High Mileage Magnum

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ChrisRomello

ChrisRomello

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So, I have been searching for a 360 Magnum to drop in my ‘65 Valiant. There are plenty of old Rams for sale around where I live but they all have very high miles on them. (200K to over 300K) Today I went and looked at one that is for sale on the side of the road near my house that I have seen for sale for a really long time. I looked at the odometer and it read 286,000 miles but I went and knocked on their door anyway. The truck looks like it has been very well taken care of; the owner started it up for me and the engine runs beautifully. Becides the torn/cracked interior pieces it looks like a well maintained truck. The guy said that he bought it new in 95 and is only selling it because he got another truck (exact same truck just a bit nicer) He’s had it for sale for over a year so I think I could get a pretty good deal on it for the engine and just part out the rest. I have a friend that could recondition the heads for me at least and I know a really good machine shop that could do a full on rebuild to new if I want. Would this high mileage engine be a good route to go if I want to keep the cost down? Like I said, almost everything available where I live has high miles but this one look like it was well taken care of.
I plan on converting to carburetor set-up and doing a few small things to the engine.
 
depends on the "cost" of the truck if you are keeping the cost down. Around here 350 bucks seems to be the asking price for 360 magnums with around 150,000 to 180,000 in good running condition at the local junkyards. Once in a while one will pop up on CL for 300 bucks with just under a 100,000 miles.
 
ChrisRomello said:
So, I have been searching for a 360 Magnum to drop in my ‘65 Valiant. There are plenty of old Rams for sale around where I live but they all have very high miles on them. (200K to over 300K) Today I went and looked at one that is for sale on the side of the road near my house that I have seen for sale for a really long time. I looked at the odometer and it read 286,000 miles but I went and knocked on their door anyway. The truck looks like it has been very well taken care of; the owner started it up for me and the engine runs beautifully. Becides the torn/cracked interior pieces it looks like a well maintained truck. The guy said that he bought it new in 95 and is only selling it because he got another truck (exact same truck just a bit nicer) He’s had it for sale for over a year so I think I could get a pretty good deal on it for the engine and just part out the rest. I have a friend that could recondition the heads for me at least and I know a really good machine shop that could do a full on rebuild to new if I want. Would this high mileage engine be a good route to go if I want to keep the cost down? Like I said, almost everything available where I live has high miles but this one look like it was well taken care of.
I plan on converting to carburetor set-up and doing a few small things to the engine.
Click to expand...

I don't know man, as rebuilding and machine work plus trying to recon the OE heads seems like a pretty big expense right there.
2.5-3k miles is quite a bit, but I will tell you this.
I paid 500 delivered to my house from a private seller for a Magnum with 92k on it and on the inside it looked like 20k or even less.
Barely any markings on the bearings and very obvious cross hatching in the cylinder bores.
The Magnums have a very low wear amount than V8's used to have.
Put it back together adding a brand new set of EQ heads with 1.96 valves, Hughes springs and retainers, an Oregon cam grinders roller regrind and grand total was right around 2k for a 400hp/420tq screamer put together as an LA motor.
Can you come close to that with heads reworking and a motor rebuild?
My block came out of a front end wrecked truck, so you might consider looking for something like that instead of a running vehicle that's going to cost you more and have to rebuild it anyway.

Just a thought.
 
318willrun said:
depends on the "cost" of the truck if you are keeping the cost down. Around here 350 bucks seems to be the asking price for 360 magnums with around 150,000 to 180,000 in good running condition at the local junkyards. Once in a while one will pop up on CL for 300 bucks with just under a 100,000 miles.
Click to expand...
Actual referral:186,000 decent bearings, PERFECT bore hone,I just don't want to kill it.
 
Our 94 Ram 2500 with 324,000 miles is still going strong, I thought it had been replaced or worked on but last week I dropped the pan to replace the rear main seal I thought was leaking and the #5 main bearing looked great and it was the factory original bearing. I replaced the oil pump since the pan was off, It was a dam valve cover leaking down the back side of the engine and not the rear main seal....Anyway...new seal..new pan gasket and new oil pump ...

I bought the truck about 10 years ago with 286k miles on it...been to Ohio and back plus many other trip....burns no oil...

