yeah the magnums are beasts, if it can make it thru the life its had, and still run decent enough to not throw codes or make me aware of the nightmare inside, let alone even fire due to them nasty plugs, it proves its a reliable powerhouse.

i'll pass on a shop, shes all put back together and running. no money for it anyway to be honest.

yeah wasn't looking to bad after days of cleaning and cleaning. after I got her back together tonight I threw in 4qts of oil and a 1qt of ATF+4 along with a mopar oil filter ($1.99, yeah buddy).. I will run the **** out of her for about 200-500 miles depending on how oil pressure looks and how shes driving. right before I do the oil change I will be doing a seafoam treatment, run the hell out of her, change fluid, filter, upstream o2, and maybe throw a new set of copper champions in it and call it a day.

rotor and cap were pretty much brand new, wires too, but they are junk. will be getting a set of oem mopars..




no that was one of the where I either just got started cleaning (I can see some chunks missing on retainer) or was going in for round 2 out of 100 lol..

nope, left all that alone. I know I should have took it all out, but time and money are not on my side right now. I knew she would be happy w/what I was doing to her, so I just did a poor mans fix/clean, for now. like I said before, not sure how long this truck will be with me. depends on how she acts really.




todays update.... been slow at work for a few weeks so, I got a couple days off so I got the truck back together. shes running and running pretty damn good. I took it easy on it for about 10 miles and then let all hell break loose(luv'd the smokey posi burnouts ). regained some of the power loss I had judging by the seat-o-meter. engine is running smooth, no leaks so far, **** that oil pan gasket. what a PITA doing that **** by yourself. left starter on, got it done tho.

all in all im happy, about 20hrs total time working and cleaning, chasing a few parts, scratching my head looking at the mess, ect. well 25hrs if you count the 5hrs ill be cleaning up the garage tomorrow lol, what a damn mess I made.

anyway, thanks for all the comments, tips and concerns guys, truly appreciated. I will update when I got a update. probably a few weeks.

 

I didn't want to start a new thread, and since its part of the headache I went thru in this thread, i'll add it here...

so, engine has been running good, still a little hesitation taking off so I figured i'd swap the precat o2..... easy job, negative.... that son of a bitch fought me the whole way, long story short had to cut the cat off to get the booger out, in pieces!!!

figured i'd check my cat for signs of being clogged while its down, looks like the previous owner swapped in a aftermarket one when he threw the muffler on. but I noticed something odd inside the cat (see pics)... I don't think the cat is clogged cause if I hold it up to light a can see it from out the other side. I never had to check a cat before.. idk.. I did take it up the road after I cut the cat off, bet my neighbors loved me, anyway I didn't notice a difference except the noise. so cat ok?

anyway check out the pics... not sure what is balled up in the one corner.

 

the cat is done.

 

so bust the honeycombs out then?

just wondering, why is it done? I never messed with cats except swapping up bolt on's on my explorer. so I have no clue what the signs are

 

Looks like a piece of rope or something of that nature. You can see it's wedged under the honeycomb structure, maybe it was there to keep that piece in place?

And yes, just bust out the honeycomb pieces. Long skinny pipe with a small sledge hammer will do, then rev up the motor after you reinstall to blow out any debris left behind.

 

you can see it is starting to separate and the holes are some what clogged
just use a bar as stated

 

yeah I busted it out w/a piece of 1.315 pipe (smashed and punched) from work. made a great punch. dusty, dusty, dusty mess. got it all busted out, in the process of welding it back up right now.

the rope seemed to be like a metal mesh/brillo pad type of deal.

back out to burn my skin some more and go smoke some tires.

 

gotcha.. I was just curious... busted and welded thanks bud.

 

burn out vid

 

haha we'll see. itll have to be a in cab vid


like a dumbass, I welded it up and didn't check to make sure o2 sensor had room to clear trans pan. damnit, here we go again. glad I got beer in the fridge!!