Recycled 5.7L Hemi Budget Build Stage 1

Inside that box is our next engine project.

And

it's one like we've never tackled before.

No, it's not a crate engine,

but it is a running motor and actually it's one that's been a legend now for more than 50 years,

would you believe we paid less than half of what you'd expect to shell out for a complete 5.7 L

hemi.

You see it came from a 2007 Dodge truck with about 50,000 miles on it.

A perfect engine to recycle for other vehicles. We were really surprised to see how well it was pulled and packaged. We got

the full accessory drive with all the hardware, even an engine harness that's still hooked up to the factory ECM. And if you look real close, they didn't even cut one wire. Now, thanks to being our reckon looks like we're off to a good start to find the hemi

we wanted, we logged on to the parts locator.com website. Clicked on to the parts search box. Enter the year make and model

build in the parts information boxes and a zip code. Then in less than a minute, we had several choices from suppliers on their network including B and R which had the engine we wanted for the price. We wanted to pay

around $2000

while it's ready to go into any appropriate car or truck. We've got some tweaks of our own in mind to make it an even more powerful and reliable performer. Of course, any time you've got a hemi

for a project, you've also got a piece of high performance heritage.

It was easily the most familiar four letter word in high performance history. A history that first ruled the roads in the fifties. Then the tracks in a growing little sport called stock car racing.

The 57 Chrysler 300 was touted as the fastest most powerful production car in America.

Thanks to a 392 cubic

hemi with twin Carter cars. Horsepower 375 Plymouth waited for the second generation to pack a

hemi

and it got no better than the

hemi

Ka with 425 horsepower. Lurking under that legendary shaker hood,

a fast fish that could run quarter miles in 13 seconds.

Hemi helped Mos

win every conceivable type of racing.

And during the second generation muscle car years,

hemi ruled the streets and stripped down versions like the Super B.

After 1971 there were no more hemi

production cars for over 30 years.

Then came that famous question in 2003

that

got

a hemi.

Our plan is to first tear down the hemi

motor to check all the components and we're not using the factory harness. So it's the first thing to go.

No reservations about getting this hemi

from a wrecking yard. You see BNR documents a run test, compression check and fluid test on every engine they sell.

Here's something that makes tear down and assembly a little easier. The factory put an eye on the intake rocker of these hemi.

So you knew which side went on the intake and the exhaust side is left unmarked

since we are using all of the valve train. Be sure to keep it in order,

we're leaving the heads assembled and they're off to a new piece of shop equipment.

It's an ultrasonic cleaning system from safety clean that uses high frequency sound waves and the special solution to thoroughly clean the parts

it penetrates to remove even embedded particles inside and outside of each component.

When the cleaning cycle is finished, the optional skimmer uses a metal band to pull the contaminants out of the tank and into an outside container.

It's worth it to find a machine shop that uses one and we'll be using ours a lot in days to come

while the heads are cleaning, we can remove the oil pan,

then spin the engine over and remove the oil pickup.

Here's something unique to the

hemi

engine. A part that doubles as a wind tray

and oil pan gasket pretty cool. Huh? But

I'm easily impressed. Let's spin this thing over and get to the lifters

by giving the crank shaft a few spins. The lifters get pushed into their pockets for easy removal.

Well, at least that's the idea.

Well, next, using a drill bit to take tension off the timing chain makes removing the chain a lot easier.

Then after removing this camp plate, we can carefully pull out the cam shaft.

All right, before we tear down the bottom end, I wanna mark each piston and rod. So I know what hole it came out of and the direction it was in there. Now, in case you don't have a manual, quick access to the internet or simply don't know, there's an easy way to tell which cylinder is. Number one. Look at the front of the block and the piston that's closest to the front is number one. So we have 1357 on the driver's side, 2468 on the passenger side. I'm gonna go ahead and mark number one with a punch.

Well, here's a good way to check the overall condition of our recycled engine by checking the rod bearings and glad to say that these look almost new

compared to this one. We pulled out of the trash with discoloration, which is a sign of heat and excessive mileage. Also, this is a good sign that the oiling system was doing its job as well.

The cranks next and I'm using this Mac co tool to hold the flywheel so we can break the bolts loose.

Then after removing it, we can unbolt the aluminum housing that retains the rear main seal.

It's always a good idea to remove the crank sensor to keep from damaging it.

Then off with the main bearings,

which also confirms we got a good engine,

the tear downs done, but the best is yet to come.

We'll be right back.

Ok. Breaks over. And so is our cleaning cycle in the new ultrasonic machine.

