06 H3's Squeakin H3 Build

[06 H3]

I hope so too. It is an old customer of mine. They are employee owned and good people. I’ll manage people for the first time, pay bump, all good stuff. It will be a challenge I’m sure and at times I may question, why didn’t I just ride it out at where I’m at but I’ve been frustrated for 3 years, essentially since my current employer bought out the company I worked for.

My current employer seems to just do the opposite of what the customer, consumer and market wants and then arrogantly thinks we are who we are, they have to buy from us….but market share and sales and the layoffs every 6 months dictate the opposite of what they think. It’s a sinking ship, and while my current boss has been nothing but the best, the big picture is a bad one.

I do not jump ship quickly. I try to be loyal. People in my age group have had a ton of employers, constantly jumping it seems. I have essentially had 2 employers. My college job, my post college job and I don’t count the buyout as a change in employer because they bought us, I didn’t change. So I have essentially had 2 employer’s in 15 years, including college jobs, I’d bet most my age are 4-7 employers by now.

 

[3Hummers]

Good luck with the new job Chris. I am sure you will do well.

 

[rascole]

Hopefully we'll se you and Squeaky next year. Or I just might have to pay for your services this summer to help with the LS swap.

 

[06 H3]

Time for a bump!

One last mod I did before starting the new job was flattening the track bar.

Roll center went from 28 to 32in

Track bar angle went from 12* at ride height to 2*

Track bar at full droop went from 23* at full droop to 13* at full droop.

It now goes over the upper link instead of below. I can also go back to the old setup if I need to (I doubt it) but I made it so it can still go in the old hole. My only concern is strength. It’s about 7.25in higher than before, lots of leverage!!!! I put 2 braces on it. One from a tube to the top of the mount and the other is a triangle that ties into the lower control arm mount and goes all the way up to the top of the mount.

On off camber stuff it was way sketchier when the driver side was the high side (making the track bar angle steeper) I have read same side track bars aren’t sketchy or jack if the track bar angles are flat. It certainly wasn’t but now it is

And my first day to work in the new DD.

 

[06 H3]

A few weeks in I got a company truck to use during work, to go to work and to go home from work, with that said, the Hummer is still a DD. The last company car didnt have logo's on it and we were able to use it for non-business related things and on weekends (a perk of that job.) This one is logo'd up and for work use only so I better behave while driving it. So yeah, the hummer is being used daily going to the gym, grocery store, etc.

Anyways, a few weeks into the new job I took the full doors off, slapped on the half doors and went wheeling. Here is probably the best pic I have for new track bar leverage testing. It didnt break. Woohoo. Time will tell but I think the bracing I added should hold.

This notch can be a bitch. The guy before me was in a 1st gen bronco on 37s a D44/9in and fell in the notch, it took winching back, wheel hi lifting up, and a rig above to winch him up like a helicopter....we could have just dragged him out but if we didn't do that he would have for sure broke a u joint or kill a ball joint, he was bound up bad.

 

[06 H3]

Went wheeling a couple weeks after that. I’ll give an update, but first, I’ll mention that I take a picture when I hit every 1000 mile mark. When I went through my phone the past few years I hit it every Sept/Oct. indicating 1000 miles a year since it’s always in Sept/oct. I’m 9 miles away to the next 1000 mile mark and it’s only May so I’m definitely way ahead of schedule now that I’m driving it daily.

Anyways, got a good ass kicking again today.

We ran this trail

https://www.motortrend.com/features/131-0704-owyhee-range-idaho-rock-crawling

Machine screw….last time I ran machine screw I didn’t finish it, my buddy in his Toyota on 1 tons and 43in stickies exploded his t case input shaft and we had to get him out on 0 wheel drive.

So, time to finish it. Admittedly, I winched 3 times, and it’s a short trail, so that’s a good ass whooping.

It was 3 rigs, me, a ZJ that’s backhalfed, cut up, pretty light weight for what it is, on 1 tons and 40s, then a Sami buggy that makes everything look easy.

The beginning was all pinchy tight stuff.

First climb I winch. I wish I had a picture of it from yesterday but here is the last time I ran it and where the Toyota broke

Anyways, the ZJ and Sami buggy have suck down winches and fully used them, I’m not convinced I would have gotten it with one but it would have definitely helped, for reference the Toyota in the pic has a 120in wheelbase. I need to make a change on my cooling setup. I never overheated with my current radiator setup, and a single trans cooler, but I recently added a 2nd trans cooler and a PS cooler in front of the rad and it’s blocking flow. Working it on that climb I got up to 256 coolant temps by the time I noticed it was knocking, I’d imagine the oil temp was 270-280+. So that poor engine got a beat on. So I will be moving the coolers to open up flow. At speed it’s fine and before the coolers it was fine but PS system get hot. I’ve been told 250-300* isn’t out of the norm….if that’s true I’m sure I’m blocking flow with a cooler that is heat soaking the fuck out of the radiator. Anyways, I was on the winch.

