I had 10 days to get my brand new WWII Jeep ready for a 900 mile trip from LA to Moab, Utah. There was only one problem: It had never driven a single mile under its power. Not one mile.
The stakes for this eBay WWII Jeep build were enormous. I had to figure out how to assemble a brand new, entire WWII Jeep in my backyard using parts ordered on eBay, or else The Autopian would fall flat on its biggest brand partnership ever. Falling flat was simply not an option.
And yet, just 10 days prior to the start of the trip, it seemed like more than an option: It seemed like an inevitability.
Breaking-In The Brand New WWII Jeep Engine
In the last update on this build, you read about how I had installed the brand new, Philippines-built body onto the also-brand-new, also-Philippines-built frame. Though you’d think the two would fit together like a puzzle, that proved to be far from the case. I had to do all sorts of drilling and bending and jerry-rigging, but the end result — while imperfect — looked decent.
The brand new WWII Jeep engine that I had assembled with my friends Brandon and Laurence had sputtered to life a few weeks prior, but it had never really run-run. I knew that, before I even thought about getting the Jeep onto the open road, I had to break this engine in.
The only issue was that the engine wasn’t really running properly. With some small jumper cables between the battery and ignition coil, and actual jumper cables between a 12-volt battery I’d borrowed from my Jeep Comanche and the WWII Jeep’s starter, I was able to get the Jeep to fire off, but any amount of throttle application yielded an instant engine cutoff.
I decided to bolt up a different carburetor — one that had been built by some folks in Ohio called Specialty Jeeps. I’ll write all about them in a future story, since eBay flew me to Ohio to visit them, but suffice it to say that they’ve rebuilt a Carter WO or two their day, so I popped that on my motor, and tried the jumper cable from that 12-volt battery one more time.
The Jeep fired to life, and then, with any application of the throttle, died.
I wish I could tell you exactly what I did to get the engine to rev a bit, but I honestly don’t remember. I got it to idle, and I did something with the choke and the throttle to raise the revs a bit. Why? Because in order to break in an older motor, it’s recommended that you rev the engine above 2,000 RPM for about 20 minutes.
The reason for the high revs (which I’m sure bothered my neighbors a bit) is that the camshaft on this old Jeep is splash lubricated, which is to say that the lobes are not fed pressurized oil through the oil galleys. The engine’s rotating assembly is actually slinging oil up onto the cam. And though I had squirted lots of assembly lube onto the lubes, eventually those lobes were about to be dry, and dry metal rubbing up against dry metal is a recipe for wear. Driven Racing Oils breaks mentions this in the company’s break-in guide:
You need to see oil pressure rise almost immediately…Once you have established oil pressure, bring the engine up to a fast idle, typically around 2,000 to 2,500 RPM. This is particularly important for engines with flat-tappet camshafts, as the higher RPM ensures adequate splash lubrication to the cam lobes and lifters. Listen intently for any unusual noises like knocking, ticking, or grinding. While the engine is running, have a helper look under the vehicle and around the engine bay for any leaks.
So that’s what I did. I hooked my timing light onto my number-one spark plug wire and onto the battery, and the screen began reading the engine speed. Somehow, I got the badly-running engine to about 2,000 RPM, and I held it there, gradually bouncing it between about 1,800 and 2,500.
This was extremely loud, but not because the Go-Devil motor is inherently noisy, or because the exhaust makes a racket (though it’s far from quiet); no, the reason the engine was so loud is that, when I did the break-in, I had yet to actually tighten the body to the frame, and I had yet to remove tools and other parts from the body tub.
Between that and the fact that I’m fairly sure the transmission was actually touching the tub, the loud buzzing and rattling was absolutely unbearable. I don’t know if that comes across in the video above, but from my spot behind the steering wheel, things were deafening.
I kept a close eye on the temperature gauge, which I had plugged into the cylinder head. I also had an oil pressure gauge tool plumbed directly into the engine block; it was reading an excellent 50 psi from the Rotella high(er) zinc break-in oil:
Nothing strange was happening during this 20 minute break-in other than: I was losing my hearing, there was tons of smoke coming from the exhaust pipe as the engine burned off all the oil I’d slathered onto the cylinder walls, and the engine did not run well at all.
With my hand on the accelerator pedal, I kept an eye on the tachometer, oil pressure gauge, and temperature gauge, and listened to a rather stumbly, unconfident Go-Devil bounce its revs around between 1800 and 2500 RPM. My pedal input was not yielding the reactions I was expecting, and sometimes the engine stumbled hard.
