MEANWHILE IN QUEENSLAND

MEANWHILE IN QUEENSLAND DAISY IS PRONOUNCED DEAD!

BY GARY BIGGS

Camp Coffs 2021

Ok, so there was no trip leader's speeches this year at Camp Coffs, so I will do mine now.

Best Drive on Friday goes to Tim for his rear winch selfrecovery after slipping into a water erosion deeper than his car.

Best Drive Saturday on our extreme trip goes to Liam for his wheels in the air effort on Telegraph Spur. Dad did say to give it to it; or something to that effect. Big effort!

Best Drive Sunday on the combined Hard/Difficult trip goes to Glen for his hoodoo breaking drive out of “The Bowl” on Jeep Trail – after several years we finally got out of there without assistance or breakage. Great Job! Showed everybody how it’s done!

Best Drive on Monday goes to David for outdriving me on Army, driving the gnarly bit without winching. Yes, I resorted to the winch when the tranny temp got hot.

Special thanks to Eric, Mark and everybody else who pitched in and helped recover stuck Jeeps on our trips.

Thank you to Ben, Michael and everybody else at Jeep Action. Another great event.

Just my 20 cents’ worth - I don’t care about prizes but I do miss listening to all the adventures.

Daisy declared Dead

Idid not share the bad news with many people at Camp Coffs, because I was afraid that there might be reprisals from the custodians of FSJs for letting a Full Sized Jeep pass away. So the terrible news of the

Passing of my J10 Daisy was kept secret. Daisy has always been

“difficult” to get up in the morning, especially if it is cold! Two shots of primer with the throttle closed followed by a shot at full throttle and usually she would cough a bit and maybe go.

Usually another shot of primer would do the trick. Once she was going, she would be good all day. Lately she has been refusing to start during the day. She has been getting more and more cranky; and very difficult to live with, even after she has had a good talking to. After a very trying day with

Daisy, I decided to investigate her illness.

Getting out the compression gauge, Number 1 cylinder showed 120 psi – surprisingly good, I thought.

Number 2 was not so good; despite tapping the gauge several times the best it read was 10 …

Number 3 was twice as good. It made 20. The rest were around 100.

So I managed to coax Daisy home, but the next day she refused to go at all. Terminal illness was the verdict and Daisy was pronounced Dead!

The Daisy Dilemma – what to do with Daisy

The now deceased motor fitted to Daisy was never a horsepower haven.

It was a 351 Windsor from a Boat.

Yes, it was originally a motor from an OMC stern drive unit.

I am guessing that it saw long service in its marine role.

It had plenty of torques, Daisy never run out of pull when heavily loaded; but the cam in the motor was optimised for marine duty and ran out of pull at just over 3500 RPM.

This tended to limit Daisy’s top speed on the highway to around 90. Any more than 90 and you felt like you were flogging the motor.

This motor was not my choice; it was living in Daisy when she came to live with me.

Some people love the 351W because it can be stroked out to be almost a Big Block.

So option 1 became: rebuilding the Windsor. New heads to get some reasonable flow and a stroker kit to get some more cubes.

The cost of this was the problem for this option.

Option 2: A V8 which had become surplus to requirements from our BA Fairmont. The big 5.4 3 valve motor is physically huge. Would it fit into Daisy’s J10 engine bay? Next problem was the gearbox to use. Would Daisy’s C6 bolt up to the big 5.4 – is the bolt pattern the same?

If not, a search of the USA for the right 4x4 gearbox would have to happen.

Lastly, I would have to control the motor with an aftermarket computer. Not unlike the job I did on the Mongrel, but this time I would have to shift the gears and variable valve timing; not to mention the fly by wire throttle.

Sounds like a great challenge, but lots of learning and a big job. Not a quick fix.

Option 3: Rob the F150 which the Mongrel was seen dragging around the yard last magazine. This has a 460 Big Block. Similar to the one fitted to Eric’s J3000 you read about last time.