The Baja350 - a Dentside Story

Thanks so much, fellas!

Mounted up the headlight brackets & ran a little kicker out to support the lower front part of the fenders, which also stiffens up the whole grill section.
I still need to figure out how to support the middle-bottom of the grille, but I think that'll be part of whatever I build for the bumper.

Also mounted an aftermarket windshield washer reservoir & pump off the passenger firewall. Took 2 damn months for this thing to arrive. ugh.

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Built up the steering column with a colapsible DD column, a firewall bearing and a few u-joints. I even get to keep the factory dash support bracket

So I started building out the driver's side cage bracing - had to cut back the radiator mounting bracket just a little bit to buy some clearance. Unfortunately the column runs right through where I want another cage tube, but I'll figure out what to do about that a little later.
Went on to the passenger side & these two are going to be different side to side.
The bronco frame with autofab motor mounts has the motor scooched over to the passenger side quite a bit and the AC compressor is on this side - so the tube work can't be a perfect mirror of the driver's side.
So i dropped down at least the same style of tubing originally and then realized that my header won't clear those tubes at all.
I had left the header off on this side because I knew I had to cut the frame a little bit to clear the flange - i wanted to do that with the motor out of the truck but I kludged some tooling together and got the notch done at least enough to fit up the header. More cutting will need to be done later to actually bolt up the rest of the piping.
But for now it lets mee see how much interference I have to the engine cage tubes.

I'll have to build the passenger side with some bends instead of straight tubes like the driver's side
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Bent tubes on the passenger side to get the lacing in.
Still can't remove the header with these tubes. But maybe once I'm done modifying the frame for the exhaust flange it'll be possible. if not, worst case is the header will have to come off once the engine gets picked up for removal and then scooched over to the driver's side on the way out. annoying but not the worst.

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Got my Walker Performance Filtration air cleaner in so I wanted to figure out the intake piping. Running out of space up here quickly.
Kinda wanted to get this thing out from behind the hot radiator so I came up with this using 4" vibrant aluminum parts.
i'm annoyed that one is polished & one is satin but that's how the availability goes sometimes, lol

Anyway, i got this tacked up & then hard mounted the thing to the cage w/ a silicone boot at the throttle body and then stared at it for a while until eventually convincing myself that a better solution will be to put a rubber damper between the cage & the intake tube to allow some flex.
So i expect to re-do this.
Definitely willing to hear other folks opinions tho.

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Sorry but i'm not sure that's any better except you contact more area? in my eyes a hose clamp with a bracket & a tab with a bolt are the same constraint.
I think the problem is that it's hard mounted at the cage & the engine will bounce under torque.
I have an idea to fix that using a small ruber isolator like I did with the radiator - and I can remake the tab so it has more wrap.

I think the best solution would be some kind of flexible bellows in the intake pipe - but i'm not sure that product exists in 4" aluminum.
 
DesertGoat said:
Sorry but i'm not sure that's any better except you contact more area? in my eyes a hose clamp with a bracket & a tab with a bolt are the same constraint.
I think the problem is that it's hard mounted at the cage & the engine will bounce under torque.
I have an idea to fix that using a small ruber isolator like I did with the radiator - and I can remake the tab so it has more wrap.

I think the best solution would be some kind of flexible bellows in the intake pipe - but i'm not sure that product exists in 4" aluminum.
Click to expand...
A hose clamp mount risks slowly rubbing a hole in the tube from vibration and movement. A welded tab risks instantly ripping the wall right out of the tube.
Both have pros and cons, I definitely see that small of an aluminum tab cracking at some point.
 
DesertGoat said:
Sorry but i'm not sure that's any better except you contact more area? in my eyes a hose clamp with a bracket & a tab with a bolt are the same constraint.
I think the problem is that it's hard mounted at the cage & the engine will bounce under torque.
I have an idea to fix that using a small ruber isolator like I did with the radiator - and I can remake the tab so it has more wrap.

I think the best solution would be some kind of flexible bellows in the intake pipe - but i'm not sure that product exists in 4" aluminum.
Click to expand...

The flexible joint you're looking for is the silicone coupler at the throttle body. If your motor is mounted on poly bushings, you won't have any issues. Andrew is right, though. The intake tube is going to crack for sure at that welded tab.

Note: If you're really worried about the flex coupling, don't weld that joint between polished and satin pipes. Add a bead roll and use another silicone coupler.
 
Despite me acknowledging that I'll make the tab bigger - does anybody else want to point out that the tab is going to crack?

also, i love that idea to couple the 2 pipe segments with a silicone coupler, thank you!
that kart bracket is also awesome. if they have it in 4" that's a solid contender.
 
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