I would want to know what makes this one a performance water pump. What has been upgraded other than the price? It may be worth the difference but I would have to have information verifying that before I would pay that much. As I am out of town I cannot access my records.... But google Mopar Performance and see what they have. I purchased a number of items from them. See if they are competitively priced.

 

So I had the mechanic order th LKQ long block. I put the specifics on a previous page. I'm also ordering the bigger tranny pan with a drain plug and remote filter like people recommended. Mechanic said he's gonna check everything that will be reused to make sure its functioning properly. He's an honest guy and friend of the family. $850 to do the job, not including fluids.

He asked what else I wanted done while its apart, all I told him was the plenum kit I have, new crank positioning sensor that's been in my truck that was too difficult for me to access, my 52 mm rb and tranny stuff. Anything else i should do? We talked about possible causes of failure so he's gonna check my injecters too to make sure I didn't have a bad one causing issues. And prob gonna smoke test if runs correctly to find the gross evac leak. And gonna clean the **** out of the intake. Anything else?

 

Smoke test will find the leak. My step son's Taurus had an evap system issue - and I could not find anyone close to him that could smoke test. I thought about buyin a tester - until I saw the cost. Finally got it fixed but a smoke machine would have made it faster!

 

Update for everyone who commented:

Ordered a remanned LKQ long block, with 3 yr 100,000 mile parts/labor warranty. Everything internally is new, except the crank unless it couldn't get put back into spec.

Ordered a Mopar water pump and gasket from Dodge. I didn't want to order a $30 replacement which are all over the internet.

I have the Hughes plenum kit that's going on, and 52mm tb. I'm removing the Jet chip. I don't plan on doing anything else until warranty is up. I can't risk any more money lol

Everything is getting checked while being removed. He said he'd have a good idea of the cause just by looking at the pistons that are intact lol. These guys know seem like they're on top of it pretty good. The guy heading the job has same year with 318 which he replaced two years ago. I noticed it right when I pulled up, looks almost identical.

Now for the transmission....I don't know crap about them and i don't want to dive too far into it. I ordered the remote filter kit and the deep pan that was recommended. I'm also gonna pick up the seal, which i'm pretty sure was leaking. Anything else, not too complicated to get done?? Also, I found the seal but what about the sleeve or something? I didn't ask those guys yet, just ran across things while browsing the internet..

That's all i can think of right now. Funny that i can't think while i'm typing but it's all i think about during the day.

Oh, and the motor ended up costing $1700, without covers but they're deep cleaning everything and inspecting, and paying $50/hr labor. It's time consuming but pays to look around. Another mechanic tried to charge me $2400 for the same motor. I ordered directly from them, didn't mess with middle man.

 

Thanks for the update. Will be looking for more as they come.

 

So, everything is together. All it needs, as far as I'm told, is the timing set. I know nothing about that and he said he has to wait until tomorrow to get the right computer to do it. ?? sound about right? how is it done? but besides that he said he fired it up and works perfectly, just doesn't want to do anything else until timing is set.

Also, how should I go about breaking it in??? from what i saw while at the shop, they were running conventional and he said something about valvoline racing oil for the break in.. I'll find out exactly what's in it, but I've read people running a break in oil until 500 miles, swapping with conventional without break in additives, then running that for atleast another 1000 miles before running synthetic, which i plan on. I've also read that people swap three or four times before the first 1500 miles because so much breaks down in that period with a new motor

Any suggestions/comments/jokes??

 

Fuel sync needs to be set. That's prolly the 'timing' he is referring to. Need to be able to read the value from the PCM, and then move the distributor accordingly. The sensor in the dist has nothing to do with ignition timing, which is what most folks are used to, it deals instead with injector timing.

I never worry about 'break-in' oil. Just run what the engine calls for, and change it after 500 miles, and again at 1500 miles. After that, run whatever ya like. If you are really paranoid, you could cut open the oil filters, and see who's home.

 

thanks for the quick response..

that was my plan with the oil. if they added some break in stuff then that's just fine. Still plan on getting rid of it at 500. and I spoke with the mechanic and he verified it was the timing for the injectors.

i've heard people like breaking in a motor the "hard" way. basically running the **** out of it. I plan on normal driving, with the occasional getting on it on the interstate, but nothing crazy. and making sure i get a lot of warm ups and cool downs before that first oil change (driving it around, taking it home for a few hrs then giving it another drive) i'm under the impression that the initial break in can decide the life of the motor. does my driving plan sound about right? and going back to the vacuum problem, if i still have a "gross" evac leak somewhere, can that cause some seating issues?

 

The evap system won't affect breakin.

I always try to be nice to motors during breakin. I don't rebuild them every week, like racers do...... A 'gentle' breaking will allow parts to wear together slowly, removing small amounts of material. A "hard" breaking make 'em wear in quickly, removing large amounts of material.......

 

+1 on the easy break in. The break in hard to run hard is myth.