Still, I kept the revs roughly in the 2000 RPM range for 20 minutes straight, and then I shut the motor down and began preparing for a test drive.
The First Drive
I tightened the body to the frame, installed the brake and clutch pedals, and then got ready to hit the road. No, the Jeep wasn’t even almost complete, without headlights, taillights windshield glass, seats, dash gauges, a fuel tank, and on and on. But I didn’t care; I had to get this Jeep on the road in order to be able to assess its critical systems. I had only 10 days before I had to leave for the Moab Easter Jeep Safari, so I needed to know if the Jeep had any major issues with the motor, transmission, transfer case, axles, or suspension, and I needed to know that right now.
The truth is, even if I discovered a major problem on this test drive, I likely wasn’t going to have enough time to fix such a problem anyway, but if the problem were moderate, maybe I could? The bigger problem was the anxiety/impatience. I couldn’t stand not knowing if this Jeep stood a chance or not. I had to hit the road to see if I could find out.
I slipped the steering wheel onto the steering shaft splines and tightened the nut. Then, to give myself a place to sit, I placed a cat litter bucket inside the fuel tank sump:
I could place this bucket into the sump because I hadn’t yet installed the Willys’ fuel tank. This meant I had to use a jerry can to feed the carburetor that sweet, sweet gasoline-nectar. I sat the can onto the front driver’s side frame rail and bungie-corded it to the Jeep’s grille for simplicity:
I hotwired the Jeep with a jumper cable from the battery to the coil (and I attached a string that I ran to my transfer case level to act as a kill switch; I’d just pull the string, it would detach the battery from the coil, and the engine would shut off), and I cranked the starter with the 12-volt battery and jumper cables you see on the left side of the photo above. The engine sputtered to life! I sat on the rather uncomfortable litter bucket, depressed the clutch, shifted left and down into first, and let off the clutch.
SPUTTER SPUTTER SPUTTER
I quickly got back on the clutch, realizing that, for some reason, this engine just didn’t like load. So I feathered the clutch and managed to get this far out of my driveway:
In short order, I was sitting in a dead Jeep, and found myself rolling back into the driveway:
Great.
I grabbed the battery and jumpstarted the Jeep again. I closed the hood, jumped back onto the Tidy Cats bin, shifted into first, and allowed my left foot to do the most precise clutch-feathering humankind has ever witnessed.
The engine slowed down and wanted to die, but my foot wouldn’t let it. This motor was going to run, and, more importantly, it was going to propel my Jeep down the street. I wasn’t giving it a choice.
I drove one block, California-stopped at a stop sign, and then hit the accelerator pedal. SPUTTER SPUTTER SPUTTER, VROOM. The Jeep accelerated! It was slower than it had any right to be, but the Jeep was now doing about 10 mph. I clutched in, went to push the shifter up, right, and up again into second, and found: Something was up. For some reason, the T84 transmission I had rebuilt with the help of my friend Brandon wasn’t wanting to move from the first-reverse side over to the second-third side. The shifter was sticking when moved laterally — something likely having to do with the shifter-containing transmission cover I myself had installed.
Here you can see me struggling to get from first over to second:
But before I could get annoyed by the shifter, I found my feet on the pavement, pushing the world’s most iconic 4×4. I had stalled:
A kind pedestrian joined in to help:
I had to walk about a quarter mile back to my driveway to grab that battery that I had foolishly forgotten to throw into the back of the Jeep. Carrying that heavy thing a quarter mile was a good workout:
I hotwired/jumped the Jeep again.
I gently closed the hood, and tiptoed over to the driver’s bucket-seat, hoping not to upset the poorly running motor.
I then gently used my left foot to feather the Jeep back to my house, where a sense of doom began setting in. I had 10 days, and the Jeep neither ran properly nor shifted properly.
The optimist reminded me that the brakes worked, the steering felt tight, and the suspension was better than I expected. I just had to figure out that transmission and the engine, and then I had to install all the other parts that weren’t yet on the Jeep.
Then all I had to do was drive 900 miles.
And then spend a few days off-roading.
This should be easy, right?
We’re rooting for you, David!
This project is bringing back lots of memories of putting a new drivetrain and tub on my CJ-5 over 30 years ago. It wasn’t finished but my friends talked me into taking it 4 wheeling, in the middle of the winter. So there I was in a snowmobile suit, sitting on a milk crate driving it through the woods.
