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Post by neil on Jan 29, 2013 5:56:38 GMT -5
wellll, I'm plagued by the infamous cracked head on the passenger side bank. So I've been rolling a couple options around in my head.....first is I found a motor nearby with only 80k on it which I would have to call about to see if it is still available. 2nd, I pull the heads off the other motor I have for rebuilding already and hopefully find that one or both are still good and swap a single head to buy some time to rebuild that motor. 3rd,would be to buy a set of heads and throw them on, but I'm not going to put new heads on a 205k mile motor, so this one is already out. The biggesty problem is gauranteeing a towable set-up until I get the other motor rebuilt
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Post by UnlimitedNJ on Jan 29, 2013 12:19:56 GMT -5
You didn't get the heads vacuum tested when you had them off?
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Post by neil on Jan 30, 2013 6:15:11 GMT -5
They would have had to been magnafluxed, and they say that they normally crack between the valve seats in the chamber. Wich would seem to be the case, but I think the head on the passenger side is acctually cracked in the exhaust port.
Only having off Sunday doesn't give much time for anything, It's no worse than it was, and I don't want to put fresh heads on a tired block, so I would rather just swap a good used one until I can get this other motor done That I have.
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Post by yjsaabman on Feb 4, 2013 19:32:28 GMT -5
That sucks, Neil. My one buddy and I have a spare 5.2 around for our trucks, we'll see who needs, or gets to it, first. Mine has 185.5K and drinks oil almost as quickly as fuel.
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Post by neil on Feb 4, 2013 20:25:10 GMT -5
I'm thinking I'm going to throw a new set of heads on it until I get the other block ready. I'm seriously debating stroking it with a .030 over. 408" will deffinitely fit the power bill. It's not really that bad in cost. It looks like 1k more than just rebuilding anyway. We'll see.
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Post by neil on Feb 7, 2013 6:08:36 GMT -5
Well, I pulled the heads off the other motor I picked up last yr for rebuilding, and every cylinder of the heads are cracked. I never saw ones this bad. One cylinder ...#4 was even hydro locked and has a cracked piston top.
There goes any ideas of using the old heads to get buy for a while.
Doing research has lead me to some interesting facts. All the new heads,thicker/heavier that are offered as a upgrade to the stock heads that are 500-600 a pr, are from China. The next really good pair are from Austraila and have the slightly bigger valves in them, and run anywhere from 1000 to 1200 dollars. These heads have created quite a stir in the mopar realms.
They come drilled with either manifold configuration of the LA series or magnum series and yield some impressive numbers as cast.
The next Jump is the Indy Cylinder heads, which beats out the edelbrock aluminum heads in flow and price(1400) with stock valve sizes and are offered in the larger valve sizes also for basically the same price(1500-1600) as the Edelbrocks. They like the edelbrock have a slightly smaller chamber coming in 3cc's smaller and the edelbrocks(being aluminum) fall in at 7 cc's smaller (faster heat exchange).
Both these heads come ready to accept SB chevy roller rockers, but if I have found it correctly,the edelbrock require them. That would be another cost incurred right off the bat.
All three of the latter heads come ready to accept a .600 lift though and require adjustable valve train basically from .530 and up.
We'll see where this leads me. Ultimately I want a diesel, so I have too see if can justify dumping the money into the truck or have too for the time being. It hasn't owed me anything for years, and no payment is always a good payment, so I'll see.
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Post by neil on Feb 8, 2013 5:31:39 GMT -5
one thing I forgot to mention was that after seeing the other cracked heads,mine deffinitely wasn't cracked in the common place or maybe at all. A couple days ago, it burped and hasn't gurgled the heater core or used any more water........so I'm watching the water level and thanking the Lord
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Post by yjsaabman on Feb 9, 2013 10:34:38 GMT -5
I haven't done as much reading on it, yet. From what I've read, though, the Magnum heads are supposed to be a good improvement over the LA heads. It was nice to find the cam selection doesn't vary from LA to Magnum, and prices aren't bad on those. I'll prob stick with stock heads, if they're good.
My question is what engine management are you going to run? I know I plan on throwing the early injection on my truck in the garbage when I get mine built. This injection system is so crappy and hard to adapt to upgrades of this nature.
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Post by neil on Feb 10, 2013 9:57:02 GMT -5
In your case, the late LA's did run a roller cam, so that aspect keeps the cam interchangeable.
The magnum heads as stock were a big improvement when it came to flow. Their cast with a high swirl intake port and the valve angle was changed to increase flow characteristics.
