Topic: Swapped Motor, now NO power

[brian c]

Yeah just don't tell my g/f....I'm supposed to be working on her Durango that weekend.


Hmm....Durango or TA...That's a toughy

[famguy]

Russ IS Mr. Sparky.  He is THE guy I go to for all things wiring.  Somebody pissed him off and I've got somebody taking care of that as I type.

What pissed him off?

[jphillips3333]

The whole muscle car, pony car, sports car debate thread ...  geez, it's no biggie.  Call the TA what you want, it's all good, but at the end of the day it at least has left a mark on automotive history ... unlike those silver/beige imports that are so prevalent you're not even sure of the make/model.

He'll be back ... maybe Pelosi is grilling him on why he hasn't traded his TA in for the $4500 credit.  Him and Nancy are tight.

[Anderson0741]

That would beterrible to do to a T/A

[Wild Bill]

One problem fixed, another one started.................

All in all, I got the motor started, after having to pull my distributor and turning the rotor 180 degrees, but it's going........ I go to pull the dip stick, it's bent the hell up... So I drop another one down in there, which was a little bit longer, and I turned the engine over, ran it for a few seconds, turned it off, pulled it out, still bent, but noticed it was missing about 1 1/2 inches! They are being broke off by the crank and dropping in the oil pan..............

Someone, PLEASE, tell me I do not have to pull the motor and drop the oil pan and get those out....

[Wild Bill]

Oh, and btw, the motor sounds great!

Now, I just have to tighten up my transmission lines since they are leaking horribly. Then take off the passenger side valve cover and cut that gasket since it was way too big and bunched up, THEN, re hook up my brake booster, and then I have to time it, right now, it's looking at 30 degrees at 2500, so I'm close, just too damn tired from a week of working on it, gonna do it tomorrow.

Brian, I texted you.... If you wanna come up and help out, sure thing man. I still have tons of stuff needing done. Probably gonna have to tune the carb real good, also need to change my shocks, front and rear, and also I need to change out my door pins.... I have a lot of stuff that I have parts for and put off from doing!

BTW, changing an engine practically by yourself sucks!

Took me an hour to unhook everything and pull out the 403.
Took me 4 hours getting the engine in the motor mounts, tranny, and keep the headers in the right spot...
THEN another 4 hours getting the headers hooked up and bolted up.
I think it took me another 3 hours hooking up random wires, put the carb on, distributor...
Then it took me almost 2 hours to put the alt brackets on, the ps bracket on, get those on enough to run, but they are no way proper yet.
Enough to run, but not right

[jphillips3333]

Cool - glad it's running.  I always vary the RPM when starting it - don't let it lope at idle for 20 minutes ... advice from 25 years back.

Suggestions on the tip;
1st opportunity - tou need to change the oil after breaking it in - perhaps you'll get lucky and the tip of the dipstick will flush out ... 20 to 1 shot.  Put some mesh over the oil bucket/pan and see what you get. 
2nd option - try an articulating magnet inside the oil pan bolt - maybe it snaps to the piece.
3rd option - you can jack up the front of the motor to pull the pan past the crossmember.  You will more than likely have to drop the headers but see how it goes - I seem to recall pulling the pan from under the car and I thought the headers were off.
4th option - run it?  Magnetic drain plug holds it on the bottom of the pan?

The motor swap and associated times - yeah, you'll whittle those down when you do it again. 

[Wild Bill]

I just dumped the oil to check everything out..........

I have some, not alot, of very very very tiny speckles, not shavings, but speckles in the oil

[Wild Bill]

I'm gonna use a magnetic plug tomorrow......

[jphillips3333]

OK - so you dropped the oil out already.  Nothing metallic in feel though, right?  Speckles could be gas/oil/lube/RTV mix ...

Yeah - I'd buy the magnetic oil plug.  A magnet will draw any metal/filing to it ... that's cheap insurance.  The other thing, you're not going to race this thing to 8K RPM so you'd probably be fine.  Someone else may suggest you drop the pan - that's fine.  It's all good info.  I'd probably run it a bit, set the timing, dial in the carb.  Drive it a couple hundred miles and change the oil again just for good measure and to see what the magnetic plug gets you.  Let us know.

[Wild Bill]

Yeah, i rubbed it in my fingers and nothing, I couldn't even feel it, just see it sparkle...

I know alot of people will say to drop the pan, to be super safe, but I think it's just fine. I'm gonna change the oil tomorrow, run it for about 5 minutes, change the oil again, while changing the filters

[foreman352]

good job