Thread: Junkyard rescue of an '87 Dodge Power Ram 50

Finally got the second balance shaft out of the block, had to use a slide hammer and a pair of channel lock pliers...

2019-11-12_12-09-44 by Ben Stryker, on Flickr

Obvious failure of the balance shaft bearing, and this just proves that I don't need balance shafts anymore.

Originally Posted by BrandonHall10

I forgot that was 4wd. Just spitballing...

Thought "A" - What T-case is in that thing? I wonder if there's an American manufactured engine and manual trans combo that bolts to that unit. Bolt pattern, spline count, shaft diameter etc.

Though "B" - I'm pretty sure all the 4wd "S" trucks were drivers side drops with manual t-cases. I'm wondering if you could't find a totaled or rotted manual 4wd S10 or Blazer and pull the full drivetrain like you said. That 4.3 isn't a real powerhouse, but it's dead reliable. Plus, parts are dirt cheap, being that's is essentially a SBC. *Edit - Can be carbureted also. (It hurts me to even type that word)

I'm just trying to think of ways to get you back rolling again for the least amount of money. Also, what's going to be cheap and easy to fix when it breaks. Doing a machine shop rebuild of an obscure engine is likely not going to be the cheapest option.

I totally forgot about one option... If I simply cannot find a suitable transmission and transfer case, I could just use a divorce 205 transfer case and flip it upside down.

There's two issues with that though... I would have to either do a body lift, or cut up the undercarriage in order to fit three driveshafts under the truck, and the 205's don't really have a low range, so I would have to swap to different axles and re-gear if I wanted to do any crawling.

But instead of all that, I'm going to order $50 worth of bearings and rings to get the bottom end back together. Then it's $100 for timing set, oil pump and balance shaft elimination kit, another $30 for gaskets and $30 for paint and it's back in.

I'm not going to take it to a machine shop, all it needs is some emery cloth on the crank journals, dingleball hone on the cylinders, and some extra goopy motor honey or Lucas for the rest of it's life to take up the massive oil clearance it's going to have after I hand polish all of the crank and cam journals.

It'll last long enough for me to find a new heart for it.

In for the kaboom

Small update:

IMG_20191218_152134205 by Ben Stryker, on Flickr

IMG_20191218_152140685 by Ben Stryker, on Flickr

Block is clean and painted; pistons, main caps, oil pickup, rocker shaft, front and rear covers are cleaned up; crank journals have been polished until they look and feel like they should. Only a few things left before I can assemble the short block: run a tap through the bolt holes in the block, clean the block one final time, and measure all of the oil clearances and piston ring end gaps.

Still a lot left to do but it's progress. Painfully slow progress, but still progress.

you know, it might be best to get that crank cut. best be using plastigauge or proper measuring tools on this. or you got a 200 mile engine.

I've got the plastigauge, and according to the FSM as long as it's 0.004" or less it should be fine...

If this engine doesn't start eating itself immediately, I'm probably going to just run it until I have a full drivetrain swap ready to go.

Your wasting all the time and not doing it correctly? Must be nice to have unlimited money to piss away all the time. I wanted to see sexy bore lines.

To be honest, I have probably spent maybe $65-$70 on this rebuild up to this point.

The bearings and rings were $55, paint was $6, two cans of walmart brand degreaser for $2 each... I already had the 4-1/2" angle grinder and wire wheel, the 600-2500 grit sandpaper, I borrowed an engine hoist and I got the engine stand for practically free.

I've even gone so far as to figure out everything else I need to purchase and the prices: $29.94 for the remaining gaskets; $43.79 for the timing set; $22.06 for the balance shaft elimination kit; $27.22 for gears and chain guides; $25.11 for new head bolts. That comes out to $148.12, which will be significantly less if I don't have to replace everything under the timing cover.

I still have a lot of cleaning, measuring and massaging left to do, but I might get this finished spending $250-$300 in total. Considering the estimates I got from local machine shops ranged from $450-$1200 to do all of the work, I'm not at all disappointed. And yes, I looked for a good used engine, but I found 2 in my price range and they're both on the west coast, in California and Nevada.

As for the sexy bore lines, I will do what I can to bring them to you. I might not be able to get the crosshatch at a perfect 60 degrees, but it'll be close enough.

