pulled my engine on a whim

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green67cuda

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i was sitting around wednesday night and decided to pull the motor....

i have a TC to put in anyway, and it's supposed to be rainy, and i've procrastinated it for a long time, and i want to clean/repaint it...AND i've been curious

well....i found out that the heads have had a little port work done...mainly in the openings, and little IF ANY in the bowl areas.....

i REALLY want to find out if the heads/deck have been milled, but i hate to tear that far into it....since i don't NEED to....

i did, however, find that the mounting holes for the intake have been hogged out, which seems to me a sure sign that some kind of milling has been done and the holes were enlarged for alignment.....the world may never know....

BUT...also, the intake gaskets are offset on the intake so that the tops line up with the tops of the manifold ports...hard to explain, but it's like maybe the heads are lower/farther in, which would bring the intake gaskets lower/farther in, which would put them so the top edges line up with the top edges of the intake manifold ports....but this is all just speculation trying to support that maybe the heads/deck were milled, and i really do have a higher CR engine.....

ALSO found that one of the intake runners on the manifold is cracked...about 1/2-3/4" long on the bottom side of the right rear passage...you can see that it goes all the way through (can see the crack inside and outside from the mouth extending into the passage)
i think i might just grind it down a little on both sides and epoxy it, and then smooth down the epoxy.....and leave the machined surface crack alone...that way it doesn't have to go to the machine shop.....what do you think??maybe i shouldn't epoxy the inside....just the outside???it's a small crack, but there is a little discoloration around it, so it is sucking a LITTLE bit.....

oh, it's an edelbrock torker 383


i really hate the idea of tearing into the engine without any other reason than checking for milling................
 
I'd epoxy just the outside that way if the epoxy were to break loose it wont get sucked into the motor
 
Mopardude said:
If it were me, I would tear into it. Heads and intake are east to put back on!

Yeah, go ahead and pull the heads off. You know you want to. And it wouldn't hurt to pull the oil pan and check the bearings. Oh, and is the cam degreed in right? :twisted:
 
you all forgot this one: :poke:


right...i REALLY want to.....answer me this: can you reuse steel shim gaskets? or do i need to get new ones????
i have no idea if the cam has been degreed.....i have had the oil pan off, but not the bearing caps....i have 70# cold and 20 # hot though...so i can assume the bearigns are ok.....that's at idle...give it any bit of throttle and it goes back to 50-70#
i guess it's a small price to pay to know, huh?
OH...what about timing chain??someone told me that a roller chain doesn't wear out...i know that's BS....my chain does have what i would call a lot of slack....i saw that when i pulled the oil pan last time....

my only gripe with tearing it down is that then i might as well stroke it to 451.......but i don't have the money for that right now, because when i do that, i will get a different converter and a new tranny.......i do however REALLY want to get a set of ttis since the engine is out.........
 
should run alot better if you epoxy the crack in the manifold since it will have beter vacum and the mixture gets back where it is suposed to bee :) would sugest you to get a new timing chain it can get realy nasty if it gives up or jumps over a cog!
 
green67cuda said:
you all forgot this one: :poke:


right...i REALLY want to.....answer me this: can you reuse steel shim gaskets? or do i need to get new ones????
i have no idea if the cam has been degreed.....i have had the oil pan off, but not the bearing caps....i have 70# cold and 20 # hot though...so i can assume the bearigns are ok.....that's at idle...give it any bit of throttle and it goes back to 50-70#
i guess it's a small price to pay to know, huh?
OH...what about timing chain??someone told me that a roller chain doesn't wear out...i know that's BS....my chain does have what i would call a lot of slack....i saw that when i pulled the oil pan last time....

my only gripe with tearing it down is that then i might as well stroke it to 451.......but i don't have the money for that right now, because when i do that, i will get a different converter and a new tranny.......i do however REALLY want to get a set of ttis since the engine is out.........

Your right roller chains do wear out. But more importantly I would tear into to make sure it isn't a stock timing set. Thats allways the first thing I do. They have a tendency of the nylon part breaking up and making the chain lose.
 
I wouldnt reuse the head gaskets. They are cheep $25 a pair from Mopar Perf.

If you have a few $ swap that Torker junk for a Perf. RPM.
 
AdamR said:
I wouldnt reuse the head gaskets. They are cheep $25 a pair from Mopar Perf.

If you have a few $ swap that Torker junk for a Perf. RPM.
Or an Airgap would be nice too!
 
Mopardude said:
AdamR said:
I wouldnt reuse the head gaskets. They are cheep $25 a pair from Mopar Perf.

If you have a few $ swap that Torker junk for a Perf. RPM.
Or an Airgap would be nice too!

All Big Blocks are air gap type intakes, :wink:
 
AdamR said:
Mopardude said:
AdamR said:
I wouldnt reuse the head gaskets. They are cheep $25 a pair from Mopar Perf.

If you have a few $ swap that Torker junk for a Perf. RPM.
Or an Airgap would be nice too!

All Big Blocks are air gap type intakes, :wink:

OOPS I guess I wasn't paying attention I though he had a small block!
 
nah...i'm going to stick with the torker, because i have it, and don't desire to spend the money for an intake i don't really need....besides...the torker may come in handy on a future stroker....if anything i do extra, it needs to be a bigger carb...i don't think the 600 cfm vac sec holley is enough....

and i'm pretty sure the timing set is aftemarket...i don't remember perfectly, but it seems that i remember it not being nylon...

i got the intake bead blasted last night...looks MUCH better....
guess i'll go ahead and tear into the top end....so i can measure how far down the pistons are....

about the head bolts...it has allen head bolts...my boss at work (a big mopar guy) said that they are worthless and i need to get rid of those P.O.S.es because you can't torque them..... :scratch:
 
I think your right on the carb. a 600 in pretty small for 400 cubes. Id find a 750 for it. You can get new head bolts for $25 off ebay.
 
green67cuda said:
about the head bolts...it has allen head bolts...my boss at work (a big mopar guy) said that they are worthless and i need to get rid of those P.O.S.es because you can't torque them..... :scratch:

I wouldn't say that. In my experience with those kind of headed bolts the problem ussually under high torque is that it is easy to break or twist a tool or completely round out the slot for the tool. Than your pretty much screwed. So I would definately get new ones!
 
I"d Just figure distance of the gap. Split diffence have it machined off intake faceof each side. That would be the simple fix.
 
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