5.2 in a 68 Barracuda

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68coupe

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Well guys - I got the engine in, all wiring hooked up and was ready to test. Turned the key on and no smoke from the wiring. Good sign since I rewired EVERYTHING. So I turned the key to start. The engine went clunk. I already did a thread on this part. Pulled the engine and finally turned out to be crap in number 8 cylinder. Oh, well!

So - the engine is on the stand with the oil pan off and the heads removed. You can probably guess what happens next - the "might as well syndrome". Since I have to buy all new gaskets might as well.......

Then I start researching rebuild kits. Golly, talk about exploring the unknown! These people that supply these kits only answer one question. That question is "How much?". Some of them (shhhh....Mancini) won't even answer that. They say " It will cost about (this much) before shipping". Two out of three didn't bother to reply to my emails. Either they don't really want to sell anything, or they don't want any prices they quote to be in writing. Then I thought - Well, this is a newer engine, guess they haven't put those kits together yet. Oh right, my engines only 14 years old! (sarcasm)

Then I start cleaning and disassembling the valve train. I did well by putting each lifter, push rod, rocker and other hardware in a separate baggie labelled by valve number. Back in the old days, I always just threw everything into a bucket of kerosene!

Not the cleanest engine I ever saw, but 14 years and 160K miles... Not bad.

Then I go through the leftovers from my old, trashed LA 318. It only had about 10K miles since a full rebuild by previous owner. There was a double roller chain and gears. Great! Then I ordered a timing chain tensioner from RockAuto (I love RockAuto). Tensioner, plus shipping was $29 and change.

More to come.....Later
 
Today, I got the heads dismantled and cleaned. Amazing how clean the heads are at 160K miles! I thought maybe I would go ahead and lap the valves after wire brushing them and cleaning the seats. Wow, that must be a forgotten process! None of the three generic auto parts stores have the manual lapping tool. So, I took a short piece of fuel line hose, cut the head off a 2" long bolt, inserted the bolt into the hose, put a clamp on both ends and I have a lapping tool! With the valve in the head, push the open end of the hose over the valve stem. Put the bolt end into the cordless drill. Tighten the clamp at the valve stem end to secure the hose. Then I put some rubbing compound on the valve seat and valve face and start the drill. I went forward and reverse to mimmic the old style lapping motion. Only thing is, the rubbing compound lasts about 2 nanoseconds. Guess I'll go to the box store tomorrow for lapping/grinding compound. If they have it. LOL
Also got the block cleaned up some. There is absolutely no noticeable wear on this engine block! How can an engine have 160K miles with no wear? Ain't like the old days!
Don't know about working on it tomorrow. It's supposed to be colder than a well diggers posterior here tomorrow. 7 degrees in the morning!

Let me attach pictures, then I'm going to hit the sack.
 
Coming right along! Got 6 cylinders done today - everything wirebrushed, valves lapped, valve seals and springs installed. I made a tool to compress the springs and drop the keepers in. Worked really well once I figured out a process to get the keepers in.

I ended up buying the lapping compound and lapping tools from Advance Auto parts. I called last week and the girl told me they didn't carry those anymore. AutoZone's website stated that they didn't carry the compound in the stores and that they couldn't ship it because it was considered hazardous materials. Their store also had the compound on the shelf. Go figure!

We are looking at 4-5 days of rain and/or snow here in E. Tenn. next week. Looks like a great time to hide out in the garage and get some engine work done.

I uploaded 2 pics, but the rest won't upload. Looks like the FABO server done out of bandwidth. Go figure! LOL
 
Sir, that's called old school hot rodding ( use what you have, lol.). My 5.9 Mag was the same : Perfect cyl walls, good bearings/ 100+ k on it. Best of luck, man.
 
Abodybomber said:
Sir, that's called old school hot rodding ( use what you have, lol.). My 5.9 Mag was the same : Perfect cyl walls, good bearings/ 100+ k on it. Best of luck, man.
Click to expand...

LOL - In frugal engineering terms it's called "if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it!". Thanks Abody!
 
