There's no list. It's "short block" that's it.
What do you think about this statement.........
- Thread starter Brooks James
- Start date
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EFI
Roller cam
More uniform block casting
Cyl head flow
More efficient chamber
Any others?
Other than valvetrain, I don’t think any big differences in oiling
Edit; short block specification came in as I was writing
Low friction rings
Friction coating on piston skirts
Superior reusable gaskets
9:1 compression
Heads as good as and X Or O
Fuel injection, less wear, better mpg,
Seen and heard plenty say that the hone crosshatch marks are present at 100k
TT5.9mag
Two atmospheres are better than one
91,000 miles verified by the cluster in the 01 RAM I pulled it out of. Has 01 stamped bearings and stock gaskets. Never been apart.
TT5.9mag
Two atmospheres are better than one
I’d argue that the stock mag heads are better than any stock LA head.
Newbomb Turk
Well-Known Member
The blocks are all the same iron.
The machining is still production machining. It’s not special.
Newbomb Turk
Well-Known Member
You can put EFI on anything. Doesn’t make it better.
Same with a roller cam.
I don’t know how many magnum blocks you’ve machined, but they damn sure are not better castings. They suffer from core shift and everything else.
Flow is over rated.
The chambers are not more “efficient”. The magnum uses the same timing or within a degree or two.
Newbomb Turk
Well-Known Member
Low friction rings? They are 1/16 inch rings. Nothing trick about that. I can buy off the shelf pistons with that ring pack.
The skirt coating is a joke. Waste of money but it’s done to make folks think it’s trick. It’s not.
Reusable gaskets? You can get them for anything.
When I get excited about 9:1 I’ll let you know. I’ve not measured one to know for sure but I doubt the vast majority are 9:1.
The heads aren’t better.
I get it. You can’t tune a carb because if you could you wouldn’t brag on EFI.
There is nothing “superior” about the magnum.
Newbomb Turk you seem to be down on anything posted about the Magnum set up. From personal experience, we have run a 5.9 Magnum in Stock Eliminator and Crate Motor classes since they were allowed in 2000. We have had NO valve train or engine failures and we have beat the snot out of the engines. We've won many Divisional races and two Nation events with a 2000 Dodge Dakota weighing in at 3430 lbs. If you are so unhappy with Mopar, go somewhere else!
Newbomb Turk
Well-Known Member
I just like facts. I didn’t say the magnum was superior. It’s not. Maybe you need to look up the definition of superior.
I’ll say anything I want about Chrysler or anything else. Being a fan boi isn’t my thing
Magnums were an improvement over the LA's. Metric and fuel injection needed to happen. There are some good things that happened:
"Introduced back in 1992, the 5.9L Magnum was the successor to Mopar's successful LA-series 360. With improved cylinder heads, better sealing, higher compression, thinner rings, and an all-new higher ratio valvetrain among the many modifications, the 5.9 Magnum breathed new life in the old small-block V-8. The revision extended the service of the traditional Mopar small-block another 12 years, finally ending production with the 2003 model year. The 5.9 was strictly a truck engine, powering the likes of Durangos, Dakotas, Rams, vans, and Jeeps. Although not a muscle car engine in the traditional sense, power ratings were between 230 and 250 net horsepower depending upon year and application, up from the last LA-series 360's 190 hp.
With a long production run as the last Mopar small-block, these Magnum engines are stacked up like cordwood in boneyards across the country. As pretty much a direct bolt-in for any classic Mopar muscle car or truck, a used 5.9 is an easy and cheap way to up-power your Mopar. We find these truck engines tend to survive very well, often with minimal bore wear owing to the factory 1/16-inch moly compression rings, tall overdrive gears, and the port fuel injection system. The short-blocks more often than not can be freshened with little more than a set of rings, bearings, and gaskets, and sometimes they are good enough to run right out of the boneyard."
The Motor Trend article went on to say the downfall was the head cracking issue and followed up with mention of the Engine Quest heads being a good fix for the problem.
