71 GY3 GTX update... Comin' together!

[471_Magnum]

Not a "Charger-story", but for those of you that don't tune into the "Garage" section and are interested, I'll give you and update on the GTX.

Just to recap, I jumped on the opportunity to buy this car when a friend decided it wasn't the car from him shortly after he had purchased it. The car is an immaculately clean (if not "correct") restoration that was apparently completed about 5 years ago. The odometer read about 750 miles. The car has obviously been nothing more than a show pony for the last few years. Really not the type of car I was looking for, but I figured opportunities like this one don't present themselves very often.

The troubles started almost immediately once the car was driven a bit.

First thing that happened was a wiped fuel pump pushrod. In the process of fixing that, we broke off an alternator bolt. Both of these issues were fixed with minimal pain.

First time I refueled the car, gas leaked from the vapor return line that was left disconnected at some earlier point in time. Makes me wonder if it has ever had a full tank of gas.

In general, the car ran like a slug, some of which was due to the Edelbrock 600 cfm carb. I could barely spin the tires. I quickly replaced that with a Holley 770 and it perked up a bit, but it was still no rocket ship. A tune-up did not reveal anything obviously amiss. I dismissed the less than stellar performance due to the fact it was just a stock 440 with some big shoes to fill when compared the stroker in Charger.

The rear pinion seal leaked badly. Took a few trips to the auto parts store, but we finally found a seal that worked and the leak seams to be fixed.

Inspection of the front suspension revealed cotter pins to be missing from many of the castle nuts. On the upper and lower ball joints, the holes were clocked such that installing the pins was a major pain in the butt. 

The radio, cigarette lighter and horn didn't work. All have now been repaired.

Upon completing all of these repairs, I deemed the car road worthy enough to make the 325 mile trip to Columbus for Mopar Nationals.

About 130 miles from home, it put a pushrod through a rocker arm. 

Inspection revealed that whoever assembled the motor used pre-'68 pushrods... installed UPSIDE DOWN.  The narrow tip of the rod quickly wore a hole in the rocker. New rockers and pushrods have been procured.

I removed the intake to retrieve the lifter that popped out and discovered an amateur attempt at port matching on the heads. Initial impression is that someone attempted to port match them on their kitchen table while doing some bong hits.   

The lifter I retrieved was beat-up pretty bad. Clip had popped out part way and chewed-up the lip.

At this point I decided to pull the motor and check everything out. I'm going to check all the bearing clearances. Just too many little issues I've noticed to not dig deaper. Hopefully the poor workmanship does not extend to the short block. It's worth the price of a gasket set to know what I'm working with. If I'm going to drive this car, I need to be able to do it with some confidence.

I'm fairly sure this motor was built to do nothing more than drive this car on and off a trailer, and look pretty.

Last night we got it out with no issues. Tonight I'll get it up on the engine stand. First I'll pull one of the heads. I want to see how far the pistons are down in the hole. Since this isn't the original motor, it's anybody's guess what I'll find.

As far as the heads go (346 castings), I need to give them a closer look. Doesn't look like much material was removed. If I find 2.14/1.81 valves and hardened seats, I might try to salvage them. If not, I've got a set of fresh 452s that I'll clean-up and use.

I'll drop the pan and inspect the bearings. Hopefully there wasn't any damage to the bottom end when the lifter popped out and I lost oil pressure. I've notice it is missing the windage tray, so I'll sandwich one in before buttoning it up.

As long as it's apart, I figure it would be silly not to take the opportunity to upgrade the cam. I've ordered a new Comp Cam Extreme Energy 268H to get the power to a repectable level and give it a decent idle lope.

While pushing the car around, I've noticed a loud grinding noise coming from the rear axle. I suspect a bad outer axle bearing, so I'll be inspecting that at some point. 

Needless to say, I'm not real pleased with the purchase up to this point. I pretty much spent every spare dime I had just to obtain the car. These extra expenses are killing me. I'm going to face a tough decision once I get it back together.

[1972Rallye]

Man... it sure didn't look like a project car!  At least you're getting it all straightened out. 