Here's what the heads look like after 20 minutes. Pretty impressive.

All the embedded grime is gone inside and out

and after we get them dry,

well, they'll be ready to go right back on.

Here's a little hemi

heads up for you the way you can tell a 5.7 head from a 6.1 is the shape of the exhaust port on the 5.7. Like ours is square

on the 6.1. It's D shaped.

Now, here's the trademark of any hemi

head. Of course, the hemispherical combustion chamber with larger valves and two spark plugs per cylinder.

Now, these later versions have a squish area on

each side. And, well, because of that, some purists will argue that these aren't real

hemi heads.

I say they should get a real life. What about you?

Like the heads, the crank and other parts cleaned up just as well. Now, we didn't drop the blocking because it was in pretty good shape. I just washed it by hand in the sink. Now, here's some block facts you need to know, especially if you plan on buying one of these as a remand. All late model Hemm

come equipped with bosses for M DS in the top of the block. Now M DS is the multi displacement system that shuts off four cylinders under light cruise loads to conserve fuel. Ours isn't equipped with it. So these little white plugs have O rings to fill the holes. Now on the driver's side, this is a truck block. So all the bosses are drilled and tapped. If this block would have came off of the car line, some of these would be solid and you'd have a hard time fitting it in a truck. So watch out for that

with new sealed power bearings in place, time for the crank.

All third gen hemi

cranks are internally balanced with a 3.58 inch stroke.

And I'll use these thrust washers installed with the grooves facing towards the crank shaft.

Only cast iron cranks are used in the five sevens and only Ford steel cranks are used in the six ones.

The new Mallee pistons have a grapple coating around the top rim that helps reduce friction and noise

and they're press fitted to the forged OEM rods that have cracked caps

because of the aggressive valve action in a heavy

engine. The cast iron cam shaft is milled on the heavy side to resist deflection

with number one at T DC, we're ready for the timing set. Now, the chain has a blue link at the top that lines up with the CAMS sprocket and two blue links on the bottom that lines up with the crank socket and the dot Once that's all lined up, we're ready to install it.

Next, the oil pump can go back in place,

followed by the pickup fitted with a new O ring.

In addition to new bearings, we're also replacing all the gaskets to keep everything sealed up.

We got them from Fell pro

including this one for the timing cover and we also replaced the front seal

with some oil on the back of the crank. We're ready to install the rear main seal. Now, this plastic disk is there to keep the inside seal it from pushing out when it goes on to the crank

slip that over, it

goes right into place.

Since we're reusing the stock cam shaft, we're gonna go ahead and reuse the lifters as well. Now, as long as they go back into the original locations, they'll have the same wear pattern and you won't have a problem.

We're using fell pro head gaskets on our 57

hemi and they made these things idiot proof on the top of the gasket. They have a marking for top right hand side and even the cylinder numbers engraved in it

with the heads mated to the deck, we're ready for the new head bolts.

Now, since they're a torque to yield, they cannot be reused.

The factory torque specs are as follows. The first sequence is 25 ft pounds.

The second is 40 ft pounds.

The third is an additional 90 degrees and you do that with a torque angle meter.

Next up are the push rods

followed by the factory rocker shafts

back up front. We can install the last reuse part which is the damper.

Well, at least that was the plan.

You have to roll with the punches sometimes when you hit a snag in your build up. Now we wanna run this electric mesure

water pump and their adapter plate, but I ran into a little problem. This is a truck timing cover and the plate doesn't fit it. This is built specifically for a car cover. Oops.

So we use parts locator.com again, got the right one shipped. So we don't have to sacrifice the electric pump.

The car cover has an extra water port that we have to tap

and plug it with a 38 pipe plug.

Now we can reinstall the balancer

and bolts up the backing plate for a Mazier pump.

It's anodized black with a captured gasket to provide the best possible seal.

This Mazier 300 series is the big daddy of water pumps with the flow capacity of 55 gallons per minute.

It's also got a built in

Oing. So we'll never have a leak from it.

We're gonna streamline the

hemi

induction system with the NF I throttle body set up. We've been wanting to try

but

had to have a compatible intake manifold like this mud man. We got from Indie cylinder heads.

Now, the bottom runner is pre drilled to accept four different top plates

including the single four that we're gonna be using.

There's also

a

double four

and

even for a six pack plus, you gotta have it

super charger.

All the top plates are a machine with tapered air shear exits to promote fuel atomization.

So far, no big surprise is building this recycled new age

hemi. We'll see what happens in the

dyno though when we come back. So better stay close.

We're back and moving on time to see what this thing makes.

