Magnum Heads/LA block parts list.

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I asked about this process because I don’t know about this process. Joe offered me something awesome, so the next step was to learn what is necessary to bring his kind offer to fruition. To answer my own question, Mag heads on an La is far from straight forward, and very likely involves a machine shop, and buying a bunch of parts that may or may not work without said shop. Getting another Magnum was the affordable and most functional solution. So I did.

The goal, which sounds reasonable, to me at least, was to put together a rat rod that can pull 12.5-13.5 for around $5000.

Where did I get my “aversion to machine shops”? In 1993 when I 440 swapped my 74 Satellite, stock, less the intake and carb, I was fortunate enough to have an excellent full time tech looking over my shoulder, and he never mentioned a machine shop once (regarding the 440). This guy (Joe Foster) was a pro drag racer who won awards including “driver of the year”. Joe did wheel stand shows with his Chevy II. He never steered me wrong. I hope he’s still around and doing awesome.

Additionally, a lot of people around here, myself included, like magnumswap.com . They say: “In our experience, we have found that well-maintained engines, even with high mileage, still run like new.” and, “With the 670 Street Avenger carburetor, the build cost on our Magnum was less than $2,500 from air cleaner to oil pan, including gaskets and 5 quarts of Brad Penn 5W-30. In this trim, the Dart achieved a best time of 11.94 @ 111 mph on 255/60R15 Mickey Thompson Drag Radials.”

People are welcome to talk all crap they want about my experience, lack there of, call me a “retard”, “take up basket weaving”, whatever you want, have at it. I won’t tell on you, but do expect getting what you give in return, and your mom may be included. I’m nobody’s beach, and we should always consider if we would talk the same trash to someones face while typing away on our devices.

My project turned into a poo show, as some of you know, and you didn’t even hear about the Pa title bs. I am self employed, single income, and compete against half of Central America for work and affordable housing. I would love to dump 10-20 g’s on an engine, but my reality does not flow with that kind of spending. So quit? Nope.

Thanks again to whomever attempted to guide me.

Thank you A body Joe for your most excellent offer. I really liked the idea of starting with a freshly machined block. Unfortunately my lack of knowledge and play money makes it unattainable.

…Doug
 
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Mag heads on an LA is not a big deal at all. Hell, even I've done it a couple times now,
And I've had engines turn out bad. My first ever 318 back in the 80s did. My most recent 360 did for different reasons.
The 318 was my first, we knurled the pistons and the valve guides and I picked a cam that I thought was "just over stock/ but it was much more over stock than I thought it was. I thought it was an erson version of a "340 cam" but I guess not. It made a lot of noise but was a dog.
I was in community college auto shop and it was my first ever engine overhaul and the instructor wanted to demo all the different way to "get something by". We didn't have an on site machine shop to bore a block and do it right.
And I was a poor college student.
It ran and did so for a couple of years but wasn't ideal. It was a great learning tool.

The most recent was a 360 mag that I had bought a set of brand new EQ heads that weren't ready to run out of the box, (too tight valve clearance), had to take those heads to a (ready for this?) MACHINE SHOP to Make them really "ready to run". That plus 2 injectors that stuck wide open (this was in a Durango) and washed out the cylinders, diluted the oil and turned my bearings into a slurry that I've never seen before.
That engine had the whole machine shop treatment but the reason that engine went to **** wasn't the machine shops fault. It was the thin oil that destroyed my bearings and it was the too tight valve stem to guide clearance that caused my #4 exhaust valve to kiss the piston.
Machine shops are your friend, not your enemy but like every service provider there are good and bad ones. You can't lump them all together because of a bad experience with one machine shop. Even if you buy a crate motor it's been machined by and assembled by, (get this) yes, a machine shop. I don't own or work for a machine shop so I don't have a stake in saying this but my depths of working on cars and industrial machines have necessitated much contacts with machine shops for my work to have turned out well.
And that 360 magnum short block that had the defective EQ heads? It's gonna be the basis for my next engine build. It will probably be sent thru a machine shop again if only for a dunk and clean., it doesn't have enough run time on it to necessitate another rebore although I have a bore Gauge right here that I can verify that last thought. I bought a flex hone just for this job to run thru the bores and help the new rings I will need to buy, seat.
The heads I have here (stock magnum heads that a machine shop has magged and verified to not be cracked) will have to go back to yes, a machine shop for a redo before I bolt them on.
I don't like re-do's, and skipping the machine shop is the best way I can guarantee one.
 
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That makes plenty of sense to me. Doing it right the first time, is most efficient for sure. Good work isn’t cheap, and cheap work isn’t good. I get that completely, as I refuse to offer half hearted service to any customer. Personally, I’m at where I’m at and thankfully Magnum # 2 is looking much better than # 1.

Just for my tardbrains’ sake, I should try to find a general list of services, with prices, that machine shops offer. $1000ish seems to be the anecdotal number for any visit, but obviously I cannot confirm. My only real life experience was asking about re sleeving a cylinder ($300), and would result in needing all cylinders being brought back to round from the sleeve install, so $1000ish lol. They seem like my kind of shop though and I would give them my business in the future, after all, I have an extra magnum.
 

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