Meet Valerie - Supercharged Riot's car - Update 12/13/2012

[greenpigs]

Do you have some sort of rubber ring around the opening where the fuel line comes out?

If not I suggest getting one.

[kokxville]

there's a hub for sale at the classifieds section 

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,90318.0.html

[Supercharged Riot]

the shifter tunnel is already sold     wow that was fast.

[Rolling_Thunder]

U can order the transmission hump (MM1228) from Classic Industries down in Huntington Beach, CA through April 3rd - they currently have a 20% off sale (CODE: MAD412)     

[Supercharged Riot]

04-06-2012 - Ok. More progress today.

Removed crankshaft
Crankshaft bearings
Oil galley plugs
Freeze plugs
Camshaft
Camshaft bearings
Dropped my engine block off at the hot tank

Cleaned parts in the roto-jet

It looks like my camshaft is not stock after all. I have a Mopar performace purple shaft. I dont know the specs yet.


Oil galley plug removal













I used the Camshaft bearing removal kit and punched those suckers out with a little help from the TA's in class.


Camshaft bearings removed.


Hot tanked by the end of the day. See you next week.

[Supercharged Riot]

04-27-2012 Update - Cleaning the engine block & parts

Clean & deburr engine block
Clean & polish pistons & connecting rods
Re-grind crankshaft (outsourced to Wayne's Engine Rebuilders) .020 under

Probably not the most exciting part to look at, but I'm having a blast.
Right now I'm cleaning the engine block.
This is kind of a labor intensive task.
Last time it was rebuild, no one bothered to deburr the casting flash on the block.
Although it may or may not make a difference on performance, any loose burrs broken off may get into my rotating assembly and ruin my engine.
So I'm taking the extra effort (with recommendation of several people of course) to make sure my block is in tip top shape before putting it back together.

You might or might not see it, but my main and rod journals are scratched up.
I was already told I didnt have the proper equipment to regrind the crankshaft at school, so I just outsourced it to Wayne's Engine Rebuilders to do the work





Notice the left over casting flash. It needed attention




I should have did an overhead shot of the block, but you can kind of see some more between the lifter guides



I spent all day with the grinder to shave off the small burrs inside the engine block




Pistons ready for cleaning & polishing. It turns out that they are forged pistons.
Hopefully they are in good condition so that I wont have to spend $500+ to buy another set



For any of you that have never opened up an engine block and looked at some pistons, notice how each of the top 2 piston rings are identified with dots on top of the piston rings to show you which side faces up.
My pistons are full of carbon, they really need cleaning.



Here's an ID stamp on my engine block: 383 HP block?

[greenpigs]

I could be wrong(and am often) but I think it should be stamped HP if your charger came with a 4 bbl 383 from the factory. If yours is a G code or 2bbl then it is correct.

[1974dodgecharger]

Do you think the motor is healthy based on what you see? I ask because you had the blower on there and what I see pic wise those pieces dont look too bad the engine pieces that is and it looks stock?

[Supercharged Riot]

I did a little research.
Its an hp engine.

To answer your question about whether my engine parts are healthy...
Mostly.

I cleaned on of my forged pistons to see how clean i could get it. Not bad at all. Ill post more pics of my pistons later this week.

tHere are other engine parts that werent so healthy, but they were save-able. Like my crankshaft. I neededto regrind my journals .20 under, which is still usable. I was worried i had to replace my crankshaft anduse that as an excuse to buy a new one and make it a stroker 

But the blower wasnt the reason why my crankshaft needed repair.

There was some small particles contaminating my engine getting in between the crankshaft journals and bearings. Ill show more as i go along

[Finn]

I could be wrong(and am often) but I think it should be stamped HP if your charger came with a 4 bbl 383 from the factory. If yours is a G code or 2bbl then it is correct.

Looks like there's an H.P. down to the right of where it says 383, could that be it??

[1974dodgecharger]

I could be wrong(and am often) but I think it should be stamped HP if your charger came with a 4 bbl 383 from the factory. If yours is a G code or 2bbl then it is correct.

Looks like there's an H.P. down to the right of where it says 383, could that be it??

Yeah good eye I see that too......

[aussiemuscle]

Most likely gloss black because I never found out a way to replicate the semi gloss appearance of Blade's Charger.

all you need is to use semi-gloss paint

[Supercharged Riot]

Well what a waste of a day today.
I had trouble working with the dial bore gauge (yes. I dont know how to use it)
So I decided to take a break and clean my forged pistons.....only to find out some of them were no longer usable.
See my pics below.
The biggest problem is that I dont know what manufacturer makes these pistons to even try to order a replacement.
And if I dont find out within a week, I have to move forward and buy a brand new set    

To sum it up.
I didnt do anything productive today.
I'll just make the most out of things now with what I got.

