Daewoo Musso Modifications
1. Lift
Althought the car has a ground clearence of around 20 cm, I would like it to be a bit taller. Some bigger tires will be needed for that, and in order to fit larger tires, you need a lift. So I started looking around for a way to lift the truck.
Through another radio amateur and Musso owner from Argentina, I located a company, which produces stronger coil springs for the rear axle of the Musso. It is called Aniceto Gomez. I got the rear coils from them, total cost landed in Athens 80 US$. When I installed the springs in the Musso, the total lift at the rear was 5 cm. The front torsion bars were thus adjusted to provided a similar lift at the front. Since I prefer the Musso not to lean forward, I made sure that the front was lifted a bit more, so now the Musso stands level.
The behaviour of the car with only the spring changes, was ... unacceptable (to put it mildly). The car was jumping around like a goat! It was apparent that the spring rates did not match the absorbing ability of the standard shock absorbers. So, the obvious thing was to change the shock absorbers too. I would rather go with Rancho 9000, but Rancho's local distributor didn't have the proper part numbers for my truck. As a result, a set of Bilsteins was installed. You would not believe the difference this change made! The Musso is now a different car, much tighter than before, it allows you to corner with more stability and confidence.
As a final touch, Daewoo Greece imported for me a set of "Heavy Duty" torsion bars, which allowed me to lift the Musso, without tightening the original torsion bars too much. The new bars are about 20-30% stiffer than the original so you can have the same lift as with the existing bars, but with only 3/4 of the tightening, which is good for the durability of those bars.
Finally a couple of 50mmx50mmx15mm iron blocks were welded at the bump stops of the front suspension, to limit its upward travel, since the torsion bars can be broken if overtwisted (this applies only when the standard torsion bars are retained).
One final word of caution: If you do lift your Musso in this way, just make sure your suspension is still working properly. When I installed the heavy duty torsion bars at the front, I adjusted the truck's height at +7 cm at the front (5 cm to match the lift of the rear coils, and another 2 cm to make the car sit level, instead of leaning forward). This proved to be too much, as the upper bump stops were touching the upper A-arm, not allowing any downward travel of the front wheels. I'll try and see if I can get a set of lower bump stops, or if I can trim the standard ones a bit, but for the moment, I had to reduce the front height a bit, to correct the situation. Also, make absolutely sure that you have a full alignment performed, afterwards.
As you see, the wheel wells are now quite tall, compared to the tire. I am sure that 31x10.5R15 should fit fine, and this is going to be the next update to the Musso. Oh, yes, that will give me the excuse to change the diff ratios to 4.88:1 and add the ARB Air Lockers at the same time!!!
2. Tires
A company which has significant know-how in modifying Mussos, is the Iceland distributor of Daewoo, Benni. These people are producing some of the wildest Mussos I've seen, check them out below.
I would love to have that 35 or 38 set of tires under my truck too, but I guess 33" are a more sensible option. Also, note the nice undercarriage protection in the pictures at right. This Icelandic site however is in ... Icelandic and no matter how hard I tried to translate the description of those cars, it does not come up pretty. Needless to say I have already e-mailed the company to find out how I can get those plastic fender flares for my Musso.
I am ready to order the plastic fenders from Benni's in Iceland, together with their 5 cm (2") body lift kit. This would allow me to install 33" Mud Terrains! Oh, boy, I can hardly wait!
Another picture of a Benni modified Musso with 33" tires.
So far, I've been unable to find a shop here in Greece, who are willing to do the modifications required to do this project. One shop agreed to do the lift job (a 5cm body lift), but so far, none has agreed to do the fender triming and installation of the new fender flares. I guess that my next alternative is to drive my Musso to ... Iceland. In the mean time, my Mud-Terrains have started showing signs of ... fatigue, with a couple of spots where the rubber has been totally removed from their sidewall (small spots!). I need to change them soon. The time has come for 31"s.
