HawkRod is doing the 2023 Hot Rod Power Tour!

[HawkRod]

I thought beehive springs are less prone to oscillations?

I have heard that too. My father-in-law potentially seemed to indicate that they may have been a solution that is not as much in favor now? I'm not sure as I didn't engage him in a discussion about it because then he would have had me completely rebuilding the heads (he is a stickler for details). I am out of time so I figured if they worked well when you had them, they will work well for me - so on the engine they went!!!

 

[Richard Cranium]

Next to run it and pray everything works with no leaks!

You know the rear main is going to leak. They all do.

 

[qkcuda]

They worked a lot better controlling the mass of the hydraulic rollers than the original conventional springs.

 

[HawkRod]

You know the rear main is going to leak. They all do.

I really tried to make sure I got it right!

But yes, this is my main concern and the reason why I insist on running the engine on the run stand. At least if I have a problem there, I can pretty quickly pull the pan and try again. But once it is in the car it will be a pain in the butt...

...having said all that and with my lack of confidence answer, I will bust your ba**s for making that comment if it doesn't leak!!!

 

[Richard Cranium]

Here's the rear main seal on my 6.4 crate Hemi. What an improvement!

 

[dart4forte]

You know the rear main is going to leak. They all do.

I always had good luck using the Billit rear main that Mancini sells

 

[HawkRod]

I always had good luck using the Billit rear main that Mancini sells

Sure, put pressure on me...

(That's what I have on mine.) So now the pressure is on me for how I installed it! Hopefully I'll have the answer within a week. I reused the seal since it only had maybe 500 miles on it, but the side seals had taken some abuse when it cam apart. However, I flipped them over to have the beat up parts near the oil pan and used a little RTV to fill in that area.

Fingers and toes crossed........................................

 

[Darter6]

Fingers and toes crossed........................................

AMEN !

 

[Richard Cranium]

I always had good luck using the Billit rear main that Mancini sells

Same here .... it leaks less.

 

[HawkRod]

Well, boys and girls, wish me luck tomorrow - it's going to be a busy day...

I will drive up to my father-in-law's shop in the morning (2 hours). Then I will need to get my engine off the engine stand and on to the run stand, plumb it all up with fuel, water and power. I will add a bellhousing and some headers, etc. - basically get it so it can run on the engine stand.

Then the big test to run it for the first time since the rebuild.. Will everything be OK? Any leaks or issues?

If everything is OK, I will then remove the engine from the run stand and transport it back home so I can plunk it into my 70 Road Runner. Once home, I will paint it, put on final valve covers (stock, but modified for the valve train), fuel injection, etc.
Just need to swap laces with these two!

Please, please, please.... no leaks or issues!!!

 

[69L48Z27]

Good Luck!

Take a video of it running!

 

[khryslerkid]

Here's the rear main seal on my 6.4 crate Hemi. What an improvement!


View attachment 1463228

You have to pull the trans, bell housing, flywheel to replace that seal

Then the big test to run it for the first time since the rebuild.. Will everything be OK? Any leaks or issues?

You'll be fine. It's a Mopar!

 

[Richard Cranium]

You have to pull the trans, bell housing, flywheel to replace that seal

True, but you won’t need to because it won’t leak.

 

[HawkRod]

True, but you won’t need to because it won’t leak.

...and neither will mine! (Gulp, I hope)

 

[HawkRod]

Well, unfortunately I didn't meet my goal and I did not bring the engine back with me. I never even got a chance to run the engine, because setup was problematic.

My 70 is still fully functional with the original 383. It has the FI, distributor, headers, valve covers, bellhousing, etc. that will go on this new engine. However, I did not want to tear the 70 apart until I knew for sure the new engine was ready to go. So I had to use alternate parts to use the engine on the run stand.

Of course, the first thing was to get it on the run stand, so off the engine stand it came.

Next I needed a flywheel. I borrowed my buddy's @67BluonBlak 67 GTX 11" flywheel. It doesn't need to do anything but spin, so I left the protective tape on the machined surface.

I then used his bellhousing too (I think the colors work together?!?)

Then I was able to mount the assembly to the engine stand and begin adding all needed parts.

• The radiator hoses ended up being a Rube Goldberg setup. Again, I doesn't matter as this will need maybe 30 minutes to establish that everything runs OK.
• I had a spare electronic ignition distributor, but then I had to find an ECU and wire it up.
• I bolted on my spare mini starter
• Had to plumb up fuel, temp, vacuum, and oil pressure lines, as well as find spark plug wires that would work, etc.

All this stuff took time to address, but then the killer came: Exhaust.

My father-in-law had 440 headers laying around, and I assumed they would work. But they didn't. The right side touched the bellhousing a bit, but that could be overcome. However, the one pipe on the left side tried to occupy the same space as the starter. We tried two other starters with no joy. Maybe it was that we were trying too fit large, all out race headers for a RB engine on a B engine? Who knows? We tried looking through his stash of parts for other headers. We found another set with a removable flange and pipe, but we couldn't find the removable piece. Crap!

Finally, I installed the factory exhaust manifolds, but I ended up not being able to find down pipes to hook mufflers to it.

Eventually, I gave up with the science project and decided I need to pull my TTI B-block headers from my 70 Road Runner. But they were home 2 hours away.

So now I will pull the headers from my 70 and give it a try again on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.

