The Hyena. Turbo Diesel Gen 1 Build Thread.

IncorpoRatedX

Explorer



The Hyena. Part 1.



1984 Dodge D50 2.3 liter turbo diesel, 2wd, 5 speed

11410535_1621403458145386_409223331_n.jpg

Moving to the desert takes some adjusting, wildlife is some of it. Though I didn't expect to find some snaggle-toothed beast feeding off the scraps of the desert. I parted ways with my 96 SR on 37's when I left the splendor of Lake Michigan's eastern shores. I figured I would find a lot of rust free cars in the southwest. I didn't expect to be smacked in the face with every single example of a Mitsubishi I've ever wanted to own. From cars to trucks and everything between, I ended up feeling like a kid in a candy store. After a short list of vehicles came and went, the diesel showed up. Before moving I planned to do a mighty max build of some kind using gen 2 parts, but I expected to be a year out before that would start. As things work out, I'm just hitting the year mark next month. The diesel was formerly owned by an older couple in southern california, then later moved to southern Arizona, it came clean as a whistle, loaded with all the options, AC, cruise control, tachometer, digital clock, wastegated turbo, and every bit of fuel mileage you could ever want and has been my daily driver for the last few months. In it's current phase it looks more like "Gramps fishin truck" than a carcass-devouring filthy mutt, but that's all set to change...

4D55.jpg

There's been a lot of Mitsubishi work going on under the shadow of the Superstition Mountains, near the outskirts of the Tonto National Forest and out to the west, they're everywhere and they're all getting chopped up and modified heavily. A 4x4 chassis is being prepared for the Hyena, it came from an 82 that was running a 2.6 gas engine and 3 speed a904 trans, 8" rear with 3.90 open diffs, the rolling chassis is now equipped with 4.625 front and rear with an LSD out back, all new steering parts, v6 torsion bars, a 4 speed AW03-72L and an NP231 transfer case. Most of which were scraps from builds around the valley. The 4D55 from the truck will be powering the chassis and it will be equipped with Western Wheels 15x10 cyclone II's and 33" tires with tube fenders for it's initial phase. The little diesel is being built in three phases. In the next phase it will be upgrading to a 4D56 that's on an engine stand for thorough inspection and cleaning, it's also going to an 8" front with lunchbox, 9.5" rear with locker, 4.90's, gen 2 front suspension and 35's.

cyclone ii.jpg

Stay tuned...
 
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IncorpoRatedX

Explorer
Well this joker sure moved to the right state :sombrero:

It's been an awesome adjustment to go from all my friends owning jeeps and other makes, to all my friends owning mitsu rigs, I'm no longer the odd man out. I will miss getting to impress and shock all the local jeep guys when i tell them im pushing big tires on stock gears and my truck came with a locker. haha.

"9" rear with air locker"

You mean 9.5" rear end

I forget Mitsu had a whole half inch more to offer than Ford. Guess that's why the ladies love the mitsu's. ;)
 
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IncorpoRatedX

Explorer
A year later I get to update and tell Pat that I AM actually running a 9" rear with air locker....


The Hyena - Part 2

The dismemberment...

If you read the first post, you'll notice some changes, this truck was slated to be built in stages, I skipped all the stages and went for the full build...

It's been a long year; I quit my corporate job of 5 years in June, I was there when the company started and helped grow it... feeling free and confident, I started a little Montero company with the toast-master, took a part time job working on rally cars, spent a lot of my time traveling with my turbo diesel E350 van and working on other peoples rigs, now I'm back in the valley and I've got mine back in the shop.

At some point I had far too many mitsu's at my house and a gen 1 mighty max frame prepped for action...
too many trucks.jpg

I did a body lift... (2wd cab swap to 4wd frame)
body lift.jpg

Kirk and Carlos were nice enough to donate his old 93 LS, so i trailered that back from the bay area and gutted it's 5.29's and ARB locker
kirks.jpg

Then there was a bright idea...
donor.jpg


Adam said we had to do it, I couldn't say 'no'
He surgically removed all the brackets from each frame and grafted the coil suspension onto the mighty max frame. Perfect fit. Like it was meant to be there.
coiled.jpg



Blacked out the bay because 'paint it black' plays in my head every day.
bay.jpg


After swapping in the 5.29's, gen 2 front suspension and control arms and getting things buttoned up I tossed a 33" on it to see how much work I have left before I put 35's on it... just needs a lil trim.
unnamed.jpg

While going over fitment of all my parts i found the front vac disconnect housing from the 94 LS will not match up to the turbo diesel oil pan, actually it interferes... so I am currently waiting on my high pinion 8" from an AWD sport and my jeep driveshaft parts so my truck can drive the NP231.

