Don't get it right, just get it running. 85 318 roller

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plumkrazee70

plumkrazee70

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I got this motor from a friend. It's an 85 318 from a Chrysler 5th ave. He had a video of it running before he pulled it. Its pretty grody.

I disassembled the entire thing and here is my plan.

Replace:
All block plugs
Timing chain
Oil pump
Gaskets
Heads (two sets to choose from) one has 2.02 valves have to check the other. Probably need them checked before use.
Used set of Exh manifolds

Reuse:
Camshaft
Lifters
Pistons (standard)
Rings


Questionable?
Cam bearings
Main bearings
Rod bearings

I just want a running motor for our 69 barracuda, nothing crazy, just need to get it on the road so our family can enjoy it. My boys are 10 and 12. I'm not interested in doing anything crazy (why I'm reusing what we got).

Attached are the pictures of what I have so far. I'm debating on having th block hot tanked or just taking it to a do it yourself car wash to clean it up.

I'm following @RustyRatRod lead like he did on his s6.

Thoughts and comments welcome, but remember unless it's glaring and needs replacing, I'm trying to do this cheap or with parts I already have, so please don't spend my money (I know it's easy to do lol.)

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I haven't done any significant cleaning, just a wipe down with shop rags. Planning on soaking everything in some sort of cleaner before re assembly.
 
Measure everything and re use whatever measures within acceptable tolerance. It’s that easy. Don’t just look at stuff and say “it’ll do” or it won’t.
 
The crank bearings look real good. Just make sure and inspect the cam bearings closely. They're cheap and the time is now if it needs them.
 
Sounds like you're approaching it realistically, nothing wrong with a down and dirty High School driveway rebuild.
As far as the bearings go, pictures can be deceiving, so only you can tell for sure if you're comfortable reusing them. I'd at least plastigauge them to make sure your clearances are acceptable if you reuse them.
With cleaning the block, knock the core plugs out, soak the block with oven cleaner, and spend your swear jar full of quarters at the car wash pressure washing it within an inch of it's life. Spend extra time blowing out all the cooling passages. Even new, these things had all kinds of leftover foundry sand, rust and crap in there, and the intervening 36 years probably haven't helped. You'll be shocked how much filth you flush out of there.
Once you've got it nice and squeaky clean, remove any ridge and run a dingleball hone through the cylinders, and slap some nice plain old iron rings on the pistons and send it.
Are the heads you've got 302s? If the valves and seats don't look too bad, lap them in and put 'em on with some thin head gaskets. I think 2.02s would be overkill for the stock cam.
Add a second hand intake, stock iron or something like a Performer or Stealth would be plenty good with a carb in the 600 cfm range.
If you're going to spend money on anything, spend it on the ignition. Sixty year old worn out distributors, as well as $50 Ebay whiz bang distributors aren't where it's at. Get something decent, or a nice rebuilt factory dist. (ala @halifaxhops ) to make sure you've got solid fire in the hole all the time, every time.
JMO, and good luck!
 
Looking Good
Like the 318 Roller Engines.

That would be the good 9.2:1 cr pistons with the good 645 rods. 230 hp engine.

First thing you can do is polish up the bearing insert wear surfaces with a new clean dry Viva Paper Towel, that will help clean them up.

Can put the pistons and rings in a coffee can 1/2 full of seafoam to help loosen up carbon around the rings and get them to move freely. Especially the lower oil rings.

If you are going to wash it out have to be careful not to get any grit into any oil gallies. Diesel Fuel would be a good lube/solvent for the clean up. I would avoid water getting into all the internals.

Light bead hone of about 8 reciprocating strokes with diesel fuel as cutting solvent, to break the glazing and give a good cross hatch pattern.

Your existing piston rings will re-seat to the cylinder walls giving you good compression and any oil buring issues go bye, bye.

New oil pump if you want to spend the $70.00 bucks.. or not.

Did one like that with a fresh valve job and seals on the stock 302 closed chamber heads. Came out real good, great oil pressure, no oil buring.

Good Luck

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Cleaned up the cylinder walls, stock pistons and rings.

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Checked one rod bearing and one main bearing, all good > put it right back together with a new oil pump and reinstalled the pan.

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Fresh valve job with new valves and guide seals, port matched/gasket matched the head intake ports to the stock Mid Rise TBI ('89) intake manifold and added a 4 bbl carb retaining the stock roller cam. Performed excellent and all around ran really nice, nice idle too.

Those are my favorite mopar engines, the 318 Roller Engines.

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TT5.9mag said:
What about the other three mains and seven rods? How do you know those are “all good”? I don’t understand checking one of each.
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90,000 mile engine, not all wore out. Ain't broke don't fix it. Turned out good with great oil pressure. All Good...


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George Jets said:
90,000 mile engine, not all wore out. Ain't broke don't fix it. Turned out good with great oil pressure. All Good...


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The only correct answer was, “I have no idea the other bearings are in good shape because I didn’t check them”. You can only assume.
 
