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Dodge ChargerThe Dodge Charger. The car that made its competitors shiver in the 60's is reborn in 2006 into a sleek sedan that can still send the competition home wimpering, the Dodge Charger.
(Quick back-story..)
Bought my 06 Police a few years ago at auction for $900 at ~94,000 miles from my local police. It had a significant "tap" at #6 cylinder and I knew something was up. I soon learned about Mopar's (intended?) design flaw in their 5.7 - a very weak press-fit of the valve seats in their aluminum heads. I pulled the heads and ended up just replacing #6 piston/rod. Since it only had minor right bank head chamber damage I had it checked and tested, and had new seats/valves installed. After grinding down any significant burrs remaining in the chamber (negligible change in displacement), and honing out the minor cylinder wall scoring (no change in bore diameter), I reassembled and made other mods to pretty much make it into an R/T:
Installed black "leather" R/T seats front and rear.
Repaired moderate body damage and my neighbor (who was a master painter as a local body shop) repainted it with the original "black pearl".
Replaced the trunk lid due to antenna holes and added an R/T rear spoiler.
Pulled the dash shifter and installed a fully functional (lights, accessory power outlet, "autostick", etc.) which was a bit of a challenge due to the very different wiring harness requirements. Replaced the instrument panel to avoid an unsightly "blank" over the removed dash shifter.
Pulled the rubber mats and installed black OEM carpet.
Replaced the missing engine cover
Replaced damaged wheel well splash panels
Removed the blanks and installed OEM driving/fog lights (also requiring a headlight switch change).
Removed the police spotlights and blanked the openings.
Added the OEM trunk floor panel and carpet.
Replaced stock rear lights with LED.
Replaced the 17" police rims with later model 20" Challenger rims.
Installed "HEMI" hood and rear quarter panel decals.
80, 000 miles of fun later all was fine, until...
("Recent" development...) I was up in Oregon in June (350 miles from home) driving casually on city streets when the lower radiator hose worked its way loose. When the police had it before me, they installed a generic screw-drive clamp on the lower hose at the radiator - apparently not quite tight enough. There's something to be said for the spring-type clamps... As a result, there was a catastrophic loss of coolant which wasn't noticeable until the engine temp light came on (does anyone keep a continual eye on the temp gage?). I kid you not - within seconds of the light coming on I switched the engine off and coasted to a stop. I guess that's ANOTHER Mopar design flaw - the engine temp light setting is too high to provide adequate driver warning to prevent engine failure. After replacing the hose and lost coolant it would turn over but wouldn't start - not a single cylinder seemed to fire. I had the local Mopar service center run a diagnostic and they reported a dropped valve seat. So I U-hauled it home and started disassembly only to find 5 dropped seats (the original wasn't one of them.
(Recovery...)
So, I researched rebuild options and decided that all things considered that re-manufacturing it myself (vs. rebuild) was sadly the right way to go. I REALLY wanted to put a stroker kit, cam, Edelbrock intake in, but I just couldn't justify the cost for now. After disassembly, I was a bit surprised at the lack of bearing wear (cam, mains, pistons), but attributed it to strict maintenance of the police department, and that I immediately switched to a quality synthetic (Amsoil) after the initial engine repair.
I took the block to a shop and the cylinder was recoverable with boring it .030 over. I also had it cleaned, decked, and magnafluxed.
I left the cam bearings for the shop to check since they are much more complicated to remove/replace than simple rods/mains. They reported that all 5 bearings looked nearly new - unnoticeable wear - so I left them in. After I brought it back home, it's a good thing I checked them myself because the center bearing (only) had severe corrosion. The other 4 were as initially reported. So, I mic'ed the camshaft journals - and since they were still factory spec I only had to replace the bearings - after buying a cam bearing tool. It just goes to show that for something as invested as an engine build, check - and re-check!
(I initially bought one from eBay, but UPS didn't do the initial scan upon receiving it, and it was lost to their system for almost 2 weeks. Meanwhile, I couldn't wait that long, so I bought a different one from Amazon - which was out for delivery as originally advertised, but wasn't delivered until a few days later. I kicked myself for not buying it from good ol' trustworthy Summit Racing in the first place. For me, their standard shipping from their Sparks, NV warehouse has always been next day (or so I remember) except for a complete exhaust system I bought for my '87 IROC)
While there were no punctures in the heads, the damage was notably more than the first time, so I decided to replace them with a fully "corrected" set.
I disassembled the oil pump - negligible wear - still within factory specs.
I did additional detailed cleaning of the block since the shop clean didn't remove everything, and found some flaking engine paint. So, after detailing the exterior of the block, I thought - "Well, this IS a Hemi, right? Since it could use a full re-paint, why not change the color to the traditional "Hemi Orange?" I also detailed the timing cover and water pump and coated them with Aluminum engine paint.
I made my own press to remove the piston pins from the rods and installed the new pistons/pins with the "heat" method.
The (moly) rings are gapped and now installed, so since the crank is back in, I'm off to install the pistons this morning...
Needs eagle heads and a cam with an eagle intake. Plus a 3.06 Getrag. Above all you need a 180° thermostat (with fan settings changed to match). I ran an 06 Charger to over 180k but I made sure that motherf@cker NEVER overheated lol.
Pics? OK - I'll start with the cylinder damage.. Left bank left head Cylinder 1 Cylinder 3 Cylinder head 3 Cylinder 5 Cylinder head 5 Cylinder 7 Right bank right head Cylinder 2 Cylinder head 2 Cylinder 4 Cylinder 6 Cylinder head 6 (prior repair) Cylinder 8 Cylinder head 8
Wow..... Did that sit for a while? Or is the rust from some other cause? (cracked block??)
Gonna try and save the heads??
Not rust - just lighting and discoloration.
Not gonna chance having an issue with the heads - but they were good enough for a core credit on a set of "corrected" heads.
Not rust - just lighting and discoloration.
Not gonna chance having an issue with the heads - but they were good enough for a core credit on a set of "corrected" heads.
As you may be able to see, there is some scoring on some of the cylinder walls.
Also, here's a pic of the corroded middle cam bearing. The machine shop said all 5 were OK, but apparently they didn't really look. I took their word for it, but discovered the damage before I installed the cam. Since I already brought it back home, I decided to spend the money for a cam bearing tool instead of making the re-delivery and return trips (1 hour each trip) and paying $75 for them to replace them for me. Due to tool delivery delays I kinda wish I had them do it. Sigh, at least I have something (the tool) to show for it... 5 bearings front to back. Note the middle one...
5.7 Engine reman after valve seats drop
