I started Saturday..

Hughes Plenum kit..
H&S Rocker Rollers...
Hughes 'Super Tune' kit.. (wires, plugs, rotor and cap)
Oil, filter..
K&N cleaning kit for the filter..
180* stat..
Coolant..
Headers.. (Heddman shorties)

I drained, flushed, and stripped the engine clean of her intake. I did the kegger mod too.. And then I broke open the box from Hughes, and the monkey wrenches made contact with the gears..

The box was short a set of intake bolts.. It had two of the eight spark plugs, and the cross block gaskets (specifically the back one) was bent to a ridiculous degree... I have a set of iridium plugs, so I'm not too angry about being shorted the plugs, I'm thinking the valley gaskets aren't that big a deal because they aren't under any real pressure and some RTV will do it justice, and that it will all work out in the end- but I don't like the idea of re-using the bolts one dang bit.. Especially the bolts that came out of that thing..



I live at the end of the world, and it's a geographical oddity something like the Cohen Brothers version of the Odyssey.. errr... Bolts are three days out minimum.. This is my daily driver.. I'm wishing I hadn't sold the bike at this point..



Continue to march...

Keg modded.. Damn, I'm good.. It's puuuuuurty..
Polished the bosses whilst I was at it...
Chased the heads where the bolts return..
Scrubbed, scraped, buffed, acetone'd the contact surfaces..

Yanked valve covers..
Now, here is something nobody ever told me, and I've not heard mention of it in any of the write-ups here or elsewhere about doing the rocker rollers... the H&S's are barely over finger tight.. 21-26 in/lbs (depending on where you read).. The factory rockers? Huh, those rascals are on there to AT LEAST 100 ft/lbs.. I approached these things with a 1/4 ratchet.. I dumped that for the 3/8 in pretty quick order.. after putting the monster grip on that for a while, I swapped over to the 1/2 with the longer handle, after recalling once long ago pulling like hades on a ratchet on a single barrel carb's linkage plate and the bolt breaking free and the ratchet smacking the linkage, subsequently costing me about $100 replacing it (specialty part only avail at Ford Stealership)... I didn't want to suffer that.. The extra leverage the 1/2 ratchet offers made the removal pretty quick..



turn engine.. torque.. turn engine.. torque.. turn engine.. torque.... yup...

I BLASTED THE CRAP out of the header bolts at this point.. I have been for several days.. I don't care to argue with those rusty rascals any more than I must....

Next- Distributor cap, rotor button, take a break draining a few beers, check on the football games/scores/highlights..and soak the air filter with the K&N crap.. Gap the plugs.. lay out the wires.. drain a few beers.. drain a beer or two.. Scrape some more on the manifold and heads contact area.. cut/grind/polish the little tab off the 'stat coupler, install 'stat (I sat there holding it in my hand thinking "I should test this thing....nah"....) This little blunder both tweaked me, and later saved my bacon.. big time..

Put her back together.. I don't like these bolts one bit, but something has to convey me to the parts store, and my feet won the argument with the bolts.. Of course, my feet had a few beers on their side, and reason was therefor reduced on the bolts behalf..

Wires wired, zip tied the hades out of all the wildly directed wires/hoses/cables and such.. A neat engine compartment is a happy engine compartment..

Plugged the oil pan, swapped oil filter, closed up p.valve on the rad, made sure hoses were clamped all around, put my little line separators betwinxt my fire wires, and last but not least, CAI, wiper juice, and overflow... I'm a little excited, but a little buzzed- so she ain't leaving the driveway today.. I've decided the headers are tomorrows project at this point.. Oil in, coolant/water loaded... pcm reset.. she just needs the key turned.. Oh what the hell, idling isn't DWI.. right?

She fires.. She ain't happy.. Maybe it was the beer, but I swear I heard her say "What the *&% have you done to me?".. I'm thinking, "Just shut up and reset that 'puter chic"... huh.. she's hot.. she's not overheating, but she's hot.. This will wait until tomorrow too..


Sunday sucked.. I woke to my alarm which I forgot to turn off.. It shares the same housing as my phone.. I shut that effer off and roll over.. Apparently, the phone/alarm also disturbed my gal- a lab puppy.. She went a lot further than cursing and rolling over like me, she chewed that rascal in about four pieces.. I woke up just in time to see the fourth part dismember.. dang.. Now, except for internet/email, I'm isolated.. and this later becomes very significant.. God, I wish I was sumbeach..



I struggle outside with an aching head around noon, and think to myself, "self" I think... "Gotta get a new phone first.. Headers will wait until next weekend".. Off I go..