Here's a heads up for you guys that plan on putting together a hemi

just like this one. The guys at Indy thought a step ahead and put ports in the front and back side of the intake. Now, that's actually a spot for the engine to breathe. Since the valve covers don't have a location for a breather or even a spot to fill the engine with oil, you'll have to remove the valve cover, but it's no big deal because of the captured gasket makes things pretty easy.

Wouldn't fill her up.

Of course, you wanna be careful not to get any oil in those spark plug holes. Now, a piece of vacuum hose comes in handy for installing the spark plugs, all 16 of them because if you just dropped them in, you might mess up the gaps.

Next, we can bolt up the valve covers

and reinstall the stock sensors.

Well, now it's about time to show you how we're gonna feed that big elephant motor with our mod man intake. We got the usual choices, but we've been looking for a good reason to try out one of these fast self tuning ef I systems. Now you don't need a laptop or tuning experience to use this technology.

It's a complete system with 4150 throttle body,

appropriate injectors

sensors,

broadband 02 sensor. And of course, the self tuning ECU

it also comes with a handheld display unit

now that we have the fuel delivery covered with the new fast system. The next question is how are we gonna get power to the coils and the rest of the sensors? Well, the answer is in this

hemi six timing, an RPM controller from MS D. Now it comes with this box and a nice harness with all factory style connections to plug into each of the components.

The only thing the fast system needs to see from it is attack output.

The connectors are even labeled to make the hook up idiot proof

for a solid connection. Make sure you solder the wires for both the tech and the 12 volt power source, which of course is our dyno

battery.

The last thing, hook the MS D box up to the harness.

It's real critical that you wire any EF I harness directly to the battery. So you don't get

interference from outside sources. All right. Now it's time to use the handheld display and

this is where we put all the parameters of the engine into the ECU so it can tune itself while you drive or in our case, run it on the

dyno. Now, once again,

you don't need a computer engineering degree to work this thing. At least they tell me.

Well, first we need to power it up

and select yes to start a new tune.

Now enter the cubic inches, 345 for this

hemi

desired idle speed. Let's go with 800.

We're using a single throttle body. So we select that

43 P si is the recommended fuel pressure

and eight cylinders is correct. Of course.

Now, the ECU needs to know what voltage corresponds to open and closed throttle.

First, it captures the idle or closed position value,

then it tells us to hold the throttle wide open

until it captures that value.

And that's it for the basic set up.

The next step is to start the engine

and let it warm up

or you can also use the handheld to monitor live data like engine temperature, air fuel mix and so on.

All right, we're gonna do a suite from 25 to 6000.

There we go.

375 horsepower. 372 ft pounds of torque.

Let's make another run.

All right.

Nice, smooth run.

It still has a little bit of a learning curve to go through and it's obviously going through it right now. Numbers are getting better and better.

Oh, wow. 400 horsepower at 6000 RPM with 393 ft pounds at 4600

motor made 345 in that old Dodge Ram. It's not too bad.

Here's a cool feature. Should you lose a sensor? Like well, air tip sensor, throttle position sensor. Even

an injector,

the ECU goes into a lip mode.

It keeps the motor running and you've got enough power to make it home.

That ought to be some comfort you carve guys. We'll be right back.

You're watching horsepower for a DVD copy of this episode. Just go to power block tv.com and order your copy for just 595 plus shipping and handling. Start your own horsepower collection delivered right to your door from the power block

for a lot of guys replacing an older muscle car steering column only means one option

and that's a pricey shiny new aftermarket piece. Well, now you can recycle, keep the retro look and even reap the savings. That's thanks to steering columns, galore who has over 3000 columns in stock that are all outfitted with new components and go through a 10 point inspection to ensure that you get a column that's better than new. Now, they even give you the option to paint it whatever color you want to match your car's interior

prices start at 325 with a core.

You know, this could be one of the handiest tools that you keep in your home shop or take to the drag strip. It's called the hot rod calk

from Mr Gasket. It's a street strip performance calculator.

And the first one with built in solutions for engine building and performance

in your garage, you can instantly calculate how changes in components will affect your engine's compression, displacement, air fuel efficiency and so on.

At the strip, you can quickly calculate how temperature elevation and humidity will affect your ETS.

Here's how you do a basic et calculation. Let's say we got a 400 horsepower car that weighs 3500 pounds.

The et at a quarter mile would be about 12 seconds.

Of course, you can factor in more variables for more advanced calculations, but the information in here is just about endless, not the price, however, only about 80 bucks. Well, according to my calculations, it's about time for us to go, but we'll see you next time.