TrailBeast
AKA Mopars4us on Youtube
As some of you already know I started to make a few changes in my daily driver 73 Swinger.
The entire time I have had the car it has had a 318 in it, but everything in the way of upgrades and parts I have gotten for it were also 360 compatible for the future.
Well, a little while back my Brother insisted on buying a motor for it but part of the deal was it had to have that old school performance cam sound.
Ok I can deal with that
I really wasn't ready to get that far into my daily driver yet, as I hate it when it's not sitting there ready to go.
I found a 96 5.9 Magnum that a guy had pulled from a totaled (roll over) Ram 1500 truck and ended up taking it home.
Upon pulling the engine apart for inspection I found the usual Magnum head cracks between and into a couple of the intake seats but a really good looking bottom end with cross hatching still very obvious in the bores.
I also pulled the main and rod caps for a look at the condition of the lower bearings to find them in surprisingly almost new looking condition.
There were barely even any marks from contact with the crank and rod journals and the pistons look and feel super and nice and firm in their bores.
The roller cam and lifters looked really good as did the timing chain and gears, but remember part of the deal was the cam my Brother insisted on.
Well, a cam needs springs, and springs need retainers and locks so here we go.
I picked up a set of EQ Magnum heads that are drilled and tapped for LA motor intakes.
OOTB these heads are reported to flow about 230cfm at .500 lift.
They have 1.92 intake valves and 1.62? exhaust valves, 62cc closed chambers, 172cc runners.
I ordered a set of Hughes springs, retainers and locks that are of custom design to allow more lift as the factory EQ heads are a little limited with the stock length valve stems and factory 1.6 rocker gear.
The new springs and related hardware allow right at .600 lift IIRC.
New MP double roller and sprockets and a chain tensioner.
New Car style center sump pan and oil pickup tube, new Viton rear main seal and will be using all the LA timing cover water pump and pulleys from the current 318 with the 5.9 damper.
I got the 5.9 external balance flex plate with the motor so it uses a neutral balanced converter.
I ordered a custom regrind cam 218/224 @ .050", 270/274 adv, .482"/.506" lift(1.6:1 rocker), 110 sep that should be here in a couple of days now and the same with the spring set.
Now keep in mind this car is going to stay freeway geared for awhile at least until I get done with all this and want to start another project and put an 8.25 rear end from Jeep Grand Cherokee with disc brakes.
Now right about the time I was half way through the new motor my transmission started making odd noises from the front planetary gear set.
I was trying to decide if I should take it home and park it until I got the parts and rebuild kit for it so I didn't end up destroying the pump and converter with the metal I was sure was coming.
Well it did and a couple of days ago it started not upshifting until I revved it up, and not downshifting at stops unless I did it manually.
After a couple of shifts it acted fairly normal but was a little softer on the shifts than usual.
No point in opening it up for a planet set and not rebuilding it so I looked up everything I was going to need and whatta ya know, it was right at the same cost for a used A500 OD and a rebuild kit with new bushings and all.
AH HELL, two fairly big projects going at the same time now.
The A500 is also what's called a "lockup trans" so it has 4 forward gears and converter lock
effectively giving it 4 and half forward gears. (I call lockup a half gear)
At 80mph I was running right at 2,800rpm's and with the new trans 80mph should be at about 2,200 or even lower.
So here I am with my daily driver getting all torn apart in the back yard to get a 300+hp/400ft lbs 5.9 disguised as a standard 360 with a 4 speed overdrive transmission.
I sure didn't plan to take this all on at once, and if I couldn't build the engine and trans and do the necessary mods to the underside of the car myself there is NO WAY I could afford to do it so feeling pretty lucky there.
I plan on using the pressure and vacuum switch kit to make all the shifting fully automatic, as I don't want to screw with turning switches on and off to make the trans work like it is supposed to for 4th and OD.
Yesterday I went and pulled the A500 from a 1995 5.2 Dakota that had run into something and pretty much bent every single front end body part.
It is clean inside with zero debris from clutch material or bushing metal in it and just a bit of a black fuzzy coating on the magnet in the pan (normal) with fluid that looked somewhat used but clean and smelled good, so I'm going to get it ready, mod the car for it and drop it in but still order the rebuild kit for it.
I haven't been this sore for quite awhile, but as I always say "All in good fun right?"