I made it about two miles max before stopping.. She was HOT.. Not overheating, but it's a close thing.. I pull into a parking lot and pop the hood.. I feel the upper hose, and it doesn't feel like there is ANYTHING in there but some hot dang air.. huh? I KNEW I should have checked that stat before I loaded it!! I can't call anyone no matter how much duct tape I put on the phone, and I'm starting to realize I'm screwed.. And I'm pissed.. I've decided I'm DONE with Hughes from this point forward.. Hey, somebody had to take the blame, and I'm too hung over.. But, in reality- - It's




I sit there for an hour steaming like my truck wants to...

I turn the ignition on and see the temp has fallen, and do what I really didn't want to do- head home.. dang it.. I make it though w/o blowing steam..

I pull into the drive and put the hood back under the 'port.. And break out the tools.. and set up to swap the stats.. at least I trimmed the dang tab off the thing.. that should make it easier.. But I'm not working on a hot engine on the 'count I like my skin at a cool 98.6*... I've got time for BEER!!!

Several hours later, I put a pot of h2o on the stove to boil, I head back out and pop the hood, pull the stat, and carry it inside to the pot which is pretty close to boiling.. A little investigation with a fork and a flashlight, - yup.. bad stat.. I've got two extra 160* stats, and the 195 that came out of her, so.. inny minny minny moe..

I put the 195 back in it and just about walk around to start it.. and think, I might as well check the oil... If it had not been for the 'stat, chances are I would have burned three tanks of gas before I looked at the oil. (I would never have made it that far before she blew)..

holy crap..

milk chocolate comes to mind.. thick, frothing, milk chocolate.. I blink several times, wipe it off and shove the dipstick back in her, pull it out (it's not near as enjoyable as it should be)..



milk chocolate comes to mind.. thick, frothing, milk chocolate.. dat der day-jay-vue, and any amount of shoving it in and taking it out and changing the fact coolant/oil mix is in my crankcase..

It's not the beer, it's really there..

I'm freaking out at this point.. blown head gasket? Cracked head? RUPTURED BLOCK???? Man, I'm freaking.. I'm freaking BADLY.. How hot did she get? What happened to my bearings? Oh man, I'm going to find every person I can named Hughes, and kick the crap out of them.. You know why? Because, it's certainly NOT--



Anyway.. I go write a few emails to my crew at work in hopes they actually read them before they hit the field in the a.m... "Mayday" they read, "Come get me"...

It's ten hundred hours before my buddy shows up.. He looks at me and says "dude, you know at the very least your head gasket is blown".. and I reluctantly agree. And then, a beam of pure sunlight bursts from the sky and launches an idea!!! I pull the lower hose and spill it's contents in a clean bucket.. and- (drum roll)- there isn't a hint of oil.. I have hope..

Tuesday (this afternoon), the bolts find there way to this geographical oddity and land at the parts store with the rest of the bounty I need. I'm not giving up to a blown gasket (at the least) until I see that valley under the keg.. specifically, the h2o ports.. I have my reasons...

Bolts.. the dang bolts had lost torque, and were barely over finger tight.. some weren't even that.. they popped right out.. The gasket was not a happy gasket.. the back cross block dowel gasket had turned into two back cross block dowel gaskets.. This chocolate was throughout the engine.. it ain't purty as it should be (if you believe those fondu chocolate fountain thingies at weddings and such are pretty that is).. it is a MESS..



I go to it.. Drain, wipe, vacuum, blot, errrrr... I poured some of the oil I drained Saturday into the valve covers, and the rest into the valley.. I collect it and pour it again.. and again.. again.. I pull the valve covers and wipe/vacuum/blot the nooks and crannies best I can.. I scrape, buff, polish, and acetone the contact areas again.. I use the new gasket, and button her up- this time with new bolts.. this time with RTV (be damned what that Hughes direction says) surrounding the h2o passages, and in the corners.. and under and above the cross block dowel gaskets.. and here is a little trick: I let it cure for about an hour before I put the manifold back on.. (copper RTV, light bead).. I get to scrub what was a spotless keg again.. awesome....

errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.... back together with new oil, filter, coolant, 'stat- and my fingers are crossed.. This time, when I turned the key, I swear I heard her say "all of this because a blown plenum gasket?- dude....."..

She's strong.. She seems to have recovered from her little episode.. Her oil is clear, and she runs nice and cool.. there are no leaks, and everything seems in order- even the six gallons of full synthetic oil and four filters I have staged to use over the next five hundred miles.. dang..

