ronfam
New member
Ok, you guys are gonna wet yourselves. We picked up this LMC 1500 from a guy in Idaho who was perhaps not as honest about the shape of the engine as he could have been. Needless to say we had to put a new one in after the second outing, so we figured it was a good time to just re-do the whole cat.
We removed the cab from the chassis to allow easier access to the engine.
Sitting in the back of a 1500 is OK, but not awesome. So we added 20 inches to the cab space. This is enough room to make it comfy inside but not get too much weight on the back end of the chassis, which from experience hinders performance in deep snow.
As our original engine now had a whole in the side of it, we replaced the carbureted AMC 4.0 engine with a fuel injected, Stroked 4.7 AMC rebuilt by Summit Performance. It sounds so easy....
We put the cab back on:
We sound proofed the interior with two layers of dynamat and dynapad, put a seat from a Ford Transit van in the rear, and put a new cargo box on the back.
What can I say, this thing rocks now:
The DMC logo is not original, btw. I have a smart-Alec 13 year-old car buff for a son and he added that specifically for those of you who are familiar with the history of LMC.
Let me be very clear: I am not advocating anybody does this. It was a VERY LONG job, over two years. It cost a lot more than we expected. It produced the marital discord that all snowcat owners, I think, have come to expect. My mechanic hates me. My financial advisor thinks I am nuts. I know you guys are all saying “so, what’s the problem with that?” Cheers, Ron
We removed the cab from the chassis to allow easier access to the engine.
Sitting in the back of a 1500 is OK, but not awesome. So we added 20 inches to the cab space. This is enough room to make it comfy inside but not get too much weight on the back end of the chassis, which from experience hinders performance in deep snow.
As our original engine now had a whole in the side of it, we replaced the carbureted AMC 4.0 engine with a fuel injected, Stroked 4.7 AMC rebuilt by Summit Performance. It sounds so easy....
We put the cab back on:
We sound proofed the interior with two layers of dynamat and dynapad, put a seat from a Ford Transit van in the rear, and put a new cargo box on the back.
What can I say, this thing rocks now:
The DMC logo is not original, btw. I have a smart-Alec 13 year-old car buff for a son and he added that specifically for those of you who are familiar with the history of LMC.
Let me be very clear: I am not advocating anybody does this. It was a VERY LONG job, over two years. It cost a lot more than we expected. It produced the marital discord that all snowcat owners, I think, have come to expect. My mechanic hates me. My financial advisor thinks I am nuts. I know you guys are all saying “so, what’s the problem with that?” Cheers, Ron