Update on biggger tires etc. January 2002
As I told you above, the 33" are not in the immediate plans, due to the extend of the modifications required and the associated cost. As a result, I've settled for 31" and this is what the Musso will wear from now on. A friend of mine had a set of almost new 31x10.5R15 BF Goodrich All Terrain KO tires that he didn't need, and which he gave me. I had them installed on the original iron wheels which came with the car, to see how well they fit. The only apparent problem is that on full lock, the tires rub on the antiroll bar a little. So, as soon as I can afford it, I'll order a new set of 31x10.5R15 Mud Terrains, to use off-road, while I'll keep the All Terrains for the summer, street usage. Check the pictures below, to see how nice the Musso looks with the 31s.
With these tires, the Musso's rear differential is now almost 23 cm from the ground.
Update on tires etc. June 2002
During a recent drive, Lena had a slight misfortune, which destroyed one of the All Terrains. This gave me the excuse I needed to change the tires to my favorite BFGoodrich Mud Terrains, in 31x10.5R15. These are the new Mud Terrains, called Mud Terrain T/A KM, which are slightly different than the previous ones in several areas. See below the pictures:
The tire pattern is more aggressive towards the edge. First of all, the lugs of the tire extend more towards its sides, thus offering improved traction and steering response. These additional lugs are called DiggerLugz™ by Goodrich. Also, a new rim protector provides improved wheel and tire protection, especially during aired-down situations.
If I was happy with the old Mud Terrains, I am sure I'll love those babies.
The tires were purchased from a local tire shop, named "Biliris". The owner, Apostolis, is a very friendly and knowledgeable person, with years of experience in 4x4s. They were installed on my Daewoo 7x15 aluminum wheels and expertly balanced to the gram. Attention to details was more than adequate, and I enjoyed the personal service and courtesy.
3. Air Filter
Another issue, is that in Greece (and for the kind of four wheeling we normally do here), the dirt roads are very dusty, this dust being very thin, cloud-like. I am not very sure how well all those improved air filters react to such conditions. I would therefore suggest that for 4x4s, you leave the OEM air filter as is.
Final Update on Air Filter
As explained above, there was not particular improvement with either the J&R or the K&N filters, plus the air filter was exposed to water, much more than with the original setup. As a result, I finally decided and paid the 100 US$ that Daewoo wanted for a new air box and now I am back to the original configuration. At least the original air filter box offers more than adequate protection from water, so I can cross rivers without worrying about my air filter getting all wet.
4. Winch
Update on winch (January 2001)
During a trip to USA, I purchased my winch, a Ramsey REP 8000 for 499 US$. The roller fairlead though was not available, so it was on back order for about three weeks. It has finally been delivered, and it is now being shipped to Greece. A local shop has been contacted to install it, as soon as the fairlead is here.
Second Update on winch (March 2001)
Third update on winch (December 2001)
Being stupid enough to wheel with the winch cable in place, caused one of the winch plug pins to broke. So I now have to replace the plug. As an alternative method of activating the winch, I was thinking to design and make a new control mechanism, which will allow me to winch from inside the car. Stay tuned for more info.
Fourth update on winch (April 2002)
Fifth update on winch (April 2002)
5. ARB Air Lockers
During a recent drive in some muddy terrain aroung Athens, the luck of a locking differential was apparent. I tried to climb on some ledges, nothing severe, I had climbed steeper ones in the past, but under dry conditions. Due to the rain, the ledges were very soft, thus allowing the non-loaded wheels of the truck to spin hopelessly. I guess that ARB will eventually get an order for a set of lockers, no matter what Daewoo Greece say! I didn't purchase this rig to drive on paved roads, and without the lockers the car is only half as good as it can be.
Update on lockers No 2 (February 2001)
During a trip to USA, I made the first step towards the lockers :-) . I purchased the ARB compressor and the their inflation accessory (a kit which allows you to use the compressor to inflate your tires). I have installed it in the car, where the normal air filter box was. Fitting everything together took me some time. The T-adapter which ARB ships with the kit, didn't properly fit in the hole designed for it. I had to purchase some special tool and another T-adapter, in order to fit the pressure switch and the air hose adapter on the compressor. It was nice to hear the sound of the compressor, when I first started it! I tested a bit to make sure that the pressure switch works and I left it sitting there. The switch was installed in the place of the coin slots on the center console (the coin slots didn't fit the Greek coins anyway), and I've created a plastic base (not shown), where the lockers switches will go, when I'll get them. The device you see in front of the switch, is the Kenwood 732 VHF/UHF radio, an excellent tool when you are out in the mountains, to get in touch with other radio amateurs. When I ordered the compressor, I also got the "inflation kit", which includes a T-adapter that you fit on the compressor, and an air hose clump, on which a rubber air hose can be attached. Click here to see how everything fits together. With that, you have a very nice air supply in the truck, which allows you not only to operate the Air Lockers, but also to inflate the tires when the need arises. Click here to see my son doing the hard work.
