I hated finding myself in the situation but I had no other choice. After Hauling myself, wife, 3 dogs, trailer with my 05 Magnum on it from CO to MD I've had problems with the cooling system. First the radiator went, then the ever mysterious disappearing coolant.

Well one day I went out at lunch and filled the reservoir. When I tried to leave the house the engine wouldn't crank. I knew instantly what happened. I went into the garage and grabbed the tools I started pulling plugs and found #5 wet. Went back to the cab and cranked it over, big puffs of water for a few rotations, damn.

So I had the Maggie as a backup and the tare down started. I was supprised how well the cylinders looked for 114K miles, says something for synthetics.. It wasn't as bad as I initally thought. The heads were milled 8 thousanths, and I opted to replace the chains while I was in there, after these pics were snapped of course, go figure. Anyway this is one of the places I came to read for answers and figured I'd post a few pics...











And of course the wifes favorite goof ball blowing off steam.... I aint a small guy, it's amazing how much room is under the hood.....

 

stupid a/c pump always in the way
i liked on the 2nd gens the a/c hoses both went to the passenger side and you could just flop the whole pump over to the side.

 

dang..you fit in there?..we hafta pull evrything outta the front end when we work on our hemi's

 

How the hell did you fit in there?

 

carefully?

 

Carefully, yeah it was easier once the radiator was removed. Since I didn't have the chain tool the manual recommends I had to adjust the chains by sight on the truck so the radiator had to come out. I will say standing in the engine bay made bolting and torquing everything down allot easier, no sore back. I didn't have to jump out until I was ready to bolt the accessories on.