(11-26-2018, 01:53 PM)Steve85 Wrote: I did this a couple times too, and now couldn't be happier with my reduced power (but obviously room to grow) and superb driveability by going with a modern gen swap. Worth a look at this point. I'm not sure if the dodge motors are anything like the LS where you can pull a dime-a-dozen truck motor and swap cam and intake and pretty much have the car engine on the "cheap"?
A Gen 3 HEMI itself isn't all that pricey especially the 5.7L's and even bolts up to my existing tranny with an adapter. BUT the big drawback there is having to redo the front suspension to make it fit. Would need to ditch the steering linkage in favor of a rack and pinion setup and ditch the torsion bars for some coil overs. I have too much money wrapped up in my current setup to make that leap. The 360 is great in that it's the same exact platform. The engine has been pretty reliable outside the crankcase issue and user error. My dad's engine has been running completely problem free for almost 10 years now too so it's just definitely a case of bad luck/making a few small mistakes putting it all together.
I'm really not expecting a lot of heartache here. Getting the engine out is barely going to take an afternoon, as will taking the top end apart. I'll take my time putting it back together and getting it back in. The car likely wasn't going anywhere the next month or 2 given how shitty the weather has been. I'd love to just buy a 6.4L + 6 speed combo along with an HDK bolt-in conversion kit for it but that's not happening unless I win the lottery.
Sounds like you're in an abusive relationship with this car.
It's a great car, I swear. It'll get better.
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Hot Rodding is a LOT like dating a hot crazy college freshmen. I could just settle down and buy another gently used Challenger maybe even a Hellcat but that'd just be as boring as the rest of my life.
(11-26-2018, 03:55 PM)Deceus Wrote: maybe even a Hellcat but that'd just be as boring as the rest of my life.
Excuse me what
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(11-26-2018, 04:34 PM)Senor_Taylor Wrote: (11-26-2018, 03:55 PM)Deceus Wrote: maybe even a Hellcat but that'd just be as boring as the rest of my life.
Excuse me what
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https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/inventoryl...=216961972
Used Hellcats are like $45k and a lot of them barely have 10k miles on them. Could easily sell the truck, project car, leftover parts and make that super affordable since I won't need any of that with the car gone.
(11-26-2018, 05:35 PM)Deceus Wrote: (11-26-2018, 04:34 PM)Senor_Taylor Wrote: (11-26-2018, 03:55 PM)Deceus Wrote: maybe even a Hellcat but that'd just be as boring as the rest of my life.
Excuse me what
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https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/inventoryl...=216961972
Used Hellcats are like $45k and a lot of them barely have 10k miles on them. Could easily sell the truck, project car, leftover parts and make that super affordable since I won't need any of that with the car gone. Okay. So do it.
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(11-26-2018, 05:38 PM)Senor_Taylor Wrote: Okay. So do it.
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I honestly give this car another season before I seriously consider doing something like that. It really wasn't that much of a pain this year but if it sits on the sidelines for another year than I think I may go the route of convenience and sanity.
I'm still confused about how hellcats are boring
2010 Civic Si
2019 4Runner TRD Off-Road
--------------------------
Past: 03 Xterra SE 4x4 | 05 Impreza 2.5RS | 99.5 A4 Quattro 1.8T | 01 Accord EX | 90 Maxima GXE | 96 Explorer XLT
(11-27-2018, 10:25 AM)ScottyB Wrote: I'm still confused about how hellcats are boring
It'd just be a turnkey racecar. If I ever broke anything I'd have to hand it off and just fork over a shit ton of money. Troubleshooting and replacing a faulty ABS module was over $1,000 in my R/T but I for the life of me couldn't figure out what could be knocking out my cam sensor over dips and bumps. I certainly wouldn't be pulling the heads off that thing lol. Plus at best it's just another Hellcat and at worse the majority of people don't wouldn't realize it's anything more than an R/T. Boring, boring, boring. As assume as it would be to just hop in the car and go race, I'll take the headaches of a hotrod over that so long as I'm making forward progress.
I'm 99% sure I just burned up some exhaust valve guides. Easy fix and after that I can't really see many more issues popping up. Most of these have been self-inflicted by not keeping it simple and also dealing with a platform that is rarely used in the restomod world. Most of the unknowns have been worked out and for the most part the car ran well this year.
i mean...you say boring, but to me its still 707hp and who gives a damn what other people think? its a modern legend. i get the need to be able to yank it apart easily but...its a new car. shit shouldn't be breaking in the first place.
(11-27-2018, 04:34 PM)Deceus Wrote: I'm 99% sure I just burned up some exhaust valve guides.
how'd that happen? is the material not up to the job or something going on with oil delivery and/or valve heat?
2010 Civic Si
2019 4Runner TRD Off-Road
--------------------------
Past: 03 Xterra SE 4x4 | 05 Impreza 2.5RS | 99.5 A4 Quattro 1.8T | 01 Accord EX | 90 Maxima GXE | 96 Explorer XLT
(11-27-2018, 10:52 PM)ScottyB Wrote: i mean...you say boring, but to me its still 707hp and who gives a damn what other people think? its a modern legend. i get the need to be able to yank it apart easily but...its a new car. shit shouldn't be breaking in the first place.
(11-27-2018, 04:34 PM)Deceus Wrote: I'm 99% sure I just burned up some exhaust valve guides.
how'd that happen? is the material not up to the job or something going on with oil delivery and/or valve heat?
