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5.9 Engine Build on the Cheap

52K views 249 replies 22 participants last post by  wildman4x4nut 
#1 ·
As some of you might remember I was going to build a 408 out of this block. Well life has gotten in the way as it can seem to do. So I am going to for the time being rebuild (if you can call it that) the 5.9 in stock specs. All I am going to do is replace the rings, rod & main bearings. The used engine I picked up really is in bad shape at all. To be honest the only iusse I have been able to find with it is the blown plenum gasket issue. So I wonder if the shop that replaced this engine knew about that problem.

So I bought this engine about 2 year ago and just never could get all the funds together to build it. So it has sat in my garage on an engine stand just waiting. Well the guy I bought it from must have left it sitting outside. Because this past weekend I got a wild hair and decided to tear it a part. Ok I was looking at my Jeep that hasn't moved in two years and it helped motivate me. But what I found was not good. There had been water in the cylinders and also the oil was contaminated with water too. So I had a nice mess on my hands. The rust in the cylinders thankfully wasn't bad and all surface.

Here is the rig the engine is going into.



So here is what I have got so far. Think I'll reuse this oil.



What the cylinders look like.







The heads won't be reused and I am glad cause they look like crap.





That was as far as I made it this weekend.
 
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#32 ·
Don't remember the formula but I think you're in the neighborhood of 375.
:gr_patrio
 
#33 ·
something like bore "4.040" x stroke "3.58" x number of cylinders? i keep coming up with "some" crazy #! ?
 
#34 ·
Googled it, 367 CID.
I thought it would have been more.
I know better than to start thinking.
:gr_patrio
 
#35 ·
So I got the engine home yesterday and mounted it onto my new engine stand. It is the crank type stand so I don't have to roll the engine over like before. Much nicer to work on and a lot easier.









HeyYou,
Used some 90wt oil I had laying around a covered the cylinders and all bare metal.





In the storage bag waiting for me to have time to work on it.



My question now is: Do I wait until I get back home in Aug to put the engine back together or Do I start on it now and get as far as I can before I leave on vacation for 6 weeks? The rods, pistons, crank, lifters and parts taken off engine are not covered. They are all just sitting on my work bench or in little tubs for storage.
 
#36 ·
humidity can rust iron. if there oil or cosmolene on the parts i think youl be ok. if your sure they wount get wet, they your ok. me, i wouldnt procrastinate!
 
#37 ·
are you going to run zddp in this one for the first few oil changes?
 
#39 ·
break in oil essentialy is zddp- "high zinc content" -reslone- has it. its actually hard to find these days. catalytic converters dont like zinc. heats them up and tears them apart. i ran half/half joe gibbs "the best" & regular 10-30 for the first 2 oil changes. i'm on the third oil change now. only one quart of reslone going back in. compression is good. all cylinders check out at 170 psi or better. my mileage is coming up steadily, camed motor and i got 300 miles on my last tank. near 12 mpg.
 
#40 ·
Not much to add but I did get the crank installed last night. I checked all my bearings for clearance and everything was good.



Today I think I am going to try and check the rod bearing clearance and then this weekend I can get the rings all installed and then install the pistons. So it looks like I will have some stuff done before I head out on vacation.
 
#41 ·
Just a quick update for those of you who have been following this thread.
I got home from vacation last Monday and was planning on starting to work on the engine again. Then Monday night we got evacuated from our home due to the Taylor Bridge fire. If you have been following the news you know it was a large fire and distroyed a lot of homes. I was one of the lucky ones as I still have a home. Two of my neighbors were not as lucky and had their homes burnt to the ground.
So now I am waiting for the cleaning team to get done so I can get back into my house. Once I am back home I should be starting on the engine soon.
 
#48 ·
you got some luck! looking forward to the engine updates. :tup:
 
#43 ·
ATC,
This is a stock rotating assy going back into the engine. I am trying to spend as little as I can to get this thing running again. I know there are tons of things I COULD do to the stock engine to get more power and reliability BUT I am doing this on the CHEAP. New bearings, rings & seals are all the short block is getting. I am going to keep the stock cam too for now. Once I get moved to AZ and have the funds I will pull the engine and make a 408 out of it. Then I will be spending money on all the trick things I can do. For now all I want is to be able to start & drive my Jeep without it over heating.
 
#45 ·
Man I wish things were that cheap where I lived. First off I have to drive 60+ miles to get to a machine shop. So as I said all that will wait until I build the 408. At that point I will not spare a dime to get things done to the engine.
 
#47 ·
That I do dude that I do. But there are good things about living out in the sticks. It can be nice and quiet and when it snows it looks pretty awesome around here. But like anything there is a downside to living out in the sticks too. And one of them is finding places to get custom work done. This isn't just on cars/trucks either. About the only thing I got close to me is ag stuff if I had a farm.

Next spring all this will be changing though as I will be moving south to AZ and if the wife finds a job it will be in the Phoenix area. Then I will be able to find places to get stuff done a lot easier. At the same time I am sure I will miss living in the sticks.
 
