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 November 27, 20159 yr by CSM

I want to see a picture of your cuda haha. I've heard of 6.0 fords with sand in the motors leading to coolant issues, but they have issues anyways. 

  On 11/27/2015 at 1:12 PM, CTcummins24V said:

I want to see a picture of your cuda haha. I've heard of 6.0 fords with sand in the motors leading to coolant issues, but they have issues anyways. 

My barracuda has been in pieces for the past 15 years.  We did get my dads Challenger going though.  

Barracuda as drug home, many years ago. I know, it is totally mint!  The interior is posh!  

I've collected all the parts to finish it over the years, but I've been working too far away from the family shop to do much on it.  I am optimistic that work will continue on it this next year, as I am moving back to Colorado next year.  I have a 340 with six pack to go in it. The car is a 4sp.  I am going to paint both a power bulge and shaker hood for it to give myself options, as the six pack isn't going to stay on there forever. I want to play with it, but I will likely go FAST EFI eventually. 

72 Challenger.  360 automatic.  Fun car 

Currently getting new quarters.   I am trying to convince him to keep the gold, but I don't think that is going to happen.  

Edited November 28, 20159 yr by CSM