Don't you want the wideband BEFORE the cats though???

 

I dont think so. There are already 4 on the car, two "upper" and two "lower". The uppers are in the collectors, and the lowers are in the midpipes. According to the instructions, as long as its at least 18" behind the collector, its fine. I will research this though.

 

So, I went to HPtuners and looked into it. There seems to be up to a .2 difference in the reading at what they call stoic at idle, which is 14.7. So its fine. And ill also be looking at the readings from the computer via HPtuners. The gauge is just to keep an eye on things in case of an emergency.

 

Its been awhile since I updated. Not much has changed. Life keeps getting in the way and all. I had some schooling to do for work, with a very expensive and difficult test at the end. I did fine on the test, but I started passing a kidney stone in the middle of it all. I ended up in the hospital, going into kidney failure, and had to get a ureteral stent put it. All of that is over, but now I have a bunch of bills.....Ugh

Anyway, I decided to move along with what I have in hand. I think the plan is to install the exhaust first, as a stage one. This will allow me to also install the O2 sensor for the gauges, and start tuning with the HPtuners. Next will be the engine, but thats probably going to be next year. Work and bills and life keep slowing things down. But Im blessed to have a good job and be able to do all this. Not complaining at all, I promise.

I welded up the X-pipe. It isnt pretty, but itll work. I also laid out all the exhaust to make sure I have everything. It looks like I should have it all. We shall see.

I also spent a little time polishing the hood on the car. Im experimenting to see what works for me, and the hood was the worst. I think it turned out fantastic. Ill slowly be doing the whole car over the next few months. Im also going to remove the door trim. Its turning black anyway.

I havent cut down the straight section, so its very long. Ill replace everything from the engine back, and tie in to the factory exhaust right after the mufflers.

Stainless works headers, cats and mid-pipes. I made the x-pipe.

Again, Im sure Ill have to shorten the straight section. Also you can see the cutouts here. I cant wait to hear how it sounds.

Quite a difference. I went ahead and polished the top of every surface forward of the windshield today. Ill move the the doors and roof next.

 

I need a little advice on this.

I have been planning this build for awhile, and I have 99% of the stuff for it. I set a goal of putting the engine in on Christmas break. The company I work for shuts down for a week, and the way the holidays fall, Ill have about 17 days off at Christmas.

My reservation is the order of this build. I have swapped engines and transmissions before, but I have never replaced an engine that needed to be tuned to run. The replacement engine is a stock 5.7 hemi, but it has a big cam, so it will need a tune to idle and run properly.

I also have the supercharger and the intercooler and all those parts. Again,I can put it in, but it needs a tune to run right.

My current engine runs fine with 175,000 miles on it. My problem is, which do I do first? I have HPTuners, but I have not tuned the car yet. I worry about replacing the engine and not getting it right before I have to return to work. I could install the supercharger also, but that presents the same problem. I found a local tuner, but it will cost $850 to tune the car, and the way things are right now, I just don't have that, at least not around the holidays.

Should I install the supercharger first, and take a little time learning to tune it on a stock engine? This way if it blows up, I have the other engine to install. Or, I could put the new engine in and tune it. When its good add the supercharger and tune it again.

This is my daily driver, so it has to run well enough to get me to work. I have a friend who says the tuning isn't that hard, but he has only tuned an LS for a cam. Apparently hemis a much more difficult.

 

I would be tempted to just pick up a beater as temporary transportation while you work on the charger... You could experiment with the HP Tuner software on the current engine, to get a feel for what you are doing, and what assorted changes do to the engine, just make ONE small change at a time, then see the results. (data logging is wonderful.)

A problem I see though, is 'big cam' and 'supercharger', those don't really go well together..... too much valve overlap and you end up blowing your burnable mixture right out the exhaust before the valve closes, and compression stroke begins.....

 

I considered a beater, but we don't want to pay insurance and keep up and stuff, plus I have an issue when I buy literally anything...it becomes a project. It's a sickness.