[471_Magnum]

At least you're getting it all straightened out.

Yeah. The next owner should be pleased.

[1carcrazyguy]

Sorry to hear your having troubles.  Hopefully when you get it back together a quick run through the gears will make it all worth while!! 

[TUFCAT]

Yeah. The next owner should be pleased.

I love that GTX....can I be the next owner??  PLEASE!  Do you take-in trades?

[NYCMille]

Oh man Jim, I'm really sorry to hear that. That car "looked" perfect, I mean really perfect... hopefully you'll get all the bugs sorted out and really be able to enjoy it soon. 

[Nacho-RT74]

wasn't you bored about your old car ? sure this is giving you some fun on the resto hobbie and will keep you busy, so not more boring around 

Just joking. Sorry hear about. After all is just repair stuff and not a BIG WORK like resto body or kinda... Did you check for thick Bondo areas ?

[hemi68charger]

Oh man Jim, I'm really sorry to hear that. That car "looked" perfect, I mean really perfect... hopefully you'll get all the bugs sorted out and really be able to enjoy it soon. 

Like they say, can't tell a book by it's cover....... This really stinks.... I mean, there are way too many things that went wrong to be chalked up to bad luck.. You would thing the effort in painting/detailing the car would have be applied to the mechanical aspect as well..........

Good luck now on whatever you plan to do..........

Troy

[Brock Samson]

sorry for your new can 'o worms...


  Guess it aptly demonstrates an advantage do doing your own resto from scratch which is knowing the car from day one...
not that that isn't without a steep learning curve as well...
  So would you say the car was misrepresented before you bought it?.. 

[471_Magnum]

So would you say the car was misrepresented before you bought it?..

No. I knew it had a pretty cloudy history. I took a chance.

[BrianShaughnessy]

Sorry about what happened with the car but meeting up with you was one of my few highlights from the Nats.   

You'll get it fixed up soon enough.   

[Mass_Mopar]

sorry to hear about the problems, i agree, it looked mint beforehand and still does   Even though it's a major blow I hope you'll be able to enjoy it when you get it all back together 

[Lowprofile]

Sorry to hear of your troubles Bro. I hope you get her together soon and get to enjoy her. Its a sweet looking ride. 

[471_Magnum]

The good new is I got the heads off tonight and the top side looks pretty good. There are 30-over flat tops that are about 90-thou down in the hole. Cylinder walls look good. No major carbon build-up on the piston tops.

Heads have standard-size valves and no hardened seats. I guess I will be using those 452s after some port matching.

Tomorrow night or Saturday morning I'll get the pan off and pull a couple of caps.

[69charger2002]

that sucks man. and i know all you want to do is be able to hop in it and drive.. trouble free. sucks when someone half asses stuff or does certain aspects at "no expense" and then the really important stuff(mechanical/brakes etc) people seem to skimp out on more.. hope it all works out
trav

[BrianShaughnessy]

There are 30-over flat tops that are about 90-thou down in the hole.

Probably trw/speed-pro 2366's.   

Some old '67 915 heads would bump the compression up a bit with those.

[471_Magnum]

There are 30-over flat tops that are about 90-thou down in the hole.

Probably trw/speed-pro 2366's.

Some old '67 915 heads would bump the compression up a bit with those.

With the current 8.6:1 CR, I might want to re-think my cam choice.

[Ghoste]

If you're leaning towards flipping it, I would opt for reliability (because you will drive it hard before selling) and then affordable performance increase (not much more than stock).  But that's just my opinion.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed on the rest of the mechanicals for you.

[Rolling_Thunder]

8.6 pistons with 915 heads        

working with what you got what are you going to do ?   

[471_Magnum]

Assuming Arrowhead would exchange the 452s, they'll want at least $200 to upgrade to 915s with hardened seats. Then add in the hassle factor (shipping, etc). While those would put me about 9.3:1 CR, I just don't think they're worth the trouble.

I'm now even rethinking the value of replacing the 346s. I didn't spend a lot of time inspecting them last night. They may clean-up with a nice port-match. I need to overlay a gasket and see how much material I have to work with.

