Isuzu SUV Forum banner

The Fat Lady 88trooper SAS & dual case build

61K views 286 replies 41 participants last post by  paulevans76 
#1 ·
copy and paste from my club site

well some of you may be wondering what im working on these days..
background, my family has always been die hard ford, and so have i. but i have always been in love with the first generation isuzu troopers. they are hard to find! but i found myself one; and i am officially the first in my family to own an import.
my friends girlfriend gave it the nick. the fat lady because she said it has a big ***, so it stuck

anyways, it is a 1988 isuzu trooper. got it for free.. long story short, it sat in a farmers field for three years, he couldnt start it the day i was comming to pick it up so he said to just get it out of his yard. re wired the fuel pump, new fuel filter, air filter, oil, plugs, wires, cap/rotor, rebuild the rear axle, new rotors, pads, callipers, some bulbs, and other odds and ends it runs and drives. daily! i have about $750 into it. unbeleivable right?
here is how it looked the day i picked it up


for those that dont know my last truck was stolen.




the money i get from it is going straight into the trooper. my original plans were SAS and 35's, but after seeing how it actually performed pretty well on may long stock with ****ty tires i am keeping it low key.
small lift, 31's lockers(aussie front, havent decided if i am going aussie the rear or weld it) manual hubs(autos keep popping out) bumpers, and some other odds and ends.
so far i besides my other work to get it on the road i have built my jack mount inside.
i ran out of pink spray bomb.


made my rear shackles. 6.5" long, netted me 2" of lift, balljoint flip on the front, and a T-bar crank.
plenty of room for 31's, depending on how much i get from my ford i might buy new 32's.
shackles are out of 1/4 flat bar with a 1x1 1/4 square stock brace.


here is how it looks as of tonight.


from the body line down is going to be black bed liner after i fix the little bit of rust on the rear passenger and cargo doors. the rest of the body is planned to be a matte cream color.

FFR: nearly EVERY bolt on this truck i touch gets replaced, espcially on high risk areas such as suspension. i have had a few break on me already and i do not want to risk my life or someone else's.
 
See less See more
7
#2 ·
this is what auto hubs do to your splines


no more ****ty popping auto hubs only working when they want to!


new tires 31x10.50x15



widened all the spaces on the middle lugs, and every second lug on the outside.
hopefully these chew pretty good
BEFORE:


AFTER:


my passenger rear window got busted out. . after my accident on i smashed a passenger door window. i am just not having any luck with windows.


got bored(like there isnt enough to do on my truck decided to add a little character to the body damage where the other car hit me.
 
#3 ·
first time doing fiberglass. dont think it turned out too bad. i mixed my resin pretty "hot" as kevin would say, i like it when things set up faster. makes it easier to work with.


then this


then made my fuel pump access cover. going to give it some treatment of bedliner too when i finish the front of the floor tomorrow. sorry, angle of the photo messes with your eyes. the tie down is towards the front seats, and the shiny stuff is bits of tin foil i havent bothered to take off yet. bedliner was still a bit tacky.


went with a 2" foam roller from wal-mart for a little less texture.
the spots that arent done you either cant see/arent that important, or they are covered by something.
also found some more rust on driver side i had to fix. not the prettiest job but oh well...
 
#4 ·
bumper: for some reason i think it looks better in person than photos



as i said.. its not finished. winch tray/one corner gusset


front view




better view of the whole bumper. still have some plating left to do.


washed up for the car show a few weekends ago. was set up with our club display
after the second ever wash.
then i realized why i dont wash it.. she is UGLY! lol



 
#6 ·
carnage so far is rear pass window, pass front window, drivers rocker, lots of other body damage on the passenger side(laid it over), bent rear bumper, front drivers cv shaft, few other things i cant remeber.

mods of the truck so far consist of lincoln rear, t-bar crank, rear shackles, cut 31's, front bumper, bed liner interior, custom exhaust, water proofed everything(do some deep water crossings), snorkle in progess, and lots of custom pinestriping.

stuff to come hopefully before winter, rear bumper, roof rack, small door ladder with gas can mount, cb, fix rust.

i bought a rust free parts trooper for $300 wth a blown head gasket but could be a cracked head, its an 88 with an auto. going to steal most of the doors off it, and the rear wheel arches. also taking the front cv's, seats, and a few other things.
plans are to rebuild the engine with a ecm upgrade, cam, header, decked/stepped/port/polish head.

i do all of my own work on my truck and build pretty much everything i can for it. i also have lots of friends that have, or acces to machines so engine work is not a problem for much of an expense but i would like to keep it simple.