On the plus side, I can use this  as an excuse to start over from scratch.
The only thing I'll probably re-use are the factory forged connecting rods and crankshaft.
Any ideas on some good setups using these factory parts?

I'll mostly want this to be for reliable street use, but still have bad manners on the road.
This car will eventually be more of a pro-touring car later on once I am able to purchase a new coilover suspension setup.

Measuring cylinder bore size....

I didnt know how to use this for the life of me. Any tutorials?  I'll give it  another shot and have my teacher help me more on this I suppose



Pistons cleaned but......



See some of the damaged pistons?









I got 3 weeks of school left and time is burning away.  

[greenpigs]

That last one on the right looks nasty...I don't think I would re-use it.

[1974dodgecharger]

sweet, thanks for update...


you should just buy new inerternals since you broken into already.....why use old stuff when you can UPGRADE to new stuff 

[Supercharged Riot]

Yeah i know right. As much as i love using this as an  excuse to buy new parts 
Its still kinda sucks to know you have to burn a hole in the pocket for new parts.
Pistons arent cheAp either.

[mauve66]

That last one on the right looks nasty...I don't think I would re-use it.

and if the bores need to be cleaned up very much then the pistons won't seal right anyway so it sounds like a stroker kit in the making............

[1974dodgecharger]

That last one on the right looks nasty...I don't think I would re-use it.

and if the bores need to be cleaned up very much then the pistons won't seal right anyway so it sounds like a stroker kit in the making............

[greenpigs]

Before buying new pistons...make SURE you know what you want out of this rebuild.

[440]

Make sure you get a set suitable for a blower 

[Supercharged Riot]

Im lookin to build something that meets halfway between a streetable car and something i can take to do some track racing (protouring type racing)

Im taking suggestions since im almost starting from scratch
The car will be mostly street driven but raced on the weekends

Ill need he engine to operate anywhere as low as 1-2k rpm and up to about 6k rpm.

With that in mind i hope to be able to re-use the following parts that seems to be in a re usable condition:


1) factory connecting rods - not a big deal if i have to upgrade to hbeam rods.
2) factory forged crankshaft - i really wanna reuse this part. I dont really want to buy a new crankshaft for $700+

Your opinions please!!!. Did i give enough info?

[Rolling_Thunder]

If you're going with new pistons and machine work I would go with a stroker kit...     The protouring thing really benefits from low end torque which you will be lacking with a stock stroke 383 - the stroker kit would be the way to go.

[Cooter]

    The protouring thing really benefits from low end torque which you will be lacking with a stock stroke 383

Really? I would assume that big ole Huffer that sits on top would boost the sh*t outta low end torque. Even on a 383. Those pistons are the reason why I don't recommend stock bottom ends and blowers.

[Supercharged Riot]

This week was more progress.

I finally got measurements recorded from my engine block & components
Although not the most exciting thing to observe, I was finally able to learn how to use the dial bore gauge to measure the cylinder bore wear.

I first had to figure out what my cylinder width (top & bottom).
I also had to measure my piston sizes to help me get a reference measurement.
I found out that my cylinders have been bored 0.030 before (It obviously has been rebuilt before).

My partner is helping me take measurements


I had to figure out cylinder bore with this expensive tool.




I eventually documented my findings on school paper first



Eventually the data stored was transferred to a more organized readable format (Excel)

Some Engine block data


Spent one evening measuring my camshaft



Yeah I know my thread doesnt have the most eye pleasing pictures at this point, but this is where all the real work goes into rebuilding an engine.  
I hope some of you appreciate what engine rebuilders go through (for those of you that pay a professional to do the work)
Im not a professional, but there is quite some delicate tasks being performed on an engine in a rebuild.

[Supercharged Riot]

Oh yeah, I made a decision about my engine.
I wont be stroking it.

I dont think its worth the money to put all that money into the 383 just to increase and match the displacement of a stock 440 engine (like a 438 stroker). I figured I might as well buy a stock 440 and call it a day.

Im just going to work with what I got.
My 2 major engine parts are still is good working condition
1) crankshaft (I just paid to get this thing regrinded .020 under).
2) connecting rods
All I need to do is buy new pistons
Maybe a new cam set (some of my cam lobes had some excessive wear)

If I get a stroker kit, I gotta find someone who wants a used 383 crankshaft.
Im gunna give this engine a nice rebuild.
Not too much money put into it. Just good enough to bring it back to life.
Run the hell out of it until it blows up and then find a 440 some other time.

Feedback & opinions?  I still got time to decide. Just thought I'd see what you guys say about that?
Any feedback?