It's like the change from the 4.2 to the 4.0 head. The same things were improved upon.The latter 4.0's were improved further, but they really started paying attention to the intake and exhaust efficiency.
If your looking at changing everything anyway. I would go to a 318 magnum....period. The rebuild will last twice as long as the LA block will ( metalurgy at it's best ). Plus the 318 doesn't usually crack the heads due to the lack of heat that the 360 puts out.
I've been a Mopar fan forever, and know these things inside and out. If you are set with staying with the LA, you can get the magnum heads(aftermarket) drilled with either intake style. Magnum or LA. Magnum's are verticle and LA's are angled. There's alot more manifolds available at alot cheaper for the LA though.
If you stick with a Throttlebody style injection though, the Market is flooded with some really awesome aftermarket set-ups with adaptive and full tunable systemsranging from 1200- 3000k respectively.
As far as management for myself, I'm just going to rewrite my computer. I want to get all the software anyway for when I get the buisness going, so it will be a worth while investment. The worst part is the subscriptions to the automotive brands to get the encrypted unlock codes for the computers. They range from 1-3 days to 30 days, 90 days, and yearly. Some aren't to bad and others are rediculous, but that's the price of playing.That's why it's not cheap for flashing.
There's other systems that you can get around that, but in the long run are more expensive to the customer and a little limited to the tuner. I think it's a draw though.
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Post by yjsaabman on Feb 23, 2013 9:47:41 GMT -5
Mine has the 318 Magnum in it. This was the second year, I believe. The spare that my buddy and I have is a '98 Durango 318 Magnum, so we're Magnum all the way. His '92 Dakota has over 200K on it's original Magnum, and mine's at about 186K.
I think I plan on going carb'd just from a cost standpoint. You're truck is new enough to have a modern, OBDII style interface and programming. I guess I could get a modern system out of the 'yard and re-program it...hadn't really thought of that, before. I'm certainly not scared of wiring, just trying to keep costs down. You've given me more to think about, now.
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Post by yjsaabman on Mar 16, 2013 10:17:12 GMT -5
So I saw you mention elsewhere you had a bad cat on this? One of the worst problems to diagnose, sometimes. I've seen a few VWs kick nothing but misfire codes from all the exhaust gas being choked back into the combustion chamber. No cat efficiency codes, just misfires and no power under load.
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Post by neil on Mar 17, 2013 5:25:07 GMT -5
I usually end up going thru a cat every two yrs, but yeah, last trip out to Rausch it Puked. I was hoping that it was the only problem. I pulled it and haven't put one back in yet. I think I'm going to have to run a two into one exhaust and dual cats to cut the flow down per. Hoping that would make them last longer and less troublesome.
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Post by yjsaabman on Mar 17, 2013 9:58:54 GMT -5
Hollow them out and put J-bungs in.
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Post by neil on Mar 26, 2013 5:08:25 GMT -5
The fun never ends.
Saturday I work late shift, so I generally leave for work around 12 noon and work till anywhere from 9- 12am and sometimes later if needed.
Anyhow, this saturday held a surprise....for whatever reason, out of the norm I hopped in the truck fired it up and only waited about 30 secs. before backing up and turning around to drive down the driveway. Hit the road and make it to the stop sign up from my house. When I go to pull out. No GO-GO! Luckily I was able to roll back out of the other road on my own.
After rolling back far enough, I realised what the problem was when I saw the huge mess of tranny fluid all over the road. By the hand of GOD, I am sure, I was able to roll all the way back down the road and into the driveway to be safely parked for another day.
After getting back into the drive I saw that basically from the time I put it in reverse it must have blew the trans line,, and instead of backing down the drive like any other day where I would have seen the mess down the hill I turned around and drove down.
SOOOO after pumping all the fluid out I figured I might as well drop the pan and change the filter for the first time since rebuilding it....about 12k miles ago. Everything looked pretty, so that's good. Although I do run an external filter that I regularly change out.
12 qts later and a line repair and were back to driving.
I did have to do a good belt and pulley cleaning, because that was a real mess......On a good note,I haven't heard everything under there so quite while running....EVER! It won't bother me none if it stayed that way.
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Post by yjsaabman on Mar 30, 2013 7:48:00 GMT -5
LOL!! Helps keep it all clean and lubed, 'eh? Reminds of the day I had no power steering in mine by the time I got home from work (about 12 mi). Found a pin hole in the P/S "cooler". Bypassed the cooler and it's been good since! At least you didn't get far enough to ruin anything in the "fresh" trans.
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