 

[HawkRod]

I pulled my headers from my 70 on Monday, and brought them up to my father-in-law's shop. Of course, they bolted right up and fit perfectly - they are TTI headers after all!

I then ran the engine. I have a couple of short video's but I don't feel like posting it on YouTube. Imaging the above picture going vroom vroom! By the way, note my custom electronic ignition wiring on top of the gas tank!

Overall, here is the report card from running the engine about 40 minutes total:
I detected no oil leaks, the engine runs strong and idles nicely. Basically, it behaves just like it should!. It also twists the whole run stand with torque when you rev the engine - that's a good sign.
The only thing I am not thrilled about is the oil pressure. For break-in, I was running straight 30 weight special break-in oil. My oil pressure at idle, once hot, hovered around 20, or even just a smidge under that. I knew I had extra clearance in my mains, but I was hoping for a little more pressure than that. 20W-50 oil will help that. Now this was with a standard oil pump, so we quickly ordered a high flow oil pump and I will bolt that on before the engine goes into the car. This should help some and then I can adjust my oil to get good oil pressure at idle.

Next I broke it down and put the engine in my truck for the ride home.

Now getting it into my garage proved to be a challenge. I have special beams that can handle engines, but my 70 was now "dead on the lift", so I couldn't back into my garage. I had to bring the engine in through my side doors. There wasn't enough clearance for the tailgate so I even had to remove a door!

Here is a view from inside

But, it all worked out and now the engine is on my engine stand in my garage. Now I will glean it up, paint it, and then replace the 383 with this one.

Still some work to do but making progress!!!

 

[Don Frelier]

View attachment 1466468

I pulled my headers from my 70 on Monday, and brought them up to my father-in-law's shop. Of course, they bolted right up and fit perfectly - they are TTI headers after all!
View attachment 1466471

I then ran the engine. I have a couple of short video's but I don't feel like posting it on YouTube. Imaging the above picture going vroom vroom! By the way, note my custom electronic ignition wiring on top of the gas tank!

Overall, here is the report card from running the engine about 40 minutes total:
I detected no oil leaks, the engine runs strong and idles nicely. Basically, it behaves just like it should!. It also twists the whole run stand with torque when you rev the engine - that's a good sign.
The only thing I am not thrilled about is the oil pressure. For break-in, I was running straight 30 weight special break-in oil. My oil pressure at idle, once hot, hovered around 20, or even just a smidge under that. I knew I had extra clearance in my mains, but I was hoping for a little more pressure than that. 20W-50 oil will help that. Now this was with a standard oil pump, so we quickly ordered a high flow oil pump and I will bolt that on before the engine goes into the car. This should help some and then I can adjust my oil to get good oil pressure at idle.

Next I broke it down and put the engine in my truck for the ride home.
View attachment 1466472

Now getting it into my garage proved to be a challenge. I have special beams that can handle engines, but my 70 was now "dead on the lift", so I couldn't back into my garage. I had to bring the engine in through my side doors. There wasn't enough clearance for the tailgate so I even had to remove a door!
View attachment 1466473

Here is a view from inside
View attachment 1466474

But, it all worked out and now the engine is on my engine stand in my garage. Now I will glean it up, paint it, and then replace the 383 with this one.
View attachment 1466475

Still some work to do but making progress!!!

My brother and I took out the backseat of his 75 Monaco and we set a 383 short block in there.
I was pretty strong back in the day.

 

[HawkRod]

My brother and I took out the backseat of his 75 Monaco and we set a 383 short block in there.
I was pretty strong back in the day.

My neighbor across the street was around to help me, but there was no way I wanted to try and unload a fully built engine by hand - with my luck, I would have dumped it on the floor!

I have lifted fully built 727s in and out of my 73 Road Runner trunk a few times, but they are light comparatively. Nowadays, I try to stick with a pickup truck, chains and hoists!

 

[qkcuda]

Hawk, we had less oil pressure than we wanted on the dyno. My buddy quickly removed the relief spring and shimmed it with a washer and we were good. I always ran 20W50 oil in the motor because the clearances were a bit loose right from the beginning. I always heard that a high volume pump was not a great idea with a stock capacity pan.

 

[HawkRod]

Hawk, we had less oil pressure than we wanted on the dyno. My buddy quickly removed the relief spring and shimmed it with a washer and we were good. I always ran 20W50 oil in the motor because the clearances were a bit loose right from the beginning. I always heard that a high volume pump was not a great idea with a stock capacity pan.

Thanks for the input and history - that is helpful.

Yes, I took your original oil pump and found the shims. I placed them into my new pump and the engine pressure at idle was still roughly the same. Now remember, this was with straight 30 weight break-in oil that was hot by this point.

I did a lot of reading about high volume and/or high pressure pumps. I now have an extra capacity oil pan than that has a 6 quart capacity plus the oil filter, so I am closer to 7 quarts in capacity. There are some who state that the high volume pumps will not suck your pan dry. In either case, hopefully my extra capacity will work OK. Also, from some very respected experts (one being Melling, who makes all of our oil pumps), they specifically state that a high volume pump is good for an engine that has loose crank tolerances, which is what I have. Conversely, a high pressure pump is good for an engine that will be used at a very high RPM.

My father-in-law also wanted to start with a standard volume oil pump. But we'll try the high volume one and see how that behaves. At least big block Mopars are nice that these can be changed fairly easily from outside of the pan!