I don't see this rebuild as a waste of time, but then again I actually really like taking things apart and putting them back together.

it all seems cheap enough. lets hope shes a solid runner after your done. and no new gremlins show up.

2020-01-03_06-12-12 by Ben Stryker, on Flickr

Pistons are in, all of the main and rod bearing oil clearances are between 0.0015" and 0.0025", piston ring end gaps are all between 0.0015" and 0.0018", and there's about half a tube of moly lube in it.

I forgot to get a pic of the bores earlier this morning... Oops.

If I remember, I'll take one tonight.



EDIT: I added an extra zero the piston ring end gap measurements... They're on average 0.017" for the top compression rings, 0.014" for the second compression rings, and 0.019" for the oil rings.

The service limit for main and rod bearing oil clearances is 0.004", and the service limit for piston ring end gaps is 0.031" for the compression rings, 0.039" for the oil rings. The clearances in this engine measure right at the upper limit of the standard specifications, but well under the service limits.

2020-01-03_09-44-04 by Ben Stryker, on Flickr

And an extra pic from right before I slammed the pistons in.

I don't have a close-up of the journals, because I will not lay bare the sins I have committed in this thread... But the journals passed the penny test, so I'm calling them good enough.

Now before y'all hate, I haven't actually honed the cylinders.

I just used some green scotchbrite pads to clean the up the cylinder walls so I wouldn't potentially score the cylinder walls by dragging carbon buildup down the bores while slamming the pistons in.

I'll pull the pistons back out and resurface the cylinders with an actual cylinder hone later, but I promised pictures so here ya go.

2020-01-05_01-50-31 by Ben Stryker, on Flickr

2020-01-05_01-50-45 by Ben Stryker, on Flickr

The cylinder walls do have some light scuffing, but it's nothing a light hone won't take care of.

Oh, and this happened.

2020-01-05_01-50-59 by Ben Stryker, on Flickr

Unfortunate, but it was only a $2 gasket. I'm glad I noticed this before trying to put the engine back together, a vacuum leak on the bottom edge of #2 would have taken me forever to find... There's no good angle to spray brake clean at that spot with the engine assembled and in the truck because of the A/C compressor and bracket.

I still have yet to clean the head, valve train and front accessories... I'll admit it, I'm procrastinating on the cleaning.

It's because I don't have the parts I need, or the funds to order them right now, and there's nothing else that I can really install right now.

Finally caught a break in the financial department. I got the rest of the parts ordered, and most of them have shown up.

The new timing set with balance shaft delete kit, new guides, and new sprockets got here Wednesday; the new head bolts and new oil pickup tube showed up yesterday. The new oil pump won't be here until next Wednesday at the earliest.

I decided to go ahead and buy the spring loaded cylinder hone, and I'm planning on tearing down the block (again) and honing the cylinders (properly) as soon as I have a day off. I also picked up a set of three mechanical gauges...oil pressure, water temp, and voltage all mounted in a little panel. There's no way I was going to try starting this engine without knowing exact numbers for oil pressure, and the other two are because the stock instrument cluster doesn't show actual numbers and I like knowing actual numbers.

While I was at autozone/advance I figured I might as well grab everything else I could possibly need. I got the 1/8" NPT female to 1/8"x28 BSP male adapter in order to make the oil pressure gauge work, a clutch alignment tool, a couple extra fuel filters, some high tack gasket sealer for the cork gaskets, Indian Head shellac gasket sealer for the paper gaskets, PTFE thread sealant for the block plugs and non-blind bolt holes, valve lapping compound, even more RTV...

I got a gallon of Super Clean and too many cans of brake clean from wally-world, because it's super cheap and I still have to clean the head, oil pan, front accessories and brackets, and all of the hardware... I had to order an M12x1.25 tap from Amazon because literally zero hardware stores in Frederick had one, and I need it to clean all of the carbon and sludge buildup out of the head bolt holes.

The only things I still need to purchase is the engine oil and filter, a fresh set of spark plugs, and some fresh coolant. I might grab a bottle of engine break-in oil additive, or one of those fancy engine treatments with friction modifiers and micro-lubricants that soak into metal surfaces...

I'm excited. I can see the finish line, and it feels fantastic.

Speaking of progress...

