Merrill's 4G64 DOHC.

[Merrill]

Wowsers.... haven't updated here in a bit. Mods have never stopped since the last update. It's been getting pretty fun actually.

pretty sure this is a 2 post update... Here is what I have to show.

I guess I can start with the front end. I did order up the 93+ bits for it. The grille arrived quickly (as expected), but I ordered the bumper at the same time from the same warehouse, but it took 2 weeks to get here. They kept messing around with shipping while providing about a dozen excuses why it didn't show. While it did delay my build schedule a bit, I did still manage to get it installed.

I had a few scouts looking all over the country for factory 93+ MM brackets, but no luck. I ended up fabricating all the brackets anyway because I could not wait any longer to get the front end on. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to snap any pics of the brackets, but they were really simple. I had them done in a day with some flat stock and rivnuts.... really simple. The truck is now off at the body shop getting banged out and painted, so I will try to remember to get pics of the brackets once the truck comes back.

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There are a couple things I simply cant stand about the front end on this chassis. I really don't like seeing the suspension in the center cut out at the bottom. It looks kinda tacky. I was searching for something to use for a lip, or maybe a cover up solution, but I didn't find anything I liked. I still have some time to figure it out. If anyone has suggestions, I'm all ears, but please spare the Home Depot mods.... edge trim and foam garage door seals are NOT my style.


I have had tons of followers between the two forums, and all the locals between LV and SoCal. Since I really dig all the cheers and thumbs-up compliments from people driving by, I decided to give them a little something to keep up with the progress.

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Aside from keeping the locals informed, it also serves as more motivation for me. I really REALLY want to hurry up and slap all the "DONE" stickers on

In addition to the front end, I managed to toss my "top 3" gauges in. Top 3 (in the racing world) usually refers to the gauges you want to see the most in your peripheral view. They are typically important gauges that set off all kinds of alarms and tell you, the driver, something is up. My typical top 3 are Boost, Wideband, and EGT.

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All 3 gauges are Prosport Digital series which show both the digital number, as well as a LED sweep. The LED sweep is great for a peripheral reference. I fell in love with this Wideband.... It starts reading in about 20-30 seconds after start-up, it uses a 5 wire 02, has analog output (as most good models do), and matches my other two. It is also programmable which makes fitting to the truck system easy.

So I upgraded my phone recently and it included a free tablet. I grabbed the LG GPad 8.3. It's pretty nice (surprisingly) since I'm a Samsung user.


Either way, I didn't grab it for professional reasons. I already have a tablet I never use because my phone pretty much takes care of all the in between stuff. So instead of carrying around a tablet all day for no reason, I have a better use for it - my digital dash.

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The 4G64 DOHC I am building is an Evo variant - not a DSM. Trying to convert a mostly mechanical cluster (with nothing on it), to a digital cluster (that never existed in a MM), is going to be a pain. On the same token, all the new retro fitted stuff (engine, ECU, etc.) just doesn't match a 23 year old dash and cluster..... This will blend it all together nicely once the swap is complete.

To finish this update, I finally changed out the crappy blue edge trim in the door opening. It's a small mod that will probably never be noticed, but I'm fine with that.

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You sure noticed that crap when it was blue, I'll tell you that much