashlight and I see a
1.8 stamp on the block. Oh, swapped, which tells me it has a different block than the stock car did.
The stock car came also with fuel injection. It was an early year, it was kind of dog shit for
what it was, but this thing had twin webbers on it. So I started doing some digging and I believe
now that it has a 1.8 out of a late model Corrado with a 1.6 liter head. It's got the intake off of
the Mark I Jettas even. So it's converted back over to a twin webber that did away with all
the old fuel system and it's kind of a basket case, if I'm honest. There's a lot of work in this
vehicle that every time I look at it, you kind of got to do one of the...it might hold. It might work.
This sounds like legitimately like an Arturo build. We had an episode with a Volkswagen
specialist from the 80s and 90s. Oh, please bring him back to me. Yeah, if you watch the episode,
you will learn everything about those Volkswagen's. Oh, come on, you're way overstating that. Not
over since you are. He would have a lot of information for you. Yeah, this is the guy I
need to contact because this thing's a basket case. I'm in a little over my head. It's taken a
lot of research just to get to where I'm at on it and it's not to the running and driving
point. Jeremy, you put them in contact then. Just let it sit to the side. You have a racetrack to
build. More important things. You got an EcoBoost here. That's right. EcoBoost. Yes, I've already
got the independent rear suspension. If I can acquire the EcoBoost and the chassis, it's just
slapping together and go, right? Yeah, that's right. Easy, easy. And then paint it red so it
cooler than a single color. One last question. Has your hard-no car changed? No, 100%. I stand by
this. I don't know if I was the first one on show to shit on them, but PT Cruisers are the worst
automotive vehicle ever made. Absolutely. That's beautiful. Okay. The one edition. Glad you're
staying with it. The Nissan Cube. Ooh, something about the asymmetrical window design. Yeah.
Rives me crazy. Yeah. Yeah, right. I'm okay with adding cars to your list. Yeah. Yeah, that's
fine. Now there's two. All right. Well, let's call this one a day. Everybody, thanks for listening,
Max. Thanks for being here. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. And again, hit follow,
like, share with your friends, your enemies, and your family in that order. Yes. Hit us up on
Facebook. Maybe post your cool project on the group page. And again, we're looking for a kick car
builder. And we would be happy to talk to a kick car builder other than Grant. Yes. Yeah. So that's
it for today. Thanks guys. Talk to you later.
About this episode
Max Essig joins the crew to discuss his recent Gambler 500 experience and his ongoing Subaru projects. The conversation dives into the challenges of building a unique Subaru for off-roading, including a motor rebuild and the fun of trash cleanup during the event. Max shares insights on his race truck build, including plans for an EcoBoost engine swap and the benefits of Jeep axles. The episode also touches on various automotive projects, tool storage solutions, and the importance of having a lift in the garage.
all wheel drive
center differential
Dana 60
EJ engine
factory warranty
fuel economy
Gambler 500
horsepower
kit car
locker
Chevrolet C10
Chevrolet Spin
Chrysler PT Cruiser
Dodge Journey
Ford Bronco
Ford Explorer
Ford F-150
Ford F-350
Ford GT
Ford Mustang
Ford Mustang GTD
Ford Ranger
Ford Taurus
Fso 125
Lamborghini Countach
Nissan Leaf
Pontiac Fiero
Porsche Boxster
Rolls-Royce Ghost
Shelby Cobra
Subaru Outback
Tesla Model Y
Toyota Land Cruiser
Volkswagen Jetta
Volkswagen Rabbit
Original notes
2025 Gambler 500 as viewed by Max Essig. Talking about the car prep and going off road with a Subaru. What happened to the race truck and what's the next build?
#gambler500 #gambler #subaru #subaruoffroad #carbuild #fromscratch #fixit #AAS #crowslanding #nwacc #viperclub #toptimeofday #tires #autocross #racing #motorsport #dirt #dirttrack #grassroots #drift #drifting #cars #racing #racecar #camaro #optima #lsfest #ford #moparty #fordfest #chevy #Chevrolet #dodge #Corvette #miata #mustang #viper #exotics #untitledcarproject #untitledcarprojectpodcast #projectcars #projects #builds #Racing #carbuilds #Truckbuilds #Motorcyclebuilds #Motorcycles #Truck #Liger #carswewanttodrive #vehicleswewanttodrive #Restoration #vw #volkswagen #driftcars #americancars #highoctanedads #C10 #C10trucknerd
Music by: Mr. Smith. Album: Fredson Drive. AB-CD & Rat Rod. License: CC BY-NC-ND / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ music found at: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/mr-smith/fredson-drive/rat-rod/
Untitled Car Project Podcast
Rob Spring, Grant Gonzales, Jeremy Molt
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100:24