Rebuilt my 440 two years ago - sat till now

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December 04, 2008, 01:53:22 PM

I rebuilt a '73 440 almost 2 years ago. I had planned on installing it in my Duster a couple of months later. Well, something came up and the project got pushed back. Then one thing led to another and here I am two years later. Well, I am to the point to where I am ready to order the torque converter and slip the engine and transmission in to the car. I unwrapped my engine today to tinker with a few things. I primed the oil pump and found that I had a lifer collapsed. When I would rotate the crank by hand the push rod would almost fall out of the rocker arm. I thought it wouldn't be a problem, it would probably pump up when the engine started and got up to pressure. But I don't want to risk wiping out a lobe on the cam.

As I was tinkering around, I decided to test the cylinder pressure, to see if I was in the ball park of where I think it should be. I used my dads cylinder pressure gauge that has been sitting on a shelf for years and years. My brother started turning the crank over by hand while I held the gauge in a spark plug port. The needle never budged, but we determined two things. The gauge is no good (we tested it by plugging it in to our air compressor after testing it in the cylinder head) and that the rings are not sealed. I have tape over the top of the intake manifold, when I plugged the spark plug port and turned the crank over the tape burped at us. The cylinder pressure slipped right passed the rings and in to the crank case. I am hoping that when I start the engine this will quickly fix itself by the rings seating. But this is my first engine so...

Let me know what you think... am I cruising straight in to a expensive catastrophe?

you might consider removing the offending lifter and use a oil pump squirt can to fill it up.

I started my car with the lifters dry, as per the manufacturers break in suggestions. I would never do that again. In addition to my gouged lifters, a couple of them collapsed. I would remove all of them and put them in a small container of oil and pump them with a pushrod until the air bubbles stop. I would also put one shot of engine oil in each cylinder to help seal the rings for start up.

Yeah, a little Marvel Mystery oil in the cylinders wouldn't hurt. Don't get too crazy, though. You don't want to lock it up.

Don't sweat it too much. My new/fresh engine sat longer than yours. I simply re-primed and fired it up.

You can't do a compression test with a gauge by turning the motor over by hand and, even so, the measurements will mean little until the rings are seated.

I'm not suggesting you don't fill the offending lifter but I'll also add I've read many warnings against pre-filling lifters (thereby causing it to act as a solid). In fact, instructions with the lifters may be very explicit about this.

I don't think you're headed for an expensive catastrophy. Just follow proper initial fire-up and break-in procedures - after re-priming the engine and verifying you have oil where you're supposed to.

I'm glad I found this thread. My fresh rebuild has been sitting for eight months and counting now while I throw money

at other things, both Mopar and non-Mopar related. Looks like it will be another couple of months of throw money

before I'm ready to fire it up.

I had a buddy who thought if your engine sat longer than a month, the bearings would get flat spots on them.............So basically, when you start the engine up, the shape of the crank journal would round'em back out........My fresh rebuild has been sitting for YEARS.... sure hope my bearings aren't flat drinks