Having my daily driver down is driving me nuts, but I'm trying to balance it out with anticipation and excitement. :blob:
The entire time I have had the car it has had a 318 in it, but everything in the way of upgrades and parts I have gotten for it were also 360 compatible for the future.
Well, a little while back my Brother insisted on buying a motor for it but part of the deal was it had to have that old school performance cam sound.
Ok I can deal with that
I really wasn't ready to get that far into my daily driver yet, as I hate it when it's not sitting there ready to go.
I found a 96 5.9 Magnum that a guy had pulled from a totaled (roll over) Ram 1500 truck and ended up taking it home.
Upon pulling the engine apart for inspection I found the usual Magnum head cracks between and into a couple of the intake seats but a really good looking bottom end with cross hatching still very obvious in the bores.
I also pulled the main and rod caps for a look at the condition of the lower bearings to find them in surprisingly almost new looking condition.
There were barely even any marks from contact with the crank and rod journals and the pistons look and feel super and nice and firm in their bores.
The roller cam and lifters looked really good as did the timing chain and gears, but remember part of the deal was the cam my Brother insisted on.
Well, a cam needs springs, and springs need retainers and locks so here we go.
I picked up a set of EQ Magnum heads that are drilled and tapped for LA motor intakes.
OOTB these heads are reported to flow about 230cfm at .500 lift.
They have 1.92 intake valves and 1.62? exhaust valves, 62cc closed chambers, 172cc runners.
I ordered a set of Hughes springs, retainers and locks that are of custom design to allow more lift as the factory EQ heads are a little limited with the stock length valve stems and factory 1.6 rocker gear.
The new springs and related hardware allow right at .600 lift IIRC.
New MP double roller and sprockets and a chain tensioner.
New Car style center sump pan and oil pickup tube, new Viton rear main seal and will be using all the LA timing cover water pump and pulleys from the current 318 with the 5.9 damper.
I got the 5.9 external balance flex plate with the motor so it uses a neutral balanced converter.
I ordered a custom regrind cam 218/224 @ .050", 270/274 adv, .482"/.506" lift(1.6:1 rocker), 110 sep that should be here in a couple of days now and the same with the spring set.
Now keep in mind this car is going to stay freeway geared for awhile at least until I get done with all this and want to start another project and put an 8.25 rear end from Jeep Grand Cherokee with disc brakes.
Now right about the time I was half way through the new motor my transmission started making odd noises from the front planetary gear set.
I was trying to decide if I should take it home and park it until I got the parts and rebuild kit for it so I didn't end up destroying the pump and converter with the metal I was sure was coming.
Well it did and a couple of days ago it started not upshifting until I revved it up, and not downshifting at stops unless I did it manually.
After a couple of shifts it acted fairly normal but was a little softer on the shifts than usual.
No point in opening it up for a planet set and not rebuilding it so I looked up everything I was going to need and whatta ya know, it was right at the same cost for a used A500 OD and a rebuild kit with new bushings and all.
AH HELL, two fairly big projects going at the same time now.
The A500 is also what's called a "lockup trans" so it has 4 forward gears and converter lock
effectively giving it 4 and half forward gears. (I call lockup a half gear)
At 80mph I was running right at 2,800rpm's and with the new trans 80mph should be at about 2,200 or even lower.
So here I am with my daily driver getting all torn apart in the back yard to get a 300+hp/400ft lbs 5.9 disguised as a standard 360 with a 4 speed overdrive transmission.
I sure didn't plan to take this all on at once, and if I couldn't build the engine and trans and do the necessary mods to the underside of the car myself there is NO WAY I could afford to do it so feeling pretty lucky there.
I plan on using the pressure and vacuum switch kit to make all the shifting fully automatic, as I don't want to screw with turning switches on and off to make the trans work like it is supposed to for 4th and OD.
Yesterday I went and pulled the A500 from a 1995 5.2 Dakota that had run into something and pretty much bent every single front end body part.
It is clean inside with zero debris from clutch material or bushing metal in it and just a bit of a black fuzzy coating on the magnet in the pan (normal) with fluid that looked somewhat used but clean and smelled good, so I'm going to get it ready, mod the car for it and drop it in but still order the rebuild kit for it.
I haven't been this sore for quite awhile, but as I always say "All in good fun right?"
Having my daily driver down is driving me nuts, but I'm trying to balance it out with anticipation and excitement. :blob:
