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318 top end teardown and rebuild

25K views 23 replies 11 participants last post by  Nando Vazquez 
#1 ·
Alright so as some of you may know from another thread I blew my head gasket/ cracked my block/ warped or cracked my heads. Well, one way for me to really find out was to tear the motor down to the block and find the damage. I didnt take step by step pictures of the tear down, but I did take a bunch of random pictures along the way. So I'll post them all here with a breif description.

(keep in mind these are taken via iPhone)


Here starts the tear down, this picture is with the alternator, radiator, ac pump and ac pump/ alternator bracket removed.


A quick picture of the intake without the throttle body.


You can see a small leak around the thermostat area. Tons of gunk built up also.


After a few minutes of scraping away more carbon and grease build up I find the plenum pan.


This thing was REAL dirty.


Here's the filthy intake. The front half was pretty clean, the back half on the other hand was disgusting. Atleast 1/4" of carbon build up all the way around.


Here's the first discovery. The plenum gasket was sealed very well around the bolts with some type of RTV sealent, but it looks like only about an 1/8th inch bead was used between the bolts and it was the weak spot. I tried to highlight the break in the gasket. There was 2 breaks in my plenum gasket just like this.


You can see both breaks in the gasket in this picture, 3 bolt holes from the right. Basically in the middle on each side.


Here I cleaned the pan and scraped off the old gasket. Damn it was hard around the bolts to get it to come off.
 
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#2 ·

Next to come off was all the valve covers and the heads. I had to obviously disconnect my headers from the heads first. It was a huge pain in the ass to try and get to the head bolts without dropping the headers.


Here's one of the heads taken out. They're heavier then I expected haha.


Here's a break in the head gasket on the passenger side.


Here's a break on the passenger side, also. :doh:


All my parts that are clean and ready to go. I repainted the idler arm and my coil mount, and another mount ontop the intake. Also the fuel rails are painted and the intake was hot tanked and sand blasted. Valve covers were also hot tanked sand blasted inside and out, and then repainted gloss black.


Another picture of the parts that are ready to go. Throttle body was stripped down and polished and then rebuilt.


I cleaned my heads myself instead of sending them out to be done. I probably should have had them professionaly done, but I'm a DIY kind of guy that loves his dremel tool. :smileup:


Here's the finished port/polish job. Nothing crazy just wanted to get it nice and smooth. I did the same thing around the valves.




I'll keep you guys updated with more pictures as I work on it. I'm getting a top end gasket kit this week sometime, and this weekend I'll be putting the motor back together. I've got a list of stuff I need from the auto parts store! :box2:
 
#4 ·
Way to go Nick . Nice job taking pics . iPhone didn't do a bad job . Nice job cleaning everything up and painting . Could see in the photo of the head , the dark spot where the gasket let go . Make sure you get the antifreeze out of the oil pan . Wouldn't be a bad idea to pull the plug and just let it drain . Replace that bypass hose while your there and it's accessible . Hows the block look ? Rep also .
 
#6 ·
Thanks guys. I drained the block after I took those pictures a few days ago. Nice and milkshake-y.

The polishing dosent look too bad you think? Scariest part was doing that haha. I tried not to make the actual port openings any bigger then they were just smoothing out the inside mostly.

Block looks good, too BTW. Thank god!
 
#11 ·
Got a bunch of little things today. Spent around 75 bucks. I got intake to water pump hose, vacuum line hose, 5/8 heater hose, preformed intake to radiator hose. The radiator hose mount to the intake, 180* thermostat, some red wire loom, and an oil pressure sending unit. Today I cleaned then painted the ac compressor/alternator mount, and I also took the fine wire wheel to both the compressor and the alternator to shine them up. So far so good, just need to find a top end gasket kit localy before saturday.

Also tomorrow I WILL get batteries for my digital camera so I can share a ton of pictures.
 
#19 ·
It will do that . You probably have alot of antifreeze mix still in the exhaust . How does the temperature guage look ? How does your oil look ? Remember you still may have some antifreeze mix in the oil still . If it checks out ok , you should still change the oil one more time . As long as your not leaking compression into the cooling system , you should be OK . Let me know how you make out . If you have any questions , shoot them my way . Will get back to ya , as long as I'm still on line tonight .
 
#21 ·
Hey Nick, I was told a little while ago about the plenum problem on them rams. I have a 97 5.2 and have had the same problems 3 times not with the plenum. I replaced it everytime just for it to go out again. Hughes engine company makes a plenum kit for them trucks. It removes that old steel plenum pan and replaces it with a 1/4" thick aluminum pan. If you order both kits which is like $160 shipped it gives you all the gaskets you need and intake bolts because they can only be used once. I did it and it fixed it and runs great, I got all my power back too. Just something to look into also. Sorry did not get to you sooner unless you still have it apart.
 
#24 ·
Here is the link to the Hughes Plenum Replacement.

http://www.hughesengines.com/Index/...mit=Go&searchmode=keyword&page=4&partid=26190

While the engine is apart a new 180 thermostat would be good as well as doing the distributor cap and rotor while the intake is off. Plus new plugs and wires.

Its a very solid product, I installed it on mine about maybe 4k or 5k miles ago and the plenum pan is still shiny aluminum when I look down the intake.
 
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