Truck just went to Paso Robles a couple of weeks ago and pickup a 63 Valiant 270 wagon.....going to Bakersfield in a couple weeks for a race towing enclosed trailer and 71 Dart....
 
70aarcuda said:
Our 94 Ram 2500 with 324,000 miles is still going strong, I thought it had been replaced or worked on but last week I dropped the pan to replace the rear main seal I thought was leaking and the #5 main bearing looked great and it was the factory original bearing. I replaced the oil pump since the pan was off, It was a dam valve cover leaking down the back side of the engine and not the rear main seal....Anyway...new seal..new pan gasket and new oil pump ...

I bought the truck about 10 years ago with 286k miles on it...been to Ohio and back plus many other trip....burns no oil...
Truck just went to Paso Robles a couple of weeks ago and pickup a 63 Valiant 270 wagon.....going to Bakersfield in a couple weeks for a race towing enclosed trailer and 71 Dart....
Click to expand...
I saw a 5.9 magnum in a Van, same guy used it to car pool 60 miles to work one way for years. He had 435,*** miles. Used and leaked oil. Long block had never been apart. He was on his 3rd tranny
You might do another 100,000 grand with her... :D
 
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70aarcuda said:
Our 94 Ram 2500 with 324,000 miles is still going strong, I thought it had been replaced or worked on but last week I dropped the pan to replace the rear main seal I thought was leaking and the #5 main bearing looked great and it was the factory original bearing. I replaced the oil pump since the pan was off, It was a dam valve cover leaking down the back side of the engine and not the rear main seal....Anyway...new seal..new pan gasket and new oil pump ...

I bought the truck about 10 years ago with 286k miles on it...been to Ohio and back plus many other trip....burns no oil...

Truck just went to Paso Robles a couple of weeks ago and pickup a 63 Valiant 270 wagon.....going to Bakersfield in a couple weeks for a race towing enclosed trailer and 71 Dart....
Click to expand...

My Dart has made that same trip 4 times so far from Prescott AZ, and the last time we took the scenic route that took 17 hours one way.
We have relatives and family in both places.
(Bakersfield sucks, just in case you didn't know already):D
 
My '01 Ram with the 5.9 has 238,*** and runs like new.
  • My '03 Durango with the 5.9 is only in the 160's,***...... not even broke in :D
 
Mine came out of a 2001 dodge 1500 with 92,000 miles. Pulled the heads and the cylinder bores looked new with no ring ridge. It's still running strong in the dart. I've put almost 26,000 miles on it and who knows how many 1/4 and 1/8 mile passes and still doesn't use any oil.
 
Walker434 said:
Mine came out of a 2001 dodge 1500 with 92,000 miles. Pulled the heads and the cylinder bores looked new with no ring ridge. It's still running strong in the dart. I've put almost 26,000 miles on it and who knows how many 1/4 and 1/8 mile passes and still doesn't use any oil.
Click to expand...

Mine either, as it's been right on the full mark with 5-30 full synthetic ever since it went in.
It came out of a 96 and had that mileage.
 
TrailBeast said:
I don't know man, as rebuilding and machine work plus trying to recon the OE heads seems like a pretty big expense right there.
2.5-3k miles is quite a bit, but I will tell you this.
I paid 500 delivered to my house from a private seller for a Magnum with 92k on it and on the inside it looked like 20k or even less.
Barely any markings on the bearings and very obvious cross hatching in the cylinder bores.
The Magnums have a very low wear amount than V8's used to have.
Put it back together adding a brand new set of EQ heads with 1.96 valves, Hughes springs and retainers, an Oregon cam grinders roller regrind and grand total was right around 2k for a 400hp/420tq screamer put together as an LA motor.
Can you come close to that with heads reworking and a motor rebuild?
My block came out of a front end wrecked truck, so you might consider looking for something like that instead of a running vehicle that's going to cost you more and have to rebuild it anyway.

Just a thought.
Click to expand...

This makes me want to sell my rebuilt 340 and get a Magnum.
 