Once you have opened up enough engines, you know what to expect of what it is you are looking at.

It's what hot rodding is all about.

If a person wants to tear down the whole engine and do a major overhaul, that's OK too.

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George Jets said:
Once you have opened up enough engines, you know what to expect of what it is you are looking at.

It's what hot rodding is all about.

If a person wants to tear down the whole engine and do a major overhaul, that's OK too.

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You ain’t teaching me a thing I promise. I don’t care how many engines you’ve opened, you can’t tell if a bearing has .0025 or .0035 clearance without measuring it. And it’s a fool’s errand to assemble (cause you ain’t building) engines that way and expect them to live. Maybe at the 180hp levels you’re screwin together, stuff like that flys but not in my neighborhood.
 
sounds like you've got it well in hand.

i'd do a dingle ball hone and some budget friendly rings. the bearings looks pretty darn good, but you'd have to make a judgement call there because that's something that can't really be ascertained via pics-- unless they're bad, that is.

checking the pump and and reusing if it's in spec is a good move, but a new pump is cheap insurance. the same goes for the harmonic balancer.

because it's open i'd do a reground or a cheapie white box cam. even with a stocker 2bbl.

i know the thin felpro gaskets are a bit of coin, but in the every little bit helps department that might be money well spent.

i'd pop for a low key 4bbl set up if the budget allows.
 
TT5.9mag said:
You ain’t teaching me a thing I promise. I don’t care how many engines you’ve opened, you can’t tell if a bearing has .0025 or .0035 clearance without measuring it. And it’s a fool’s errand to assemble (cause you ain’t building) engines that way and expect them to live. Maybe at the 180hp levels you’re screwin together, stuff like that flys but not in my neighborhood.
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Knowing dear ol’GeorgeJets there, trust me he ain’t schooling, he’s just sayin and your right, if it’s a young low HP engine with bolt on parts and a small cam, that’s one thing. Closer to what George is talking about.

Considering the title of the thread…..
And what’s going on so far….

I still do little mini hop ups like that. They are fun. Not really fast, but drive well and are enjoyable with its upgraded power. I’m doing this on my ‘79 Magnum now.

Next month I should be down at the track dicking around with the car down the 1/4 seeing what I can ring out. Then I have a cam change just to see what it does. No big fan fair. Just toying around with something until I get a few other things squared away.
 
Did the roller LA engines get moly rings like Magnums?

Have you calculated what the compression will be if you use heads other than the closed chambered 302?
 
Thanks for all the advice so far. I'm going to call the machine shop today to see what a hot tank costs vs cleaning it myself.

Mix reviews here on reusing rings vs hone and re ring. I can buy a hone and stock rings if need, but how to know if that is needed? The cylinders look pretty good to me, you can still see cross hatching although faint. I don't feel hardly a ridge at all.

The bearings look good to me, although I will plastiguage them to determine oil clearance.
 
I have the same 85 roller 318 in my truck.Unknown mileage. Like you I went thru it clean, measure, all was good.
I didn't change the rings.
Heads checked lapped valves, new seals and gaskets. Running now over 10 years 30K+ miles.
 
junkyardhero said:
checking the pump and and reusing if it's in spec is a good move, but a new pump is cheap insurance.
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I'd at least pull apart the original pump and check it out- if it looks good, reuse it. I've read some horror stories on here about brand new pumps still having machining debris in them (not my personal experience, but forewarned is forearmed), so I'd be pulling it apart anyways just to check. Just make sure the pickup tube and screen is nice and clean... (have them throw it in the hot tank with your block, if that's the route you choose to go).
 
I agree 100% about reusing the oil pump. I've never in my life seen an oil pump fail all on its own. Something else always caused it. They live their life very well lubricated. lol What I WOULD do though, would be to get a high pressure oil pump sprAng and install it. With an engine with some mileage on it, that's certainly not a bad idea. Cheap enough, too.
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Your main investments will be induction and ignition, new or used.
In '85 what you had was Lean Burn with a feedback 2 bbl. carb and one of a couple of different goofy (possibly locked) distributors, so none of that stuff is going to be of any use to you. It's all stuff that's easy to find used, though. Happy hunting!
 
Thanks again everyone. I am going to keep the oil pump, just open it up and clean it up, probably get that spring ($8.00).

I'm leaning towards just leaving the rings alone, just a darn good cleaning on everything and re install. I laid everything out exactly how it came out, so it can back in its original hole.
 
Professor Fate said:
Your main investments will be induction and ignition, new or used.
In '85 what you had was Lean Burn with a feedback 2 bbl. carb and one of a couple of different goofy (possibly locked) distributors, so none of that stuff is going to be of any use to you. It's all stuff that's easy to find used, though. Happy hunting!
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I have a edlebrock (I think) 4bbl with a matching 600-650 carb (needs rebuilt) as well as an MSD 6A box with billet dist, so all good there.
 
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