The XE268 cam I bought isn't particularly radical, but it certainly won't generate a lot of cylinder pressure at 8.7:1. I'm sure it needs more than 8.7:1 to make really good low end torque. On the flip side, with the stick, I want it to rev. Anything smaller will run out of breath, so I'll probably stick with it.

I forgot to mention, disassembly revealed the transmission is a 23 spline, not the 18 spline that I assumed it had. I'm actually not terribly bothered by that discrepancy. If I keep the car, I'll install a Passon OD gearset down the line, making the 23 spline a moot point.

I'm not really looking to flip the car. Once I get things sorted out, it will probably grow on me. I'm just dealing with some frustration at the moment.

[Nacho-RT74]

I'm not really looking to flip the car. Once I get things sorted out, it will probably grow on me. I'm just dealing with some frustration at the moment.

and thinking those B bodies are more comfortable than earliers as far I have known, then you'll be find when this storm just go away.

[89MOPAR]

Sorry to hear the troubles, on the other hand - now you have really dug into it, turned some furious wrenches on it , and you'll aprreciate it all the more when it is running well.   Thats a great rig, makes me want my old GTX back.   But only so many rigs at a time.   And a new experience and a new car is good.

A true pot smoker would have flow tested those ports with some bong smoke !   
So, yeah that guy was 1/2 assed..

[Charger_Fan]

A true pot smoker would have flow tested those ports with some bong smoke !   

Sorry to hear about your troubles, that definitely takes some of the fun out of a new toy.
Hopefully it's smooth sailing after this little fix.

[Charger1973]

Yeah I really hate to hear that, it looks mint.  I think once you get the bugs worked out of it, you will enjoy the car and it will grow on you like you said. 

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

There are 30-over flat tops that are about 90-thou down in the hole.

Probably trw/speed-pro 2366's.   

Some old '67 915 heads would bump the compression up a bit with those.

Thats what I am running with Engles K56 cam

[firefighter3931]

With the pistons that far down and an open chamber head you will want a cam profile with a flatter powerband. Something like the Crower HDP 271 grind would be a nice fit, inmo. 

Jim, are they ever finished ? 



Ron

[471_Magnum]

I got the pan off and pulled the #1 rod cap. This is what I found (see pics).

[Charger-Bodie]

time for a stroker crank and a kiesler 5 speed?!

[471_Magnum]

time for a stroker crank and a kiesler 5 speed?!

More like time to refinance the house. 

[Charger-Bodie]

time for a stroker crank and a kiesler 5 speed?!

More like time to refinance the house. 

it sucks when life comes at a guy like that trust me ive been there myself, it make the wait even worse! hang in there thou it will all work out!

[Ghoste]

Be patient Jim and take heart in the fact that cosmetically, the car is done.  I know how bad you want to drive it but just hang tough.  It'll all work out.

[The70RT]

Damn........any second thoughts? Not that that would do any good 

[471_Magnum]

I'm exploring my options right now. Ideally I might be able to find a decent 440 locally. I put out the SOS to some friends. Something might turn up.

I need to inspect the crank and see if the journals have been turned previously. The scouring on the #1 isn't deep. It may cleanup with just a polish.

I could just go crazy and stroke it, but that would require some creative financing.

[BrianShaughnessy]

What size bearings in it?   You can get .001 or .002's if it cleans up.

Sorry about this motor dude... it kinda bites big time.

 

[Chargerfanatic]

Forgive my ignorance cause I haven't kept up. Was this supposed to be a fresh motor? Otherwise it is just an old motor with miles. Look at it this way, once you have all of it done, it is DONE! You will know what you have and you will enjoy it. If the car is as good as people have said there would be no reason to get rid of it after it is fixed. Sorry that it has been such a headache, been there.

[471_Magnum]

What size bearings in it? You can get .001 or .002's if it cleans up.

Haven't checked the bearings yet. Crank journal still have the undercut fillet on them. They may still be STD.