Well, moving right along at a snail's pace! I got the heads back together and on the motor. I also got the valve train cleaned and reinstalled. I'm going to have to wait until Saturday to finish torquing the heads. These tighten to 105 lb-ft. It's hard to hold the engine, pull the wrench and read the dial at the same time. My buddy is going to bring his torque wrench over - the kind that clicks! LOL

While I had this thing apart, I decided I "might as well" get some intake mods done. I cut about 1 1/2" off of the runners. I don't know if it will help, but originally the runners go down so closely to the bottom pan, it certainly looks like it will breathe better. I also had to drill and tap a hole for the original water temp sending unit. Of course, everything gets cleaned and painted.

I have a kegger from a 92 Dakota that I compared to the 2001 Ram kegger. Seems Chrysler removed a lot of metal for the later model. The center wall was removed. No EGR. It certainly looked like the 2001 would be the easier one to modify.

Go easy on me. It's not pretty - looks like a bear's *** stitched up with barbwire! But, it is smoother.
 
Intake looks fine to me! I did mine like that in my Dakota, not sure how much improvement there was because of a belly pan gasket that I was fixing, but the stock 5.9 pulls to 5k pretty easy. I had to break my divider out, that wasn't very fun!
 
Yeah Ralphie, I really hadn't planned on doing this, but once it's out you figure WTH. The divider was deleted from the casting in the later models, thankfully. AAADave had advised me to definitely change out the belly gasket while the intake was off. Glad I did that, mine was extremely brittle. The Fel-Pro replacement seemed to be as robust as the original. I'm impressed with this set of Fel-Pro gaskets as I should be for the cost! LOL
 
Actually 805Moparkid/ Ed ported his barrel intake, on his daily driver late model Maggie. Wouldn't be under Magnum swaps, I think ( maybe). Use the search function ,to find it.
 
I read that thread - that's where I got the idea. I didn't go as far as he did, I don't have ready access to anyone that does aluminum welding. The 2001 intake has the divider already removed and no EGR. I just shortened the runners. The original runners come down really close to the steel pan, looks to be a bit of restriction.

Here are some good pictures of the modified 2001 and the stock 92 Dakota. Thanks, Abody.
 
68coupe said:
I read that thread - that's where I got the idea. I didn't go as far as he did, I don't have ready access to anyone that does aluminum welding. The 2001 intake has the divider already removed and no EGR. I just shortened the runners. The original runners come down really close to the steel pan, looks to be a bit of restriction.

Here are some good pictures of the modified 2001 and the stock 92 Dakota. Thanks, Abody.
Click to expand...

Nice, and your welcome.
 
Ok - got everything buttoned back up, tightened, torqued, sealed, and painted. So far it's all gone back together with no real problems.

I drilled a hole in the intake and tapped with a 1/8"-27 NPT thread to install a 68 style water temp sending unit for the B'cuda gauge. There's already a sender in there, but it's for the PCM. I really didn't know if it was required for the function of the PCM, so I added the extra.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the oil pressure gauge. With the 2001 setup, the gauges are sensed with the CCD bus signal. The oil pressure sender is used by the PCM to determine whether the fuel pump should be powered. If there is a loss of oil pressure, the PCM shuts down the fuel pump. I'm thinking I will have to use an old style oil pressure sending unit for the B'cuda dash gauge, same as the water temp. If anybody has already solved this problem, please let me know.

I powered up the fuel pump today with a couple of drip leaks. I'm using the Airtex external fuel pump and LS1 fuel regulator with a tank return through the old style fuel level sending unit. I was concerned whether or not the 1/4" return line would be sufficient to allow the pump to regulate at the proper pressure. With the pump deadheading, I was regulating at around 55 psi. Perfect! It makes some noise, but nothing I can't live with.

The Duralast battery that I was going to use turned out to not be holding a charge. I noticed it had an 08 sticker on the side. Probably an 84 month battery. I swear, I think those things have a microchip in them that self-destructs the battery when the warranty is up!

Now comes the exhaust issues. I haven't decided whether to buy the pipes from Jeg's, or to trailer the car to the local muffler shop. I already bought the Dynamax (Walker) Super Turbo mufflers. Whether you get the pipes at Summit or Jeg's, I think both kits are made by Hearthrob. Maybe not! LOL
 
68coupe said:
Also got the block cleaned up some. There is absolutely no noticeable wear on this engine block! How can an engine have 160K miles with no wear? Ain't like the old days.
Click to expand...