2nd climb (above) the Sami buggy got but had to work at it for a minute. The ZJ didn’t get it, he winched, and I was so damn close to getting it but my front end got light, I think a suck down would have helped here. You can see all 4 were climbing.

This was the 3rd winch spot, ZJ and Sami buggy got it.

I also noticed I was at 13.5psi. That probably didn’t help but I give myself the award “trail tampon of the day”

Other random pics.

In the end, I drover there at 65 mph, and drove it home at 65 mph.

Tire pressure is a noob mistake on my part.

I think a suckdown would have helped a ton, that is in the works. I have one but it isn’t complete yet, each iteration has failed but integration with my double ended ram will fix that once and for all.

Weight, I ditched some weight on the 2nd climb and I felt a difference. I think I need to look at putting the hummer on another diet.

It was one hell of a day and I have more to work on.

 

[06 H3]

went wheeling with my wife and daughter, easier rock trail and she did great! Then in July I was depressed about my lack of vacation time at the new job had me miss out on the rubicon trip I do annually so I had to get out of the house and stop feeling sorry for myself.

ran death wobble and lone pine. Lone pine I have done like 6 times and every damn time I run it I winch once or twice. I think I’ve gotten all the obstacles on the trail but on any given day, one of the obstacles will have me hook up on the winch so this was the first time I actually ran the entire trail clean. That felt great.

Typical full door to half door shuffle, did it Saturday night, wheeled Sunday, threw the full doors back on Sunday evening and was driving it to the gym in luxury at 5:30am on Monday.

We had lots of flops or near flops. The 2 Toyotas on 37s with us all ended up sideways at some point. This pic wasn’t bad. It was fully over a moment after that.

Random shot of me on the trail. Didn’t get much pics.

The main change I made is cooling. This thing was a champ at cooling, H3s are notorious for cooling issues, but mine hasn’t been that bad. I did UA 2017 in 115-120* heat and that week had rigs pulling over left and right overheating. I never had to, but a post back I talked about hitting 256 coolant temp. I think the giant PS cooler I added caused big heat soak issues. I removed that and mounted a smaller heat sink style one off the coilover mount. I also moved the dual trans coolers to the rear of the H3. Who knows if it’s enough to get the job done for steering or not. I know the old one was a big plate and fin overkill setup but many run these types.

I also wanted to ditch the trans coolers from heat soaking and mount them by the rear bumper under the rig.

I can confidently say coolant temps are much better now with fresh cool (still 90+ ambient) air. The heat soaking seems to be fixed. I also plan on adding an oil cooler.

An H3T friend said his 5.3 ran 200-220 oil temps and his 6.2 runs 220-240 oil temps.

I checked and sure enough I’ll run 230-240+ all day long on oil temps. I wonder if that hurts coolant temps too.

I’d like to mount the oil cooler there and I have a little 4in fan for it. I have trimming to do and cutting off an old suck down winch mount to drop its height.

Anyways, coolant temps are better. PS temps TBD, trans temps need some help. The fan pushing air on the trans cooler isn’t enough. My old trans setup literally couldn’t get hot. It was kickass, this setup holds its on when the TC is locked but can’t keep up when it’s unlocked. So I solved one issue and made another.

Anyways, I just want a 100% duty cycle, romp on it in 100+ and never get hot setup. I’m shocked I made it as long as I did with no PS cooler but going from 40s to 42-43s I’ve been killing pumps since. That’s kind of what started this snowball effect. Then I figured I need an oil cooler so I wanted to add that now

 

[06 H3]

Someone was talking about their windshield with a UA sticker on another forum and I posted on that thread about how it would be catastrophic if my windshield cracked due to my UA sticker....and sure enough, shortly after that, it cracked! Some asshole semi truck driver was barreling around a sweeping corner at 65 mph on a 2 lane road, I had just enough time to say to my passengers, wtf is this guy doing and right when I said that rocks fell off his semi and then 2 hit me at 65 mph coming the other direction 1 hit my windshield and and the other hit my passenger's arm with the half doors on. It cracked the glass so bad a piece of glass hit me in the face. It almost went completely through.

I am having my mom try to create some replica stickers and make them on her cricket (CAD for artsy women?) I asked Christian Hazel but he said he was out of them.

Other then that, the cooling changes for the coolant has been a significant improvement. Going up a grade in 90* heat, with the AC on, the hottest it got was 207*. Normal operating temp is 210* on the LS from what I understand. I am not sure what the highest acceptable temp is on an LS but before I would quickly spike over 210 on something similar to that. With that said, I still haven't installed the oil cooler and on that climb I hit 246* so I definitely need to install that.

The trans cooler holds it's own but isn't as good as what it was before with fresh flowing air through the grille. It has been a trade off, not more heat soaking the radiator and seeing coolant spikes but trans is warmer, I will mess with fans and get that setup better.

I did go wheeling with my brother and his wife and then we took our 2 sisters, our cousin from NY, and her boyfriend. It is always fun to take people who haven't been wheeling and see their reactions. My wife is way to pregnant to go wheeling right now so she stayed home.