Since this project has now gone from a quick repair, to something a little more long term, I'm spending the day reorganizing the garage. I'm packing up all the loose parts scattered around the garage so I won't be tripping over them while I figure this mess out.

Forgive my ignorance cause I haven't kept up. Was this supposed to be a fresh motor? Otherwise it is just an old motor with miles.

There were no claims made on the motor. The oil was VERY clean when I changed it after the fuel pump pushrod incident. It probably was fresh, but popping out that lifter after breaking the rocker armed turned it to junk.

[Ghoste]

Then again, the rocker arm failure (and quick shutdown) may have saved you from a more catastrophic failure down the road.

[Charger_Fan]

Half that gouging is probably from the fuel pump rod. I bet if you had the block cleaned, polished the crank, swapped your heads, put fresh rings & a new oil pump on it, it would be good to go.
At least, until you got the hankering for a stroker or something, down the road.

[rt green]

well the hole has been dug. not by your choice, but neverless its been dug. if you were ever wondering about the mystery of the inside of your engine, now you know. if there was anything you liked or disliked about your old engine now you have a chance to copy it, or improve on it. now you have to decide on what kind of shovel you are going to use.
many think about major improvments, or think about trying different things but the thought of pulling the engine to do them is to much so it never gets done.  i'm trying to find the bright side of all this and this is all i can come up with. sorry it happened to you. thank god you werent on vacation somewhere on the other side of the country when it did.                good luck, bruce

[The70RT]

well the hole has been dug. not by your choice, but neverless its been dug. if you were ever wondering about the mystery of the inside of your engine, now you know. if there was anything you liked or disliked about your old engine now you have a chance to copy it, or improve on it. now you have to decide on what kind of shovel you are going to use.
many think about major improvments, or think about trying different things but the thought of pulling the engine to do them is to much so it never gets done.  i'm trying to find the bright side of all this and this is all i can come up with. sorry it happened to you. thank god you werent on vacation somewhere on the other side of the country when it did.                good luck, bruce

I think pulling the engine and rebuilding is the easy part. Seems like most on here are doing that themselves. The body work is what most on here have to farm out. At least his body is great. He now he will know what he has when it is done...no worring about it when your on the road.

[Lowprofile]

I think pulling the engine and rebuilding is the easy part. Seems like most on here are doing that themselves. The body work is what most on here have to farm out. At least his body is great. He now he will know what he has when it is done...no worrying about it when your on the road.

I wish that were my case. I'd take mechanical over body work any day.

Now that you got it all torn down bro, ya might as well build it the way you want it. You'll never have to second guess that car again. 

[471_Magnum]

Unfortunately, there is a difference between what I want (big hairy stroker motor) and what I can afford (stock rebuild). The end result will probably fall somewhere in between.

BTW- Pulled the timing cover. THere is about 1/2" slop in the timing chain. No grind number on the front of the cam.

[Ghoste]

Doesn't matter, I think everybody here endorsed your idea of a cam swap.

[hemi-hampton]

I think 3/16" is max on the chain. The Cam may have the #'s on back or rear of Cam instead of Front, Mine did. Sounds like somebody ran out to the Junkyard & Bought up a 1977 Station Wagon or 1974 big boat C body Polara, Fury, Newport 440  Motor with 200,000 miles, Spray bombed it to look pretty & threw it in there & tried to make some money? LEON.

[Rolling_Thunder]

hey 471 dont feel alone...   I just tore down a 440 built by a certain well known builder...     1800 miles on it and it has spun bearings, scored crank, and broken piston rings...       only difference is this is a customer car...    not mine   

[Nacho-RT74]

well the hole has been dug. not by your choice, but neverless its been dug. if you were ever wondering about the mystery of the inside of your engine, now you know. if there was anything you liked or disliked about your old engine now you have a chance to copy it, or improve on it. now you have to decide on what kind of shovel you are going to use.
many think about major improvments, or think about trying different things but the thought of pulling the engine to do them is to much so it never gets done.  i'm trying to find the bright side of all this and this is all i can come up with. sorry it happened to you. thank god you werent on vacation somewhere on the other side of the country when it did.                good luck, bruce

I think pulling the engine and rebuilding is the easy part. Seems like most on here are doing that themselves. The body work is what most on here have to farm out. At least his body is great. He now he will know what he has when it is done...no worring about it when your on the road.

