It's all apart now. It took about 2 hours from opening the hood until the manifold was lying on the garage floor. The plenum gasket was TRASHED. I have no idea how it wasn't pinging and how it was using so little oil (about a quart in 1000 miles, or so). I also know that I have a sludge problem; I'll be running some engine flush tomorrow when I do the required oil change.

Getting the gasket material off of the pan from around the bolt holes is turning out to be a b1tch. I have it soaking in parts cleaner (the kind that comes in a paint can) right now. Hopefully it'll be good to go in the morning. Tomorrow is changing the valve cover gaskets and reassembly.

At this point, I have to say that the disassembly was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Everything was more or less accessible and came apart very nicely. Before reassembly I'll need to pick up some heater hose, a chunk of hose for the water pump/manifold connection, fuel injector o-rings, and a new hose to connect the two fuel rails together (didn't have a quick-disconnect tool for the fuel line... long story).

Right now the intake manifold is running through the dishwasher. I tried cleaning it with brake cleaner, scrubbing it in the bathtub with dish soap, a scrub brush, and a bottle brush, and it still wasn't clean enough. Hopefully the dishwasher does the trick.

The intake ports on the heads have a lot of carbon buildup. I'll have to grab some Mopar combustion chamber cleaner next week and run that through. I'm not really sure how to clean out the ports on the heads... if anyone has a suggestion I'm open to it.

Fun times.

 

you can shoot a little of the MCCC directly onto the carbon with the intake off and watch it bubble off (it's kind cool) and then run the rest thru the TB. It'll really take a bunch off.

Also, I suggest a 12 gallon treatment of Techron Concentrate Plus on less than a 1/2 tank of gas and run it out, followed by a treatment of Yamaha Ring Free, (expensive but good, easily found at marine stores, bass pro shop,places like that) and a run of Mopar Fuel Injection cleaner.

I have heard of this stuff called BG 44K that's supposedly very good stuff, but I've never tried it to comment.

I have been using exclusively Chevron gas for the last few months and I'll be interested to see what my combustion chambers look like when I pull the heads in about 3 weeks.

 

Cool, will do. Are you a varmint hunter by any chance (judging from your alias and your pics :P).

 

Nah, just can't seem to avoid them driving thru the neighborhood

Used to hunt groundhogs back home when I was in HS for the local farmers. $10 a hog was the going rate.

 

Nice work. That dishwasher pic is hilarious. My wife would have killed me.

I used Mopar Combustion Chamber Cleaner to clean out the runners on mine. Just sprayed it in and let it set, then rinsed it out, and it came very clean. I took mine to the car wash and power washed it.

One thing to remember when you reassemble is to make sure you wait long enough for the gasket makers you use to cure before you start it up. Namely, the gasket material you use on the front and rear where the intake meets the block. When I did mine, I got the intake off and installed my new modded one in one day. Then let it set over night. The next morning, I finished up putting on a few things that were still off, and then ran it. It doesn't take overnight to cure, but I wanted to make sure. Depending on what you use, it could take as much as 4 hours for a good cure.

 

+1 I'd have had to sleep out in the Ram if I did that!

Still debating if I want to "bake" the Valve Covers in the oven to set the paint when I swap heads. worried that any oil residue will stink up the house. Still trying to decide what color to paint 'em. I thought maybe trying to match the color of my truck might be cool but I dunno. Anything but the boring black they currently are.

 

Shoot, with the 2.02 heads you're getting, go ahead and splurge on the Mopar/Magnum valve covers, lol.

 

hmmm, maybe...

 

I have it mostly back together-- just the cap/plug wires, fan and shroud, belt, and airbox. After that I just have to fill it with coolant, do the engine flush, and change the oil.

Yeah, if you think the dishwasher pic is bad, you should see the bathtub where I was scrubbing it. It's going to take a lot of degreaser to get that clean :P

 

How did it go? Done yet?