Mike7447

Yes. Since I don’t have that anymore, and am using an aftermarket unit for that purpose, I’ll just cut that thing off and plug it.

I know the one is the dipstick tube, but what is the other one for? Nothing left stock on the engine anymore, no EGR, barely a charcoal canister fuel tank vent, no Rear ABS, no MAF, no cruise control,…….seems like I’m plugging that thing.

I know this is going on 6 months dead, but what is more “ modern” than the newest mega squirt ms3 pro series? I bought the MS3 pro mini a few months ago for 650 nib from them direct. It does way more than I intend to use it for. It has numerous input/outputs, fully sealed against moisture and can be engine bay mounted, and literally does anything you’ll need/want to include full sequential fueling and ignition on a 4 cyl engine w/a built in 4 bar map sensor, w/built in SD card datalogging. https://www.diyautotune.com/product/the-ms3pro-mini-ecu-only/

It appears that the 1978 dodge charger came with a manual rear steer rack and pinion setup. it’s cheap. I paid 103.00 including shipping to get the thing shipped to my door. The plan is to replace the PS, and all of its related menagerie of lines/linkage and hoses in the CQ with this rack, not to mention eliminating another belt driven accessory off of the front end and the engine itself. The last time I put a rear steer rack in one of these cars was 2007, and I spent several hours tweaking the tie rod end spacing until I got the bump steer to almost non-existent, so I’m confident that I’ll be able to make it work. Just wanted to share a tidbit, always a good thing when you can find something so freakin’ cheap that “ fixes” so many potential issues.

I’m looking for just the shroud or surround I don’t need the gauges or the switches. If anyone can help let me know.

I’m stuck with a fresh LS4/4l60 that I converted to RWD. I was thinking that I may be better able to sell the fresh 4g54 than an engine that was originally fitted sideways in a 2006 MonteCarlo.

I’m in a mess. I have a fresh un assembled engine that I could sell. The block has been bored +.020 and decked . There are brand new +.020 Wiseco pistons and rings, rod and main bearings. New, mechanical non-jet head has been modified at the head bolt bosses w/hardened washer inserts for the ARP head studs. Rods are resized, and fitted with ARP bolts. Entire recip assy has been balanced. If anyone is interested in this, I am in Alabama. I currently have another project vehicle w/a 5.3 LS and a 4l60e that could go in if I move the 2.6. Let me know if interested.

Guess it’s too much of an idle thought…😒

I have, in both of the previous CQ/Starion cars that I had way back when. But they were both drag cars, and both had ladder bar suspensions,….not exactly what you’d ever want on a street car that you’d expect to take out on a set of twisty-windies on a Sunday drive. I did blow a half shaft on the one drag car before coming to terms w/ replacing the factory rear end back then, but in the current cars case, a set of drag radials, 500 ft/lbs of torque, and a prepped starting line are not in the plans this time though.

Since my engine is out, and that fuel filter is just staring at me, I removed the thing in preparation for an engine compartment clean and detail. The question is do I reinstall this thing or replace it w/some aftermarket option when reassembly time comes? If it’s up to task, I’ll just get a -6 banjo adapter fitting for the outlet, and plumb my fuel rail from the filter. If it isn’t worth keeping, or is some kind of choke point, I’ll replace it at the hard line threaded fitting w/a inverted flare/-6 adapter and plumb to a standard inline -6/8 10-40 micron filter instead.

Rather than be in 5-7 different places, I guess I’ll just land here and start a progress thread. Just so we’re all on the same page, the engine is out, and at the machine shop. A new non jet head, 57mm t3/t4 chinee turbo, chinee stainless exhaust manifold, chinee 38mm ext waste gate, and a chinee 50mm BOV, innovate wide band, Megasquirt MS3 pro mini, and a cx racing a2a inter cooler have been sitting waiting for their big moment. The engine will get bored .020, and upgraded to wiseco forged pistons the head gets studs, ( with the little bolt boss hardened inserts added) and a Ajusa mls style Hg. The rods will get the bolts upgraded and the recip assy balanced. All of the engine junk just hit my front porch today. I’ll get it to my machinist on Monday. (Thanks @Dad for the speedy turn on my order) Today I rattle canned the driver side fender. It looks like crap. Both fenders were rusted at the base, and it was one of the first fixes I took on. The passenger side is passable given the I only had to paint from the lower fender down, but the driver side fender blew off the work stand, and got trashed when it hit the ground. That forced me to attempt a whole fender repaint using a couple of premixed Palermo Grey rattle cans. ( I knew better. I always know better, for some reason, that never seems to sink in) The fender is blotchy, tiger striped and incredibly bad looking. ( well, except for the rust, that isn’t there anymore.) This is the “ good” fender after the repair, and rattle can from the TSI down. Had the other side not hit the ground, I’d be pretty happy with both sides given that the factory finish is showing its age. Today I got up early to beat the heat, the fender was about as prepped as I could get it. I had two full cans to spray on the fender, and there actually was enough paint to do it…. But it’s a rattle can spraying heavy metallic paint. Like I said… I shoulda known better….., Im not showing you the end result. The other project waiting on completion status is my DIY conversion of the factory intake to MPI. I spent all day today after the fender fiasco trying to get that thing to a “ done” status. That will also have to wait till another day. Just imagine cutting the center out where the old, tiny throttle body was, and welding in a 4” diameter, .125 wall section of tubing in place. Cutting the old water channel away that ran under the intake, and re-routing that water via a -10 hose from the T-stat housing under the intake, no longer adding that heat to the intake charge. What once was a teeny little TBI TB, is now a 65mm TB oriented straight up like its predecessor, with 4- 60 lb/hr LS injectors mounted independently in alternating angles that make a standard fuel rail impossible to engineer. Got that? Now you’ll know why it’s taking so freaking long.