You have what I think is the HARDER part done. rest is just like a LEGO.

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

Jim, this months Mopar Muscle highlights year Ones rebuilt 440 crate engines.....supposed to be affordable.

EDIT---just looked up the link and they aint that affordable....

http://www.yearone.com/serverfiles/fbshopmain2.asp?cat=1

[471_Magnum]

Sounds like somebody ran out to the Junkyard & Bought up a 1977 Station Wagon or 1974 big boat C body Polara, Fury, Newport 440  Motor with 200,000 miles, Spray bombed it to look pretty & threw it in there & tried to make some money? LEON.

That's probably not far from the truth. It is a 71 motor. It does have a C-body oil pan.

A couple of opportunities have come up. The more promising one is that a friend has a fresh from the machine shop disassembled 440 HP he is willing to sell me. It is a 9.5:1 cast piston motor. I'm waiting for him to come up with a price.

Tomorrow I will call the machine shop and talk to them about inspecting, polishing, honing and rebalancing what I've got.

[Ghoste]

Maybe Chuck had some kind of instinctive feel?

[vert]

Sounds like somebody ran out to the Junkyard & Bought up a 1977 Station Wagon or 1974 big boat C body Polara, Fury, Newport 440  Motor with 200,000 miles, Spray bombed it to look pretty & threw it in there & tried to make some money? LEON.

That's probably not far from the truth. It is a 71 motor. It does have a C-body oil pan.

A couple of opportunities have come up. The more promising one is that a friend has a fresh from the machine shop disassembled 440 HP he is willing to sell me. It is a 9.5:1 cast piston motor. I'm waiting for him to come up with a price.  Things in pieces only seem cheaper.  Theres alway something...

Tomorrow I will call the machine shop and talk to them about inspecting, polishing, honing and rebalancing what I've got.

Add having the block decked to that.  That and a decent set of flattop pistons.   You'll have a solid shortblock and you can spend $ or time on the port matching later. 
Or if you buy your friends engine, make it contingent on how far down the pistons are.  It seems like a huge number of these are way down the bore at TDC, even at ~9.5:1. really being 9'ish.
Beautiful car!

[471_Magnum]

After mounting the motor on a new engine stand ($40 from Rural King) I got a couple of the main bearing caps off tonight. Bad news is the mains are scored. Good news is they are STD, as are the rod journals.

I examined the bores. They look really good with the cross hatching still clearly visible.

Right now I'm leaning towards building a good stout short block, using some CAT H-beams and Diamond flat tops. That will give me a nice light bobweight that will rev well with the stick and provide a good basis for any future possible upgrades.

I'll do the port matching myself on the 452s. I'll have a couple of weeks to kill once I get the block and crank to the machine shop.

My friend's motor is completely blue printed. I'll check it out later this week. Frankly, I hate to compromise with cast pistons and stock rods, but we'll see what the price is.

[terrible one]

Been following this thread.

That's a good deal about the motor. At least it's not a total loss, and you have a good block to build from. Nothing beats dependability, especially when YOU do it, because then you know that you've got things right. Goes back to "if you want it done right, do it yourself." As much as it sucks, now you know that it's going to be completely dependable for the future. The car really is beautiful. It's an absolute shame that the money from the mechanical funds was taken for that beautiful body.

[471_Magnum]

Got the call from the machine shop today. Block checked out okay. Just needs honed.

Crank will have to go 10-under, which I expected.

So I called 440Source and ordered my parts: Forged flat-tops, H-beams and all the required rings and bearings. I've already procured pretty much everthing else I'll need. Just need to call Mancini and order a couple of other odds and ends.

With some luck I'll be assembling the motor Labor Day weekend.

I suppose if I get REAL lucky, I might have it together by MMW. That would be pushing it though, and I'm not going to rush things.

