Hi guys, i'm on the process of rebuilding a 2003 5.7 L., that came out from a 1500 Ram, got it for a decent price but it's got seized bearings, so i took it apart and found 2 quite bad connecting rod bearing, 1of them spun into the rod bore so i have to replace it with a new one, what i found really amazing is the amount of sludge and nasty gunk into the engine, looks like the owner skipped a few oil changes! i've never seen anything like that, have you seen the pictures?

That said, main bearing, pistons, lifters and cam are surprisingly ok, however , i found that some of the pushrod ball tips show some wear , more likely due to the lack of oil just before the engine failure, even some of the rocker arm cups have some wear, they're not to bad really, what i see is that some of them have the shiny round area larger than others, like if the rocker cup is slightly deeper due to the wear itself, my idea was to buy new pushrod and try to re-use the old rockers, is that totally wrong? I'll post picture of the rockers and pushrod ASAP.

The hard part now is to clean the gunk from it, i'm thinking to make a sort of home made hot tank but i'd powerwash it first , took of all plugs in order to clean all the oil galleys and passages.
So plan is to reuse stock pistons, buy new rings, gasket set and seals , new oil pump, i was thinking about a high flow and or high pressure but i'm not sure since bearing clearance will be similar to the stock one...then, new main bearings (have the crankshaft mains polished), crankshaft is fairly good but rod journals need to be ground at least 0.25mm, have the heads checked and machined, lapping valve and seats, cleaning throughout the lifters (almost done), new timing set, freeze plugs , head and rod bolts , not sure if i need new rockers too, i've seen that new rocker shafts are quite expensive, maybe a used set is ok too, anyway i'm open to tips!
i've see that Jasper engines made better pistons, larger skirt, added holes just above the oil ring for a better oil drain and moved the top ring groove down for added strength, looks like that some of the stock pistons had problem because of the top ring is to close to the top?
Thank you, i'll keep you updated.

 

Early 5.7's are renowned for kicking rods out the side of the block and for dropping valve seats out of the head. Food for thought. Probably cheaper to get a later engine that's running!

 

I know... But I have a extraordinary talent in doing things the hard way! About throwing rods through the block, i' Ve seen that from 2009 they changed the main bearings hole passages , actually they added a second hole , so trick is to grind a groove on the block bearing saddle then use newer style 2 holes bearing, does this worth the effort?
I'm wondering watt's wrong with the oil feeding on those engines, oil pump bad design? Thank you for your help

 

I'm just curios witch gen 3 is the one to build?

 

Probably 2009 and newer.

https://www.knowyourparts.com/techni...-hemi-anatomy/

 

After 35 years of messing with the 440 I wouldn't mind building a gen 3. I like the look of the bottom end, it just looks so much more stout than the small and big blocks from before. You can make a thousand horse power with the old stuff if you don't mind scattering parts and oil. And a gen 2 build you have to scatter money $$$$$$

 

the 318 i pulled out of my fury was way worse, if that's any consolation.

 

I bought a pickup with a 360 that was packed under the intake with oil crud and the oil pan had two inches of slug in it. I got it cheap.

 

LOL, thank you...
I power washed the block today, took lot of time to clean oil galleys and passages but I'm happy about the result, then blown with shop air through any single hole and galley, I'm sure an hot tank wash would be great but I don't have it and I want to be 100% positive oil passages are clean so I did it myself. I previously honed the cylinder walls with a hone Stone and it worked just great, since I'm not going to bore the cylinder because pistons and cylinder were in very good conditions, next step will be to machine 0.25 mm the crack, I'll keep you tuned

 

Hi guys, here a couple of pictures of the rocker arms wear , you can see the shiny larger rocker housing VS the smaller and darker one , I'm wondering if with new pushrods I'll be fine, my concern is about the oil flowing through the rockers rail then pushrods, what do you think?

 

The parts are not big money just replace them its cheaper than having a failure plus they are known problems.

 

On a side note. If you mill the cylinder head surface, be sure to enlarge the oil groove on the head face that supplies the valve train oil.

 

Didn't think about that, thank you for the advice

 

And, limit your valve seat refinish depth to a minimum as there is a chance of rocker arm to valve spring retainer interference.

 

I Will thank you, I didn't see the valve seats yet but if they are in good working order, plan is to just to lap them

 

I would strongly recommend replacing all the valve seats and have the new ones installed at a tighter crush. These early engines are renowned for dropping seats out of the head.

 

I heard about that, I think would be cheaper get a reman. pair of heads rather than do a valve seat job, what would you do?

 

You have no idea what's been done with romans, if you work your own heads you know what's been done you have control over the rebuild to a point.

 

Have you looked these guys over?
https://www.shophemi.com/c-1320-hemi...nce-parts.aspx

 

I know what you mean, the engine came out of 1500 ram , the guy told me that main bearings were blew but actually main are just fine, 7th and 8th rod bearing are bad, honestly the engine seems fairly good, except rod bearing of course but everything else looks in ok conditions, I didn't disassemble the heads yet I'd like to have a good look to the valve seats, that said, I'm conscious that a falling valve seat is just behind the corner, can happen anytime...