Technical The basics of reviving a 354 Mopar

Hello,
First post here at the H.A.M.B.
I found my way here buy doing a search or 3 about the 354 Hemi in a 59 Dodge truck. which I have just acquired. It may need some care and attention before attempting to fire up. Here is what I believe to be true so far:

The fuel pump diaphragm gave up, and put a good amount of gasoline in the sump. NO idea if it was run for long like that or not. The engine is complete, and I would like to do the basic and essential tasks prior to attempting to get the engine running.

I am planning new oil and filter. The oil filter tube is rather rusty, so thinking it would be wise to remove that and clean prior to adding rust flakes to my new engine oil.

Considering an oil pump priming tool (does such a thing exist for the 331-345) which would also allow for oil to get to the top side and into the rod/main bearings motor prior to running.

I have some interest in making sure the camshaft gets enough oil, prior to the engine firing up.. any suggestions on how to stack the deck in a manor where I don't wipe out a cam lobe? The truck has been sitting for 10-13 years at the least. My guess is that it was running and maybe being used up to the point where the fuel pump let go. Then the lack of parts side-lined the truck.

Any and all suggestions/questions welcome.
Thanks
jase

 

Pull the spark plugs and put say a table spoon of trans fluid down each spark plug hole and turn the motor over by hand.

This will lube the rings and help seal and build compression in the cylinders.

 

Follow the "hemi tech" thread on here.....go find it and go back thru it's pages....good reading material....clean oil first...

 

There’s a 99.47% chance the rocker shafts have a bunch of crap in there. That equals poor oiling on the rocker shafts

 

Thanks for the replies.
OK, tranny fluid down the plug hole. Will add that to the list. Headed to explore the Hemi Tech thread next.
Question about the Rocker shaft oiling. Do I want to pull the valve covers, and do a clean up? OR is that best to do during a rebuild, or when the heads get pulled off?

 

Clean them when the heads are off. Internal clean is what you want. Clean one set at a time and do not mix up the parts. A cat named Hemi Haynes(or is it Haines?) has a good article on how to do it.
T R Waters on here is quite knowledgeable about the process.

 

If it's been sitting 10 plus years do not pull anything out of the fuel tank into a new pump and into the Carb. Add a short piece of new line to the new pump and drop it into a fresh can of Gas and take the old tank off line completely. Deal with the tank issue all by itself.

 

http://www.hemihaines.com/Early-Hemi-Engines-6-146.html

 

Pull the oil pan, and check/take out the sludge, clean the oil screen pickup and make sure it's clear. Critters over the years can set up shop deep inside an engine a lot farther than you might think. Old wolf or somebody here posted some pics of that. Somewhere in there before or after that perform a compression test and see what you have to work with. If it's basically sound it should start and run. If it's a runner give it a new oil pump, fuel pump and timing chain set.

 

Thanks for the replies and guidance so far. Keep the suggestions coming.

Agreed that the gas tank probably contains 100% trouble. It will be bypassed for now, and removed/cleaned before use.
Today I will drain the oil-gas mixture out of the sump, and pull the spark plugs for a shot of tranny fluid.
Thinking then I will pull the sump, and inspect... for the price of an oil pan gasket and a few hours work, it seems like a good idea.

One aspect I do not fully understand yet, is about the need to replace the oil pump. Were the stock ones known to wear and cause problems prior to the whole engine needing a rebuild?. Last question for the moment is: how does one tell the difference between the full flow oil filter system, and the by-pass oil system? Is it something that can be determined from the outside, by how the oil filter is hooked up?

 

Maybe not replace it, but check it out inside. The main and rod bearings of course will wear out probably long before an oil pump. But an oil pump is one item that doesn't get filtered oil.

 

Your Chrysler would have a full flow oil filter. To drive the oil pump you need to remove the distributor and the intermediate gear under the distributor. Then fab something with a tang drive on the end that looks like the one on the intermediate gear. Stick it in a drill motor and run it.

 

It’s best to do it (clean the rocker shafts out) before you start it.

 

Oh good!
If I have a full flow oil filter, which is located at the top of the engine, I might try an external pressure tank engine pre-oiling operation That will also allow for visual inspection of rocker shaft oiling. I would rather not pull the rockers off prior to finding out if I have any engine at all.. Will do it if necessary, but I want to find out what I have before embarking on that repair adventure.

 

If you have a 'top-mounted' oil filter then full flow is a bit optomistic with those very small feed lines. The 'normal' location is on the block where the lines terminate. Using a pressure to pre-oil is a good idea; plug it into the top of the block where the oil pressure sender sits.

Pull the pan and see just how much crap is in there and clean up what you can reach. What you see in the pan will be similar to what you see on top.
The rocker arm shafts are the collection point for crud. The volume of oil flowing through the shafts is quite small and crap settles out of suspension and plugs up the small orifices. It will be very difficult to do a decent cleaning without removal and hot tanking. Yes, you can pull the end plugs and run a bore brush through but that is only half of the job.
The same crud that plagues the rockers will also plague the lifters where the feed hole is even smaller...
I have found that truck engines seem to have been the hardest worked and least maintained and the inside usually shows it.
Start saving for a rebuild.

 

The Hot Hemi Head company has a rod they sell to
prime a hemi oil pump. Not expensive, check them out.