Meanwhile I'll start working on those heads.

[471_Magnum]

D'oh! Almost forgot. It will still need balanced. Forget Labor Day weekend.

[Nacho-RT74]

did you by luck took a pic of cilinder walls ? I wan't to know when needs to be honed and not bored looking at cilinders wall conditions.

[471_Magnum]

Nacho,

You can visually inspect for scratches, but the other things you need to look for is bore size, taper and roundness. The latter items can either be out of spec due to wear or poor quality machine work.

In my case, I could still see the cross hatching from the previous honing, and there weren't any scratches, so I knew wear wasn't an issue. I was more concerned with the other potential issues listed above.

If the block was going to need to be bored, I would have had it sonic checked as well. Never a bad idea, especially if you are planning to make some serious horsepower. My horsepower target is pretty modest, so I skipped it.

[72pettyblue]

Man, I can feel your pain.  I took a chance on my 72 charger and the motor looked good from outside, but after driving it for 3 days it was obvious it was junk.  cyl walls scored, had spun bearing but someone tried to polish it and replace bearings, cam lobe was wiped, had cast dished pistons, etc.  From the outside it looked like a hp 440 with nice gear drive, holley super comp headers, weiand team g, holley 850 dp, electric fuel pump, elec fan, subframe connectors welded in.  I bought it off ebay after talking with the guy and seeing pics.  but the motor looked like and old low compression motor that was junk.  Long story short, I rebuilt the motor after considerable machine work and installed forged alum 6 pk pistons and comp xs282s cam.  Of course the trans was junk also with someone trying to rebuild it but put the wrong clutch pack in and ran some metal to metal.  But it is all back together now and I know what I really have now and feel better for it.  Footnote:  It also had the wrong pushrods which I didn't replace and just broke 2 of them.  So, a new set of pushrods will be on their way from 440 source to get her on the road again.  don't trust any parts that were on the motor, sounds like your guy didn't know any better about what he was doing

[Nacho-RT74]

Nacho,

You can visually inspect for scratches, but the other things you need to look for is bore size, taper and roundness. The latter items can either be out of spec due to wear or poor quality machine work.

In my case, I could still see the cross hatching from the previous honing, and there weren't any scratches, so I knew wear wasn't an issue. I was more concerned with the other potential issues listed above.

If the block was going to need to be bored, I would have had it sonic checked as well. Never a bad idea, especially if you are planning to make some serious horsepower. My horsepower target is pretty modest, so I skipped it.

No, just jumping from standart bore stock flat pistons to a Hipereuthic KB240 pistons on standart bore too. Block has 20K unabused miles. ( maybe less ) I wanted to see some visual comparision. By now I'm having some serious doubts of ANY machine shop right now down here.

[471_Magnum]

The "Part Fairy" (otherwise know as the FedEx/UPS man) arrived today with some goodies from 440Source; H-Beam rods, forged pistons and assorted rings and bearings.

I'm not sure who was more excited, me or my 3 year old daughter. "You get car parts daddy?!?!" She thinks the forged pistons are pretty. I have to agree.

Anyway, I spent this evening mic'ing everything. Rods checked out real nice dimensionally. There is about a 4 gram spread on weights. Pistons looked good too. No surprises.

CC'd the heads and they came in at 86 cc. With the 0.040" head gaskets I'll be using, that theoretically puts me at 9.58:1 compression. Tomorrow or Friday we'll mock-up everything at the machine shop and see how far down in the hole the pistons are.  Then it's off to the balancer.

Over the weekend I gasket matched the heads. There was some pretty nasty core shift on one of them, but I got it cleaned-up okay.

With the upcoming holiday, I don't expect to have everything back until the following week.

[Ghoste]

We're pulling for ya!

[firefighter3931]

Right on Jim, hoping the build goes smooth....you deserve some good luck with this project ! 


Ron

[471_Magnum]

Right on Jim, hoping the build goes smooth....you deserve some good luck with this project !
Ron

No such luck. Pistons are going to be too loose.

I'm trying to decide who to be pissed at, 440Source, my machine shop, or both.

