WooHoo!

 

So after driving for about 30 miles I've lost probably half a quart of oil...lol. I know one exhaust valve seal is leaking but not that much. I pulled the air cleaner off and looked down the throttle body. Talk about pooled oil! I've never seen a gasket fail this bad. Already ordered everything I need for that as well as all new valve seals. Wish I didn't have to work on the engine so soon, but at least it's not a major problem. For now looks like the rear main is holding perfect and the engine itself runs nice, no weird noises. I'll post up pics of the plenum fix and valve seal job on here.

 

Congrats tbug! Got a bit more power in the 'ol truck now!

Those mods to the crank sensor bring back memories; I also had to change the connectors and extend the sensor's cabling. And the leaking valve seal - I guess that goes with a 25+ year old motor with original parts. I've noticed mine goes thru a bit of oil, and sometimes when I stop quickly, a little oil must run down the valve stem 'cause I can see a puff of blue smoke. Doesn't happen when accelerating, just sometimes when coming to a stop.

 

Any updates? You know we like pictures!!

 

Sorry guys! Been busy, I added more pictures and more descriptions to previous posts, including the ones about exhaust and wiring. A couple other minor things here.

Now because I was a dumbass and cut through the GOOD hood latch cable on my '94, I had to rig something up for the broken hood latch cable on my '93. So I cut the lever off and made this after perusing the hardware store. It works.



The headlight plugs are different. The headlight housings themselves are the same. This is the '94:



This is the '93.



The intake entrances are different between the '94 V8 (left) and the '93 V6 (right). Thus the snap-in intake tube connectors at the rad support are different.



I had to get the exhaust down lower because it was hitting against the bottom of the cab. So I bought these longer/adjustable exhaust hangers. Worked awesome.

 

Here the engine is all set and neat, just missing the washer bottle.



And here is a video of the exhaust sound. It's a cold start; the truck hasn't been run for 3 days. This is a pretty cheap Dynomax Super Turbo catback, intact Walker catalytic converter (not high flow), 1993 stock y-pipe and intermediate pipe, and of course the stupid tiny '94 headers. Check out that liquid gasoline spewing out!!! EEK! (edit: it smells like that anyway) The plenum is so, so bad. But I think the exhaust sounds pretty good.


I hope also to have some pictures and a write-up about the plenum fix soon. But first I gotta fix it! Might happen this weekend. Also, I might get seriously ostracized from here, but whatever, I'm sharing a picture of my new car.



Don't worry, the Dodge is not going anywhere

 

Nice new car. Definitely cheap on the gas.
I think that is probably water coming out the tail pipe not gasoline. It sounds nice. I expect that smoke will go away once you do the plenum.
From the interwebs- A catalytic converter- takes raw engine exhaust (CO, unburnt fuel, nitrogen oxide) which are very harmful to the air we breathe. (nitro oxide causes acid rain) It catalyzes (splits) the molecules into water vapor, and CO2. CO2 is still harmful to the environment, but not as much as the acidic nitrogen oxide.

 

Yes the initial steam I think is water but then it starts dripping after I revved it a bit. I didn't taste it but maybe you're right. Exhaust definitely smells heavy like raw gas (probably it's overwhelming the converter's abilities) and I'm getting really really awful mileage now. Haven't calculated but I'd guess 10 mpg or worse.