 

Tip regarding pre-oiling Early Hemi rocker shafts: (also applies to a lot of other MoPar engines)

The little bit of oil these get is due to the entire rocker system getting just a small shot of oil through a hole in the camshaft, and this little shot of oil only happens once each camshaft rotation when a hole in the camshaft and hole in a cam bearing line up. In order to pre-oil the top end you need to run the drill motor driving the oil pump and listen carefully to it while you slowly rotate the crankshaft. You will be able to hear a change in pitch of the drill motor when one of the cam oiling holes lines up. Leave the crank in this position and watch the rocker setups on both cylinder banks, as only one side at a time gets any oil. Keep that drill motor running until you see oil dribbling out somewhere on the INTAKE rocker shaft. Because the exhaust rocker shaft is lower on the engine it will fill with oil first due to gravity never sleeping. Now turn the crankshaft one complete turn, which should line up the oiling hole for the other bank of cylinders and run the drill until you see oil dribbling out of that side on the intake rocker shaft.

 

Never saw a full flow filter on top of the engine. Never had a Chrysler that didn't have a filter low on the left side flowing all the oil.Never had a industrial engine. Don't know why they would go backwards to a partial flow. Do you have a picture of the lower left side of the block. Just forward of the flywheel?

 

Oil to the top end only happens in a small window when the cam in the right spot and it is different from side to side. When I have the short block together I take a brass welding rod and stick it in the rocker oil passage and turn the engine slowly until it will drop in the cam passage then mark the damper. Do both sides then when priming the engine you can turn it to the right place to check oil to the rockers.

 

Rich...Lower right.

 

I don't care. I just want to see what is where the oil filter is supposed to be

 

Thanks for the replies, and great advice. It's been a fun day exploring this engine.

I will have to look, and I will take a photo.. then figure out how to upload it here.

The oil filter is all but welded shut, (canister style, with what I would call 5/8 oil hydraulic oil lines from the back rear of right head.(don't know where they go after that. will have to follow them) Same for the sump drain plug. Will need to get a 6 point box end wrench to try and get the oil drain plug off.

Right hand head has been worked on at some point. Probably a valve job or valve seals? The plugs look ok on that side. Left side the plugs are pretty cruddy with oil fouling. The rockers are pretty cruddy on that side as well. Now I fully understand the suggestion of pulling the rockers to clean them up.

Yes the rocker shafts will likely come off. I am seeing surface rust on the shafts when pulling the spark plugs for adding oil to the cylinder. Some of the cylinders, the plug is a bit rusty.. not good news... but I'm in this for the adventure!

IF I get to the point of trying to start the engine, I will get the hot heads priming tool for the job. At the moment, that may not be a realistic goal anytime soon.

Is there a FSM out there that covers the truck version of the 354? I am guessing it will come in real handy in the near future!
Also spark plug tube gaskets/rubber seals? The previous wrench turning mechanic tried to use permatex-silicone to help out the dried rubber.. Any chance that that Slant 6 spark plug tube works on the Hemi? I am pretty sure I all ready know that answer...

 

It has been a very long time since I had a Chrysler in my car. But as I remember the early engines had a large cast aluminum filter canister mounted low and near the oil pump. The pressure regulator was located in the filter casting I think. Later engines had spin on filters and the pressure regulator was located in the oil pump. I had one long bellhousing engine here that the canister had been shortened to run without any filter and had a bunch of welding on it. to retain the pressure relief. I think you could just go to the later or 340 pump and make a remote filter adapter. In Ebay there are usually Motors Truck repair manuals. They have very good drawings of engines and sometimes oil galleries. And they hqave lots of engines so you might find something else you can use. I will look at one of mine later and see if I can grasp the oil filtering deal on yours. Other guys here must know what's going on

 

Really good idea. Will go looking to see what I can find. I like the FSM as well. bit the Motor manual may be a good start.

 

1958 Dodge 354

 

Congratulations on your new purchase. I have a 331 out of a '56 dump truck, so I know whereof I speak. Two things to be aware of : First, the exhaust ports in the truck heads are a lot taller than those in the cars, so if you are contemplating switching intake manifolds you will have a problem. "TR Waters" on here has a set of plates that can be brazed or epoxied in to solve that problem. Second, the truck motors have larger sodium-filled exhaust valves, so unless you can keep the rev's down, you're in for a lot of work. Remember to keep the rev's down and that engine will last forever.

 

Thanks for the specific advice. I am not at this moment planning any big changes.. some day maybe a different intake manifold, but again not looking for a high RPM screamer.. A great big wall of torque would be appreciated, but no buzzing the engine to 5000RPM.

 

Upon getting the oil filter canister apart, it probably does not matter if it was a full flow system or not.. I do not understand why some people spend hours shining and waxing the outside, while ignoring and neglecting the parts that actually allow the vehicle to do what it is intended.. Anyway, here are some pictures:

 

To the best of my memory. On my car engines the oil from the pump came out the lower hole and went into the filter adapter, Which had the pressure relief built in. Any oil relieved went in the little hole in the block and back to the pan, Oil that went through the filter then went into the upper hope and to the bearings. You have a cover that allows oil to flow out from the pump and right back in to the bearings with a small tap that I guess goes to the filter?