Shhhhh!!!🤫 She doesn’t even know the engines’ out. I suspect she’ll know that the cat is out of the bag when she catches me in the driveway with a swinging engine.🤕 I just put the Corvette project on marketplace for an absolutely bloody loss. If I can sell that thing, it’ll completely pay off the Starion, ( I’m not calling it a conquest, we all know Chrysler had nothing to do with this car)…Then the steel car will go where the fiberglass one was, and she’ll never know what kind of mad scientist in a secret laboratory junk I’m involved with…😈

Pistons, rings, bearings, rod bolts, and the gaskets are all on the way from Dad. The new head is here, the washer inserts are here, everything is getting ready to happen.

Machine shop confirmed that there is nothing wrong with that cylinder. ( That means the engine was pulled for no other reason than a good cleaning and surfacing, and new rings and bearings.) But at this juncture, that isn’t going to be the only thing I do to the engine. I Also confirmed that a .020 overbore will completely clean up the bores, so I purchased the +.020 wiseco pistons from Dad, along with a scad of other stuff to try and keep the engine alive when I start putting my foot in it. The head arrived today, It might have the proper exhaust valve in it. (At least a magnet won’t stick to it…. If it’s any better than any other exhaust valve based on that, IDK.) Hopefully the machine shop won’t drag butt here, and I’ll have everything back together and running in a month.

So I buy the head and I thought the listing was worth sharing. *As per their description: “YES EVERYTHING IS NEW THE HEAD CASTING, CAM, THE VALVES, THE SPRINGS, THE RETAINERS , THE ROCKER SHAFTS , THE ROCKERS AND LIFTERS EVERYTHING..... THIS IS THE Mechanical VERSION. WE ONLY SELL THE NON JET VALVE VERSION CYLINDER HEAD WHICH FITS STARION CONQUEST MONTERO RAIDER D50/RAM OR MAZDA 2600. THIS IS NOT THE chrysler factory HEAD. THIS HEAD IS MADE OF A FAR BETTER ALLOY, HAS EXTRA COOLING PASSAGES, AND IS THICKER AND STRONGER IN ALL THE CRITICAL AREAS. FITS YEARS 1981 TO 1986.” When was it ever a Chrysler factory head?🤪 They claimed to have several in stock, and are located one day ship time from me, But when I get the purchase confirmation, ship time is guesstimated to be 2-3 weeks. I write the guy: ”Good afternoon. I purchased this head from you yesterday. Looking over the shipping turn times, you are stating that the head will take 2 to 3 weeks to deliver, but the ad listing states that several are in stock. Wondering as to why the delay. Secondly the head is listed as being model correct for the Starion. Are the exhaust valves the correct valves w/regard to their heat tolerance rating? Thanks. I appreciate you.” Mike He replies quickly: New message from: odessa*cylinderhead (15,687) SHIPPING TONIGHT But……what about question#2….? I ask him again about the valves in another email. To which he replies; BRAND NEW HEAVY DUTY. what the hell does that mean other than they are brand new? Does heavy duty mean it’s the right valve for the turbocharged version of this engine? These guys are supposed to be a cylinder head shop only. You’d think I’d get a more intelligent answer than brand new, heavy duty.

Thanks Dad. ( Kinda weird referring to you as Dad when you’re younger than me.🤔). Nonetheless, I have those pistons and a bunch of other stuff in a cart waiting on the machine shop. Should know something today.

Thanks everyone. My pump shows no visible wear on the initial inspection. I’ll clean it up and get my magnifying headset on and look closer when everything is clean.