I have dismantled a few 360 Magnum engines and the results were very consistent. Anything with poor oil change history had really bad carbon deposits and/or sludge. The oil drain holes in the piston ring grooves are always blocked with carbon. The main rod bearings usually have some of the copper backing showing through the soft bearing surface. The cam bearings usually start flaking apart, or random bits or chunks of the soft bearing surface is missing. The pushrod ball ends at the rocker arms and the mating ball cup in the rocker arms are often scuffed badly. Usually the engines with scuffed pushrods also had scuffed valve tips. About half of the camshafts had at least one lobe where the metal was flaking off the cam lobe leaving behind a small pot hole in the lobe. The cylinder bores always have much more wear with a good sized ridge at the top and the rings have very little tension remaining. The cylinder heads on most Magnum engines will develop cracks between the intake and exhaust valve seats eventually regardless of maintenance. This does not mean the Magnum engines won't keep running a while with this kind of wear. What it really means is, if you have a running engine with little or minimal signs of carbon or sludge build up looking inside the oil filler cap, or in the lifter valley area if you have the intake manifold removed, you have a better chance of scoring an engine without most of these issues. If a budget allows machining costs, new pistons, new camshaft, new cylinder heads, and new rocker arms and pushrods, then high milage engines are perfectly fine. If it's a tight budget build, just know that if you take it apart you may have to, at minimum, replace all cam, main, and rod bearings, ball-hone the cylinders to deglaze them, clean and scrape out all carbon from the piston ring lands, replace piston rings, and replace the camshaft and oil pump intermediate drive shaft. As for cylinder heads, if you're lucky enough to find no scuffed valve tips, you can almost always ignore the cracks and hand lap the valve seats so seal again, but you'll have wider seat margins than recommended, and you'll still be limited to around .515-.520 valve lift unless the guides are cut down for clearance. New valve springs are mandatory for any performance camshaft install. If it was a running engine with good maintenance history, meaning lots of oil changes at 4,000 mile intervals or less, most of this won't be a problem. If it's a higher mileage engine, came out of truck used for lot's of heavy towing, or had poor maintenance history, you may still get plenty of life out of it anyway, but these are problems that will show up once you start taking it apart. If you run it and have bearing failures in a few thousand miles, just get another engine and try again since they are cheap and plentiful. Sorry for the long-winded post, but there is no short way to say it without sounding negative.
 
70aarcuda said:
Our 94 Ram 2500 with 324,000 miles is still going strong, I thought it had been replaced or worked on but last week I dropped the pan to replace the rear main seal I thought was leaking and the #5 main bearing looked great and it was the factory original bearing. I replaced the oil pump since the pan was off, It was a dam valve cover leaking down the back side of the engine and not the rear main seal....Anyway...new seal..new pan gasket and new oil pump ...

I bought the truck about 10 years ago with 286k miles on it...been to Ohio and back plus many other trip....burns no oil...

Truck just went to Paso Robles a couple of weeks ago and pickup a 63 Valiant 270 wagon.....going to Bakersfield in a couple weeks for a race towing enclosed trailer and 71 Dart....
Click to expand...

I SURE HOPE you ditched the crap pickup tube for the old style "late 80's" pickup. Mine plugged up with VERY little or no evidence of actual sludge in the pan

Well guys the "White Whale" is very ill, engine time......

On the right is what came out of mine, the late 80's one went back in

mg]
 
Just got back from Bakersfield with the old dodge.....fought a terrible head wind from Vegas to Tehachapi ....came home with a tail wind...
 
70aarcuda said:
Truck just went to Paso Robles a couple of weeks ago and pickup a 63 Valiant 270 wagon.....going to Bakersfield in a couple weeks for a race towing enclosed trailer and 71 Dart....
Click to expand...


Did you tell him I said duhh huhh? lol
 
At 165,000 my 5.9 runs like the day I bought it with 31,000.

I've used Valvoline "high mileage" syn blend almost exclusively and only change every 10K miles.

I do haul loads in excess of the rated capacity, and trailer cars (sometimes full of parts) across the state, plus engage in "spirited" driving from time to time.

I would not hesitate a bit about dropping a 150K Magnum take out motor right into a car with only the fitment issue changes, provided you were able to see it run or was from a verifiable source.
 
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