"Introduced back in 1992, the 5.9L Magnum was the successor to Mopar's successful LA-series 360. With improved cylinder heads, better sealing, higher compression, thinner rings, and an all-new higher ratio valvetrain among the many modifications, the 5.9 Magnum breathed new life in the old small-block V-8. The revision extended the service of the traditional Mopar small-block another 12 years, finally ending production with the 2003 model year. The 5.9 was strictly a truck engine, powering the likes of Durangos, Dakotas, Rams, vans, and Jeeps. Although not a muscle car engine in the traditional sense, power ratings were between 230 and 250 net horsepower depending upon year and application, up from the last LA-series 360's 190 hp.
With a long production run as the last Mopar small-block, these Magnum engines are stacked up like cordwood in boneyards across the country. As pretty much a direct bolt-in for any classic Mopar muscle car or truck, a used 5.9 is an easy and cheap way to up-power your Mopar. We find these truck engines tend to survive very well, often with minimal bore wear owing to the factory 1/16-inch moly compression rings, tall overdrive gears, and the port fuel injection system. The short-blocks more often than not can be freshened with little more than a set of rings, bearings, and gaskets, and sometimes they are good enough to run right out of the boneyard."
The Motor Trend article went on to say the downfall was the head cracking issue and followed up with mention of the Engine Quest heads being a good fix for the problem.
jos51700
Green Bearing thread connoisseur
Consider how many valves are open at a time. The shaft bolts aren't really seeing any more load at any given time.
More frequently, yes, but total load, about the same.
Magnums are low tension rings. Between that and EFI (reduced fuel wash) a Magnum pulls compression numbers at 300K that an LA motor stopped doing at 80k.
The Magnum heads are most certainly better flow wise. Cracking between valve seats...not so much. Define 'better'.
I've tuned literally thousands of multiple-carb engines. I'm an EFI man.
Lack of fuel wash, superior overall efficiency, self-tuning during all weather and altitudes, and spark control for every condition? But carbs are better because you can tune it with a screw driver and a huge box full of jets, needles, power valves, pump cams, and vacuum guages?
Short Block is all I agree with.
The efi system is not that great.
The camshaft is weak weeny
The cylinder heads don't flow worth a crap and can't be ported to support real HP 550 or greater.
Chamber design okay, chamber actually junk they all crack between the seats.
They are untunable without someone else building a tune for you.
If you wanted to do a real cam swap there is 1 or 2 very expensive options for adjustable rockers.
I mean @ Brooks James posted this in the racers forum and he's talking about stock slow stuff.
There's a magnum/ small block spot just for a thread.
Newbomb Turk
Well-Known Member
Newbomb Turk
Well-Known Member
We just have to admit the magnum is superior. The smart heads have spoken.
Oh yeah I feel so dumb right now lol.
I'll just go back to building weak big block stuff
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They probably can but so can the LA ones ?
Where magnum generally have an advantage is the short blocks are usually in decent shape and the pistons are high enough to build ok CR and the ability to run a hydraulic roller if one chooses, basically you don't have to do a rebuild, the magnum heads in stock from seem to respond a bit better to a basic hop over stock 1.88 360 heads. Obviously there's the head cracking problem which maybe an issue depending what your doing, and the lack of oiling for LA styles is a bit of a pain limits upgrade or makes it more expensive.
To me if adding parts to a running engine, magnum shines, doing a full rebuild doesn't matter as much.
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Pulled the heads off our 5.9 that had 198K on it, still had the factory hone marks.
Thin low tension rings and hypereutectic pistons seem to do that in anything
LA vs Magnum. I like them both.
Facts from the Factory:
Facts from the Factory:
- No LA 318 made as much power as the 5.2 magnum.
- No LA 360 made as much power as the 5.9 magnum.
Also helps not to wash down the cylinder walls, and turn 1400 rpms at 55 mph instead of 2200 rpms
We are talking factory pick up truck engine here. "Factory" was mentioned in the first post. It's what this thread is about. Yes, wrong forum. I will move it.
Depends what you think a factory 340 makes, a stock 5.9l magnum dynos 280 hp bet the 5.2l ain't far behind so probably similar but way better under the curve at least.
TT5.9mag
Two atmospheres are better than one
I’m not a machinist but I’ve always heard the mag blocks are better quality.
Has production machining equipment not gotten better and/or more accurate in the last 30 years? Serious question because In the industry I’m in, the cnc machines are light years better than they were even 10-15 years ago. I have 3 multi million dollar cnc machines (for structural steel) that are 8 years old and damn near obsolete at this point.
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