The Whale

[Samtech79]

351 Windsor. Not a real big motor but plentiful and cheap to make fast. At least around here. I'll be doing the engine at some point. Been stashing parts for it.

[Sheriffdoug]

Hi.
Is it a 289 or a 302? Holly 4 barrel carby?

[Samtech79]

It's a 351 with EFI.

[Samtech79]

I haven't posted on here for awhile... Things are going... kinda shitty actually.
As for the good, I built a pretty rad mini ITX gaming rig for killing monsters or watching movies when the weather sucks or keeping the kid busy in the evenings. It's mostly used guts from other computers but for those who speak nerd, it's an old Phenom II X6, 8 gigs DDR3 and a 1050 Ti. Plays Doom at 60 FPS+ with everything cranked so I'm pretty happy with it. It's only 4.5L and it doesn't cook enough to throttle and the fans aren't obnoxious.





As for the shitty...
Gearvendors... I'm so incredibly frustrated with them.
So I spend an hour on the phone with the sales guy, he tells me exactly what I need to order... blah blah blah.
$3300 later a big box shows up missing parts and the ones that are in the big expensive box don't fit.
Here's the adapter. Wrong bolt pattern and notice no notch for the wiring.




So I call and explain that the adaptor is the wrong one and dude is polite but argues with me like I'm an idiot, I must not have a 1356 electric shift because that is a unicorn and they shipped the right stuff. Couple days later another guy calls and says it's all worked out and they would ship me the right adaptor and the missing parts once I give him my credit card... and then they shipped stuff anyway.
But... still didn't send the missing parts.
And the second adapter isn't correct either. Bolt pattern is correct and there's a relief for the sensors but the cut is less than half as deep as it should be.



And the coupler, it's only got about 2/3 spline engagement. I'm not sure that I trust this coupler with only that much purchase on a 9000lbs 4x4. Seems like the sort of thing that could have my bones bleaching in the desert.




Oh well, we'll see how this unfolds. If they can't get it right the next go round then I'm done with them.

[Samtech79]

Yeah... Nope!
I will say that Gearvendors has tried to be helpful but it came down to the fact that:
1. They have never had a working 1356 fixed yoke electric shift kit.
2. That development of a kit would effectively makes me the guinea pig.

And while they might be delicious little bastards with there hair blow tourched off I would hardly trust my well being to one should it take a crap in the middle of say... Peru?
I mean I take my kid on adventures and we're just getting further and further out into the boonies as things work better on our rig.

I had initially though there was some history and that these had been installed on 1356's before but the more I dug, the less pleased I was with the findings. I found three other people who had tried to install these on the same transfer case as I have and all three had given up because they couldn't get the right hardware to mount it.
For $3300 I expect a tried and true working bolt on kit, not a "yeah we're gonna get one from a junk yard and make it work for you" kit...
I will say that I'm impressed that they would go so far as to call up the R&D department to get it working. Says a lot about their commitment to there customers but being and engineer and working with industrial gearboxes... yeah... I'm not willing to test the longevity of this on my rig with my family in it.
Guess I'm gonna have to bite the bullet and go find a E4od... or just put up with the lame gas mileage and the noise.

[Samtech79]

Well... it's been one of those sorts of months...
Gearvendors was a bust. They just didn't have it all sorted out for a BW1356 and I wasn't have any part of being a guinea pig.
And then the solar panels both died... and the computer... The computer works fine but I have some other guts laying around and I think I can make it a bit faster.

The solar panel company was great, sent me two replacement panels with no fuss. New panels are up and preforming better than the old one ever did.

But the mileage... is terrible. I mean it's just terrible... 8 mpg at freeway speeds.
However, the boss (darling bride) gave me the green light to build up a power stroke and a E4od. Getting it to fit in an Gen 3 might be fun but I think I can stuff it in there.
Doghouse will need some work but I think the tunnel is big enough.
Mahahaaaa (evil laugh)

[MadScience]

This might be a really dumb question, but what problem you're trying to solve with the output adapter?

Or, why isn't it easier/cheaper to do a custom drive shaft with the existing output adapter on the existing transfer case?

[Samtech79]

That was for the Gearvendors overdrive... which didn't work at all.
With just the straight three speed C6 it's screaming down the highway at 3000+ rpm.
Makes it suck gas and noisy. An overdrive drops the cruise rpm significantly.
It's not really viable to gear it up as it would be a gutless dog at low speed. A fourspeed automatic (three speed plus overdrive) is really the only good solution as the Gearvendors just didn't work out.

[MadScience]

Ah, thank you, that makes sense.

As for your experience with being the first customer for something. I've run into this far to often in the automotive aftermarket. You look at a catalogue or a website and order a part for your application only to find out after the tenth support call that you're the first person to every try fitting that part to a convertible or the diesel, or whatever makes your specific vehicle special. It's not quite bait and switch, but a similar form of disingenuous.

Good luck!!

[Samtech79]

I'll be back!
Photobucket is not going to spoil the fun.