I bought a crate engine in 1996 and finally got it into my car in 1999 when I had the body work/painting done on the car. I'd been stock piling car parts for three years and when the original 318 started smoking I parked the car until I found a body shop to do the body work. Did the normal body part replacements, had the updated suspension, tranny and rear end put into the car. Fast forward to last week we took the transmission out because it failed. I thought it was due to a bad tork converter but last night we check the crank lateral movement on the engine to see if it was out of speck. Of course it was way out of speck.
I know everyone knows the crate engines need to be torn apart and rebuilt to insure they don't fail. Unfortunately when I bought the engine the false expectation was that the engines would at a minimum meet normal production quality requirements. So today I know I need a total engine rebuild. I'm looking for thoughts on rebuilding the engine to improve it at a reasonable price. I won't be doing the work but will be taking it to a mopar engine expert in my area. Due to a buying spree for car parts for my challenger money is tighter then I would like when doing this rebuild.
Specks on the engine: it was a 360 380hp crate engine built in 1995. It has the magnum heads. What I have to go on the car is demon 825 mechanical secondary carb, TTI 1 5/8 headers (with 2 1/2 exhaust system to the rear), the transmission(pretty much slagged)/tork converter will be rebuilt to match the engine and the rear end gears are 3.23. The tires on the rear are 15/60/245 (29.5 inches).
We haven't torn the interior apart yet so we don't know what other problems are on the horizon. So lets start with this and this time next week I can provide the facts on which parts we need to replace. I'm just looking to understand all the options I should look at when discussing things with the mechanic on the rebuild. Thanks.