6. ABS bypass switch
7. Axle vents relocated
The axle vents on my truck were only a short height above the axles themselves. We all know that these vents are not safe, so it is quite possible that while doing some water crossing, water could leak in the axles from those vents. The vents had to be relocated. A visit to the local hardware store and 10 US$ was all it took as far as materials were concerned. A couple of hours of work, were necessary to extend the axle vents from their vulnerable location to a much safer place under the truck's hood. See the pictures below:
Now, I am sure that water will stay out of my axles, as long as the seals at their edges are doing their part.
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In order to restore the cars front wheel alignment, the front upper ball joints have to be removed from their location and installed below the upper A-arm (instead of above it, which is the original position). This is easily accomplished by removing the four bolts that hold the ball joint on the A-arm and the nut which holds the ball joint on the wheel hub. Move the ball joint below the A-arm, reinstall the bolts and the nut and you are done. Have the front wheels aligned and you are ready.
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Click on the picture at left to see a comparison of the lifted Musso (the silver one on the right) and a standard one (the blue one on the left of the picture). If you click on the picture on the right, you will see two pictures comparing the pre- and post-lift vehicle (a new window will open, close it to return here). A side-effect though, is the fact that the truck is now riding a little harder when off-road. The stiffer spinging is to be blamed for that. However, the shocks are keeping everything under control, so I guess I shouldn't complain. The wheel wells are now opened quite a lot, and I can install taller tires. My estimate is that 31x10.5R15 might fit, giving me a 2cm larger distance between the ground and the bottom of the diffs, but they might be a tight fit, length-wise in those wheel wells. The 33x9.5R15, which I would love to have, would add 4.7cm between the diff and the ground, but they cannot fit without trimming the fenders. And since the Musso is full with plastic fenders, rocker panels etc., it is very difficult to do it, unless you remove them all and replace some of them with third-party fenders. I am not sure it deserves the trouble, since there are no specially-made fenders for the car.
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The car came with AP tires (all purpose), which were changed in September 2000 with BFGoodrich Mud Terrains in 235/75-15 size. Tiny by the American standards, where 44" are the target of every diehard 4wheeler, they comply with the Greek laws, being the same size as the OEM equipment and do not require any fender trimming. In at least two drives in the dirt, they have proved to be excellent. My target is to fit 31" under the beast, and I believe that with the lift (see below) this is possible. This will have to wait a bit. Some notes here, the car is equipped with a series of plastic fender flares. Also the front and rear bumpers are covered with plastic. These plastic parts severely limit the tire wells opening, so if you want to fit anything bigger than the 31s, you need to do some serious trimming of the fender flares.
Musso with 33" tires
Musso with 38" tires
Musso with 35" tires
Musso with ... 44" tires
Update on tires
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After a lot of experimentation with the air filter, changing three free-flow filters from J&R and K&N, I have come to the following conclusion. The difference they offer in engine performance is so minimal, they are not worth the price, for a 4x4 in Greece. I'll explain what I mean:
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First of all, if you are going to install such a thing, please make sure that it is installed in such a way, so that it breaths fresh air. If all it can breath in, is hot underhood air, you are not doing your best. The cooler the air that reaches the engine, the better performance you will get. In Greece, where summer temperatures sometimes reach 40 degrees Celcius in the shade, this can create problems. Unfortunately, the way the underhood area is arranged in the Musso, does not allow you to do that, unless you create your own pipe connecting the filter to the throttle body. Have a look at the picture at right, you will see that the OEM air pipe is crossing the engine, right above the cylinder head. That means that whatever you do, if you keep this OEM pipe, the air sucked in by your air filter, will be warmed when crossing that pipe. The only solution to this problem, is to manufacture your own stainless steel pipe (with special fittings for the Air Temperature Sensor), which will allow you to mount the air filter on the driver's side, as close to the grill as possible. Too much effort, as far as I am concerned, given that throttle body intake is facing upwards, so whatever pipe you create, it should have that (very difficult to fabricate) turn, shown in the picture.
