I love old mopars. Mopar, (God bless'em) still makes legit 2nd gen (muscle car era) Elephant motors!
They don't build the engines themselves, they contract it all out to various manufacturers and large shops typically around the Detroit area. Well, during my research I found out that there has been quite a few changes in who makes these new crate motors. Originally, it was a small high end machine shop that would take the raw castings and turn them into beautiful engines. Then, Mopar decided to go with the lowest bidder. Cummins. The engines that came from Cummins were 100% garbage. Crap in the engines. Awful surface finish on parts. Poor hone job. Casting sand in the engine. Horrible stuff. No care or QC. Cummins no longer makes the Hemis for Mopar Performance, thank goodness!
Nothing against Cummins as a whole here, but it got me thinking again about the differences between Cummins/Cat diesels and otto cycle gas engines. Cummins, by comparison, could make a 5.9 12V cummins with sand in it. They could make a cummins with horrible finish on most parts. They could leave casting flash in the ports. Nobody would care or even notice. The engines that Cummins makes are kind of the motor equivalent of Anvils.
High performance hemi on the other hand, are $20,000 antique pieces of high performance art that requires a different outlook. With a naturally aspirated hemi, the builders can be beyond meticulous about details... They are superstitious! Even the texture of the intake ports matter. A super smooth port or super rough port will lose power. Only nice coarse grit cartridge roll with "proper technique" will suffice. Everything else from valvetrain to clocking spark plugs can be equally important.
Does anybody here have any experience with OEM diesels that have quite a few issues from the factory? Could it be more than just inadequate procedures and specifications from Mopar, and just the concept that they built the hemis like they build the diesels? I've never torn down a brand new truck, I wouldn't know.
I love old mopars. Mopar, (God bless'em) still makes legit 2nd gen (muscle car era) Elephant motors!
They don't build the engines themselves, they contract it all out to various manufacturers and large shops typically around the Detroit area. Well, during my research I found out that there has been quite a few changes in who makes these new crate motors. Originally, it was a small high end machine shop that would take the raw castings and turn them into beautiful engines. Then, Mopar decided to go with the lowest bidder. Cummins. The engines that came from Cummins were 100% garbage. Crap in the engines. Awful surface finish on parts. Poor hone job. Casting sand in the engine. Horrible stuff. No care or QC. Cummins no longer makes the Hemis for Mopar Performance, thank goodness!
Nothing against Cummins as a whole here, but it got me thinking again about the differences between Cummins/Cat diesels and otto cycle gas engines. Cummins, by comparison, could make a 5.9 12V cummins with sand in it. They could make a cummins with horrible finish on most parts. They could leave casting flash in the ports. Nobody would care or even notice. The engines that Cummins makes are kind of the motor equivalent of Anvils.
High performance hemi on the other hand, are $20,000 antique pieces of high performance art that requires a different outlook. With a naturally aspirated hemi, the builders can be beyond meticulous about details... They are superstitious! Even the texture of the intake ports matter. A super smooth port or super rough port will lose power. Only nice coarse grit cartridge roll with "proper technique" will suffice. Everything else from valvetrain to clocking spark plugs can be equally important.
Does anybody here have any experience with OEM diesels that have quite a few issues from the factory? Could it be more than just inadequate procedures and specifications from Mopar, and just the concept that they built the hemis like they build the diesels? I've never torn down a brand new truck, I wouldn't know.
Edited by CSM