#49 ·
Man I herd it gets pretty warm there in AZ be ready for that heat!
 
#50 ·
Well I know it has been 2 months since I posted anything in here. I have been busy getting stuff done after the fires here. Plus I wanted to get some engine mods done to my bike so I could ride it a few times before the snow came.



So I have been checking all my clearances and all the main bearings and rod bearings were within tolerance. So I sat down and got all the rings installed on the pistons, got the lifters soaking in oil and then installed the pistons.











1-3-5-7 pistons installed.







Only one piston left to install and I'm done.







Got the cam installed also. Tomorrow I'll continue getting stuff back together. I'll be on hold for a few as I don't have my timing chain yet. So I will put more pictures up as I progess.
 
#51 ·
Good luck with the rest of the build. Make sure you hit us up when you get moved out to AZ.
 
#52 ·
Just a quick update so far. I am waiting for my timing chain to get here. The tracking number I have says it will be here on Wednesday. So I know what I will be doing on turkey day while the wife is cooking. Living in a small town has it's ups and downs. No one had a double roller set so I had to order it instead. I have just been trying to clean up some of the parts and covers. It is too cold to do any painting so that is going to have to wait.



I'll post pictures next week when I have done more.
 
#53 ·
Well my timing chain came in a day early so I went out to the garage today to start working on degreeing my cam and finishing up on installing the pistons. I had gotten all the pistons installed but hadn't torqued all the nuts down yet. Well when I get out to the garage I try turning the engine over and it won't turn. I had been turning the engine over as I installed each pair of pistons with the bolt for the hermonic balancer. Well the bolt was acting up and wasn't going into the crank like it should. So first I pulled the bolt back out and was not happy with what I found.





Then I looked at the crank snout and here is what my threads look like.





So I pulled all the pistons back out and the crank turns just fine. So I am not sure what I was doing wrong. Did I not lube cylinders enough? I lubed the heck out of the bearings so I don't think that was the issue but it wasn't until I started torquing stuff down that I had issues. I did also check clearances on each rod and they were good. So at this point I guess I just need to lube the cylinders better? Also I soaked each piston in a tub of oil before installing them into the cylinders. Did I not soak the rings long anough?

So I know I can get a new bolt but what about the crank? I know it is hard to tell in a picture but from what you can see do you think there is enough thread there? Or am I screwed and am going to need a new crank? Or is there a way to fix this?

Thanks for all your help and ideas.
 
#54 · (Edited)
take the crank out and take it to a machine shop, they should be able to tell you the best way to fix it. If it spun freely after the crank was torque down then the issue has to be in the rods, I would oil the cylinders and install the pistons one at a time, if you feel that its binding while installing one take it out and go to the next one. This way you can find out which is the bad rod, I don't know if you had the rods center honed to true the centers but this meathod will help you find which rod(s) are the issue. I don't know what pistons you are using but make sure the skirts are not binding by sliding the piston up and down the bore prior to bolting them down.
 
#55 ·
What where you using to turn the motor? When you put the bolt in the crank you need to use some kind of spacer so the bolt doesn't bottom out. If you don't the threads will get screwed up and well you see what happens. The threads on the crank are gone. I'd see if you can get a helicoil that large and have the machine shop install it. If not they will have go to the next size up. Then you may have to have the balancer hole opened up a bit to get the bolt to fit. When you got the piston rings did you put then in the cylinder bore to see how they fit? A motor with new rings can be harder to turn than you think. Using a thick oil during assembly can make it harder.
 
#56 ·
rods are frt to back directional. they shouldnt be installed backwards, if so they wount clear to spin.
i would at least use a new bolt. can you chase the threads with a tap? maybe the crank has enough left in it, but it looks pretty bad. a new bolt and some locktite red? maybe? helicoil is another good idea. careful with the shavings. you will need some serious cobalt large bits, and drill slow with cutting oil. the crank is HARD!
 
#57 ·
Yeah those rods are marked for front to back like spun said, if you got one flipped it won't clear, I would of made that mistake but the shop I took it to new and let me know, and set my piston heads and labeled them for me
 
#58 ·
Hi guys,
Well I have not done anything to the engine since I last posted. I did figure out why it was turning so hard. I was using a pretty thick assembly lube and then it was only 30* or less in the garage. I'd turn my heater on but I think it just wasn't enough. So for now I am stopped and waiting for the temps to warm a little. I do think I am going to pull the crank back out and take it to a machine shop and have them look at it. I did buy a new bolt & washer. And now in my defense that old bolt I was just turning it into the crank. So I think the threads were galded up before hand. I'm sure I didn't cross thread the bolt when I did install it. And yes I was doing this by hand-No air tools.

So once the crank is checked out and the temps stay up over 40* then I'll start again. I did get a bunch of other parts ordered and the Brown Truck will be here tomorrow.
 
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