I believe somewhere earlier in this thread I may have discussed a gen 3 hemi swap. There were a few things that turned me away from the swap when using the stock K member or stock style K member. A big one was the need to use a remote mount oil filter and the other big one was the low mount AC required either a custom mount for a smaller Sanden, and probably some K member hacking. When Holley announced their A-body conversion products, I really had my hopes high on a good solution. Unfortunately, I'm not super impressed with their mount solution. I do think they killed it with the oil pan though. So, why am I bringing this up? After much research and surfing, I've come up with a plan to finally move forward with the G3 Hemi. I came across 'Cuda_ragtop 's thread showing how he moved the right side motor mount on the QA1 K-member to allow the oil filter to mount in to the engine block. My biggest hurdle seemed to be solved with this approach! This is a brilliant idea and I have to give him a big thank you for sharing with us. I'm sure I could have figured something out, but I wasn't about to spend a bunch of money on the QA1 K just to see if I could modify it. I think I'll still have some challenges on the low mount AC, but it seems like there will be much more room than a factory K-member. I'm confident I can come up with something.
So after much research, here's my plan for the swap:
QA1 stock replacement K-member, modified right side mount, and I'll also make sway bar mounts for it so I can continue to run my Hotchkis front bar.
Reuse my existing bellhousing, clutch, trans, etc. I will have to get a flywheel. I'm unsure if I'll be able to continue to use mechanical clutch linkage. I'm hoping I can, but thinking it will require some fab work.
New TTi Headers
Holley oil pan
I may need a radiator- still need to decide on that. Maybe I can just modify the one I have.
Reuse existing Megasquirt. I'll make a custom harness for the engine and make it so I can just plug it into my existing firewall bulkhead connector. I will have to add some coil ignitors since the hemi coils aren't "smart".
I have a 06 5.7 Hemi on hand already with relatively low miles. The plan is to use this engine as a placeholder until I want to build a bigger displacement G3. Once the engine is in and running, swapping in a 6.4 would be a simple swap from a fitment standpoint.
Here's the plan for the engine:
Disassemble, clean, and inspect everything. Reuse just about everything except the cam. (I have the heads off already and the cylinders still have hatch marks)
Open up ring gap, I'll likely replace the rings
Hand port heads
install Comp "Stage 3 HRT cam" (I hate "stages" of cams- sounds like video game terminology to me...) Comp claims this cam makes +86HP over stock. It's their largest cam for stock pistons. I'll call them to discuss before I purchase.
Lastly, I'd like to use the Torqstorm supercharger. From a price standpoint, it makes sense. A procharger or whipple is north of $7K. Maybe if I was planning on making 1000-1200HP I would go that route, but I'm not. With that cam, headers, a little port work, and the supercharger, I see no reason why it won't make 600HP. That should make the car scoot pretty good.
I started cleaning up the ports on the heads already. I know these aren't the best factory heads and I did contemplate switching to eagle heads. I didn't think the increased compression and supercharger on pump gas would be a good idea. So here I am putting lipstick on a pig.
I'm sure a trained monkey could clean up the ports enough for an improvement. The biggest airway interruption is a pushrod bulge in the intake runner. The pockets also leave lots of room for improvement. I'm not a head porter by any means. I'm simply cleaning them up to what feels like the smoothest path. The exhaust pocket and port is terrible. This coupled with the very conservative stock exhaust cam profile, I don't know how these things made any power.
Here's some before and after photos of where I am now. I'll come back and polish them up some. This is just straight off the sanding wheel- no polishing. I'm open to criticism, advice, or even name calling if it will get me better flow results...
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