intro/build thread and our poorboy attempt at a campervan.

[shenrie]

^^^ it really was. wish we coulda spent more time in the area. was a last minute thing and we could only stay one night. we will return though. there was a few hot springs in the area that we havent been to yet.

we went camping again this weekend. weve been trying to find a place to meet between my sister and us so we could do some camping together. we live in opposite sides of the state, so we met at this little campground (roughly a 2 hour drive for each of us) on the big wood river near bellevue id. around the river is really nice. lots of trees and shade, but immediatly away from the river is total desert. we tried to scout around a little to find another spot, but didnt work out, lol.

our camp


the breakfast bloat


the big wood river. there were fishing restrictions here, so as you can imagine, they were jumping freaking everywhere.


tree damage everywhere...wind, lightning, beavers, irrisponsible humans...




exploring around the area we found this old bridge. rickity as hell, i was the only one who would cross it. it was called sheep bridge. appeared to be used for, you guessed it, sheep. where they graze out in this desert is beyond me.

[Pschitt]

Thanks for the report!

[larrie]

Looks like a nice spot. Wonder if the beavers eyes were bigger than its hauling ability. Those like some large trees that the took down and then left.

[shenrie]

wasnt a bad spot at all for being in the middle of the desert. there was actually a few better spots, but with all the wind weve been having lately my sister and bil (brother in law, lol) were weary about parking in the heavily wooded area with thier new trailer. i cant say as i blame them after looking at the trees around those spots.

and those trees were some of the smaller ones the beaver had fell (or almost fell). we only found one dam, but that beaver was reeking havoc with the trees in the immediate area. there was at least one tree twice as big in diameter as the one i took a pic of that they downed and just chewed the branches off of. was kinda sad really

[shenrie]

a big box arrived...


floor of van is pefect height as a makeshift workbench for my shopless self.


the pipes.


dp installed.


will get more pix when light is better. was getting dark as i was finishing up.

removing stock exhaust took me an hour and a half, install and wraping the dp took me about the same. fitment is pretty good for how cheap these kits are. gonna leave it be for now till i can borrow a lift and jostle it around a bit. would like to get it a bit farther from the rear shock.

off the line i dont notice any gains. midrange has a little more umph though. about as i expected. dont notice any more exhaust noise, but you can hear the turbo a LOT better

[Spoolin]

You should get your Van tuned, should really wake it up!!
How's the drone at cruising speeds? I have a Diamond Eye as well, not bad for the price.

[shenrie]

guy who sold me the exahust said he would give me a money back guarantee on a tp performance 6-way chip. probably gonna try it out. seems like a no brainer. im not all that interested in the hp, but a couple miles per gallon would make my wallet smile.

Another guy i used to race with, actually worked at bullydog for quite a few years and is now peddling diesel stuff out of st george utah noticed something i didnt. my uppipes are leaking. pretty obvious if you look at the picture i posted. he said i was probably losing some boost there and if i got it fixed, i might notice a bit more gain off the line...not that im racing this thing, lol.

i jumped on a 55mph road here for a couple of miles but didnt notice any drone. the 7.3 is a loudass motor. even if there was drone, we probably wouldnt hear it.

[buckkiller]

Nice....looking good bud
Buck


2002 E350 7.3 PSD 4x4 8' lift pop top conversion....

[Ocsmb]

Rig cleaned up nice Shenrie. Looking at the pic of you jumping it appears you have a cigar on the side of your mouth. Or maybe that's your manly facial hair.

I got a 7.3 with the Diamond 4" turbo back. Drone was bad enough for me. Was annoying. Added a FTE resonator and drone is a little more than stock but not annoying.

Also, I 2nd the earlier post about adding a tuner. Day/night difference with throttle response, tiny bit better mpg, better shifting.

[shenrie]

^^^ thanks Ocsmb, i appreciate the compliment!! however, i think what you are calling a cigar is actually my chins stacking up, lol.

we did a 30 mile trip this last weekend. hit speeds of 70 and didnt notice any drone, but like you say, theres plenty of room for an additional resonator if it does end up bothering us at some point.

and i am going to get that tuner. just havent taken the time to get the code from my ecu for my guy to order it. kinda wanna run a tank or so through to see if the exhaust affects mpg at all. I suspect it wont, but i still wanna keep track just in case it does. im a anal ocd bastard...

i took a closer look at my uppipes too and both are leaking. any easy fixes that anyone knows about? found a set of uppipes that were bellowed and guaranteed not to leak, but im not paying more for those than i did this exhaust. wanna run the idea past the guys at the shop.

Originally Posted by buckkiller

Nice....looking good bud

thanks good sir. soon to follow your lead. had derek send me an invoice today so i can secure the next available timeslot for a top build. sofa king giddy...

took another camp trip this last weekend to a national bird refuge just outside of town known for good fishing. havent been there in years. forgot how cool it was. showed up friday at 5pm, found level ground, unloaded cooler, made drink, grabbed chair to go watch everyone else setup their tents etc. i asked them what was taking so long to get setup and had 7-8 people flip me off at once along with a few snide comments. ill try and record it next time. it was comical.

our camping spot. i was standing at the waters edge for this snap, just didnt get a pic from above. mistake


while we saw all kinds of birds, we couldnt get any pictures. which is too bad, cause we saw a really cool looking owl up close and personal.

we also saw fish jumping the entire weekend, but all the adults caught was a buzz. the kids landed a few fins though.

wife showed up about 11pm after she got off work. she forgot to go to bed and got in the van at 7am. we had a rallyx at 9. she was in fine form, lol. we drove 20 miles to our race, had a blast thrashing our car and headed back to camp. was checking out a place called initation point near camp and found this guy was sitting in the middle of the road catching some rays. he hissed for a bit, but didnt bother showing teeth. was super mellow after i held him for a second. took him away from the road and let him go.


also caught this small little fella. he tried like hell to bite me. was a ferocious little guy, lol.


from the canyon edge.


on the way out.


was a fun weekend. had quite a few friends show up and with kids we ended up having 22 people at one point. its getting warm enough to stop messing with these easy to get to camp spots. looking forward to exploring a few hard to get to spots now that the snow is gone...with just the wife and I.

stopped by lowes on the way home today and picked up a roll of reflectix. had enough to make covers for every window with a good 5'x2' piece left. made me realize how different the tint between the front and rear windows.


with all the pieces in place, it was damn near pitch dark inside. going to get a thermometer and see what kind of difference the reflectix makes as soon as our weather stabilizes a bit and we get 2 days in a row with the same temps.