Uhhhh.. I’m way passed that. The entire engine is pulled, apart, and at the machine shop waiting on their diagnosis of a suspect cylinder. The “old” head is now waiting on the new non-jet head that will be here tomorrow. When that gets here, I’ll take it to the shop and have those inserts installed, and ck or replace the exhaust valves if they are not properly heat treated to withstand the heat of a turbo application. My fairly radical DIY conversion of the factory intake to MPI/bigger throttle body is just about done. And both fenders are close to done, or done, with one actually on, and the one that hit the ground ready for paint now that the paint has finally arrived.

I was planning on replacing the oil pump in this engine, but after hitting all of the additional bumps in the road, justifying a 330.00 oil pump as “ may as well go ahead and replace it” seems a little steep for me. is there a way to determine the health of these things? You can see wear on cheap < 100.00 domestic oil pumps, and when below 100.00, it’s just a no brainer to go ahead and buy a new one. But oil pumps in this engine aren’t <100.00. They are more like > 300.00. And I don’t see no stinkin’ wear in this pump. I don’t feel like throwing away a good pump just because. Can somebody contribute?

Are you saying that you have a set of .020 in stock? Pm me with your price. If the block will clean up at .020, and depending on if I can afford them, I’ll take them.

Thank you for your reply sir, I appreciate your input. I purchased that head because after hours of searching, and changing my search phrasing, that head was the only one of two heads that came up as fitting a Starion. The other was a bare casting at 630.00. In truth I wasn’t expecting to have to replace the head, neither was I expecting to have to pull the entire engine apart, but here I am. If I just assume that the valves aren’t properly heat treated or hardened, I assume I can buy the right valves from you. Is there a way to know/tell if the ex valve is inadequate?

I know. I know this is a “been there done that” topic for some of you guys that have been here since the dawn of this web site. But from an outsiders perspective, try to find useful information regarding the options available versus the intended usage of the engine, versus what others are actually experiencing in the real world. For instance, a 2jz has cast pistons. It is routinely stated that these engines will tolerate 600-700 hp tunes w/o even cracking a 60k mile engine open. I had one. Although I did completely open the engine over block deck surface concerns, it got put back together using the same stock internals that came out of it. it made 617hp/597tq at 23 psi. I don’t need, or want that kinda power in this project. I consider 620 hp in a non traction controlled street car “bragging rights”. Thd only thing that made this car safe on the street was a set of 315 drag radials. So I gotta consider the new bottom line with the current engine in the CQ. Let’s say I target 300whp with an auto. You can buy stock crap cast pistons with rings at around 125.00. They are immediately available and can be here w/i a week of order. Silvolite makes a Hypereutectec piston for about double that. Equally quick turn time at about double the price. Potentially stronger than the cast piston due to the higher silicon content in the aluminum, but still a potential weak link if you don’t get the tune right. Arias and Wiseco are the only forged piston mfgs out there building a piston for the engine. Only for about 8 times the cost of the stock piston, w/a 6-8 week turn time on an order placed today. These pistons are 2618 alloy, typically noisy, w/looser cylinder wall clearances, due to thermal expansion, but ultimately the most forgiving alloy when pushing the tube into higher power goals due to the properties of that alloy. Where are the cut lines then? Who’s running what power on the stock cast piston. Who if any has any experience with what appears to be the only hyper-e piston out there, and at what power level do I need to justify spending 800.00 plus rings on a true forged piston? * And nobody even makes a 4032 piston for these engines I’ve found.

Thanks for the advice. Give me enough free time however, and I will find something. https://www.ebay.com/itm/172713006008 Now,… do I start another thread about pistons, or can I just keep on going here?

we’ll see soon enough Kev. Weirdly enough, after pushing out the piston and wiping the cylinder down, the “crack” seemed to disappear, leaving more of what looked like a path that water took past the rings. It’s obvious that water sat at the top of that cylinder, and the engine laid over a little almost like this was sitting/laying around somewhere. and like you said elsewhere, the head configuration doesn’t jive with what it should be if it’s an 89 engine. Isn’t there any model year specific casting numbers on these engines and heads to denote that?

The head is complete. I won’t have to use anything from my existing head. The oil in my engine came out as sludge/tar and the resulting visible wear to the mating surfaces on the cam/rockers is obvious. If the exhaust valve in the current head is different than this head, I’ll either use mine in that head, or buy the stainless valves that are listed on Dads website, and upgrade. Mitsu isn’t making these heads anymore, so bare castings are sourced from other parts not of Japan, unless someone can correct me, even Dad has to be getting his castings from a Chinese foundry.