Hello I'm john

Hello I'm john. I am new here.just picked up 90 ram 50 for 400 bucks. Working on engine rebuild now. It's 2.4l 5 speed. 4g64. Someone changed a head gasket and left something in one of the cylinder and trashed the piston and head and all the bearings. Ordered a rebuild kit from dnj. Still looking for a head and exhaust manifold (it's cracked down the middle) and front cover. Attachment 21916Attachment 21917Attachment 21918Attachment 21919Attachment 21920Attachment 21921Attachment 21922Attachment 21923

Hi and welcome to mightyram. Yeah that combustion chamber damage isn't pretty but with a bit of luck a head swap, maybe some new rings and bearings and a linish up it will live to fight another day. An exhaust manifold is a heavy thing to freight - what are the JY's like in your area? The good thing is it appears your truck is complete and just needs a little love to to get it back up and running. Put a call out in the wanted section for anything you are having grief finding and look through the for sale posts as you might strike it lucky and there's another member nearby that has something you need.

Welcome to MightyRam50 John, I'm George... Here is a 1987 (needs work) Ram50 truck up for govt auction in North Carolina: https://www.govdeals.com/index.cfm?f...433&acctid=231

You won't find to many other trucks for $400.00 -- good luck & work safe...

Not good they left the vavletrain exposed like that but it's a straight forward fix...

Thought mine was strait forwad fix. Started honing today but I'm gonna have to bore. Not sure how far ill have to go any suggestions?

I found out have to have mine bored out . when searching for pistons my year is pretty narrow. Other years should work as lond as bore diameter is the same right? You never see any info about skirt length though

[ATTACH=CONFIG]21932 deep stretches

Maybe I missed it, but did you say how many miles your truck has on the odometer..? The photo really shows big scratches in the cylinder; they seem bad; is this normal wear or what..? Wished I had answers for you Jworle... NAPA auto parts (better) or O'Reilly has helped me get minor parts; maybe they have the piston info (Autozone)...? Someone here with experience will chime in once they see your post...

No that isn't normal wear. That's similar to broken rings but something nasty went on there to cause that level of damage.

Yea I found I mess when I took valve cover off. Heads a paper weight now. I looked because the last owner said he had the timing belt replaced. And it was a crank no start issue. But they didnt tell me they had replaced the head gasket. It had someone in the cylinder that trashed the piston and every thing else. All bearings and trash. Attachment 21933Attachment 21934

Heads cracked cams to messed up to polish out. But I can bore 30 or 40 over and polish the crank. Next would be to find a suitable head. Oh the miles says about 165k. But hey the body's in good shape so I'm staying positive.

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Originally Posted by Jworle12

Yea I found I mess when I took valve cover off. Heads a paper weight now. I looked because the last owner said he had the timing belt replaced. And it was a crank no start issue. But they didnt tell me they had replaced the head gasket. It had someone in the cylinder that trashed the piston and every thing else. All bearings and trash.

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When I looked at the pictures, I thought the damage matched the crush pattern on a cylinder head gasket - that explains everything now (except how anyone could screw up that badly...)

Right. I feel bad for the guy I bought from honestly. He said he paid lot of money for the work they did.

well ive decided to go a different route. i found a 5.0 from an 88 lincoln town car. 90k original miles fi. got for 350 plus shipping. should be here sometime next week. on my todo list is finding a t5 and driveshaft to cut up. fordubishi if you could hook me up with some info on measurements for motor mounts and some other stuff, would be gratefully thankfulAttachment 22037

im going to make a build thread for this for pics and stuff as i go. it will be under the 2nd gen thread, i think is where it needs to go?

Well this is going to be interesting :grin: That's a whole lotta engine to work with, and something totally different too. How much are you planning on salvaging?

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Originally Posted by geezer101

Well this is going to be interesting :grin: That's a whole lotta engine to work with, and something totally different too. How much are you planning on salvaging?

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What do you mean? The motor comes with all acc the harness and ecu . my truck doesnt have ac or ps so I'll have to delete those . I think will be a tough switch all thatvextra wiring .

OK not going to integrate the extra options into the truck. Just the drivetrain and engine management :)

Yea my ac will be 2 60 lol. And I just want it running ps could be a thing some tine later but doubt it. I like the feel . been a long time though. Better start working out that 13 in steering wheel lol.

What about the coffee can on the right side of the engine? Are you keeping that? Geezer would approve, I'm sure

Prob not lucky enough to get it. Bought from eBay

5.0 should really wake up a mini pickup. Enough torque to scoot and tow effortlessly
if it came with the automatic transmission, I'd swap the whole drivetrain in. It'll still be a hella fun daily
Fabbing mounts should be the least of your worries if tackling a swap
Wiring may be ok, if ford ran the engine loom separate. 5.0 swaps popular back in the day, so info should be online
Dunno how manual steering gonna treat you with all that extra weight over the wheels tho

What is with that coffee can? :scratchheadyellow: You are gonna need suspension and brake upgrades - and decent wheels. If the Lincoln engine is an alloy block, expect a crazy power to weight ratio. This will be able to get out of it's own way and everyone elses' with one stab of the gas pedal. And yes, Geezer approves :thumbup:

I just did a Dodge 360 swap and it was more work and time than I was expecting. I'm not real familiar with the 5.0, but if I remember correctly it has a front sump oil pan and the starter is on the right side which could make install much simpler. With my swap I had to make a custom oil pan and buy a clockable starter due to the steering box and tie rod. I completely cut out the motor mounts and built my own. The radiator was a challenge and I had to do quite a bit of fabrication to get a sufficient size one in place. I had my driveshaft custom built and stayed with the 2 piece set up. A limited slip diff it going to be a must. Tranny cross member will have to be custom built and parking brake mounts relocated to the new cross member. I'm comfortable with the stock brakes and I can lock them up no problem although I would suggest stiffening up the suspension.

I tried to do thing correctly to the best of my knowledge and ability and it was a lot of fun and learned quit a bit. It took a LOT MORE time and money than I ever thought, but it was worth it to me.

Best of luck, be patient, do things right and most of all have fun.