What's up folks. No help needed today, just thought I would post some updates on my engine rebuild with a home made hot tank. I'll probably post a "how to" in the tutorial section, but right now I'm just posting my progress of the rebuild. Right now she's hot tubbing

It's a crude tank, but it does the job. I swear by the degreaser called formula 88, a gallon is just 8 bucks at home Depot, and two gallons of it has been in the tank for about a hr, but it's already bringing the life back to the pistons. They had about 25 years of crud before the dip

 

So it's been a while folks, figured I would post updates on this for anyone curious on the progress. Been working on this when i can cause life gets in the way. so I'm just gonna start from The begining



So after many house of cussing trying to find that stray bolt holding everything in the engine was out ready for rebuilding. Got everything tore down to the bare block, and got everything ready for my home made hot tank. It was real simple and cheap to make. It consisted of a old steel drum, an low watt water heater coil and a heavy duty electrical cord, and a few steel blocks on the bottom to make the engine parts don't crush the coil. Throw in two gallons of formula 88 and fill with water and bake all the crud away!


Piston heads/ connection rods went in first. Came out nice and clean after about 2 hours in the soak. So I let them cook overnight and let it work it's magic.


Once all the heads were clean disaster struck however, after I lined all of my heads on my work bench to clean out the railsls and get them ready to re ring, buddy who was helping me accidentally knocked a few of em off the table onto the concrete. Causing a hairline fracture in one and snapping the skirt on another.



Welp guess it's time for new piston heads. Can't be mad at new parts, but I can be a little sad my wallet is on life support at this point. Some of the old rods were questionable so I ordered 3 of those too. I'm sure they were fine, but peace of mind, you know?

So at this point it's now time for the camshaft bearings. Not gonna sugarcoat it. I buggered the new ones. So instead of screwing over a new set I took it to an engine shop to have them put it in. Charge me 100 bucks to put them in, and another 50 to clean the engine because that's their policy, despite the engine not needing it after the dip 😂



At least I got this pretty new bag from the shop yo cover it up from the elements, since I'm to broke to afford a garage and got a do this all in my carport!

Now that that's back it's time to clean off all the other goodies and start getting this looking like a engine again. Soaked the timing cover, intake manifold, valve covers and oil pan.





It was at this point I discovered that formula 88 REALLY likes paint. Sooo another part store run for some engine enamel. So while I wait for my pistons and connection it's time to strip, sand and repaint those and bake them in my oven for a few hours. Paint can said that the paint would cure with the heat of the engine, so 250 degrees in the oven for about a hr should be fine 🤣

Now that those are painted and ready to go, into the back of the Durango they go until I need them! Once i got my last heads in the mail and connection rods assembled,in they go to the block and I'm done with that! It's time to move on to the cylinder heads, the old ones as you could see... has some miles.




I'm not gonna even TRY to clean and condition these. Had a new set ordered at the start of this project so let's get to those. Valves are on, new oil seal things or whatever they are called are on and look pretty so now it's on to what I dreaded. I can't delay it anymore. Coil springs. God i hate coil springs.
After several hours and a few choice expletives, they are in and seated. Hammer test applied and they are good 👍




So it's on to the pan gasket and liberal gasket sealer was added to the corners because these engines like to leak there, and on the gasket goes with the oil pan, timing cover, and water pump.


Following up with the rocker arms, lifters and rods, the cylinder heads can finally close this baby up



Last course of action was my new headers. They look beautiful and spaced in a way where I can get my sausage fingers in to change the spark plugs so much easier


Also ignore the leveler for right now. Not going in just yet. One of my bolts to my stand decided it wanted to sudoku itself from this mortal coil so I had to fix that so she could sit level again. Now it's time to target this engine bay and get to those motor mounts and get the almost 30 years of oil, dirt, and I think several birds were unearthed from this gunk!






And that is where our story ends for now, I gotta get that last mount bracket installed and get a new bolt for that mount and then it's on to fabricating my exhaust. Everything outside the muffler is factory, and I need to add a larger diameter mounting point since my new headers are bigger then stock. Oh! And to rotate my bung for my 02 sensor so it's not on the top of the pipe so I can get my fat sausage hands in there and change it in the future!

Until next time!

 

Heads look like they could use screw in studs? I am a big fan of adjustable valve trains.... (and roller rockers.....)

 

I think they can, but idk how to work on or adjust those so... 😂

 

Same thing as small block chevy's. Easiest to adjust with engine running at idle. (though, that can be messy...... )

 

Ok folks back again and can't seem to rack my head around this. I just can't get oil pressure, figured it was a faulty new pump so I installed the old one again which before I removed I know worked, and still no pressure. I can rule out the sensor because I'm not getting any pressure from a mechanical gauge either. I had a moment where it went up to the halfway point on the dash and then dropped back to zero.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what else could cause this of not the oil pump, so I can tick them off one by one? Cause I'm lost at this point 😫

The only thing I can think becausey new pump didn't come with it, does the pickup tube need some kind of o ring or gasket maker when threading it in? I don't see any kind of recess for a o ring though...

 

Oil pump drive? Isn't there a shaft with a gear between the oil pump and the distributor?

 

There is, that was replaced as well and matched the deminsions of the last one, which I've tested and it's engaging with the camshaft and the pump itself.

 

How much slop is there between the shaft, and the pump? By hand, it may feel just fine, but, put a heavy load on it, at 1000 RPM or more, and maybe it's slipping? Is the shaft machined as one piece with the gear? Or is the gear a separate piece? (and thus, another potential failure point.)

 

No slop, clean engine. Unless you ment slope, then there is none. It's parallel with the pump and engaged as intended. The gear is a solid machined piece