What a sad sight.
540 Hemi Rebuild :(
Well... I can honestly say with my hand on my heart that I never thought I would have to make a page like this but, as most of you reading this know, it's not all roses in the custom car game. Big boys toys can come with big boy problems.
Sadly, with only a mere 2,000 miles on the odometer... the 540 Hemi started to make a "knocking" sound. I picked up on it early and knew something wasn't right and stopped driving it. It wasn't a loud "bashing" knock, but enough to signal the engine wasn't happy. Most may not have even picked up on it. I will share a video of it in case others are having a similar issue.
I took it into Henrys Rod shop to see if they could help me figure it out. With some advice from the original engine builder (Tim Banning) he suggested we try a valve cover space kit as it sounded like lifters hitting the valve covers, after several weeks waiting for the kit to land, sadly it didn't cure the issues. Worth a try though.
Next we tried to replace the flextplate as it sounded very close to this area. Brand new plate in, ARP hardware and installed to spec, still the noise was present. Sadly, I and the shop knew there was only one real way to get to the bottom of it... pull the engine out and tear it down until we find something... fucken GUTTED. :(
A week passes and the Hemi is out, on a stand and off to a local shop (who came highly recommended) called "Regal Automotive". They're a well known and specialist machine and automotive reconditioning shop who complete hone and bore jobs, machining and prepping the parts, etc who work in conjunction with a builder simply named, "Muzza".
"Muzza", strips it all down, labels it and inspects / locates the damage and then Regal would do the required machine work, so quite the team. "Muzza" also came highly recommended, but, to be honest, "highly recommend" didn't mean much to me at this point. Literately fuck all. I took on some advice from people I trusted and respected and that's the best I can do. I did my research last time and look where that got me... FFS! The proof is in the pudding.
After a full tear down, we found various concerns. Namely, the pistons had been scuffing on all cylinder walls. No fuel was located in the pan, oil itself and no sign of injector or rail leakage of any kind which ruled out "cylinder wash". We did notice the rings were sketchy, various eyes both online and in person confirmed the rings had not been installed to a high standard.
Pushrod holes were also not big enough, allowing the pushrods to make contact with the holes themselves (not good). My machine shop confirmed these were simply not enlarged enough when being built, it's as simple as that. I did give benefit of the doubt to the builder who I got in touch with to see why this happened.
The original builder got back and in short stated it's probably the lifters collapsing, "this or that" but in each cylinder? And only after 2,000miles? Pistons scuffing, and some rather, lets say, not the prettiest of machine work to the block (you will see in the photos below).
My local machine shop stated: "Is it ok? Sure. is it the prettiest job ever done?" Well, even you can see that for yourself." Which is a good sign. He's not out to bag anyone, nor am I but you can see for yourself and make your own mind up.
I did everything right, engine always warmed to operating temps, never revved in neutral, never left to idle for extended periods, or "thrashed", oil changes and using the engine builders oil recommendation, fresh this, that, filters, etc. For this to happen so early on when I thought the build "was all done", is extremely frustrating. I will let the folks reading this see the photos and they can determine what went wrong, nothing but facts.
Thankfully, I'm not a downer, shit happens, and I'm lucky enough to be in a position to be able to afford a rebuild. All I knew was this time, it was going to be done RIGHT from the get got. Locally built using the best parts. Researching everything I could and using the lessons learnt from the piece of shit that I received to make it bigger, badder and most importantly, STRONG and reliable from the start.
Summary: these things can happen, to any engine, any brand, it comes down to the builder and sometimes even luck (good or bad). The engines don't build themselves so word of advice, make sure you research everything about who you use. If you can do it yourself, awesome! Even better. Sadly I'm not that mechanically inclined.
The photo gallery below will show the process of tearing it down, the rebuild, parts used, on the dyno and once again back in the car. I thought I would share this experience, I could keep it quiet, and hide it trying to save face, but why? I'm not ashamed or upset and it may actually help someone going through a similar issue. That and funnily enough, it's still a fun project LOL. Even this shit excites me. Researching pistons, rings, why and how all hours of the night to once again, resurrect and bring this big beast back to life and this time, built properly and locally from the start!!
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