as said before i gt the truck for free, scored some cheap, and free deals and as of right now i am into the truck $1832.85 canadian.
thats everything from parts(plugs, wires, oil, bearings, ect), to materials(wd-40, flap discs, welding wire. ect)

things are slow, i am 16, in grade 12, and working part time filling hours for my mechanics apprentice. i flip vehicals and have done about 15 in the last 2 years. my 3 biggest projects have been my trooper, my 1990 ford earlier in the thread(302 .30 over, built E4OD with stage 2 shift it, 3:55 posi rear, 2.5" exhaust, bunch of body work, and a $2000 stereo) and my 1977 f250(460 with dove-c head, np435, divorsed 205, 60's or rockwells, 39's) build can be seen here: http://www.s4wda.com/index.php?topic=1183.0

watch for progress :thumbright:
 
#8 ·
Man oh man! 16 and the skills you already have. Pretty incredible. Super job. Hope to see more pics in the future. Really enjoyed the story.

shooter
 
#10 ·
younggun said:
thanks guys.
thanks for the vote in isuzu of the month too!
No problem :)

I gotta show some love for the silver/blue LS ridin' on 31's
 
#11 ·
guess i should update this instead of my problem thread..




So far 2 bent valves for sure, one burnt out.
Exhaust on Cyl 1 doesnt open all the way or close.

Got it into work today and started working on it when I got shipped to another project. If I have a spare moment at work tommorrow it should be completely dissasembled hot tanked, glass bead blasted, checked for cracks and ready for machining next week; along with my upper, and lower intake.

Started having problems last thursday with it not wanting to idle. Did all the easy stuff like vaccume lines, cleaned+checked sensors, etc. I had three things left to subject, IAC, Air sensor, and Temp sensor. Air and temp tested fine, IAC seemed to be in working order(although I am replacing it for peace of mind) so I did a compression test.
Cyl #1 0PSI
Cyl #2 131PSI
Cyl #3 131PSI
Cyl #4 114PSI

The head has also been re-manned and is a #5 casting head, so I'm lucky. To my suprise the timing belt look extremely new. No cracks, gouges, nothing. I think I will leave it for now because I have another 2.6 in my parts trooper I want to rebuild with some goodies. This head will be going on it...

I know I'm long winded... but suck it up
 
#15 ·
younggun said:
upper/lower intake blasted.
going to polish the valve cover and clear the intakes.
head is ready for machining.
:shock: oooohhh.. pretty
 
#20 ·
bit of progress.
got in the garage last night around 11, worked till 2.
went for a nap back up at 6:00 and cruised to my unfinished work.
ran into a few problems, both of my lower BJ's wouldnt let loose. pounding, heat, pickle fork, nothing. so i ended up having to cut them out.
in my tired escapade i ended up putting my lower on upside down and messed with that for a while wondering why it wanst going on then it clicked.
waiting on brakes, will have the front end buttoned up today, then hopefully finish my engine on saturday then the truck is out of the shop. customer bringing me two sleds on sunday, then i have one on tuesday, and two more thursday. :zbanghead:


new beef vs. old noodle


also realized my new lowers dont have anywhere to enject grease. do i leave them or drill in a nipple?
both sides are done BTW
 
#21 ·
going in this weekend to auto doctor for an alignment and new upper control arm bushings.
great price of free...i like hook-ups. :headbang:
the head is now done, set my valves today. spec .008 took .007 to resurface it so we took off an extra 3thou so its "decked" .010.
that BAMF going on tommorrow. if i cant get my timing set i will do it at the shop this weekend.
pics.
better stance after the front end part(minus UCA bushings)
thanks to 1/4" BJ spacers

by the way, cant wait to start rust repair :jpshakehead:

tie rods stuffed under everything, and needs alignment. drivers UCA i could grab and wiggle back and fourth an inch or two. thats why it was leaned out, and now looks fine


head



the thing that sucks about tearing your truck apart to fix ****, is you find more broken ****.
pass hub is blown up so i have to steal one off my parts troop, and i am on my second drivers CV now. also comming from a parts troop :sad11:
 
#23 ·
thanks..

almost there...
just have to figure out where a few conections go, pick up some 8mm acorn lock nuts, and caps to plug where the pump went on my head, timing, and button everything else up.
i am going to do the timing in the shop at auto doctor this weekend because i cant get my balancer off nut, and i dont have a puller






if you know me.. well i just had to put pink somewhere on the truck


random connections anyone know where they go? i know the fin thing bolts on the bottom of the lower intake and plugs into one of them... i think.
help?

 
#24 ·
there was another thread recently that the guy was asking about those same three connections. I believe shooter had the answer. You might want to ask him :dontknow:
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top