Must have pics!!!

 

Like that is ever in doubt with me!!

 

your turbo man you should run the oil cooler , just flush it out.

i recently had to bypass my internal trans cooler that was plugged from converter failure's.

there is also a oil galley port on the front side of the block if you need an oil supply. at least on the lsx block is where we got the oil source on my truck. i have seen some spacer and vortech makes one where you can use a spacer on the oil cooler adapter on the block that just uses two gaskets , gives you a supply line and retains the factory cooler

 

I know that there are good reasons to revist running an oil cooler in the VERY near future, but for now I've decided to go away from the HD radiator I have for the following three reasons...

-It's probably full of contaminants from just sitting on my shelf for 9 months and because the last motor that I ran oil through it showed signs that the bearings were starting to go.

-It's super wide, wider than most meaning the ends don't leave much room for the elbow's to the I/C and the radiator pretty much blocks the Turbo inlet...no way I can fit anything on there.
-The custom coolant pipe that was made for the kit is about 3 inches too short from reaching the water pump, goes to about the throttle body.


So I'll run an external oil cooler at some point but just not right now.

 

Soooo...I got a new battery tray...

Got my truck towed to a buddy's shop. He builds cages and road racing cars, so he's pretty good with a mandrel bender! Anyways, we tried to figure something out that would stiffen up the rear frame between the hangers as well as provide me with a place to locate the battery. So this is how it came to be...

Started off by boxing in the location where the previous crossmember used to be...





Installed the first crossmember...



Followed by the second, you'll notice he welded cups onto the bottom of the frame rails, and welded the crossmember there. The cups are hollow so as to allow access to the bolts that secure the bumper in place...





And finished up by building a small battery tray...



Here's what it looks like with the bumper in place and a battery sitting in the tray...





I plan on running remote leads into the bumper so as to do an easy jump start if need be. Only drawback to this is that I'll have to pull the bumper off to swap out batteries. Ahh well...
I think that should do the trick for now. Now I can get to wiring this truck up proper and moving on to other things, hopefully.

 

That looks badass man. Nicely done.

 

wow, great fab work! looks really good! maybe you can come up with a quick disconnect for your bumper, so that its easier to get to your battery, or maybe fab up a hinge system or slide system for the bumper...

 

Not a bad idea Jared!

 

Lazy *** its only 4 bolts since you dont have a hitch

You and your buddy coming to SAR?

 

here, this is what i am thinking..



see the red pipe sticking from the bumper towards the box on the frame? you could do that like a quick release system, it slides in and secures with a cotter pin, sort of like the legs on an easy up tent, so that way if like you said you need to change your battery or do anything else, all you do is pop a couple of pins and slide the bumper out of the brackets. you could use small one inch diamter exhaust piping or something else, drill holes, then fab a bracket that it slides into and is secured by the pins