So after a short life of approximately 138K the motor ejected a rod. I don't blame it though, I saw that one of the heads and matching piston had some scaring from an incident with the previous owner who did not understand that oil needed to be changed regularly.

I picked up a tired, rebuildable motor for a deal at 250.00, a steal as it was taking up shop space for too long according to the guy. Very little carbon, nice and clean inside. Still crosshatch in cylinders with no lip. I have never rebuilt a dodge motor but this is what is planned:

Bearings, main seals, valve stems, timing chain, oil pump, gaskets, tty head bolts. In addition it gets updated valve springs. Total for this is 600+- in parts. I have a friend who rebuilds chevys all the time who volunteered to help get this done. Motor is mostly apart, need to pull crank and see if can use std size bearings still.

Any tips on the rebuild?

Anything else I should do while it is in pieces?

 

If it's a 5.7 change up the oil pump to a 6.1.
Nice little upgrade.
Al.

 

It is, good idea. Not much more money either. Are the cheaper ones more prone to failure than the melling I was looking at?

 

Get the valve guides done to get rid of the tick.

 

No.....the 6.1 pumps have a little more output I'm lead to believe.
Al.

 

6.1 pumps are higher output, usually a good recommended upgrade if/when you change a cam. Don't see what year yours is, but since you are rebuilding/changing engines now would be a good time (it'll be easy) to put in a better cam.

 

2003 was the original motor, I had done all the valve spring updates. The new used motor is a 2004. Cam is out of the budget at 300+ unfortunately. Thanks for the details, open to all advice while I have this thing apart.

 

Ok, new motor is almost completely disassembled. We stamped all the rods/caps. My friend is having a hard time believing it has 200K on it, can still see the honing pattern in all cylinders and main and rod bearings look about new. So far all STD size so all good there.

Going to rent a harmonic balancer puller tonight. In the end a rebuild motor for less than 1K is a pretty nice deal. I hope to start pulling the old motor tomorrow.