Building a wrecked SRT8 Challenger

Hope for the best is all we can do until we get it up on the hoist for a look and start taking it apart. We know the cradle hit the cast aluminum pan so there is a unknown there. But the underside is clean so oil didn't drain out. When we change the pan we need to pull a bearing cap or two and check for damage there. That could have been enough reason for a total. Insurance companies don't like to mess with mechanicals.

I suspect you hit the nail on the head when you said the cradle hit the cast aluminum oil pan being why the insurance company totaled it. I have seen that happen many times.

I think you will come out well on this rebuild. We have built well over a 100 late model cars before health issues shut it down a few years ago and we would have been all over this one.