Nashville TJ's Build - Continued

One final quick fix to complete the Tablet GPS project. The wider tablet interfered with the AFR gauge mounted on the right side of the gauge cluster, so I had to redo the mount.

The gauge pods were mounted to a ball originally designed to be installed on a cage tube. The ball is part of a tube mount which I attached to the inside of the gauge bezel with adhesive. It has worked well and is pretty strong.

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I considered frenching the gauge pods into the top of the bezel - as another forum member recently did - but instead went for the simpler, quicker solution. I may do something more elegant in the future.

After cutting off the ball, and leaving the thick, plastic cage mount in place inside the corner of the bezel, I simply screwed the pod mount through the bezel, and into the tube mount portion of the original mount. This gave me plenty of meat into which to screw the new mount, and makes it very easy to install the pods.

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And installed.

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Happy with that, I repeated the process on the other side.

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The new mounts are actually quite a bit stiffer than the previous ball mount. I'm happy, and it will do for now.
 
I love your application of K.I.S.S. in this case, Jeff - well done!
 
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How hard is it to get good readings with the AFR gauge? I imagine you need steady inputs from the throttle and load to see what is happening?

I still want to install one and get a flynryan tune. Just curious how they act.
 
How hard is it to get good readings with the AFR gauge? I imagine you need steady inputs from the throttle and load to see what is happening?

I still want to install one and get a flynryan tune. Just curious how they act.

The AFR reading is pretty much real time. It takes a feed directly from a wide-band O2 before the cats. I can also monitor and data-log it in real time with my HP-Tuners suite. It works very well.

Here it is in real time:



Can't really read it in the video, but live you can.
 
How hard is it to get good readings with the AFR gauge? I imagine you need steady inputs from the throttle and load to see what is happening?

I still want to install one and get a flynryan tune. Just curious how they act.

Mine works the same. The big thing is making sure you have a good sealed exhaust system. I don't have my wide band reading on the HPT tuner yet.

 
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Question for you guys with AFR gauges, why keep them displayed/in view for normal driving?
 
Question for you guys with AFR gauges, why keep them displayed/in view for normal driving?

I would say for the same reason that you watch coolant temp, and other things. Gives insight if something is going wrong.

In the case of AFR, you are watching for an extended lean condition - say anything north of 15 or so. Could be caused by reduced fuel pressure, intake leak, or something along those lines. A lean condition will kill a mill in no time.

The other direction, rich, not so much. Other than washing down the rings, not much danger of hurting things if you are fat - but also good to know so it can be corrected.
 
We’ll see…..

😃


(Just joshin’, my friend. Couldn’t resist)

Well I do have a Hemi now.. I'd bought my ARG gauge before you but you installed yours before I did. After clogging up the cat on my first Magnum engine I wanted to monitor my AFR to know what was happening. I don't think that engine ever ran correctly.
Hopefully I won't have all these issues with the Hemi.
 
The AFR reading is pretty much real time. It takes a feed directly from a wide-band O2 before the cats. I can also monitor and data-log it in real time with my HP-Tuners suite. It works very well.

Here it is in real time:



Can't really read it in the video, but live you can.


Mine works the same. The big thing is making sure you have a good sealed exhaust system. I don't have my wide band reading on the HPT tuner yet.



Thanks guys. They don't seem to have any lag or buggy issues.
Well I do have a Hemi now.. I'd bought my ARG gauge before you but you installed yours before I did. After clogging up the cat on my first Magnum engine I wanted to monitor my AFR to know what was happening. I don't think that engine ever ran correctly.
Hopefully I won't have all these issues with the Hemi.

You have those eagle heads now. Swoop up that hellcat supercharger and I think the drag race between you guys would be interesting....
 
Thanks guys. They don't seem to have any lag or buggy issues.

It's a pretty fast response. Granted I haven't had either engine running long enough to be able to tell you that it works great all the time but those few roads tests I did with my Magnum and it was working fine just like Jeff's. And on the 4.0 you just need to mount the bung 18" past the last exhaust port. So measure up and see if you have the room to fit it. You can mount it closer but it reduces the life of the O2 sensor.

You have those eagle heads now. Swoop up that hellcat supercharger and I think the drag race between you guys would be interesting....

After reading some of the posts of people who've done the forced induction on their rigs I think I'll wait and get all the bugs worked out first before zi start trying to figure out how to milk anymore power out of that mill. And a 8HP5 would be a needed addition if I added a huffer to it. And a 14 bolt rear and a Dana 60 front... And .....And ,,,,, And....... And......
 
It's a pretty fast response. Granted I haven't had either engine running long enough to be able to tell you that it works great all the time but those few roads tests I did with my Magnum and it was working fine just like Jeff's. And on the 4.0 you just need to mount the bung 18" past the last exhaust port. So measure up and see if you have the room to fit it. You can mount it closer but it reduces the life of the O2 sensor.



After reading some of the posts of people who've done the forced induction on their rigs I think I'll wait and get all the bugs worked out first before zi start trying to figure out how to milk anymore power out of that mill. And a 8HP5 would be a needed addition if I added a huffer to it. And a 14 bolt rear and a Dana 60 front... And .....And ,,,,, And....... And......

It never ends. There is no light at the end of the tunnel. Thankfully, in Jeep land the tunnel is always full of light and you just keep enjoying it!
 
I gave the tow-pig some attention today.

I've always thought that my previous 2012 Super Duty rode just a bit better than the current one - and I think this is the reason - Fox 2.0's:

IMG_4339.webp



You may recall that I put a 1.5" front leveling kit on this thing. I was not surprised, but when I pulled the bottom of the stock shock, I saw that I only had about 2" of droop. Not good on a Jeep, and certainly not good on a tow pig. These Fox's have the exact same compressed length as stock, but the extended length is about 3" longer. So now I've got a bit over 5" of droop.


IMG_4341.webp


And yes, the ride has improved. :)
 
I gave the tow-pig some attention today.

I've always thought that my previous 2012 Super Duty rode just a bit better than the current one - and I think this is the reason - Fox 2.0's:

View attachment 563199


You may recall that I put a 1.5" front leveling kit on this thing. I was not surprised, but when I pulled the bottom of the stock shock, I saw that I only had about 2" of droop. Not good on a Jeep, and certainly not good on a tow pig. These Fox's have the exact same compressed length as stock, but the extended length is about 3" longer. So now I've got a bit over 5" of droop.


View attachment 563200

And yes, the ride has improved. :)
told ya…
Are you going to run longer front shocks? When I leveled my Dodge years ago (2.5") it almost doubled the distance to the bump stops at ride height. I drove it like that for years but ultimately switched to longer shocks (same brand and model). The ride really improved. I think with the stock length shocks, they were actually hitting the end of the shock extension over rough spots causing harshness.

Not planning on changing the shocks. I don’t think the 1 1/2” block is going to cause much in the way of problems, at least according to what I’ve read. There is still a good bit of down travel.

That said, I ran a set of Fox shocks my last big Ford, and those rhode really, really well. I may swap these out at some point, especially if I go with a little bigger tire.

This Platinum rides crazy smooth and quiet for a 3/4 ton diesel, so I’ll certainly notice it if the ride goes south.