Its because they run the newer engine hotter. The hotter the engine the less cylinder wall wear.
 
68coupe said:
Ok - got everything buttoned back up, tightened, torqued, sealed, and painted. So far it's all gone back together with no real problems.

I drilled a hole in the intake and tapped with a 1/8"-27 NPT thread to install a 68 style water temp sending unit for the B'cuda gauge. There's already a sender in there, but it's for the PCM. I really didn't know if it was required for the function of the PCM, so I added the extra.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the oil pressure gauge. With the 2001 setup, the gauges are sensed with the CCD bus signal. The oil pressure sender is used by the PCM to determine whether the fuel pump should be powered. If there is a loss of oil pressure, the PCM shuts down the fuel pump. I'm thinking I will have to use an old style oil pressure sending unit for the B'cuda dash gauge, same as the water temp. If anybody has already solved this problem, please let me know.

I powered up the fuel pump today with a couple of drip leaks. I'm using the Airtex external fuel pump and LS1 fuel regulator with a tank return through the old style fuel level sending unit. I was concerned whether or not the 1/4" return line would be sufficient to allow the pump to regulate at the proper pressure. With the pump deadheading, I was regulating at around 55 psi. Perfect! It makes some noise, but nothing I can't live with.

The Duralast battery that I was going to use turned out to not be holding a charge. I noticed it had an 08 sticker on the side. Probably an 84 month battery. I swear, I think those things have a microchip in them that self-destructs the battery when the warranty is up!

Now comes the exhaust issues. I haven't decided whether to buy the pipes from Jeg's, or to trailer the car to the local muffler shop. I already bought the Dynamax (Walker) Super Turbo mufflers. Whether you get the pipes at Summit or Jeg's, I think both kits are made by Hearthrob. Maybe not! LOL
Click to expand...

Running stock Magnum manifolds, muffler shop.. I would make sure, they are decent. To have head pipes made up, to match the system would cost more. If running headers,Jets/Summit are both Heartthrob made. (P.S., the Heartthrob instructions, blow) Super Turbos, a great choice. You should have OEM sound quality, with those in the car.
 
jim, I just disconnected the magnum oil sensor and screwed the dart sending unit in the hole. the magnum oil wire isn't even hooked up and runs fine. dave.
 
Thanks again, Dave! I'm not sure if that's good news considering my thinking that the oil pressure was used as a failsafe to shut off the fuel pump. I'll do some reading up on that. If it's only used for the dash gauge, I can just screw my old sending unit in and connect to the original gauge.

BTW, if you use the original Ram manifolds and the engine/transmission braces, you can't use the 90 degree oil filter adapter. As you know, the oil filter fits fine with the Ram straight-in setup.

I still have a few things to go - exhaust with O2 sensor, battery temp sensor, serpentine belt, electric fans, reinstall dash cluster, etc.
 
that's what I did, just screwed the dart sending unit in and used the original dart gauge. the ram oil wire is just left loose. looks like if it had a fail safe at the fuel pump it wouldn't run on my car. I've known people that ran em so low on oil that they started knocking. but I can only tell you about the 01 ram in my dart. some others may be different. dave.
 
Well, mine's an 01 also, so it would have to be the same as yours. I'm just going to put the old sending unit back in and go with it!
 
It's alive !! It's alive !! It's alive !!

I got the engine fired today! Finally, to hear an engine run in this car after a year and a half! Biggest problem I've had in the past week is that I have had 4 batteries to go bad, including my daily driver.

Now, the biggest problem is that the engine won't stop with the key. Somehow, The run wire to the PCM is constantly hot. I have what I thought was that wire connected to IGN1 on the ignition switch. That wire is constantly hot coming to the switch. That ain't right! Tomorrow, back to wiring again.

It was actually pretty easy to get it fired, aside from the fact that the distributor shaft was 180* out. I thought for sure that I had triple checked that!

