Recycled 5.7L Hemi Budget Build Stage 1 - Horsepower S14, E8

Inside that box is our next engine project and it's one we've never tackled before. No, it's not a crate engine, but it is a working engine and, in fact, it's one that has been a legend for over 50 years. Would you believe we pay less? More than half of what you'd expect to pay for a full 5.7L

hemi

. You see, it comes from a 2007 Dodge truck with about 50,000 miles on it. A perfect engine to recycle for other vehicles. We were very surprised to see how well it works. It was removed and boxed up, we got the complete accessory unit with all the hardware, even an engine harness that is still connected to the factory ecm and if you look very closely, they didn't even cut a wire now, thanks to being told, looks like we're off to a good start finding the

hemi

we wanted, we logged on to the parts dot locator.com website, clicked on the parts search box, entered the year, make and

build

model in the boxes of parts information and a zip code and then, in less than a minute.

We had several supplier options in their network including BNR who had the engine we wanted for the price we wanted to pay around two thousand dollars while it was ready to go in any appropriate car or truck. We have some adjustments in mind. To make it even more powerful and reliable, of course, every time you have a hemi for a project, you also have a high-performance heritage. It was easily the most familiar four-letter word in the history of high performance. Which first dominated the roads in the '50s and then the tracks in a growing little sport called stock car racing, the '57 Chrysler 300 was touted as America's fastest and most powerful production car thanks to a 392-inch hemi cubic with 375

horsepower

with double crankcase. waited for the second generation to include a hemi and there was nothing better than the cuda hemi with 425

horsepower

hidden under that legendary hood, a fast fish that could run a quarter mile in 13 seconds, the hemis helped the mopars win every type of race imaginable and during the second generation Muscle Car years, Hemis dominated the streets and stripped down versions like this super bee after 1971, there were no more Hemi production cars for over 30 years, then came along that famous question in 2003: "I don't have to be surprised, our plan comes first." tore down the hemi engine to check all the components and we are not using the factory harness so this is the first thing to do, there are no reservations in getting this hemi from a wrecking yard.

You will see that bnr documents a bump test, compression check, and fluid test on every engine they sell here is something that makes the removal end assembly a little easier. The factory kept an eye on the intake rocker arm of these hemis to know which side went to the intake and the exhaust side is not marked since we are reusing all the valves. train, be sure to keep it in order. We leave the heads assembled and move on to a new piece of workshop equipment. It is a safetyclean ultrasonic cleaning system that uses high-frequency sound waves and a special solution to thoroughly clean parts.

Penetrates to remove even embedded particles inside and outside each component when the cleaning cycle is complete. The optional skimmer uses a metal band to remove contaminants from the tank and place them in an outside container. It's worth looking for a machine shop that uses one and we'll be using ours a lot over the next few days while the heads are being cleaned. We can remove the oil pan, then crank the engine and remove the oil pickup. Here's something unique to the hemi engine, a piece that also doubles as a wind and oil pan. crankcase gasket very good, eh, but I'm easily impressed, let's turn this and get to the lifters by giving the crankshaft a few turns, the lifters go into their pockets for easy removal, well, at least that's the idea, then use a drill bit Removing tension from the timing chain makes chain removal much easier.

After removing this cam plate, we can carefully remove the camshaft before tearing off the bottom end. I want to mark each piston and rod so I know what hole it has. came out and the direction it was there now, in case you don't have a quick internet access manual or just don't know there is an easy way to tell which cylinder is number one, look at the front of the block and the piston that is closest to the front is number one, so we have one, three, five, seven on the driver's side, two, four, six, eight, on the passenger side.

I'm going to go ahead and punch number one, well here's a good way to check it. To check the overall condition of our

recycled

engine, we checked the rod bearings and I'm happy to say they look almost new compared to this one. We take out trash with discoloration, which is a sign of heat and excessive mileage. It is also a good sign that the oil. The system was also doing its job. The crank is next and I'm using this Matco tool to hold the flywheel so we can loosen the bolts and then after removing it we can unscrew the aluminum housing that retains the rear main seal.

