Trixie The Twin Turbo Race Truck

bajabugmobbin

Active member
Joined
Jun 21, 2023
Messages
22
Location
Escondido
Figured it was time to add a post here for the race truck! I'm not gonna restart the whole story since picked this thing up over 10 years ago. Most of the original build posts died with desert rangers, but I've been keeping Race-Dezert pretty updated over the last couple years: https://www.race-dezert.com/forum/threads/trixie-the-twin-turbo-ranger.134656/

Been racing, fixing, and upgrading this old girl for the last 8 or so years. I pretty much just let myself go wild with any hairbrained idea I can come up with. Focusing on making it faster and more bullet proof. Apart from advice and helping hands from good friends, I've built this whole truck by hand. We have gotten pretty dang good at building and racing over the years, and had a ton of fun doing it. Eventually the goal is to make it down to baja for the 1000, whether it be in this truck or something else, but one for sure thing is I am never going to get rid of this thing, its just way too much fun.

How the truck looked in 2018 or so:

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How it looks more recently:


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Finally finished my wiring project!

Ditched fuse and relay, used every available I/O in the holley HP ECU, and started using the new SSR output/inputs on the prodash to automate everything/control everything electronically. Used the solid state relay units from MSD to control all the circuits and a switch pro to do the lights and easy stuff.

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been an absolutely insane busy couple months with work and play, but here's where im at on projects!

Made a shannon cambell inspired wheel straightener, it worked! 20 ton bottle jack and patience. Its as close to true as i dare get it, doubt i will even notice a difference. Its crazy how much the inner bead flexes before the dent gave up, its springs right back to centered though.

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Buttoned up the truck and got it all spit shined for Plaster City


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Shout out to Maxima for making SC1. Stuff is magical
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Full shop with all kinds of sweet projects!

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Got everything cleaned up and restocked for desert season

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Plaster was fun but lots of carnage. It was stuck on full kill mode, full 15psi of boost which made things very interesting but fun to drive. I probably messed up something on the trim-pot setup so it was stuck on level 11 the whole time. I ended up yeeting the water pump and belt before I could break out the laptop and fix it. no biggie

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Just gotta do some minor things for JV new years, swap the water pump, redo some coolant lines and turbo fittings, and fix the boost control. Awesome to say everything else was working beautifully on the electrical side so I am a happy camper.
 
I would love to see how you have the turbos mounted. I’m getting ready to twin turbo my Coyote powered Bronco and have been looking for some ideas that won’t brake exhaust all the time.
 
Welp, after 5 years of flawless performance, my Nogrady 347 had its first real issue. We popped the drivers side headgasket out in ocotillo last weekend, leaking coolant out, doesnt seem like it mixed with the oil or got in the combustion chamber. Probably had something to do with the numerous times I've overheated it, or the aggressive boost levels its been seeing the last 3 trips due to a boost control issue (haven't chased it down yet, probably a programming error). Tear down has begun, this one will likely end up being a full prep since I haven't touched a lot of the main components in a while (Driveline, heims, steering, etc).

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So far everything is coming out relatively easily, which is cool since so much has changed.

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Trans out, Engine out, and most of the parts out. Time do send all the things out to be gone through, here's the list:

Shocks and bumps
diff
driveshaft
power steering components
motor 1 and 2
Trans 1

Broken stuff I found:
Cracked and leaking headers. Going to remake those out of not chinesium.
starter was on its way to falling apart, time for a real one
some OG push lock plumbing was feelin pretty stiff/old
Some of the heims are pretty clapped out
steering column clapped out

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