My Rampage... Cruiser/Drag Week Car

[MR P-BODY]

I did a compression check today on the W-2 in the race
car and like I figured its a sorta low compression
set up... 160 - 170 cranking pressure... even the oil
pressure looked good during cranking.. I pulled that
engine out and its on the stand for a freshen up now...
I'll give it a once over tomorrow to see what it needs
and order parts... then I'll pull the engine in the
Rampage.. hopefully I can be back on the road in a
week or two max.... This is a smaller engine but will
rev higher... this is a 395ci and the engine in the Rampage
is a 418ci... so far the 395 is looking good... I MIGHT even
change it over to a hyd roller... that would come close to $900
but I will see once I open up the W-2 tomorrow

[Bob Holmes]

Can't wait to hear.

[MR P-BODY]

I pulled one head
off the W-2 this evening... all the TD rockers look
like new.. the roller lifters are in great shape and
the pistons and cyl walls look great(on the one side)..
I'll pull the other head and the pan tomorrow.. I
measured the lift on the cam.. its .030 less than
the W-5 engine but thats fine... the pan on this one
might get cut down.. I'll see if I want to swap pans
or not... so far it looks great.. and I wont have
to buy anything.. I have a set of new rings for this
bore and I am pretty sure I have a set of bearings

[MR P-BODY]

I have the W-2 engine all apart and it looked great inside.. this engine
is a partially filled block... I found another block in my stash but I decided
to go ahead and use the filled block.. its been a proven engine for years
so I ordered up the parts to do a freshen up.. I got the parts today so I
starte cleaning the block and the parts .. they are ready so tomorrow I
will start assembling this engine.. I also ordered a oil cooler with a fan for
this filled block.. I'll have the cooler fan on a temp switch so I can set it to
what I want.. I'll also put a temp robe in the oil pan drain plug to see whats
happening there so I can set the temp switch to the right temp... either tomorrow
or Monday I'll start pulling the engine out of the Rampage... I'm hoping to have
this all back together by the weekend at the latest

[MR P-BODY]

I ran into a couple of issues in my 395ci.... so I started from scratch... I used my
stock TA 340 block(stronger than the normal production 340 blocks)... had it bored,
decked, mains line honed, hot tanked... used my 4" stroke crank from the engine that
was in the Rampage .. I had a issue on the W-2 heads from the 395ci engine.. seems
that all along I was running a long valve head and a standard length head... the standard
length head had lng valves in it and created some bad rocker geometry... well I had 2
brand new long valve heads still in the box, so I grabbed one and ported it to match the
other long valve head so I now have a matching set...I had the order new pistons to fit
the deck height on this new engine( I didnt care because I wanted to start fresh)... got them
in a few days(its good to know the owner of Diamond Pistons)... I assm the bottom end and
everything looked good... then now that I'm running the W-2s I had to use the W-2 intake off
of the 395ci.. no big deal, its all porte to match the heads... when I set it on for mock up it
was way too narrow.... I ended up stacking 3 sets of gaskets to make it fit... I glued them all
together so it was like running a thick gasket... well it was finally finished and I got it in the
Rampage... I didnt feel like running the remote filter on this engine but I couldnt get the filter
on with the headers in place... thank God I didnt have the engine all bolted in... back out it
came so I could cut a access port in the inner fender well... got that done and put the engine
back in... checked to make sure EVERYTHING else looked good and had access to everything
that MIGHT need to come off and yet keep the engine in the car... got the engine all buttoned
up and gave it the first fire up... fired right up in a few seconds... checked the timing and set
the carb... let it all warm up and shut it down and gave it a once over... all looked good.... I
tok it out for a ride down my street and it was running nice... gave it a few WOT runs and just
put a few miles on it.... this was about a week before we would be leaving for DW... the next
day I used the Rampage to run over to the paint store for a few small things I needed to finish
up on the truck.. ran great going over there... no oil coming out the pipes, temp was holding
real nice... I got my stuff from the store and headed home.. all was running nice UNTIL I came
to a stop at a stop sign.. it took off as I rolled into the pedal but the trans wasnt shifting.... I
tried a few thing but it wouldnt shift out of low/first.... I finally got home and started checking
things like the shifter and cable adjustment... that was fine.. all I could figure was the governor
was broke/stuck ... the problem is... if I want to pull the tailshaft housing I have to pull the engine
and trans(no room to pull the trans or tailshaft housing... well after I talked to a couple of buddies
that are trans guys they both said the same thing I was thinking.... so being that I was a bit PISSED
and I said to hell with it... I took it out on the road and gave it a couple of 8000 rpm runs and on the
third one it started shifting and since then its been fine... I did change the fluid and filter but so far
its fine... that was 2 days before we were to leave on DW... so with no testing and that last issue I
decided to leave it home and just ride with my Buddy Dale(Qick52).... we had a great time on DW in
his 52 and he was in the 32 field for DD but he red lighted in the 2nd or 3rd round ... when we got
back home I took the Rampage out for a short run and it was fun to drive it again... a couple days
later the wife and I headed up to our other house for 2 months of hunting... just got back again... I
would like to get her out for another putt before its really winter... we will see..... sorry for the novel
but this was the short version..... of what REALLY happened

[Deaf Bob]

Good to hear from you and that you are driving it.. Kinda a bummer you didn't get to take it on drag week..

[MR P-BODY]

Good to hear from you and that you are driving it.. Kinda a bummer you didn't get to take it on drag week..

Yeah I was REALLY bummed out about not being able to run my own
car this year... I backed out on Aug 15th... I had set that as my do or die date...
when I first got the new engine back in, it was with the W-5 heads that I had
on the previous engine... well it was still blowing oil out the tail pipes... I had
the intake off about 6 or 7 times thinking it was the intake gasket... finally I
had to say that wasnt the problem.. so I pulled the heads off and went with the
W-2s and had to port the one head to match... then the gasket issue on them...
but now its doing fine... I'm thinking about taking it out tomorrow to do some
shopping... but I dont like leaving it by itself for long... short times isnt too big
of a issue... but I guess I better get use to it... LOL

[mopar57]

great news to hear it is running well, plenty of time to get ready for DW next year, and enjoy it in the mean time!

[MR P-BODY]

great news to hear it is running well, plenty of time to get ready for DW next year, and enjoy it in the mean time!

Thanks..... yeah I'll have plenty of time to test it.. I know I need to change all 4 coilover springs..
the fronts are too stiff and the rears are a little soft... I'll go up on the rears by 10# to 20# and the
fronts need to be softened up by quite a bit.... I have to get this on the scales to see what the front
and rear bias is... based on the weights I was figuring (2800-2900 lbs) I would say I'm close but the
bias to a little off... the front isnt as heavy as I guessed and the rear is a touch heavier... which should
be good.... I will see shortly.... I think this engine is making a touch more power than the first one I
dynoed but it is what it is