My bores measured in at 4.3535, which my machine shop said should be fine with a forged piston.

The pistons from 440Source are actually Keith Black KB822s. The measure in at 4.3455.

That puts me at 8-thou clearance. Too damn much for a street motor.

So now I need to find a different piston. Not sure what I'm going to do at this point. I'm checking around.

I hate to overbore, because going to 60-over will bump the compression another tenth at the current compression height.

[supserdave]

Did they have to bore that much to clean it up, or did they just bore it to that "spec".

Sorry to hear that....Hopefully things straighten up soon.

[firefighter3931]

Right on Jim, hoping the build goes smooth....you deserve some good luck with this project !
Ron

No such luck. Pistons are going to be too loose.

I'm trying to decide who to be pissed at, 440Source, my machine shop, or both.

My bores measured in at 4.3535, which my machine shop said should be fine with a forged piston.

The pistons from 440Source are actually Keith Black KB822s. The measure in at 4.3455.

That puts me at 8-thou clearance. Too damn much for a street motor.

So now I need to find a different piston. Not sure what I'm going to do at this point. I'm checking around.

I hate to overbore, because going to 60-over will bump the compression another tenth at the current compression height.

That Sucks...guess I spoke too soon 

Are those KB's forged or hypers ? Regardless, still too much piston to wall clearance. 

Felpro makes a .051 composite gasket (13cc) if you need to pull some compression out of it.....or you could open up the chambers some. Did Aerohead de-shroud the chambers for the big valves ? 



Ron

[471_Magnum]

Okay. Got a solution.

Take the block 0.055 over and run KB836 pistons.

This will put me at 4.375 bore and 451 cubic inches and 9.3:1 compression.

These pistons aren't super light at 707 grams, but they fit the budget at $439/set.

Unfortunately, I'm faced with a four week leadtime on the pistons. Add a couple weeks to finish up the machine work and balancing. Gonna be a while....

[firefighter3931]

I saw the post on the other board....looks like an interesting slug. 

Are you gonna sonic check the block ? 


Ron

[471_Magnum]

Are you gonna sonic check the block ?

With my luck, what do you think? 

[firefighter3931]

Are you gonna sonic check the block ?

With my luck, what do you think? 

I still had to ask 


Ron

[471_Magnum]

Okay, I resolved my piston dilema by swapping my 30+ over block for a standard bore block. That opened up my piston selection a bit. Unfortunately, the ones that fit my budget (forged KB836) were on back order.

While I was waiting on the pistons, I decided to exchange my cam. I shipped back the Comp XE268H and got a XE274H. That should definitely resolve the previous issue of the weak-ass idle and exhaust note. I'm sure it still won't sound as good as the Charger did, but it no longer will sound like grandma's Newport.

Anyway, the pistons shipped today. They are essentially the last piece of the puzzle.

Machine shop tells me they will be done in "a couple of weeks, maybe a bit quicker". I'm pencilling in the weekend of 10/6 to assemble the motor.

[Charger-Bodie]

AWESOME ! cant wait to hear how it works for ya!

[471_Magnum]

Picked-up the block and balanced rotating assembly this evening.

2281g bob-weight..... ZING! Okay, not as light as the 471 is/was, but pretty darn good for a 440.

Got the block mounted up on a stand. Tonight or tomorrow night I'll file-fit the rings and wash the block. This weekend I'll assemble the motor. I'll take lots of pictures. I'll paint it up real purdy.

Assuming the assembly goes smoothly, I could have it back on the road by next weekend.

There are a couple potential hold-ups:

First one is exhaust manifold studs (3/8" NF/NC x 1 1/2"). Nobody stocks these anymore. Called every autoparts store in town and came up empty. Even called a distributor here in town who normally stocks EVERYTHING. No dice. Finally broke down and ordered them from RT Specialities. It will be mid-week before I get them. Crazy.

Next item is bell housing alignment. Had to line-hone the block, so I expect I'll need to get some offset dowels to correct the alignment. I'm using a different block than before, so it needs to be checked regardless.