What is RSMark5 working on now!?

[darcness]

Do work son! :thumbsup:

Looks alot like what I've always got going on in the garage. Not on the same scale, but I've always got something torn apart or working on it in there. My neighbors must think I'm nuts, but I like to turn wrenches. I'm a maintenance tech at FedEx working on gearboxes, motors, belt systems, automated scan tunnels (computer controlled), and anything else they can throw at me. I just like to work on my vehicles (and others) in my spare time. Turning wrenches is the best way to relax imho.

 

[RSMark5]

Do work son! :thumbsup:

Looks alot like what I've always got going on in the garage. Not on the same scale, but I've always got something torn apart or working on it in there. My neighbors must think I'm nuts, but I like to turn wrenches. I'm a maintenance tech at FedEx working on gearboxes, motors, belt systems, automated scan tunnels (computer controlled), and anything else they can throw at me. I just like to work on my vehicles (and others) in my spare time. Turning wrenches is the best way to relax imho.

My neighbors use to think I was nuts too, now they all pretty much bring their cars to me cuz I'm cheap and honest.


You pretty much hit the nail on the head. I've always got something taken apart in our garage. its just what relaxes us. Me and my buddy Spears both aren't in the greatest of places in our lives right now. So the garage is our escape to not worry about real life, and make a few dollars while we're there. Its not great or much money but we both love it and it beats the late shift at McDonalds.

I get that these aren't the 'build' threads this forum is into. Hell, I'm not into owning a durango or a dynasty either. But, I learn something on every project. Its always a new experience.

 

[darcness]

That's what I'm saying. I worked on A LOT of my own pieces of shit before I bought my first new car, the GTI. I learned so much from those cars and was able to carry that knowledge on to the VW. I feel like without doing all that my VW would just be another hacked up piece of shit like the cars of yesteryear. I do my fair share of freelance mechanic work too. As much as I can get really. I wrench for free most of the time on friends cars because I enjoy the company, a wrench in my hand, and some cold beers in the fridge/cooler.

And fuck what the forum is "into". You do what you want/like and everyone else can either deal with it or piss off. You think my build log with all it's boring ass updates and shit only I care about is a big hit? Hardly. I do it for me though, not for anyone else.

 

[Dutchy]

Awesome thread Mark! I don't know how I didn't see this earlier. It's the complete opposite of most build threads I've read, but that makes it entertaining. Whats up with the red Saab nowadays?

 

[hairyblackrabbit]

Hell, I'm not into owning a durango or a dynasty either. But, I learn something on every project. Its always a new experience.

I'm into you owning a beat to fuck durango and a dynasty.


Best in show at the gathering car show: OMM Garage.

 

[Subie2013]

Awesome thread Mark! I don't know how I didn't see this earlier. It's the complete opposite of most build threads I've read, but that makes it entertaining. Whats up with the red Saab nowadays?

She is slutting around like normal breh. Got the OMM cock in and around it.

 

[RSMark5]

She is slutting around like normal breh. Got the OMM cock in and around it.

Lol actually its in my back yard stuck in third gear. Shift linkage broke on me one night, so I limped it home in 3rd gear. Weathers been crappy and I just don't care enough to fix it yet. $25 part, just being lazy about it since I have so many other projects currently in the mix.


I want to swap that bigger turbo on it, actually I ditched the T3/T4 .57trim for a isis GT3876? its pretty much a chinese copy of a GT28RS. I'm just worried about destroying the car with too much power is all.


I'm picking up a destroyed B234R block from my guy at the scrap yard. I need it for mock up on a project i'm working on. Was going to rip the drivetrain out of the gold/silver one but its just too nice for that. So Spears is going to drive it around a bit until I actually have time to go through with what I want to do with it.

 

[darcness]

The red Saab. :wub:

Always loved those cars so much. Maybe one day I will own one.

 

[RSMark5]

Got my load of parts for the dirty Durango last night, so decided to make some progress on that. Maybe wrap it up by next week.

Since the motors out, and I'm changing it anyway I figure why not replace some of the normal wear stuff, and clean it up? Several people have told us we're "wasting your time and money". Whatever.


First started by painting the water pump and all the brackets that I can with some high temp black paint. Not only does it look a lot better, but it keeps everything cooler. It really bugs me when people buy a new water pump and don't paint it.