It's always a good idea. to remove the crankshaft sensor to avoid damaging it and then remove the main bearings, which also confirms that we have a good engine, the disassembly is done, but the best is yet to come, we will be right back, good, the break is over and so is our cleaning cycle. the new ultrasonic machine this is what the heads look like after 20 minutes pretty impressive all the embedded dirt has gone in and out and after we dry them well they will be ready to go back on here are some little hemi heads for you The way you can tell a 5.7 head from a 6.1 is the shape of the exhaust port on the 5.7 like ours, it's square on the 6.1, it's D shaped.

Here's the trademark of any hemi head, of course, the combustion chamber hemispherical with larger valves and two. spark plugs per cylinder now these later versions have a crushed area on each side and well, that's why some purists will argue that these are not real hemi heads. I say they should have a real life. What about the heads, crank and others? The parts cleaned up just as well now we didn't drop the block because it was in pretty good shape. I just hand washed it in the sink. Here are some facts about the block you need to know, especially if you plan on purchasing one of these like In pre-sale, all late model Hemis come equipped with mds bosses on the top of the block.

Now mds is the multi-displacement system that shuts down four cylinders under light cruising loads to conserve fuel. Ours is not equipped with it, so these little white plugs. I have o-rings to fill the holes now on the driver's side. This is a truck block, so all bosses are drilled and tapped. If this block had come off the line of the car, some of these would be solid and you would have a tough problem. It's time to install it in a truck, so take care of that with new sealed power bearings in place. It's time to install the crank.

All third generation hemi connecting rods are internally balanced with a 3.58 inch stroke and I will use these thrust washers installed with the splines facing the crankshaft only cast iron connecting rods are used on the five sevens and only forged steel connecting rods On the six the new Maui pistons have a grip coating around the top edge that helps reduce friction and noise and are press fit to OEM forged rods that have cracked caps due to aggressive valve action and a hemi engine. . The cast iron camshaft is milled on the heavy side to resist deflection with number one at TDC.

We are ready for the timing adjustment. Now the chain has a blue link in it. the top part that lines up with the cam sprocket and two blue links on the bottom that line up with the crank bushing and point, once that's all lined up we're ready to install it. The oil pump can then return to its place followed by the truck. Equipped with a new O-ring plus new bearings, we are also replacing all the gaskets to keep everything sealed. We got it from fel pro including this one for the timing cover and also replaced the front seal with some oil on the back of the crank we are ready to install the rear main seal.

Now this plastic disc is there to prevent the inner seal from coming out when it goes to the crank, slides over it and snaps into place since we are reusing. the original camshaft we are going to go ahead and reuse the lifters too now as long as they go back to their original locations they will have the same wear pattern and you won't have any problems we are using felpro head gaskets on our 5.7 hemi and they did these things idiot proof on the top of the gasket, they have a mark on the top right side and even the cylinder numbers engraved with the heads attached to the deck, we are ready for the new head bolts now as they have a torque to give in, they cannot be reused.

The factory torque specs are as follows: the first sequence is 25 foot-pounds, the second is 40 foot-pounds, the third is an additional 90 degrees and that is done with one torque. The angle gauge next are the pushrods, followed by the factory rocker shafts, in front we can install the last reused part which is the shock absorber, at least that was the plan you have to follow with the shocks to times when you hit an obstacle. in its preparation now we want to run this mzir electric water pump and its adapter plate, but i ran into a little problem. This is a truck timing cover and the plate does not fit.

It is built specifically for a car cover. Oops so I used parts locator.com again, they sent us the correct one so we don't have to sacrifice the electric pump. The car cover has an extra water port that we need to tap and plug with a 3 8 pipe plug. Now we can reinstall the balancer. and screw on the backing plate for our mozier pump. It is black anodized with a captured gasket to provide the best possible seal. This Mozier 300 series is the granddaddy of water pumps with a flow capacity of 55 gallons per minute. It also has a built-in. o-ring so we never have a leak, we are going to optimize the hemis induction system with an efi throttle body setup that we wanted to try, but we had to have a compatible intake manifold like this mod we have. of the indy cylinder heads now the lower runner is pre-drilled to accept four different top plates including the single four we are going to use there is also a double four and even for a six pack plus you should have a supercharger all the way around superior.