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Since I was stupid enough to destroy the OEM filter box, I am now obliged to use a replacement filter (Daewoo wants about 100 US$ for a new OEM filter box). After destroying a J&R filter (I wanted to wash the engine, so I covered the filter with a plastic bag. Have you seen what happens when you start your car, with the air filter completely enclosed in a plastic bag? Not a nice sight, the air filter gets sucked in itself!), I have settled for a K&N filter, connected to the Air Mass Sensor with a silicon tube. The filter area is separated from the rest of the engine area, by a stainless steel thing I fabricated, trying to keep heat away from the air filter. I also covered the silicon tube, with self-adhesive aluminum tape, for the same reason, keep heat away. Performance-wise, I am not sure if the car has gained anything or not, so I tried to help the engine, by modifying its computer parameters with the device listed below.
Well, here goes another dream. Unichip is an add-on computer you can use, to modify the operating parameters of your engine. It attaches to the standard computer of your car, and allows changing of the fuel-to-air ratio and the advance in the whole range of RPMs. Nice idea! So, I had the Unichip installed on the Musso, and although the results were spectacular (increase of 15 bhp at 5500 RPMs, at least plus two Kgm of torque way down, around 2500 RPMs) the unit was finally removed from the truck. The reason? Well, with Unichip on the Musso, there was a very strange, intermittent RPM drop of around 500 RPMs, when the truck was driven between 1500 and 3000 RPMs, at partial throat. This interruption was not noticable when accelerating, only as you were driving, flowing with the traffic, at that RPM range, and you were using the throttle to slow down or accelerate a bit. You could actually see the tachometer drop by almost 500 RPMs, in one sudden step and of course you could certainly feel it, even my wife -who knows nothing about engines etc could feel it (and complained for my driving). No matter what the Unichip local engineer tried, no matter what the manufacturer suggested, there was absolutely no cure. I even had an accurate, instant-reaction voltmeter installed to make sure it was not a DC power problem. Nope. It looks as if there was some sort of interference, coming probably from the Crankshaft Position Sensor, that was creating the hickup. We even used a shielded cable with which to connect the Unichip to the Musso computer, I even added ferite beads on this cable, a solution used by radio amateurs to reduce RF interference, nothing.
The fact that the Musso has two more computers, in addition to the standard engine management one, (I think one of them is for the 4x4 operation, I am not sure what the other is), has something to do with this problem. So the Unichip was removed, and the Musso's engine is stock again. For those interested in the details, the Unichip installation is very straightforward for the Musso computer.
Two wires from the Crankshaft Position Sensor, one wire from the Throttle Position Sensor, +12 Volts, Ground and two wires for the mixture (useless in this case). During the tests, it was shown that the engine gained absolutely nothing from mixture adjustements, these seem to be spot on, or even a tiny bit rich (a slight reduction of the mixture was producing some increase in performance). The real gain was taken from the advance, where the Mercedes (or Ssang Yong, or Daewoo) settings are quite pessimistic. You could see a significant benefit, as the engineer was slightly increasing the advance, at the whole RPM range, and that increase was even noticable, as you were driving the truck. If only it was not for that stupid hickup! The local Unichip dealer was quite helpful, they went to the extremes trying to make the damn thing work, so were the manufacturer, with whom we exchanged several e-mails, but unfortunatelly they could just not cure the problem. Pity, because those raised power and torque curves shown at the dyno's measurements, would be extremely nice to have.
Living in a country where laws are usually irrational, I am not allowed to install a winch! Believe it or not, the Greek laws does not allow you to install a winch, unless your car has a truck registration! However, I have found a shop, which can undertake the installation of the winch, behind the front bumber, so that nothing protrudes in front of the car. Even the fairlead is within the car's existing length. As soon as I can convince my better half, for the need of this expenditure.......