Had to change oil pumps around because the pick up tubes are different. But when we pulled the pan off the old motor there was about 2" of milkshake like sludge in the bottom of it, and the pump was all sludged up. So we pretty much just took the pick up tube off the 4wd pump on the old motor, cleaned it out, and installed it on the 2wd pump on the new motor. Made a huge mess in the process because couple amateurs didn't drain the oil in the old engine first. :facepalm:

again, clean clean and clean again. Then put a nice fel-pro gasket on it



And heres our giant mess for the night.

Every 360 we looked at to swap in the durango had leaky valve covers. Must be a dodge thing because my BIL's 4.7 ram is the same way, as is virtually every dodge that ends up in our shop. But its easy to see why, wasn't torqued down at all. All the bolts were finger tight while others were so tight they crushed the gasket. So, again nice Fel-Pro gaskets and torquing it down to spec should make the difference.

Here it is pretty much back together side by side with the old motor.

Still have to transfer over the main accessories bracket at the front of the engine but I had to do a 3rd coat of paint on it and let it dry over night. Couple of other minor things. I'm going to give the engine bay the same treatment. Degrease it all real good hose it down, clean up all the wiring harnesses before I drop it back in. I know its just a work truck, but anything worth doing is worth doing right.

 

[darcness]

...but anything worth doing is worth doing right.

QFT right there broham. :thumbsup:

Sometimes I wonder why I spend so much time on the littlest shit. Thing is, you never know who might see what you do some day. Even the littlest thing could get you noticed. Do everything like it should be done and some day, some one will notice.

 

[RSMark5]

Clean clean, and clean some more. The truck has 278k miles on it, so theres some grime in the engine bay. Spent 3-4 hours cleaning.

Mike had to cut the exhaust manifold bolts out. When we were removing the engine, got the bolts halfway unbolted to the Y pipe to the manifolds and the bolt stopped and wouldn't move. So we removed the engine around the headers. But had to replace the hardware so easiest way was to break out the grinder.

So those were out of the way. I really want to clean them up and powder coat them or something, but I know its a lost cause and its a durango. So screw it, back in she goes.

And back down on the engine mounts

So the 360 is weird and has a flex plate instead of a flywheel. The teeth that the starter engages are attached to the tq converter. The flex plate is no fun to line up with the Tq converter because the bolts will only go in in one order. So it took a few times of spinning the motor over to get it right. Then the top tranny bolts are crammed right up against the firewall. Now I know why it was missing the very top tranny bolt when we removed the engine.


So whats left is to finish bolting it up together with the 4wd brackets and what not, and to plug everything back in. Fill it full of fluids and go with it. :iono:

 

[RSMark5]

Got some free time this afternoon and it was warm so I decided to wash the dynasty. Its still in the air because I need a starter for it.

Sadly the other half is going to have to wait for another day. I know I wasn't using proper technique two bucket method but whatever. I didn't even have 1 bucket I had to use a cooler.

 

[darcness]

Oh man, I have to admit that cooler bit is funny as hell. Had me laughing out loud for real. I've been there man. You gotta do what you gotta do. Car looks almost new after being cleaned up though. Good stuff.

 

[RSMark5]

Oh man, I have to admit that cooler bit is funny as hell. Had me laughing out loud for real. I've been there man. You gotta do what you gotta do. Car looks almost new after being cleaned up though. Good stuff.

Haha exactly my thoughts man. All i had was wash soap and my sponge. It was my first warm opportunity in a while. It honestly took me more than 2 hours of scrubbing to get that far. It was getting dark and cold and thats why i had to stop and now its back into the low 40's and raining.


Got our new jacks this afternoon luckily

Learned a tough lesson last night. So had to unbolt the engine again on the durango because some one (not naming names) forgot to put the dust shield between the motor and transmission. So had to undo the mounts, and separate the motor and tranny once again to slide the dust shield to the torque converter in. So after taking 2 steps back we finally got it going, we were making good time. Got the motor bolted to the tranny, engine mounts bolted back in, 4wd brackets all bolted back in was running the harnesses (had to switch out fuel rails and injectors too) and noticed that when *we* slid the motor and tranny backt together the harness from the distributer is caught between the block and bell housing and the plug side is actually IN the transmission. So....fawk. 6 steps backwards. So heres a PSA

*When mating an engine and transmission, always make sure all lines and plugs are clear*


Amateur hour over here. I swear.

 

[darcness]

FUUUUUUUU......