About 1am, much to my neighbors delight I'm sure, I hopped in and turned the key. It spun about 15 times or so, pause, spun it again and it sputtered for a few secs then shut off, spun it once more and it roared to life!

Applying what I've learned, I varied the rpm's up and down between 2k and 2.5k for half an hour, the oil pressure was hitting between 90 and 100, the limit of my autometer gauge... by the time the 30 mins was up, it had settled down to 30 or so at idle, and 60 when revved up.

It took about 15 minutes for the motor to ever hit 190 and open the thermostat, but I had drilled an 1/8th inch hole in the housing, another new trick I learned from you folks, so when it opened, nothing different happened except the motor didn't get any warmer. I've got a 3-core radiator and shroud from some old late 60's Plymouth muscle car shoe-horned into my little Jeep's grille, and the stock flex-fan on the 400. Entire system holds about 5 gallons.

After the 30 mins, I went to the end of the street and back, about 2 miles, all seems well. Opened the throttle a couple of times, no skips, hesitation or anything. Sounds like I have a small exhaust leak on the passenger side, will have to check that tomorrow. Oil was between 60 and 65 @ 2k rpm going down the road. Now if it will just *stay* like that...

When I got back I parked it, going to let it sit overnight and change the oil and filter tomorrow right where it sits before I crank it back up, hopefully all the "stuff" will have settled to the bottom by them.

Sure hope I got it right this time. Wanted to thank everyone for the mountain of tips I learned in the last couple of weeks, it seems likely I would have been in the same boat as before without your help, so... Thanks!

 

Thats pretty cool. I wish I could shove a 400 into our Grand Cherokee (02). That would kick the snot out of anything on the trail and at the stop light, that much torque in such a light vehicle. Have fun with it. I am really jealous.