The plates are machined with conical air cut-off outlets to promote fuel atomization. So far no big surprises

build

ing this new age

recycled

hemi, we'll see what happens on the dyno though when we get back so you better stay close we're back and moving forward in time to see what this does, here's a heads up for you guys who plan on building a hemi like this. The Indy guys thought one step ahead and put ports in the front and rear of the intake, now that's actually a place for the engine to breathe, since the valve covers don't have a place for a breather or even a place to fill the engine with oil, you will have to remove the valve cover, but it's no big deal because the captured gasket makes things pretty easy.

Go ahead and fill it up, of course you have to be careful not to get oil in the spark plug holes. Now a piece of vacuum hose is useful for installing the 16 spark plugs because if you drop them you could ruin the gaps. Next we can screw the valve covers on and reinstall the original sensors. Now it's time to show you how we are going to power that big elephant engine with our mod man input. We have the usual options, but I've been looking for a good reason to try one of these fast self-tuning efi systems.

Now you don't need a laptop or tuning experience to use this technology. It's a complete system with 4150 throttle body appropriate injector sensors, wideband O2 sensor and Of course the self-tuning ECU also comes with a portable display unit now that we have the fuel delivery covered with the new fast system . The next question is how we are going to get power to the coils and the rest of the sensors. The answer lies in this hemi 6 rpm and timing controller from MSD. It now comes with this box and a nice harness with all the factory style connections to plug into each of the components.

The only thing thatquick system need to see is the attack output of the connectors. They're even labeled to make the connection idiot-proof for a solid connection. Be sure to solder the wires for both the tack and the 12 volt power source, which of course is our test bench battery. The last thing you need to do is connect the MSD box to the harness, it's really critical. Please connect any efi harness directly to the battery to avoid interference from external sources. Now it's time to use the portable display and this is where we put all the engine parameters into the ecu so it can tune itself. while driving or in our case running it on the dyno now once again you don't need a computer engineering degree to run at least I'm told we need to turn it on first and select yes to start a new tune now. enter 345 cubic inches for this hemi desired idle speed.

Let's go with 800. We are using a single throttle body, so we selected that 43 psi is the recommended fuel pressure and eight cylinders is correct, of course, now the ecu needs to know what voltage corresponds. To open and close the throttle it first captures the value of the idle or closed position then it tells us to keep the throttle wide open until it captures that value and that's it for the basic setup, the next step is to start the engine and let it run. hot oh You can also use the handheld to monitor live data, such as engine temperature, air-fuel mixture, etc.

Alright, let's do a 25 to 6,000 split, there we go, 375 horsepower, 372 pound-feet of torque, let's do another test. Good running, very smooth, still has a bit of a learning curve to go and is obviously going through it at the moment. The numbers are getting better and better. Oh wow, 400 horsepower at 6000 rpm with 393 lb-ft at 4600. This engine made 345. And that old Dodge Ram isn't too bad. Here you have a cool feature. In case you lose a sensor, like air tip sensor, throttle position sensor, even an ejector, the ecu goes into limp mode, keeps the engine running and has enough power to get home, which should be some comfort to the carburetors. we'll be back you're watching horsepower to get a DVD copy of this episode simply visit powerblocktv.com and order your copy for just 5.95 plus shipping and handling start your own horsepower collection delivered right to your door Since the power block for many types replacing the steering column on an older car only means one option and that is a new and expensive aftermarket part.

Well, now you can recycle, keep the retro look and even make savings thanks to steering columns galore that have over 3,000 columns. stock that are all equipped with new components and go through a 10-point inspection to ensure you get a better than new column now they even give you the option to paint it any color you want to match the interior of your car. Prices start at 325 with a core you know, this could be one of the most useful tools you keep in your home workshop or take to the race track. It's called Mr Gasket's hot rod calc.

It is a street performance calculator and the first with integrated solutions for engine construction and performance in your garage, you can instantly calculate how component changes will affect compression, displacement, fuel efficiency, air, fuel, etc On the strip, you can quickly calculate how rising temperature and humidity will affect your ETs, here's how to do a basic ET calculation Let's say we have a 400 horsepower car that weighs 3500 pounds, the ET in a quarter of mile would be about 12 seconds, of course, you can factor in more variables for more advanced calculations, but the information here is almost infinite, but the price is not just about 80 dollars.

Well, by my calculations, it's time for us to go, but I'll see you next time.