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20,122 Posts
Well done..
Chris's 2003 6.4 Hemi Stroker Build
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18,161 Posts
Sometimes it’s the simple stupid things that make for the biggest hassles
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1,630 Posts
I can't tell you how many issues I've had with the crappy ground system on my wife's '07 Pacifica. Great vehicle, and a smooth quiet ride. But DAMN did Mercedes cheap out on the ground system. There are at least 20 ground points on this uni-body, and I am constantly chasing issues with them. I finally have placed a ground bus with 10 gauge wire straight to the battery on both sides of the engine bay; and as something stops working, I run a new ground straight to the bus and just like magic, it starts working again. Too many green crusty connections here.
So, the moral of the story is; ALWAYS check your wiring; especially if you've touched it before.
So, the moral of the story is; ALWAYS check your wiring; especially if you've touched it before.
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2,119 Posts
Overdue truck, life, and future project update....
Not much has gone on with the truck lately, just driving it back and forth to work every day. I had to change out the thermostat for a new one. The last one I put in I drilled out the little flapper to help keep it cooler and it worked pretty good when it was hot out. Now that we have winter weather the truck would barely reach temp and was running way too cold so I put a fresh untouched 183 in and it’s back to normal. No future plans for the truck right now, just keeping it driving and hopefully no more inconvenient breakdowns
Life update- down to the final couple days waiting for my little daughter to show up, momma is ready to get her out! Finally finished up the babies room after 4 years of sitting unfinished because I’m lazy with house projects. So this will be the majority of my time and interests for a little while
Future projects- so about a month ago my wife (8 months pregnant at the time) was involved in a pretty scary accident on her way to a doctors appointment and totaled her Pontiac G6. Thankfully God was really really watching out for her and she walked away without a scratch. A semi truck drifted into her lane going around a corner during a snow storm and side swiped her, it was very close to being a head on collision. Pretty scary, hectic day but in the end everything has been working out and she’s been ok. After that was sorted out, we got a little bit of a fun reward, the insurance provided us a rental car which turned out to be a 2019 Challenger R/T with a hemi in it haha. We both enjoyed a few weeks blasting around town in it! So for a new car we both decided on a Jeep Grand Cherokee, and I made it a point to get one with the 5.7 hemi in it. Spent two weeks looking and a bunch of traveling looking at potential ones, ended up getting one about 2.5 hours away. So we have a 2014 Grand Cherokee. I do plan on throwing a few mods on it over time, plan on a small drop kit for the rear, and I just found a deal on a used 392 Hemi oem cam that I’m gonna swap in. Tune, and a few other odds and ends when I get time to go over it.
Thanks for keeping up, sorry I’ve been missing here lately, just haven’t had much going on with the truck and it’s been a crazy month or two
Not much has gone on with the truck lately, just driving it back and forth to work every day. I had to change out the thermostat for a new one. The last one I put in I drilled out the little flapper to help keep it cooler and it worked pretty good when it was hot out. Now that we have winter weather the truck would barely reach temp and was running way too cold so I put a fresh untouched 183 in and it’s back to normal. No future plans for the truck right now, just keeping it driving and hopefully no more inconvenient breakdowns
Life update- down to the final couple days waiting for my little daughter to show up, momma is ready to get her out! Finally finished up the babies room after 4 years of sitting unfinished because I’m lazy with house projects. So this will be the majority of my time and interests for a little while
Future projects- so about a month ago my wife (8 months pregnant at the time) was involved in a pretty scary accident on her way to a doctors appointment and totaled her Pontiac G6. Thankfully God was really really watching out for her and she walked away without a scratch. A semi truck drifted into her lane going around a corner during a snow storm and side swiped her, it was very close to being a head on collision. Pretty scary, hectic day but in the end everything has been working out and she’s been ok. After that was sorted out, we got a little bit of a fun reward, the insurance provided us a rental car which turned out to be a 2019 Challenger R/T with a hemi in it haha. We both enjoyed a few weeks blasting around town in it! So for a new car we both decided on a Jeep Grand Cherokee, and I made it a point to get one with the 5.7 hemi in it. Spent two weeks looking and a bunch of traveling looking at potential ones, ended up getting one about 2.5 hours away. So we have a 2014 Grand Cherokee. I do plan on throwing a few mods on it over time, plan on a small drop kit for the rear, and I just found a deal on a used 392 Hemi oem cam that I’m gonna swap in. Tune, and a few other odds and ends when I get time to go over it.