The misfire issue reminded me of my friends 48 Willy he rebuilt. The engine would idle ok but not rev up without misfiring and losing power. Us 3 engineers looking at it and can’t figure it out. Redneck neighbor did. We thought the distributor spun in the opposite direction and had the firing order and plug wires on wrong. It’s amazing it actually idled ok like that. Still laugh about that one…
Meanwhile, at the Tracy household, Jeep kitty stands impatiently by an empty litterbox, a magazine rolled up and tucked under his furry arm as the Jeep limps into the driveway. The angry cat looks up at David, “WELL IT’S ABOUT TIME.”
PSA: Protect your hearing now! Once you develop tinnitus you’ll regret ignoring this warning.
On the plus side, mine is fairly even in both ears, so I’ll often use it as a built-in white noise machine when going to sleep.
WHAT WAS THAT?!?!
Seriously, foam earplugs are cheap.
ALWAYS wear hearing protection. I do even when cutting the lawn. Damage/loss is cumulative and irreversible.
Or listening to loud music on headphones or even worse – in ear thingies.
For some reason a few years ago my left ear decided it was enough and overnight my hearing dropped from normal 100% (or perhaps 90%, but I didn’t know that) to about 20% and now it’s like 5%. My right ear is fine. If I put a finger in my right ear and someone is talking to me, or there is music playing, I have no idea what they’re saying or what is playing. It is that bad. And tinnitus. 24/7. Often it is louder than background noise. My right ear has also started to develop tinnitus, but at least I can hear everything else normal. But that won’t stay that way of course. For some reason I’m not going mad with the 24/7 white noise ringing in my left ear. But this is NOT GOOD. I repeat. NOT GOOD. If this progresses then I’ll be 95% deaf in both ears in about 5 years. Do understand how that is going to impact your life. Hearing devices might NOT help me, since somethingsomething hearing nerve seems to be impacted. I do not wish this to anyone.
Protect your damn ears. Don’t wear headphones too often, too long and too loud. Stay away from prolonged loud music and noise and that includes car engines/exhausts.
You’ll thank yourself eventually. Like everyone I like music. But also hearing people. It really sucks when you can’t hear music nor people anymore.
I’m sure we’ve all seen the videos of it making it to Moab, so we know how the story ends. But holy cow, the effort expended to get it there is amazing.
Somehow actually knowing the outcome does make this series a bit more bearable. For the last three articles my assumption would have been that he blows the deadline, completely misses going to Moab, and only eventually gets it running poorly for a little trail ride near his neighborhood.
Reading this and knowing that he pulls it off is pretty incredible.
DAT – David Always Triumphs
That’s our David: builds something with brand new parts, still manages to make it janky AF.
Don’t you go changin’…..
https://images-stag.jazelc.com/uploads/theautopian-m2en/901dc707-1434-4e97-ac91-9ad5d404a6d8.jpeg
The background – yikes.
It’s David’s old backyard from Michigan, inexorably manifesting itself in his California digs. Folks, you’re looking at ground zero where a new epidemic of Jeep parts, rust, and, eventually, rusty Jeep parts will invade the unsuspecting Golden State.
I guess the rumors of Michigan David’s demise were greatly exaggerated.
As I relook at that photo, the mess is obviously huge, but does David have an orange tree at his house?
Yeah. That might cause some, uh, domestic issues.
I only glanced through the article, but the talk of multiple cables makes me think you have a bad ground.
what does electricity have to do with a fuel system.
I had tad similar experience. I’ve spent last winter restoring my 1990 Honda Africa twin. Full resto, frame sandblasted and powedercoated, engine rebuilt as output shaft was buggered and had to get one made in machine shop. All new valves, seals, etc. Carb rebuilt with new membranes, all new rubber everywhere and panels painted with correct graphics and decals (this is still work in process, should be done in week or so).
Was about to go for 500km test drive two weeks a go friday, but gas pipe burst (it was broken inside protective sleeve) and puked about 1l of fuel into garage floor. Then new silicon hoses leaked like whatnot. But in saturday managed to get on trip and all was good. Was quite nervous :D.
David, If you’re going to use a kitty litter bucket, at least orient it correctly. The lid divider goes between your cheeks if you want a comfortable ride.
Forget everything else… you’re wearing Bayern Munich shorts???
Also, let me know if you need anything.
David is known for his questionable taste in a number of areas.
The real giveaway is David’s sandals-with-socks assembly.
New Autopian membership level? Tidy Cats level is honestly probably above RCL. A project like this can be much more expensive than buying a luxury car.
