Finally Fired Up My Engine Rebuild. A Summary.

[keithb7]

Pretty cool feeling after all that time, effort & money invested. I'd love to rebuild another engine soon , yet it's quite a pricey little hobby. 

All in, I estimate I spent about +/- $4500 USD to rebuild the engine myself, to stock condition. It was a 228 CI 1953 25”Canadian Dodge engine. I had it bored over to make it a stock 237 ci. The Desoto engine.

 

The majority of my costs was the full machining. Oh and parts freight costs! Other than an align bore, everything else was machined. Crank, head, block/caps and con rods were re-used. Pretty much every other wearing part was new. New cam, tappets, guides, valves, springs, pistons & pins, piston bushings & clips,  etc. I also had the generator rebuilt during the process. Water pump and new radiator rebuild were only about a year old so did not include these costs in the amount above.

 

I gained a ton of experience and had a ton of fun. I was very pleased when the engine fired up immediately for the first time. It idled and ran well right from the first crank of the starter.

 

My 1938 Plymouth has been a very fun and educational lab tool for me. I rebuilt my first transmission on it as well. Driving it between improvements and major repairs, has proven very rewarding and incentivizing. I recommend you give it some thought. Think about rebuilding your own engine. Of course you need clean dry shop space. Tools and some wits about you but it's not a difficult project. 

 

For those who follow me on You Tube, a video of the start up will be posted within a few days. Thanks to those who supported me here with my questions. This site has my back, so I feel a little more secure diving in to big projects.

 

- Keith

 

Edited January 12, 2022 by keithb7

[1950 Special Deluxe]

Spoiler Alert!

I was waiting for the video. 
Congrats

 

 

[Crazyred]

Congrats Keith!  I hope to do the same one day as i have two (33 & 34) flatheads sitting in my garage. 

 

Look forward to the video. 

[Stargrinder]

Very cool... and congratulations.  Wish I had garage space... oh well.

[61spit]

Look forward to seeing the video. Always great fun to hear them come to life after being in pieces and put back together. A great feeling of accomplishment.

[Art Bailey]

Can't wait to see the video! I'm half glad I don't have to rebuild my engine, and half wish I had to ?. You must be feeling pretty darned proud of yourself...

[Sam Buchanan]

The '38 is gonna have a spring in it's giddy-up with that engine.  ?  Well done.

[Dodgeb4ya]

Congratulations Keith on the great engine rebuild!

Loved the oil leak down test video portion.

You makenthe best and only the best old MoPar tech video's.

Extremely well done...detailed, direct and to the point.

Might you be Mr Techs son?.

Maybe you should  work on the low raspy voice?...?

 

 

[thebeebe5]

Awesome.  You’ve been at this a while, yes?  I seem to remember you making some comments about your rebuild while I was doing my build thread a couple of years ago. 
well done! 

[Polsonator2]

Congrats Keith!  Your solo engine pull video and your tranny video's were hugely instrumental in my own solo engine swap and tranny rebuild!

[keithb7]

4 hours ago, ratbailey said:

Can't wait to see the video! I'm half glad I don't have to rebuild my engine, and half wish I had to ?. You must be feeling pretty darned proud of yourself...

Yes. I do feel pretty darn swell.  Its not often in life that most of us get to rebuild an engine. I was about 18 the last time I rebuilt a car engine.  I did other engines, dirt-bikes, seadoos etc, but no cars in the past 32 years. 
 

My work on this engine is far from proven yet. It needs to actually drive and make good power and torque under load! Then how long will it actually last? Could take decades before my work is proven. Lol. 

 

I pulled my engine late Nov 2021. So it me about 13 months to get the project done. Took my time. Enjoyed life along the way. 
 

@Dodgeb4yaThanks for your kind comments on my Mopar related videos. 

 

 

@Polsonator2This is a big reason I make these videos. To encourage others to do their own work. Teach others too. I enjoy it. 

 

[maok]

Any performance work done, ie milling the head for high comp., etc?

[keithb7]

100% stock. I figured I did not want to mess with all those years of success on the engine. The engineers did pretty good!

[Andydodge]

Keith congratulations on a job well done.........after I bought my 1940 Dodge sedan in 1971 while still at school, I decided to restore it......I took the engine to who I was told was the best flathead guy in Sydney........full rebuild, sump to head, I reinstalled with new clutch,etc gearbox,diff,brakes,etc all rebuilt by various "expert" shops  ..........got less than 1000 miles when the rear main started leaking....dropped the sump & found a heap of swarf & metal filings in the sump......the "flathead expert" denied any responsibility but the swarf was as a result of not cleaning out oil passages...........so I pulled the stock running gear & installed a 318 Poly, then had it machined by another reco place but I assembled it and 48yrs later its still going well........moral of this story is .....do it yourself.....................andyd 

[greg g]

Looks like you spent about 2x what I did in 2006.  But I had them assemble all the internals and the oil pump.  I added the pan. Oil pickup timing cover, head and manifolds and accessories. Think I had about 1700 in parts, 900 in machine shop charges and couple hundred in incidentals. Filters, fluids, wiring, tune up stuff, clutch disc, hoses, and other smalls, and hardware. Got motor mounts in the deal also.

[rallyace]

I did my 218 ci engine two years ago and did all that you did but also had it aligned bored. I had the machine shop install the cam bearings. I spent just under $3K including buying the tired old engine, machine shop work, parts and the beer and food for the crew that helped me install the engine and transmission. The only issue I had was the oil pressure relief valve spring on the new relief valve was wrong and would not allow any pressure to build while cranking it before the first firing. It took a while to find the problem but since then I have put about 5,000 miles on it with no issues.

[keithb7]

Here is how it went down:

 

 

Edited January 15, 2022 by keithb7

[Doug&Deb]

Well done! Looking forward to the video. I’ll be tackling a rebuild soon so it will be instructive for me.

[Sniper]

I guess you are a good mechanic, lol

 

[sidevalvepete]

Great stuff Keith. Haven't seen all your videos from start to finish but certainly enjoyed this one. You were more game than me. I had to have the cooling system all hooked up and checked like you did the oil pressure before I hit the starter the first time. Even had a fancy laser hand held temp sensor that I could immediately play over the block/head to check for hot spots.

I really felt your thrill when it came to life and to share it with your son! Go the both of you.??

[keithb7]

1 hour ago, Sniper said:

I guess you are a good mechanic, lol

 

Lol. No pressure hey? Living up the standards set by a 23 year old. 

[RobertKB]

Congratulations, Keith! Exciting times! I watched the video and the engine sounds great and I was not surprised it fired immediately. As mentioned, I'd get a radiator hooked up before firing again. A brand new rebuilt engine runs pretty hot the first couple of cycles and doesn't take long to get hot. 

Edited January 15, 2022 by RobertKB

[Sniper]

1 hour ago, RobertKB said:

A brand new rebuilt engine runs pretty hot the first couple of cycles through and doesn't take long to get hot. 

 

Wasn't it Keith who commented the other day that it was -40C where he lives?

 

[Bryan]

Someone has a big smile!

 

[soth122003]

Hey congrats Keith. You have every right to be proud and smirking. I will also garentee that pro mechanics that rebuild engines all the time get that same smirk and prideful feeling when that engine they just rebuilt fires for the first time. I've rebuilt a lot of small engines for a Polariis shop and I still smirked at that first start. I only had one that was a bad rebuild and that was the timing chain slipped and bent the valves due to a worn tooth on the sprocket, and if you think it is bad on your own rebuild, imagine calling the customer and telling him you screwed up. That is a bad feeling. Any ways Good Job and Keep making the vids. Love watching and learning.

 

Joe Lee