New arrival at the BBM-stash, and an exception to my #1 rule... '73 Dodge Dart

[BigBlockMopar]

Torsion bars indeed make great pry-bars. I've got a set of bars from a '77 Charger I parted out once. One bar has become a pry-bar and the remaining cut off 10" is now nice hardsteel roundstock for the lathe.

In the mean time I've also been working on getting the car's next powerplant ready for action... the modern 5.7 Hemi.

I bought this Hemi in late 2011 and hauled it back in the back of the Dart. First time I drove around with 'a Hemi Dart'... Couldn't say I was impressed






I knew the Hemi had some issues and needed some parts to get running again, but only after taking the engine completely apart much later on, I realised it was a polished up lemon. Luckily I didn't pay too much for it.

I knew about the trashed pistons and 1 head, as this came from another engine and my engine was missing 3 piston and rods. But I didn't know (yet) about the totally worn rodjournal hiding in the block until later.
Even later I decided to have a peek at the camshaft, I found one of the bearing lobes to be loose on the camshaft.
Some pics of the carnage found over time;









Some clown really tried very hard to get home orsomething...

I had to source new heads, crank, pistons and a camshaft. Luckily a few used pistons and rods with perfect bearings in them were donated by a nice fellow from belgium, while I was able to buy a nicely used heads, crank and cam locally myself.







Fixed a thin casting issue at the oilfilter housing;






Installed a new timingchain set and adjuster;




Milled the heads by 0.020" at a friends headmill for a bit higher compression ratio. But I still need to finish mill them to a proper finish on the surface so the MLS gaskets will seal properly.

[JOES66FURY]

did they run it out of oil, good lord man...what a mess

[DanStokes]

Not a common issue with the "modern" Hemi from my understanding. I'm with Joe - I wonder what the heck happened. Cool to see the project coming along.

Dan

[BigBlockMopar]

I've seen a number of issues with the 5.7 Hemi's and most of them seem to be, imo, caused by user-neglectance.
There are oil-related problems like worn down rodjournals, but seemingly caused by running low on oil or just old oil.
Also issues can happen with the 5.7 heads, and more specificly the valve seats. In some cases valve seats may become loose in their headpockets and drop out whenever the engine is parked for a short while when hot, like at a gasstation.
At this point when the engine heat is highest, a valveseat can become loose enough to drop out of the head and ride along with the valve's movements. It's obvious that carnage is imminent in the next few seconds.

The trashed single head which came with my Hemi had a missing valve seat in 3 cylinders.

Looking at the baked on oil residue in the chambers and also in the engine itself it tells me the previous owner was a plain hack and never gave the engine any service.



By the way,
** Are you guys seeing pics missing here and there in the above posts? **
** I think Photobucket is having issues showing all of the pics properly. **

[Beagle]

last night none of the pics past the oil filter mods showed up. They are all there now.

Holy crap that is ugly. I've seen seats turn loose on small engines but they were hugely neglected and abused in ways that just make me cry. Normal neglect and abuse wouldn't cause it... that SUCKS. The bearing bit looked like dirty oil and detonation. The seats? Yikes!

[BigBlockMopar]

And to make matters worse I also had to do a very 'funny' thing I thought I would never do in my life as a diehard Mac-owner...! And that was actually buying an 'electronic device' with something called 'Windhose' or something like that installed...

Anyway, at least this thing can be used for something useful and team up with the MegaSquirt ECU and help with tuning the Hemi.

[DanStokes]

I have a similar device on the shelf behind me and for similar reasons. Never bought the data acquisition system that was supposed to work with that box of crap.

Dan

[BigBlockMopar]

I have got the Hemi almost build up for the most part.
Still need to final torque the headbolts and install the intake and oilpan.
The intake will be modded slightly. I will need to add small fittings in the runners for the propane injection later on.




The oilpan is another story.
The Hemi's oilpan is a 'frontsump' truck pan, and will in no way fit in the Dart's enginebay with it's frame-crossmember and steering centerlinkage.
I 'could' ofcourse just buy a new Moroso pan and oil pickup tube, but that would set me back another $300+, or that's about 400 Euros.
Therefore I set out to modify the Hemi oilpan and mate it with a bigblock oilpan, so the combo will fit in the engine bay properly.




The top rail is from the Hemi oilpan, the bottom part from a bigblock Mopar oilpan.
I still have a few gaps to fill but I think those won't pose too much problems.
The only things I'm worried about is if I'm able to make the welds actually leakproof and can weld the pan without warping it too badly.

[milner351]

Keep welding small spots and cooling with a wet rag, keep moving around from spot to spot to allow each area to cool, I'm sure MPC could have much more interesting things to add to this conversation as he's a certified metal magician.

once all the welding is "done" fill the pan with water and let it sit a while - then go back and re-weld any areas that may leak.

No sweat!

[Russell]

Love the custom oil pan! Does the new Hemi have two spark plugs per cyl?

[BigBlockMopar]

It has 2 plugs per cylinder indeed.

Since the above pics I have removed the pieces angle iron because the pan was ending up being too high. This would in turn cause the engine to sit higher in the car aswell.
I rewelded the angle iron strips a little different to the lower pan so the it's now about 1" lower in height.
The upper pan rail is currently just tacked to the lower pan in 4 corners.
(I've been thinking of bolting 2 heavy duty angle irons to the pan rails just before final welding everything permanently, but I know this won't really prevent warping of the pan if too much heat is applied.)

Most of the angle iron 'flange' will be ground away after all the welding has been done.

Current status pics;

[DanStokes]

I think you're on the right path. What will you do with the pick up?

Dan

[BigBlockMopar]

The pickup is way too long now. I hope to be able to shorten it nicely so I can re-use it.
But it has some funny curves in it which could throw me of track.

[BigBlockMopar]

Tonight I did plenty of welding to the pan. I was fighting some dirty metal occassionally which really boogered up the welds. (sorry, no detailed pics )
But at some spots it was smooth sailing and I was actually doing quite well at controlling the 'puddle'.

I'm sure it's still leaking like a sieve in a couple of places so I need to go over the pan with a grinder and welder a few more times before I feel confident, lucky enough to do some testing with water.

The side rails have no warpage at all, but the only at the front of the pan there's some downward warpage noticable. This has happened because of the welding at the front of the oilpan. But the warpage can be corrected fairly easily I've noticed already with some hammering on the inside.
A big plus was that the Hemi oilpan is made heavyduty with duallayered steel, opposed to the single layer sheetmetal oilpan I used from the bigblock Mopar engine.

[Deaf Bob]

Use food coloring in alcohol instead of water..
Fuels find holes easier, alky dries fast.. Not as flash/boomy like gasoline