Restoring a ARGO 6X6

It's been quite a long time since I posted anything. I still come back to this forum just to see what everyone is building from time to time.

Anyways, I acquired a 1994 ARGO 6X6 Vanguard . Original Engine was a 16hp briggs horizontal shaft . I've already swapped the engine for a ch20s kohler 20hp vtwin and had to buy a new 1 1/8 drive clutch . 264 dollars later and my 94c comet clutch arrived. I installed it on the kohler. I've also been doing some fiberglass work to fix what the previous owners had done to this thing. It looked like they were trying to remove the entire frame from the argo or something. So I took some aluminum sheeting I had and riveted it to it and I've been fiberglassing it to seal off and hide the repair as much as possible. I also had to fix all the holes they decided to drill into it. They totally defeated the purpose of being a amphibious vehicle by drilling and cutting it. When the body has been fully repaired , I plan on using urethane bedliner most likely be doing a olive drab and black or like a dark red and black. I haven't made up my mind yet. I plan on putting in Voltage gauge, Amps gauge, Hour meter gauge, Oil pressure gauge, fuel gauge. key switch with Engine button start , led bars, sump pump (incase of water entering the argo), relay and fuse box combo (coming in next week), engine cooling fan, install a decent size fuel tank and much more.

Always love an Argo project. These are such cool rigs. I think there’s been a few others on here some years back.

I just remembered this yesterday


Edit: found the thread I was thinking of. Tourmax’s Argoceptor 8x8.
https://www.atltf.com/t5912-project-argoceptor

Here's some more photos. Like I've stated previously I swapped the 16hp single briggs for a 20 hp CH20S Kohler Command . I'm gonna be honest mounting this enormous engine into this tiny engine bay wasn't fun but it definitely was worth it. I did a test drive today and the drive clutch engages at about half to 3/4 WOT . Sadly when I bought this clutch, it only comes with 4 pucks inside . So it's either buy more pucks to add to it or buy a spring that isn't as strong as this one. But it definitely was fun driving it since the engine swap .




Now I'm going to just be honest , I am no professional when it comes to doing body work. If you guys have any tips or thoughts on body work . I'll gladly take any advice. Again I'm going to be spraying the entire body with urethane bedliner spray to hide all the repairs. I'm sanding them as flat as possible so the bedliner spray should cover and hide the fiberglass repairs decently well . Also you can see what I meant when I think they thought they were gonna remove the entire frame from the plastic body and seems they realized it wasn't as easy as they may have thought. Sadly, They cut the original seat and the entire back of this thing.

So when I got the argo. It came with this homemade aluminum hood with shower drain cover plates for air vents . After he engine swap, the kohler engine sits alot higher than the other engine by far. So I decided to give the argo a hood scoop. I'd like to do some type of louvers on the side but might be more of a head ache to build them into the scoop.







Maybe install auxiliary cooling fan now.

I finally got a short video on here of the argo 6x6. More to come for sure.

Man that thing looks like a ton of fun! And it sounds like your neighbors love you

> I'd like to do some type of louvers

google Jeep louvers

Back 30+ years ago when I worked at an AMC dealer, people putting cooling louvers on their Jeeps was a thing, I guess it still is. Not that you really needed it on an I-6 258 CI with that huge grill and open wheel wells, but, "it's a Jeep thing" ?

If you need a grille for something that can actually use it, it is cheaper to just buy a "jeep thing" since they offer so many different styles and sizes. Including ones for along the sides of the hood and scoops.

For a vertical motor I would skip the bug screen, but, for your horizontal Kohler it might help keep stuff out on a water crossing, PLUS, discourage mice intrusion.

IMHO, Facing the opening of the hood scoop forward will just encourage swamping the Argo and engine or sucking in all sorts of debris. I would flip it around so it faces backwards and then add slanted (backwards) side louvers.

What you might consider is a snorkel out of the hood, running to the ROPS, and have the opening facing downwards to discourage stuff getting inside. It will run a lot better sucking in 90 degree air then 150 degree air inside the engine compartment.

If heat is a problem you could always run a small 12v (think less then 1 amp) fan for an intake and it will naturally exhaust out the other side.

You could run the exhaust out to the other side of the ROPS.

Having the intake and exhaust way above the engine will help if you ever swamp it or stick it in deep mud. PLUS, if the ARGO is stored outside, it allows you to cap them to discourage critters from making nests in the intake and exhaust.

I feed 5-6 feral cats and have one inside, along with a dog. So, most critters do not last long enough to make a nest. The exception being an opossum. Cats left it alone, but, once my dog sniffed it out, and tried to play with it every time she went out, Paulie got tired and moved onto calmer pastures.