IMG_20200118_214338453 by Ben Stryker, on Flickr

IMG_20200118_214432167 by Ben Stryker, on Flickr

IMG_20200118_214316357 by Ben Stryker, on Flickr

I probably should have pulled the hoses off earlier, but for now I get to look for a new coolant bypass pipe.

Yes, there is some stop-leak fiber crap, it's probably all through the radiator too... I'll work on trying to clean it all out.

Yay.

Found a "new" coolant bypass pipe... It's chrome plated.



(Pic is from the seller)

It's a relic from the 80's...long story short a guy had a bunch of D50 parts chromed back in 1983, took the truck apart, never got it back together, and the truck, with all the parts piled into the bed, was sold at the original owner's estate auction (for stupid cheap, apparently). I bought this from the guy who scored at the estate auction.

And now I have to polish everything else on my engine, because it just simply wouldn't look right otherwise. Or at least a fresh coat of black...

Long story incoming...

So it turns out the guy I bought the coolant bypass pipe from, wasn't the guy who bought the parts at the estate auction. He bought a few chrome pieces from the auction guy, and never got the chance to use any of it. While we were agreeing on a price for the coolant bypass pipe, we were also talking back and forth about our projects. when he shipped the coolant bypass pipe, he said there was a surprise in the box... I didn't expect this kind of surprise.

IMG_20200127_220421854 by Ben Stryker, on Flickr

IMG_20200127_220540499 by Ben Stryker, on Flickr

IMG_20200127_213851866 by Ben Stryker, on Flickr

IMG_20200127_220321018 by Ben Stryker, on Flickr

IMG_20200127_214052759 by Ben Stryker, on Flickr

IMG_20200127_220244283 by Ben Stryker, on Flickr

That's all of the parts that this guy had bought about a year ago, when he was planning on swapping the 2.0L in his truck for a 2.6L. He ended up keeping the 2.0L, so when I showed interest in the parts he decided to just send all of it. I messaged him back when I got the box, he said he would rather see it go to someone who would use it and appreciate it, so now I've got a pile of shiny chrome...

Looks like I have A LOT more cleaning and polishing and painting in order to make this turd worthy of the chrome.

Oh, and I got a new hood prop rod clip and grommet. These are always broken or missing, and also fairly difficult to find at a reasonable price.

IMG_20200127_213706713 by Ben Stryker, on Flickr



I did make a bit of progress on the engine...

I honed the cylinder bores a fair bit, I didn't get all of the marks out but there's a good crosshatch pattern and the piston to bore clearance is still within specs.

I got the oil pump (finally), got all of the left over metal shavings cleaned out of it, packed it full of grease, got the balance shaft delete plug installed, and then installed the oil pump onto the block.

I started working on the head, cleaned all of the buildup off/out of the cylinder head and the valve train, polished and lapped the valves, now all that's left is to polish the cam bearing surfaces and I can start assembling the head.

The inside of the oil pan is finally clean, the outside needs a wire wheel and it'll be ready for paint.

Once the engine is basically ready to go back in the truck, I'm going to work on getting all of the front accessory brackets and pulleys cleaned up and ready for paint. I've got to de-scale and flush the radiator, but once that's painted and installed I'll practically be ready to crank it up. Oh, and install the gauges so I don't blow it up 15 minutes after first crank.

damn that guy hooked ya up good. alt bracket to dip stick lol

you sure about packing the pump with grease, seems like it would make it clogged up and not pump at all. you can prime it via the distributor in a lot of engines, it turns the pump in many cases. engine dont need to be running either. win win.

This oil pump is chain driven directly off of the crank, there's no priming it separate from rotating the engine without pulling the timing cover off and pulling out two of the oil pump mounting bolts...

The grease is there to create an air-tight seal between the gears so the oil pump can pull a vacuum, actually pull oil from the pan, and immediately start building oil pressure at first crank, instead of needing RPM to build oil pressure. That means I don't have to rely on the engine assembly lube to keep everything from eating itself alive for up to a minute while the engine builds oil pressure.

The grease will "dissolve" in the oil, much like the moly lube will. I'm changing the oil and filter after the first start, and again after the engine is "broken in", so I'm not worried about it. The only thing that sucks, I'm gonna have to use high zinc oil from now on... The bearings I bought specify a zinc additive or high zinc oil, which I probably should have been doing since the beginning but............................................... ...................................oops.

3800 oil pump is packed with vaseline

High zinc is easy, any diesel oil should suffic.