Adam scored us a pair of compressors for our trucks (viair) for like no money, then i got an air tank from the same guy, solenoids should be here soon...

Coming soon:
Part 3... Stuffing the meat. Fitting the 35's, tube fenders and sliders...
 
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PajEvo

JDM Journeys
Your stories are the best, dude. You and Driggs oughta co-author a book.

Loving this build. It's what my pickup would be if it starred in an Anime! Keep telling your stories!
 

plh

Explorer
I've got the gen 1 pick-up bug - 1uz swap, gen 3 montero IRS, flatbed, camper.
 

lordtrunks

camp loser
so is the front diff a 7.25 or an 8" high pinion if its the 8" high pinion you've got the squach of mitsu 5.29's and this is the first sighting thru the trees. I wanna see up close and with a tape to prove it! I do wonder if it is the 7.25 will it fit in the 8" carrier and housing if so more walls have come down. WE SHALL SEEE!!
 
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IncorpoRatedX

Explorer
Was the chicken good? Did they have large talons?


I've been worried about this for a while and tried to get ahold of Kirk to ask about it but I haven't been able to reach him.
 

lordtrunks

camp loser
it all started when toasty had a couple couches and he made me sleep on the love seat and he had future donuts while i ate day old's with 16 hr coffee so i switched to chicken.

Anyway ou know i've got some stuff in the works for and like i said that 7.25 may even work with the 8" carrier.
 

IncorpoRatedX

Explorer
Turns out the Donor gen 2 LS came with a HP 7.25, 95mm cv's and a vac disconnect. The last part being the most important. I've got low pinion 7.25's laying around without disco but no high pinions in that flavor. I bought a gen 2 hp 8" without disco from a sport but the hp8 has a longer pinion shaft and possibly larger bearings (didnt get that far before giving the thing to adam for his truck) but it wont work, so I'll keep an eye out for that sort of thing along the way, for now I will use a small block-off plate, low pinion axle shaft and axle housing to frankenstein this assembly into the truck. Planning to assemble that mess in the next week. Somewhere along the way we mounted one of the two fuel tanks and put the bed on. It sits with 33's until some 35-37's are acquired (toasty says 40's but i think not) The front end is waiting for the next siberian bushing order to show up. A minor communication error resulted in a lot of inventory order errors and I gave up my personal bushing sets to fill customer orders. Got it all worked out but waiting on the replacements to arrive from Russia. The rear is missing the adjustable panhard bar because I gave mine up to help get a customers daily driver back on the road faster. Hope to have the next run of those finished this week. The truck mostly needs me to pour some time into it but working two jobs and having too many other projects has slowed things down a lot. Regardless, I press on. :coffee:

lifted.JPG
 
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IncorpoRatedX

Explorer
Once a year project update? Sure.

The truck has spent the last year in my shop...

The week before MOD17 I was in the shop trying to decide what to do, I made a list of what needed completed on my truck, at the minimum it was the length of my arm and that was mostly temporary things done to get the truck to the event, then back home to redo a number of them.

After deciding I had two options:
spend every day dawn-to-dusk wrenching to make a test-drive on thursday and trek across the 124 degree desert on friday,
or change gears (im punny) and change fluids in my 99 Montero then spend the week getting ready and casually drive to MOD.

I decided to take the easy road. I've put deadlines on projects before based on events and it's often resulted in heartache and headache. I might be learning.

In the week before throwing in the towel, Adam (toasty) and I managed to cut the floor apart in the truck to make room for the 4 speed auto and NP231, even with a 3" body lift **** did not want to fit. The truck was originally 2WD so the trans tunnel was quite narrow. We made the proper cuts and used a percussive tool to massage bits into the rough shape we wanted, then began welding things back together. I dropped off yokes at the local driveshaft shop and they returned a beautiful driveshaft to me.

This project will get shelved. likely until october with only minimal incremental advancements being made as I move into the higher priority builds around base camp. There's a few vehicles that need more immediate attention. One of them being CJ's (CommonCrote) SWB Gen 1 with a 2.4 EFI swap, the other being Kimberly's 1975 Galant Wagon, also with a 2.4 EFI swap, the third, not at basecamp project that's well underway is the 1991 Galant VR-4 Rally car that I've been restoring for local stage rally drive Keith. This thread will go quiet for a little while.

Attached Photos below:
just before the T-case

almost there.jpg

New custom shaft from AZ Driveshaft
he said shaft.jpg

Shaft inserted:
231.JPG

The truck as I left it for MOD2017
floater.jpg

Now that we're up to speed...
 

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