Okay, we all know it's my fault... But, I gotta tell you of two key lessons I learned I will never forget:

1. ALWAYS CHECK YOUR INTERNET PARTS ORDER FOR COMPLETENESS BEFORE YOU START THE JOB..

2. BE SUSPICIOUS OF HUGHES ENGINES..


on an aside- I tried, several times to buy the iron ram heads from hughes.. their cart wouldn't let me past the shipping portion.. something to do with "weight doesn't ship to this country".. and obvious glitch in their check-out software.. so- I didn't do heads, yet.. I wonder now in retrospect, would I have received two 'half' heads? two castings minus several springs and/or valves? A folded up and bent gasket? - I WILL NEVER KNOW is the answer to that.. I should be getting an SCT tuner this week from them.. They have until Friday and then it will have been FIVE weeks since I ordered it, and ample reason for me to hit them with a charge-back fee from my cc company.. Yeah, it may be something foul to do to them, but it will make me feel better- and technically, I will be right because they quoted 3-4 weeks and it's been five, AND, it is unlawful to hold someones money for more than 30 days without written agreement and not provide the product/service..

ya get 'em where ya can..

it's at least a little their fault..

dangit..

 

That was entertaining read. I've been reading so many bad things about hughes engines, pretty sad. I think my t-stat from them was bad also.

 

All's well that ends well. Thanks for taking the time to write it up so nicely.

I've heard and read many, many complaints about Hughes and it's a shame that you got the be the newest of that long line. But thanks for sharing your experience and confirming the correctness of my decision to spend my nickels and dimes elsewhere.

 

That was a good read.

As soon as I read the chocolate milk comment I knew that your coolant passages were flooding the valley due to re-using the torque to yield bolts.

And what's this I read about your new rocker arms being torqued to 21 inch pounds? That's too loose, I was told that they need to be 21 foot pounds.

And I stand by my comment a while back that Hughes must have an open bar at the company and the quality control guy spends a lot of time there.

Did your plenum plate have tool marks on it?
My Hughes plate had tool marks (gouges) in it. Then when I replaced it with the airgap, it had a few marks on the throttle body adapter which included one that looked like they laid a bolt on it and hit it with a hammer.

 

Dude sorry to hear about this and its sad to see that so many people have had problems with them, I want to the airgap eventually but I have always had that what if in the back of my mind about gettin a ****ty part and then not getting it fixed anytime soon

 

Wow. There certainly are a lot of negative comments about Hughes products. I believe I'll save my $600 on the Airgap intake.

 

The intake was in good shape, it was the throttle body adapter that had the marks on it.

 

sorry Officer, I meant ft/lbs.. 21 of them... but that isn't that tight either.. and nowhere near as tight as the factory rockers were- those babies were gag-gone ON there..

I KNOW NOT to re-use bolts.. Using torque to yield over is the height of stupidity.. But I did it anyway.. All of this boils down to me not doing what I know is right.. IF, however, what I paid for was in that box, it would never had been an issue.. Several phone calls to parts stores, and a couple visits to hardware stores via a bummed ride Saturday kinda put me in a fix.. I had planned on putting new ones on it this weekend coming, when i did the headers, but it didn't make it that long (surprise, wishful thinking meets it demise as expected)... Dang..

I guess the whole point I was trying to make is: If you order from Hughes, CHECK YOUR ORDER IMMEDIATELY.. then an option is chasing the UPS driver down if it's wrong- send the whole damn thing back and cancel payment on the order.. After this happening several times to them, I bet they will either hire a new QC/Shipping manager (or actually staff that position which MUST be vacant), or just shut the doors and close the business..

I don't care what they do.. I'm done with them forever... I thought I'd throw another log on that fire and give fair warning to other Dodge guys though, so you can't say you weren't warned..

 

At least you were able to get by until it got straightened out.
It's situations like the one you were in that make me glad that I have a second vehicle. I think everyone should have the one vehicle that they really like and put a lot of effort into modifying/ keeping looking good then have a cheap beater to get back and forth to work in and use when their main ride is down for maintenance.

I think the reason the factory rocker arms were so much tighter is from years of them getting baked in the engine. Mine seemed like they had about 30-40 pounds of torque on them.

So did you notice a sound difference between the old rocker arms and the new ones?

 

I can hear a slight lope at idle, I don't notice anything at speed.. there is no pinging under load, and no strange sounds from the valve train.. the pcm has some adjusting to do before I can really comment on the performance.. OR.. the SCT lands before Friday and I get to drop the tune in and see how she likes it..

It feels some stronger for sure.. I'm guessing the plenum gasket holding it's own is responsible for that though.. Throttle response is better.. According to the little drive computer, the mileage is matching near what it was pre-35's, at around 15mpg/hwy, and 12.5mpg/cty...

Next week she gets a new tranny, and the 4.56's go in- this weekend (bar dogs eating my phone, or re-using manifold bolts) the headers go on..

It should be a different truck very soon...