Well I have the crank and pistons, cam and lifters, head studs, head gaskets and heads installed on my motor this evening before the rain shut me down.

With any luck at all I hope to have it all together and back in the truck by Sunday night.

 

its about time.
what have you been driving for the past few months?? the john deer rider??

 

A borrowed 86 Dodge 3500 gasser 4x4 dump truck with an automatic.
7 MPG just driving around empty.
Rattles everywhere.
Drives and rides like a horse drawn freight wagon.
And it only has 63,000 miles on it.

Well the rain has stopped for now, so I better go put a few more parts on the engine.

 

Dave -

Could you share some specifics about the engine you're building? Fer instance: What cam are you running? What parts source did you decide on for pistons, bearings, gaskets, etc? Any mods to the block, heads or pistons? A lot of us have high mileage motors, and looking at the cost of new engines/trucks really takes your breath away. It'd be nice to have some ideas for later....

 

I am using Sealed Power for most of my internals.
Felpro gaskets and seals.
ARP head studs.
Melling oil pump

Inconnel valves and seats.
Hypereutectic pistons milled down.
Polished crank.
Balanced engine rotating assembly to 5000 RPM.
Engine was 20 over, but the machine shop got the cylinders to clean up by going an additional 10 so it is now 30 over on the pistons.

Machine work and parts are at about 4000 dollars right now, but I still need a few things. I could have chopped about 1000 dollars off that if I did not have some of the extra goodies done.

I painted it bright Ford RED.

 

sounds like its gonna be a hot rod. Can't wait to see the finished product.

Is the oil pump a performance or just another preffered brand?

 

So those older engines can run higher rpms?

 

I just had it balanced to that RPM so it would run real smooth.
Your torque is below 2000 RPM, so that is where you want it to run most of the time.
Besides with the price of fuel these days and the way the IDI sucks fuel over 2500 RPM who could afford to run it that fast.

To answer your question more directly,
You can go over 3300 RPM, but if everything is not in top notch shape you are rolling the dice every time you run it up there.


Raw Power,
I don't know if it will run yet, but it sure does look different.

So far the block, rocker covers, CDR, front cover, transmission adapter and heads are bright red 1200 degree ceramic paint.

The water pump, oil cooler, lift pump, exhaust manifolds, intake manifold, turbo plumbing, and all the brackets are 1200 degree ceramic aluminum paint.

I can not decide wether I want the oil pan, air cleaner, turbo and valley pan red or silver yet.

As much of the exhaust manifolds, cross over pipe and down tube as I can manage will be wrapped in header wrap soaked with aluminum high temp paint.

Looking at the engine this evening I think I am going to have to spif up the engine compartment some before I try to put the engine back in, it is just not going to look right if I don't.