Rocker shafts got put in wrong and that provides the oiling to the valvetrain. Instead of dumping oil as it was getting to the shaft, the shaft was filling up and the oil was trickling out of the top mostly at the back of the engine. Found a few bent pushrods at the beginning of the year and fix this but didn't dig into the heads to check for damage since the cam was good. If the exhaust valves are dragging and not closing exactly when they should that will cause the exact symptoms I'm seeing so I think that's the most likely case at the moment.
![[Image: 46857557_10156911309211810_5485828892432...e=5CA944F4]](https://scontent.fric1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/46857557_10156911309211810_5485828892432269312_o.jpg?_nc_cat=103&_nc_ht=scontent.fric1-2.fna&oh=5501b72d0c5bda68e5ea47de193ba511&oe=5CA944F4)
3 and a half hours later and it's only being held in by a single bellhousing bolt. The rest were a complete BITCH to get out. Didn't realize how tight they were and I can't get a socket on them due them being up against the firewall. Gonna have to remove the master cylinder to get to the last one. It was going to come out eventually so no big deal but I decided I had enough fun for a day. Started to second guess myself about pulling the entire engine. Not sure how I'm going to properly torque down those bellhousing bolts when it goes back in. I was bowing the shit out the 7/16 wrench to get them off. I may have to slide a pipe over it when snugging them up, we'll see. Everything else came out pretty smoothly minus the starter which is always a bitch but I have that worked out by now so it's not too bad.
Why not pull the trans with the motor? You've got room.
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(11-28-2018, 11:27 AM)Senor_Taylor Wrote: Why not pull the trans with the motor? You've got room.
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Yeah I considered that. I didn't want to mess with the shifter cable non-sense if I didn't have to. I think the smarter approach will be to just leave the heads off, put the engine back in, hook the transmission up and then rebuild the top end with everything in the car. Without the heads in the way those bolts should be pretty easy to get to. With the master cylinder out of the way I shouldn't have any problems getting either cylinder head back on the engine.
11-28-2018, 03:51 PM
(This post was last modified: 11-28-2018, 03:53 PM by Deceus.)
AAaaaaaannnnddddd she's out
![[Image: 47106927_10156912692091810_2162112598667...e=5C67D1CC]](https://scontent.fric1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/47106927_10156912692091810_2162112598667952128_n.jpg?_nc_cat=108&_nc_ht=scontent.fric1-1.fna&oh=f28c83dfbf4cbfec01ad689b9a5fa0a1&oe=5C67D1CC)
![[Image: 47030061_10156912662881810_4978694049067...e=5CAD97E7]](https://scontent.fric1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/47030061_10156912662881810_497869404906717184_o.jpg?_nc_cat=107&_nc_ht=scontent.fric1-1.fna&oh=62f54417e71279982b5a1eb08bed6737&oe=5CAD97E7)
Figured I'd knock it out during my lunch break to spare the gf and kid from the colorfulness that was echoing throughout the garage and house. With the master cylinder and valve covers off I was able to get everything off without much issue. The driver side header wouldn't let go and my sway bar sits too low to let the engine hoist by but I only stretch one wire when it got caught on the oil pressure sending unit.
Not sure if I wanna tear into it tonight or not.
I would have left the block in an taken the heads off, but
![[Image: kermit6-21-2016-20160621064006391.jpg]](https://cached.imagescaler.hbpl.co.uk/resize/scaleWidth/614/cached.offlinehbpl.hbpl.co.uk/news/ORP/kermit6-21-2016-20160621064006391.jpg)
(09-25-2019, 03:18 PM)V1GiLaNtE Wrote: I think you need to see a mental health professional.
11-28-2018, 08:10 PM
(This post was last modified: 11-28-2018, 08:25 PM by Deceus.)
(11-28-2018, 06:29 PM).RJ Wrote: I would have left the block in an taken the heads off, but
Yeah but I wanted to get a good look at everything given how many issues I've found so far. I got in this situation by half-assing the teardown in Jan/Feb and wasn't going to repeat that mistake. The fact that I wanted to replace the oilpan and brakelines in the engine bay kinda pushed me to commit to just pulling the whole thing.
I also want to send the headers off to get a legit coating. The spray can shit wasn't really doing much other than preventing rust. There was a LOT more heat coming off this set of headers than my old ceramic-coated ones.
Sounds like this was the right call then. Hope you get ready for spring time 
(09-25-2019, 03:18 PM)V1GiLaNtE Wrote: I think you need to see a mental health professional.
Mystery solved I believe. I'm running 1/16" piston rings in a piston with a groove for 5/64" rings. That means I'm definitely looking at a new set of pistons and re-honing the block.
Fuck me, I'm dumb.
(12-01-2018, 10:26 PM)Deceus Wrote: Mystery solved I believe. I'm running 1/16" piston rings in a piston with a groove for 5/64" rings. That means I'm definitely looking at a new set of pistons and re-honing the block.
Fuck me, I'm dumb. WERE dumb. You're smart now.
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Got a much better valve spring compressor but couldn't get a valve out because the damn heads were flopping around all over the place before I could get them started. Got some cylinder head working stands on the way to fix that.
Went to turn the engine over and realized my lifters were all going to fall out. I don't have a good way to organize them at the moment so I ordered a tray for that as well. Really don't want to mix those up as that's a quick way to ruin a flat tappet cam.
Guess I'm stuck waiting on that shipment at the moment. Going to pull each of the pistons and check what kind of clearance I've got going on at the moment. If I didn't wallow out the grooves in the pistons I may be able to get away with re-ringing everything with the right sized rings and hitting the cylinders with a ball hone. I've got the 360 block to practice on so and they're pretty forgiving so for now I'm going to try and avoid taking anything to a machine shop.
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