Crossbred, 454 into an '85 Ram

[383Ram]

Serp setup is done. This went pretty well I have to say but certianly was alot of work. Thank god I had a laser belt alignment tool from work to use.




Big step today, getting the trans mocked up and seeing if all my measurments paid off. All looks well so far. Again, I am using the Mopar 833 overdrive trans here hooked up to a Blowproof bellhousing. The adapter once again is 3/4 plate, the details are somewhere else in this post. Only mod I had to make was to take .700" off the input shaft which is no big deal and was done quite often on the mopar side to put a manual behind an automatic crankshaft.








I have a Mopar pilot bearing that will be installed in the register of the crank where the converter hub normally rides. I had my machinest turn the O.D. of the bearing sleeve/holder down to fit the chevy crank. But for now, looks as if everything lines up and the splines are in the right spot for the clutch disk which i'll try next.




Everything looks good here too, just need to figure out what ball stud length I need to use here.

[383Ram]

Its alive. Vid of it running. The card in the bicycle spokes sound you hear is the mock up alternator that has a bad bearing in it.

454 test stand break in 5-20-2012 - YouTube

Installed in the truck. One Dodge D150 with a potent little 454. I knew everything fit because I mocked everything up, but I had never tried to install it all together as one piece. The only glitch was we had to remove the pass manifold to get it in--it just wasn't going to go any other way--and we tried for awhile. So I guess no different than if installing an engine with headers where you'd put the headers on after.



I also made a new style lifting bracket for the engine. It needs to have the ends shortened a bit more, but worked really well. The point for making this was I do not like to take hoods off for engine swaps, and the dual carbs would put a typical chain up very high to clear the carbs. I had also replace the typical chain and hook on the stand for a 5/8" eyelet bolt. Even if your just using a regular chain on the engine, this mod lets you swivel the engine 360 degrees for easier installation. There is a piece of tubing inside the square tube for support and then two washers on top under the nut with grease between for easier pivoting.



Now there is just everything else to do. All the wiring, clutch linkage, exhaust, cooling. It all needs to hooked up/modded to work. That is one of the reasons I wanted to run it on my stand first, to make sure that the engine itself was ok---less variables than once its in the vehicle.









Front crossmember of truck with my homebrewed engine mount stands.









Home in the truck at last

[Palf70Step]

Very nice!

[jb1016]

Congrats man, it's been a long time coming! Exhaust sounds good.

[383Ram]

Originally Posted by jb1016

Congrats man, it's been a long time coming! Exhaust sounds good.

Three years isn't too long-----is it?

Those mufflers are supposed to be some chap welded turbo style from a Muffler shop chain. I only use them for my test stand, but have to admit almost any engine I have put on the stand, they sound good.

[383Ram]

Well, I finally got to drive this a month ago. I got it all finished up and took it for a short trip around the block and then loaded it on my trailer to head to the strip. The test drive was AMAZING!! I cant believe the easy amount of power this truck makes on such a mild motor. This little 9 to 1 454 rocks! Trying to get aggressive with the throttle only results in spinning tires.

The trip down the track however ended early. On street tires I knew I was up for a challange being this is a stick shift vehicle. First run resulted on trying to gain any sort of traction for the first half of the track. Very disapointing 15.59 but at a rather high 97 MPH (which indicates a middle 13 second pass). I really feel that I can get this thing to rock bottom 13's and hopefully some 12's--remember, it is a truck and heavy--especially with an iron headed big block. Othe people familiar with my combo say 12's should not be an issue, but I hate stretching out an exagerated figure at this point.

My second run ended before it began. When i came out of the burn out box, I could tell something was wrong. I staged only to find there was a clutch issue. It slipped real bad and I could barely do 25 mph down the track. Hindsight, I should have just stopped and got towed off, But I played like a rookie and drove it to the end of the track.

So all in all I was happy to get it out of the garage, now i have to figure out a few things and try to get the power to the ground.

A pic from one of my two failed runs.

[Palf70Step]

Glad to see her finally running. Yeah pretty much any 454 in a SWB truck results in wheel spin. Looking forward to seeing more of your beast!