d_daffron
Well-Known Member
I was encouraged to put a build thread up by a fellow hardliner. I'm not a big photo taker so the pics will just hit the high spots.
The goal for this buggy is light and "inexpensive".
Starting off I needed a light powerplant but it also had to be stout in both the HP department and the bottom end strength department. So the obvious choice anyone would come up with was a Cadillac Northstar out of a front wheel drive Deville.
In this form it weighed in a touch over 300lbs on my bathroom scales.
Since the goal was light weight I knew I needed the light transfercase I could find. Also since the transmission options are limited for a Northstar engine I already decided on a 4 speed 4L60e trans out of a V6 Camaro because its one of the few trannies that has a gm "metric" bellhousing that will mate up to the Northstar. With a 4 speed trans theres really no need for high range going trail to trail. Also after some research and phone calling I found out the SCS case really is a hell of a deal, its significantly cheaper and lighter than the other options out there. So it was settled and a SCS straight drive case it was, there wont be many high end parts in this thread but sometimes you just have to spend a little money even on a budget oriented build
So here it is, I gotta say this case is a piece of art.
Next up was the chassis, I'm sure this is where I'll loose some of yall but I decided I wanted to do something a little different for the chassis and the main goal was to keep it light while still being strong. After some research I decided on square tubing in a mixture of .080 and .120 wall thicknesses. Also I decided to mount the Northstar on a motor plate sandwiched between the engine and trans then a second plate on the front cover which makes the engine block a stressed member of the chassis and should greatly help with strength which means less tube and less weight.
So now that all the figuring was done it was time to start putting this together.
I have no frame table or any of that stuff so I set the Northstar on a piece of 1/4" plywood on a good level spot in the shop floor and started cutting and welding. To get the drivetrain length right I had to cut down the 4L60 a little bit. The way I did that was to swap the 2wd output shaft for a 4wd output shaft. Then I cut out an adapter plate to bolt the tailhousing from an NP231 to the end of the 4l60. This shortened the whole drivetrain a little more than 4".
One of the biggest causes of cracked transmission cases, tcase adapters, and other broken componets is because no matter how rigid you build a chassis there is going to be some small amount of flex. Because of this I knew I wanted the engine and trans solid mounted and I also wanted the tcase solid mounted, but I wanted to allow a little bit of wiggle room to allow chassis flex. The best way to do this was to divorce mount the tcase, this completely removes the stress from the transmission case. Of course a divorce mount case doesnt help keep the drivetrain short so I needed the shortest shaft between the trans and tcase I could get. In order to make this tiny shaft I used the center out of a 1350 double cardan CV and pressed it together with a regular old 27spline slip yoke. As you can see it made for as short a driveshaft as possible.
You can also see my adapter plate/trans mount and the NP231 tailhousing in this pic.
The goal for this buggy is light and "inexpensive".
Starting off I needed a light powerplant but it also had to be stout in both the HP department and the bottom end strength department. So the obvious choice anyone would come up with was a Cadillac Northstar out of a front wheel drive Deville.
In this form it weighed in a touch over 300lbs on my bathroom scales.
Since the goal was light weight I knew I needed the light transfercase I could find. Also since the transmission options are limited for a Northstar engine I already decided on a 4 speed 4L60e trans out of a V6 Camaro because its one of the few trannies that has a gm "metric" bellhousing that will mate up to the Northstar. With a 4 speed trans theres really no need for high range going trail to trail. Also after some research and phone calling I found out the SCS case really is a hell of a deal, its significantly cheaper and lighter than the other options out there. So it was settled and a SCS straight drive case it was, there wont be many high end parts in this thread but sometimes you just have to spend a little money even on a budget oriented build
So here it is, I gotta say this case is a piece of art.
Next up was the chassis, I'm sure this is where I'll loose some of yall but I decided I wanted to do something a little different for the chassis and the main goal was to keep it light while still being strong. After some research I decided on square tubing in a mixture of .080 and .120 wall thicknesses. Also I decided to mount the Northstar on a motor plate sandwiched between the engine and trans then a second plate on the front cover which makes the engine block a stressed member of the chassis and should greatly help with strength which means less tube and less weight.
So now that all the figuring was done it was time to start putting this together.
I have no frame table or any of that stuff so I set the Northstar on a piece of 1/4" plywood on a good level spot in the shop floor and started cutting and welding. To get the drivetrain length right I had to cut down the 4L60 a little bit. The way I did that was to swap the 2wd output shaft for a 4wd output shaft. Then I cut out an adapter plate to bolt the tailhousing from an NP231 to the end of the 4l60. This shortened the whole drivetrain a little more than 4".
One of the biggest causes of cracked transmission cases, tcase adapters, and other broken componets is because no matter how rigid you build a chassis there is going to be some small amount of flex. Because of this I knew I wanted the engine and trans solid mounted and I also wanted the tcase solid mounted, but I wanted to allow a little bit of wiggle room to allow chassis flex. The best way to do this was to divorce mount the tcase, this completely removes the stress from the transmission case. Of course a divorce mount case doesnt help keep the drivetrain short so I needed the shortest shaft between the trans and tcase I could get. In order to make this tiny shaft I used the center out of a 1350 double cardan CV and pressed it together with a regular old 27spline slip yoke. As you can see it made for as short a driveshaft as possible.
You can also see my adapter plate/trans mount and the NP231 tailhousing in this pic.