At least it doesn’t have electronic door handles.
David knows what his audience wants. Modern influencers prattle on about products after selling their souls to corporations, while David sets Sysaphian tasks for himself, desperately trying to achieve his impossible deadlines and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat at great personal cost. Influencers take note. We dont want to be entertained or informed. Humanity (and others) is a bloodthirsty, sadistic lot. We wanna watch David suffer. And boy, he does deliver.
top marks.
Oh boy, your “bucket seat” brings back memories! My first two-wheeler bicycle was a Schwinn 1976 commemorative edition in red, white, and blue with a banana seat. And a couple years later, after one too many Evil Knievel jumps (as one did as a ’70s Gen-X kid) I broke the seat off. While waiting for a new seat, I threw a pink plastic bucket my Mom had over the seat post – and became the only kid in the neighborhood with a bucket seat!
Props for rigging up a kill switch. 😉
I like to imagine what the german auto inspector for the minivan would say.
Probably a heart attack
Well with no rusty fasteners or structural steel, how else was a David Jeep supposed to throw him an 11th hour curveball?
I love the seat, but with my back, I need a little more support.
“Falling flat was simply not an option.”
To have that sense of optimism would be nice. As I have learned many times, failure is always an option. Not the one you want, but sometimes your best just isn’t good enough.
jimmy rockfish ???? very cool!
Yes we were able to catch the loud running motor. I’m no expert but you had a helper maybe a camera man. Why not have them in a support car or at least drive you and the battery back to the Jeep?
Delmar (not his real name) can’t drive yet.
No but the big gentleman in the video probably can
A buddy I work with is going out to Moab the week after next think this his is 3rd or 4th year in a row. I still need to get out at some point. I told him I thought you were going out around the same time so I told him if he sees a home built Willy to see if it is you and say hi.
Here we have a demonstration of the difference in safety procedures between David, a trained engineer who’s spent time at a major OEM; and Jason the self-professed “dipshit” with an Art History degree.
Notice that unlike Jason, when David was doing a proof-of-life drive with sketchy seating, the engine sipping from a gas can and lighting problems yet to be solved he did not have his son along filming him.
Let’s just ignore the fact that Delmar’s at the age where if handed a camera he’d try to put it in his mouth when making that comparison.
The lack of hearing protection (if only they made little things you could insert into your ear canals) and use of sandals say otherwise…saftey thurd!
Nothing untoward will ever happen!
Does it baby?
Completed, it’ll barely baby to 1940s standards which were “try not to let the kid fall out of the car.”
It’s a lot easier to make another kid than build another jeep. Just don’t be in a hurry for either.
Children are easily created by unskilled labor. Jeeps not-so-much.
There’s not even a written test, just a practical.
You really should be required to be certified first. Though I personally think anyone who wants the little monsters around is certifiable.
Rigth there with you!
Being an uncle beats the heck out of parenting.
I was definitely the “fun” uncle to my nephew. I also made it my mission in life when he was a kid to get him just as wound up on sugar and excitement and supply him with the loudest toys possible before I gave him back to my little brother. Oh yes, payback was mine. I got the kid a drum set for his 14th birthday…
Nephew just turned 28 – uncle is getting old.
any chance it’s something to do with the fuel pump or fuel pressure regulator?
I was going to ask if a WWII Jeep engine can run properly on modern 87-octane unleaded gasoline
Well the 87 octane part isn’t going to be a problem as it was designed for lower octane. The Ethanol part on the other hand is going to make the engine run a bit lean, however the stock main jetting on something that old was usually rich enough for it to come out OK running on E10.
Probably not the carb, might be FP but I’m thinking points gap, dirty points or bad coil. I forgot if he got his ignition advance dialed in.
It neither has nor needs a fuel pressure regulator so we can rule that out. Probably.
lol i know jackshit about cars running carbs.
The pump is designed to deliver fuel to the carburetor at only about four psig. This fills a small reservoir (the float bowl) inside the carb, thereby lifting a float which closes a valve, blocking additional fuel flow from the pump until the reservoir is drawn down, which drops the float and reopens the valve. It doesn’t take much to block the flow at these pressures and there’s no need to regulate the pressure any more precisely than what is inherent in the design of the pump. The pressure may fluctuate a bit with engine speed, in that the pump is engine-driven, but the carburetor doesn’t care.
What a delightfully primitive mechanism.
You have to think like a Jeep to build a Jeep
Sideways?