The cam was specifically designed to work with a supercharger, so its a boost cam. It does have 117 degrees of lobe separation though, so it should be a little choppy. But that will also make it harder to tune.

 

Actually, the wider lobe separation should give you really good vacuum at idle, thus, a pretty smooth idle...... It's likely just higher lift/duration than stock, with reduced overlap. (which is what is need on a blower cam.) Usually, cams designed for forced induction, are fairly mild, as you don't need/want a lumpy cam, as the blower is going to make darn sure you get good cylinder fill.

 

Okay, so a ton has happened over the last month or two, and this might be a long update. Here we go...


1st picture- Intake off, engine plate on, engine ready to pull.






Intercooler mock up. This is smaller than the original, because I trusted some guy on you tube. These cars are a bit tight up front, and the larger intercooler didnt fit. If the intake temps get out of hand, Ill switch to water to air later. This should fit nicely, and be visible through the grill, which is what I want.






And out she comes. Kind of a pain in the butt. But it worked. Just a lot of jacking the car up and down to get the height right for everything. (Pay attention to the Ford ranger in the background...)






Here is the bad spot on the head gasket. The rest of the engine looked fine. It was much dirtier than I imagined. These engines are pretty wide, so I couldnt see below the valve covers. But the engine looked great internally.







The new engine, tore apart....It was completely assembled. This engine was an original Mopar crate motor assembled in 2014. I bought it from a friend of a friend for $2500. I had it all painted and looking good. This is where the crap hit the fan and I created a disaster.






The top end of the new motor. With some new stuff.



What happened:


Im an idiot. I was installing the supercharger lower crank pulley adapter. Its just a small adapter that bolts inside of the factory crank pulley and allows you to bolt on the lower supercharger pulley. I wanted to get this done while the engine was on the stand so I didnt have to drill the crank inside the engine bay. The goal was to install everything for the entire build and leave the supercharger head unit off, until I get the car tuned and running. The first stage would adjust for the cam, the next for the injectors, and the final for the boost.


Drilling the crank is not really hard ( says the guys who messed it up). You install the fixture, set the drill depth and drill the crank. This went fine. I was reading the wrong page in the install manual, and installed the short (wrong) dowel pins. These are for an aftermarket Fluidampner pulley, and Im not using one of those. The factory crank gets longer dowel pins and the adapter for the lower pulley is indexed by the dowel pins. Because I put the wrong ones in, I just removed the crank pulley again, and the pins came right out. No problem.


Now, I needed to install the supercharger lower pulley adapter, with the longer pins AND re-install the lower crank pulley. I decided to do both of these at one time. This is where it went south. Using the internal threads of the crank to install the crank pulley is fine. Thats the way its designed. Adding dowel pins that arent exactly lined up...well that pulls the threads out of a new crankshaft. DONT DO THIS.


I almost didnt get the bolt out, but when it came out, I knew instantly I was screwed. After a few minutes of being sick to my stomach, I made a few phone calls .I called the machine shop and he said he couldnt fix the crank. I talked to my wife, who hasnt divorced me yet, and she said we would just have to get another crank. I decided the fastest and cheapest way to fix this is to make it a future me problem, and use the crank from the old engine. When I rebuild the old engine to install it in Isaacs truck, Ill buy another crankshaft.


I removed it from the old engine and had it checked and polished. They said it was perfect. Im going to use ARP rod bolts, because as far as I know, the factory rod bolts are torque to yield, and are a one time use. The machine shop will check the big rod ends with the new bolts to make sure they are round, and Ill re-assemble the engine and put it in.


This was supposed to be a quick engine swap with a few extras, and I messed it up. Now its going to be a few more weeks at best. What a mess. I have fixed a few other issues while Im at it, and this will allow me to fix even more issues. Ill be driving that little red 86 ford ranger until I get this back together. It has what feels like about 35 hp. Its a turd, but it was free and it runs. Not great, but itll be motivation to get my car together.

 

Finally back where I started. Got the crank and rods in, and the engine back together. I wanted to see how it looks, so I put it together (mocked up, of course). Waiting on the weather to break to drop it in.