Anyways, Trail 1 went well, and trail 2 was kind of a shit show. I am officially done with my steering setup and I am planning on changing my rear shock setup.

Overall, we had a good day, but like my lower control arm mounts on the frame, they hung up too much and change is necessary. I would like to outboard the coilover mounts for more stability and put them through the floor (minimally to keep storage room)

The steering failed, this kind of all started with going to a closer hole on the steering arm. I did this about a year and a half ago....before, the steering was slow, didn't pull angle, but had power. Now it pulls angle, is faster (box is 3.75 turn so its still too slow) and lost power. I was forcing the steering and actually popped a hose off the low pressure side, I always ran high pressure on both sides but when I replaced them for maintenance I was talked into push lock hose and it popped off, after I fixed that it then was leaking out of the adjustment screw which totally loosened up so I figure something internally is fucked. I was going to go with the setup this guy has on his WJ, normal ram assist with a double ended 2.5in ram but after this I want to go with a setup like 4500 race cars at KOH do. remote mount servo to a manual box. The xterra box I have is outside framerail, rearward facing pitman arm. I cant make the pitman arm longer due to crashing into the track bar mount so I plan to use the same closer hole on the steering arm to achieve the angle I am trying to pull. With that said, I need to speed it up from 3.75 turns to 2.5-3. a WJ is a delphi 600 box and is 2.5 turn I need to look at other options to see if I can switch the guts from one to another. I already have the 2.5in double ended ram. Now I just need to order the servo and figure out the box.

 

[06 H3]

So now to today. Cooling issues are 100x better. I can have the AC on pulling a grade in hot weather and it stays cool without the heat soaking.

I have parts….i just have to execute soon.

Remote mount servo.

WJ box I picked up from the junkyard.

I need to put the fast ratio guts of this box into an extra xterra box I have, then depower/free float the piston.

This is a double ended ram, one side is all the way out, other side all the way in. Not a single ended ram like regular ram assist.

I just need a pump, resi, then get to work! I am trying to do this with minimal downtime as I still have to drive it

 

[06 H3]

Windshield is replaced….

I pulled it myself to prove it can be done! 4-5 shops said no…I have to pull the whole cage. I got it out, luckily my now favorite windshield shop got it done.

 

[06 H3]

alright, I kept the Hummer going with its weak steering for about a month and a half because I wanted to keep it moving until the baby came home. My wife gave birth to our daughter last week and to keep the tradition alive of keeping the Hummer involved in all major life events I didn't want it under construction then. It still drives perfectly fine on road and has plenty of power steering in parking lots, it just lacks power offroad.....

Props to my wife for getting in and out of this tall POS after pushing out a baby lol I am glad I was able to bring home both my kids in the Hummer.

Anyways, since it's a quasi DD, I want to tear it down and the timing is now.

My wife got her mom mobile expedition max. We still have her old car that we plan to sell before the end of the year, so I have that as a DD and the F550 if I need it.

So, I am just waiting on the rest of the steering parts and then I will get to town on the Ultra 4500 style steering.

Small update but I need to start thinking about how I want to mount this double ended ram.

 

[cgalpha08]

Congrats chris!

 

[rascole]

Congrats, Chris, on the family expansion.

 

[H3Hummer]

Hooo , the little off-roader is already inside and ready to wheel , Congrats, Chris

 

[06 H3]

With our newborn and just life in general progress has been slow.

I spent weeks 1 hour here, 1 hour there…but it’s coming along.

I tried the ram closer to the axle tube, farther away, more offset from center, less offset, etc.

I finally found a home, it’s closer so it should get hit less but still hung low…so let’s make a pitman arm. Luckily the angle stayed the same so no change in bump steer but going heim gained me like 1/4in

Then I wanted more clearance…so I modified the ram mounts and trimmed them up.

Gained another 1/4in

Then the clevis’s most people use have added height to them which I am fighting so I made this to be low profile.

Now it sits higher then in the previous pic and have maximized every thing I could for clearance.

I still have to test fit a few more things then it’s ram mount welding and reinforcement.

 

[06 H3]

This will keep you busy for a few hours. Watch our rubicon trip with @Vdawg1115 in 2023. When shit hits the fan, we get to work.

First video is part 1, 2nd video is part 2, the recovery part of the rubicon.

3rd video is a build walk around of my h3.

 

[06 H3]

I got the steering mount all done, it has the main plate, then a plate from the bottom of the axle tube to meet at the front of the main plate so it is 1/2in thick there, then the top hat which will transfer a hit to the axle tube vs bending upwards.

Ignore the stacked misalignments and nuts, I need to build spacers for the tie rods.

Then I started tearing into the steering box, what I do not like about the Xterra box is that it is slow steering (about 3.75 turns lock to lock where a stock H3 rack is about 3) I think the SAS is better in every way but the one critique would be the steering. I took WJ box internals (2.75 turn) and put it in the Xterra box, depowered the piston by welding the torsion bar to the input. The box is back together, now I just have to mount the servo and install the pump/resi.