Boxer12
Enthusiast
Well, I decided to swap my heads and intake with DC Performance units. I have not pulled heads off a motor (other than snowmobile) in many years, and was a bit nervous about it; however, I live a thousand miles from anywhere and I like to tinker with my car and turn wrenches. When I got to the short block stage, all i could think was ....YIKES. The tear down was a lot of work, and after removing what seemed like a hundred bolts I was a bit intimidated about the prospect of putting it all back together right. I was relieved that there were no frozen bolts to deal with, or broken or stripped.
Here is a brief photo diary of the job...to give you a visual of what this job entails.
Airbox and throttle bodies removed-
Fuel rails and Intake removed-
Exhaust, head covers and heads removed-
I was working with a Dodge Service Manual and I have so say overall the instructions are pretty good. The questions I had which weren't covered in the SM were answered by Dan Cragin and his techs.
The rebuild was a long tough job and the only snag was dropping a push rod into the motor. It didn't fall all the way in but was beyond being able to fish it out with a magnet or normal tools. I made the mistake of working from the back of the motor forward (#10) and I was going by 'feel' since I couldn't see inside the hole. I had to take off the air collector to see as I fished out the push rod (which just barely protruded past the head gasket inside the 3" deep hole. I was able to fish it out with a pair of long nosed pliers.
Since you have to remove the fuel rods, etc, i was worried about leakage and decided to back the car out of the garage for the firing up of the motor. I figured it would be bad to have a fire with the car in the garage...and could end up burning down the house. LOL. I kept a fire extinguisher handy as i cranked and was plenty relieved when the motor fired right up and there were no leaks of any kind.
I am kind of slow and ponderous as i work on motors, so the job took me about 24 hours total, which included mutliple trips to the parts store for various things and tools. When that motor fired right up and was smooth as silk, I was very relieved let me tell you. Now, I have the satisfaction of a much more thorough knowledge of the motor (which in someone else's words..."its basically just an old fashioned push rod motor") and it's inner workings. About half way, I was seriously questioning whether i would recommend to anyone else to do this job yourself. Thoughts of the cost of a replacement motor (at 5000 miles) were dancing in my head. Anyway, all's well that ends well....as they say!
Finished project (with ACR-X breather kit installed as finishing touch)-
Some other pics-
Old versus new heads
Before and after pistons-
Belanger headers after 5000 track miles...(with greasy hand smudges)
Weather outside!
Here is a brief photo diary of the job...to give you a visual of what this job entails.
Airbox and throttle bodies removed-
Fuel rails and Intake removed-
Exhaust, head covers and heads removed-
I was working with a Dodge Service Manual and I have so say overall the instructions are pretty good. The questions I had which weren't covered in the SM were answered by Dan Cragin and his techs.
The rebuild was a long tough job and the only snag was dropping a push rod into the motor. It didn't fall all the way in but was beyond being able to fish it out with a magnet or normal tools. I made the mistake of working from the back of the motor forward (#10) and I was going by 'feel' since I couldn't see inside the hole. I had to take off the air collector to see as I fished out the push rod (which just barely protruded past the head gasket inside the 3" deep hole. I was able to fish it out with a pair of long nosed pliers.
Since you have to remove the fuel rods, etc, i was worried about leakage and decided to back the car out of the garage for the firing up of the motor. I figured it would be bad to have a fire with the car in the garage...and could end up burning down the house. LOL. I kept a fire extinguisher handy as i cranked and was plenty relieved when the motor fired right up and there were no leaks of any kind.
I am kind of slow and ponderous as i work on motors, so the job took me about 24 hours total, which included mutliple trips to the parts store for various things and tools. When that motor fired right up and was smooth as silk, I was very relieved let me tell you. Now, I have the satisfaction of a much more thorough knowledge of the motor (which in someone else's words..."its basically just an old fashioned push rod motor") and it's inner workings. About half way, I was seriously questioning whether i would recommend to anyone else to do this job yourself. Thoughts of the cost of a replacement motor (at 5000 miles) were dancing in my head. Anyway, all's well that ends well....as they say!
Finished project (with ACR-X breather kit installed as finishing touch)-
Some other pics-
Old versus new heads
Before and after pistons-
Belanger headers after 5000 track miles...(with greasy hand smudges)
Weather outside!