Fuel pressure and pump are acting correctly. I insulated the airtex external pump and it really doesn't make much noise at all. You can hear it for about 2 seconds when you first turn the key on.

I took the cooling fan off, opting to install electric fan(s). Haven't done that yet. I don't have any anti-freeze or water in the coolant system either. I wanted to run flush through it before filling with anti-freeze.

I need to get the accelerator cable installed. Just need to figure out how I'm going to make a square hole from a round hole in the pedal assembly. Speaking of cables, I need to get the brackets, levers, and cable for the transmission kickdown.

Once all of that is done, it's off to the muffler shop for pipes. I already purchased a pair of DynoMax 2 1/2" super turbos for mufflers. Guess I need to get a couple of exhaust flanges for the Ram manifolds.

Anybody connected an aftermarket tach to this setup? I have a small sunpro that I mounted in the dash and need to connect it. I'm just being lazy by asking. I can always run it down through the wiring diagrams. These new style diagrams are so damned confusing and tedious!

I would like to thank everybody on here that has helped me in this endeavor - especially Matt and Dave.

Stay tuned - more to come!
 
Awesome to hear you got it running! Now you just have to fix a few issues and you'll be that much closer to cruising...

:thumbrig:
 
I'm going tomorrow to get the trans kickdown cable, exhaust flanges, battery temp sensor, O2 sensor and electric fan. I may even purchase a 1998 5.9 Magnum if the price is right. I need that like I need another....well, I'm not going to say that! LOL

This fella that I know parts cars for a little income. He has parted out a 98 Cherokee and is ready to send it to scrap. The engine wasn't running when he got the Jeep, so he's letting it go for scrap. Maybe he will let me have it for a bit more than scrap price. It may even have a 8 1/4 rear!

I may just buy the whole Jeep (what's left of it) and start hunting for a b-body to fix up. For some reason I've gotten an itch to put a Magnum/EFI and overdrive trans into a b-body. Maybe a 71-73 Roadrunner or Charger. I can't afford the earlier B's!

First, gotta get my little fish going!
 
Can you tell me what radiator hoses (upper and lower) you used? I tried a stock lower hose and it was the wrong angle.

Thanks.
 
dartslantsix said:
Can you tell me what radiator hoses (upper and lower) you used? I tried a stock lower hose and it was the wrong angle.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I found out the same thing on the lower hose. Right now I'm using a flex hose on the lower. The upper hose is for a 96 Durango. I took a shot in the dark and ordered a radiator for the 96 Durango to see how it would fit the 68 radiator support. I had to drill 2 holes in the original metal pan under the 68 radiator for two registers to drop into (7/8", I think). I also drilled two holes in the radiator support for the two top bolts. It fits perfectly! Most likely the lower hose for the Durango would fit.
It's a possibility a lower hose for Grand Cherokee will fit. I bought a 98 Grand Cherokee today and got a bottom radiator hose from it.I'll check to see if it fits. The Grand Cherokee has an electric fan and has a plastic sleeve in the lower hose for the fan relay sensor. I'm sure it can be made to fit. I'm going to fab the GC electric fan to fit the Barracuda.
 
Some times it pays to get out of bed early!

I went to my friend's house to look at a 98 Jeep Cherokee Limited SE that he is parting out. He said at first that he was going to take the leftovers in for scrap next week. He called last evening and said he needed to flip the Cherokee and he planned on hauling it off on Thursday, that I needed to get there today for any parts.

I got the parts I needed this morning and nonchalantly asked what he would get for scrap and if he would sell to me for something a little over scrap price. He agreed to sell it to me!

The car wasn't running when he got it, but the engine turns freely. The original owner replaced a bunch of electrical parts. I'm assuming that it probably has a bad sensor (I'm guessing crank sensor).

I'm going to pick up the leftover shell tomorrow. I'm getting 5.9 Magnum, all a/c parts dash, steering, rear end, doors, rear hatch, shifter, PCM, all wiring, electric fan, plus other misc. stuff.

This GC has a freakin' 9 1/4 Suregrip!

Man, am I stoked! There is a 67 Belvedere here locally for about 4 grand. Next up, b-body resto-mod!
 
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