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Guess what? The Musso is finally equipped with a winch. Behind its front bumper, rests a Ramsey REP 8000, which should be more than capable to extract me from any unfortunate situation. The installation was done by "4x4 Club and Accessories", in Athens. These guys did an admirable job, in manufacturing the whole base, on which the winch was installed, and in integrating it with the truck's bumper. They have gone to the extend of saving pieces of the original plastic part of the bumber, and reshape them, in such a way that, only the area where the roller fairlead is, will be missing. This work is not shown on the pictures, as it has not been completed yet. I am not sure it is worth doing it, so please do not hold your breath to see it done.
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Well, after a long waiting time for the parts to arrive, I sat down and changed the winch plug with a new one. While I was at it, and since I had already a remote control cable, with a damaged switch, I took advantage of it to install an inside-the-cabin control mechanism. The mechanism uses two relays to control forward and reverse winch movement, and an electric windows switch. It connects to the same points inside the solenoids box as the standard remote control wire switch. Here, you can find a schematic diagram.
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I recently discovered a problem with the Ramsey setup. Doing some thinking over why the truck blew its main 80 A fuse (see the description of the Off-road trip at St. Thomas) I understood the followings:
Conclusion : The solenoids box has to be relocated to a safer position, preferably one which protects it from shorting. The only problem is that new cables need to be made. Ramsey told me that I should use 6 gauge wires. Another knowledgeable person suggested 50 quadrant cable, and a Ramsey dealer suggested #2 welding cables. Also, Ramsey told me that I can reverse their cables, in other words that I can use the cables Ramsey provides to connect the solenoids to the battery, to connect the solenoids to the winch, and the cables that Ramsey provides to connect the solenoids to the winch, to use them to connect the solenoids to the battery (I can position the solenoids close to the battery). However, they also clarified, that if any damage occurs Ramsey is not responsible! Anyhow, a local shop told me that they can provide me with the necessary cables and do the relocation for me. I'll keep you all posted.
When this car was produced by Ssang Yong, it was delivered with an antispin system, which could brake a spinning wheel, thus transfering torque to the opposite wheel of the same axle. When Daewoo started marketing it, they unfortunately removed this system from the standard equipment. I was unlucky enough to purchase my car, during this transitional period, when the Greek representative didn't exactly know what the specs of the delivered cars were going to be. As a result, even though I had asked the shop about the antispin system, and was assured that it was included, the car delivered to me didn't have it. So there is no traction control mechanism, which severely limits the car's off-road capability. The local representative suggests that I replace the whole rear axle with a new one (why? That's what the manufacturer suggests! Go figure!), which will include a Limited Slip Differential, but at a cost of US$ 2,000. Considering that an LSD for Dana 44 costs around US$ 350, I do not know why I should follow their advise. ARB (the well known Australian accessories manufacturer) is producing some on-demand, pneumatically locking differentials)
Update on lockers (December 2000)
On several off-road excursions, I've noted that the truck's ABS was activating on the wrong time, when you really wanted to lock the wheels to brake on a loose surface. This situation has created several hair-raising situations, so I decided to install an ABS bupass switch. I cut the wire which was going from the ABS fuse, to the ABS control unit. The wire was then connected to a relay, installed in the console, which when powered, interrupts the ABS circuit. When there is no power to the relay, the ABS circuit is working as normally. When the relay is powered, the circuit between the ABS fuse and the ABS controller is interrupted. In that way, when I hit the ABS bypass switch (a lighted switch by itself), the ABS alarm light in the dashboard is lighted (in addition to the switch light) to remind you that the ABS is not functionning. I usually bypass the ABS on loose roads, and reactivate it as soon as I am back on paved roads.
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In the first picture, you see the location of the axle vent on the Dana 44. The new red rubber tube can see being twisted around and then going up to another locating bracket on the chassis. I made sure I left enough tube to cover the axle articulation.
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The tube was routed to the left side of the car, and attached at various points along the way with tie-wraps. At one location, it is passing right above the antiroll-bar bracket, so at that point, I covered the rubber tube with some plastic material, which is normally used by electricians, when wiring a house. A friendly electrician at a construction site, was galant enough to give me 5 m of that material for free.
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The rubber tube was then routed along the chassis bar, all the way to the front, where it went up to the rear left corner of the under-the-hood area. It was secured along the way, and at its ending point with tie-wraps.
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The front axle vent tube was routed in a similar way (but a lot easier, since the distance is fairly short) to the rear right corner of the under-the-hood area. It was again secured with tie-wraps.
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