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Adventr 2009 Championship Build

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adventr

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500
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United States
Went with a friend and ran some trails/backroads today. Got to test everything out, and it all worked as it should.
We've had record rainfall lately, so it was a soggy mess. Had to turn around a couple times due to the roads being flooded, but it was still fun.


Learned a few things today:

- 4:1 transfer case is REALLY low. BUT, with it in low, the H3 will idle up anything in it's path.

- This rig wheels more like a Razr than a crawler. Feels very light and nimble, 98% of the trails were ran in 4hi-unlocked, and it just blasts right through (much different than what I'm used to wheeling)

- Suspension setup is almost exactly where I want it to be. Not sure that I'll change anything else honestly. Very tight and controlled, and feels like it just wants to go faster through the rough sections. May find a way to adapt 5160 shocks in the rear as well. Front 5160s were a very nice upgrade (quite a bit firmer than the 5100s).

- The OEM mudguards that I added are very durable. Few of the steep drops had the rears bent back up against the bumper, and they returned to place like nothing had ever happened.





Friend that went with me has a LX450 (Landcruiser), which is what I'm used to wheeling in these areas. Was impressed with the H3.


Here's a vid from one of the creek bed trails, where there was a small waterfall (though it seemed much larger in person than it does in the video... LOL)



[video]https://youtu.be/uYloDLYjfVU[/video]






And some random pics from today. Not many from the trails, as it was just us two out tooling around.




























Even with the snorkels, this was a little much to try and cross. LOL











 
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adventr

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Messages
500
Location
United States
Been pretty quiet on here, but have been working in the background.


Had some time to work on my roof rack design. Trying to keep it low profile, and light weight. Using aluminum extrusions for the floor cross bars. So far, total weight including all of the lights is under 75lbs. Pretty happy with that number!


I may end up ditching those lightforce 240s (9") for a set of 7.5" HID lights I have sitting in my garage. Then I can lower that top hoop some more.
Rack height is 4.25" currently.




Pics:













 
J

JPaul

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2,436
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Way up north, UT
Where did you get the source file for the Hummer H3 design? That'd be pretty nice to be able to use it myself for custom fabricating parts, instead of trying to get every single measurement exactly right.
 
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adventr

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Messages
500
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United States
Yes, those are screen grabs from Solidworks.
However, you won't find these models floating around anywhere. They came directly from GM, and it's quite a lengthy/expensive process to get approved by OEMs as aftermarket manufacturers and get access to their CAD data. I do a lot of aftermarket part design for brand new vehicles, so that's why I have access.
Also, I was recently told that GM purged all of their Hummer data a while back..
 
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HummeRunner

Member
Messages
18
Location
CA
Interesting build. Your ride looks amazing. Im still stuck with the stock. reading this build thread gave me some knowledge about the technical stiff. The roof rack design is superb too. :thumbs:
 
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adventr

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Messages
500
Location
United States
Haven't updated this in quite a while, so here it goes.





Got in a set of these, to install in place of my foglights with some new bolt-in brackets that I've designed:











Also decided I wanted to do a custom exhaust setup using a Black Widow muffler.














First version, used dual 2.5" pipes to run out the back, with a turn down on each one just under the rear bumper.







It worked pretty well, but was very quiet with 4 cats in place......

So I went back and had the rear two cats deleted. They aren't monitored by the PCM, so no problems with codes or anything like that. The front 2 converters are still in place.


Sound was pretty aggressive. Had good tone, but just sounded a bit "airy" with those 2.5" duals.


Video clip here: https://youtu.be/XMQSeXcqUDI






Here are a few pics I took right after shooting that video:



















Then decided that I wanted to decrease the size of the exhaust piping, redo the Y pipe, and replace the turn-downs with some nice stainless exhaust tips. Just had that done today, and it's now exactly how I want it.
More pics and video of that to come later.





 
amrg

amrg

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adventr said:
Haven't updated this in quite a while, so here it goes.





Got in a set of these, to install in place of my foglights with some new bolt-in brackets that I've designed:



Click to expand...

Those look nice. What brand and how do those brackets look like?
 
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adventr

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500
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United States
Also, looks like I'm going to be doing a cam swap pretty soon.

Going with the Stg2 drop-in cam from Cam Motion. Gains of +45whp and +25wtq make it a no-brainer. It's a mild cam that will work well for my setup. I'll update on that when the time comes.
 
Ghostbuster

Ghostbuster

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862
Location
United States
Are you going to replace any other internal engine parts like lifters and springs while you've got it open? Are you going to dyno tune it after the cam install or just use the handheld tuner?
 
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adventr

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Messages
500
Location
United States
Ghostbuster said:
Are you going to replace any other internal engine parts like lifters and springs while you've got it open? Are you going to dyno tune it after the cam install or just use the handheld tuner?
Click to expand...



Valve springs will be replaced with LS6 style, so they will be good up to like 0.600" lift. This cam is pretty small @ 0.520" lift, so no problems there.
Pushrods and lifters aren't needed with this small of a cam. I wouldn't mind replacing lifters with LS7 style just because, BUT.... you have to pull the heads to replace lifts, and that adds quite a bit of work.

It will be tuned with HP Tuners. I've actually already ordered HP Tuners, so my Superchips handheld is up for sale locally right now.
Going to add an electric fan in front of the radiator and program the PCM to use it whenever the A/C is on. Pretty neat that you can do all of that stuff with HP Tuners.

As for the actual engine tuning, I've got a guy that will be doing that. I don't know enough to be messing around with that. LOL
 
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adventr

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Messages
500
Location
United States
Honestly couldn't tell you. I'd never even been around a H3 with the I5 until yesterday. A member from this forum stopped by our shop to discuss some v8 swap options, and I got to check his out.

So far, everyone that's heard the muffler on mine loves it. Has a really cool tone to it that's not like your typical flowmaster or magnaflow.
 
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