Thanks for keeping up, sorry I’ve been missing here lately, just haven’t had much going on with the truck and it’s been a crazy month or two
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Chris, that had be a real scare.. Glad everything is working out. The jeep is a great find... get that room finished.... lol
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Yeah, orange walls with a checker board stripe. Plastic tool box mounted on her stroller...
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2,119 Posts
Well I’ll run it past the boss, but I’m not holding my breath haha
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2,962 Posts
Be a man, stand your Ground...sleeping on the couch for the rest of the relationship isn't so bad.......:hide::rofl:
on a truck related note.... did you ever go thru with switching to 4x2 for the summer ?
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2,119 Posts
No I didn’t get around to it. I had so much trouble with the valvebody going out with the converter lockup I didn’t deal with converting to 2wd. I have the 2wd housing, but never ordered a rebuild kit or picked up the correct driveshaft. The furthest I got with it was dropping out the front diff and axles for a few months past summer.
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2,119 Posts
Bro you have no idea. If you went up in trim level it automatically came with air suspension and I didn’t want that at all. And everything else was a v6. To find a 2014 limited hemi I drove around the state for a day looking at 3 or 4. It was insane
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5,514 Posts
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24 Posts
Greetings! I am in the process of rebuilding my '07 5.7 due to a spun rod bearing. The truck is a 4dr 4x4 with a 6" lift and 35x12.50x18's. Decided to go through Inertia for a Molnar 4.080 crank, 6.125 molnar rods, and CP pistons for a 399ci result. Inertia cam, king bearings, hellcat lifters and MDS plugs, Inertia tune (with my Diablo intune i3), custom pushrods from Inertia, eagle heads (freshly rebuilt, stock springs and buffers per Stu, not ported or polished), .074" cometic head gaskets, LT headers (not set on this, as Stu @Inertia says they don't offer much gains over shorties, and I am running out of cash quickly on this build).
I spent all morning reading through all 176 pages of this post. The information herein is invaluable to someone doing this swap! I have some questions. Stu told me I could make a gasket and bolt my pre-eagle truck intake to the eagle heads. I have done some port comparison, and there is about 1/4" protrusion into the intake flow on the head side. The o-ring gaskets in the intake don't match up with the sealing surface on the heads, so a gasket would be required. In order to get the full benefit of the heads with the cam, I really feel the need to use an eagle intake, and I have heard the eagle truck intake works the best for torque. That brings up the problem of the alternator and a/c compressor clearance. MMX has a kit to put a car timing cover on the block and comes with brackets for the alternator and compressor -I have not checked into specifics because it's $1000 and I cannot justify that when the intake is going to cost another $3-500. I'm pretty good at fabbing - I think I can come up with some mounts if I source a car timing cover. I just don't know where they need to be, as there are no pics of that setup I can find online. I did find a pic where someone cut the top bolt holes off the truck timing cover and made a steel plate to mount the alternator and compressor to, but it didn't look nice or reliable enough for me to pursue that solution.
Now that you are up to speed on my situation, here are my questions:
Chris:
If you had it to do over again, would you go the same route with the timing cover and LX accessories/water pump?
What injectors did you use for your build?
Everyone else+Chris:
*Do I need to swap out my injectors since I will be increasing the displacement by .8l?
*Has anyone used the Holley Sniper intake? Will it clear the truck accessories and/or the accessory mounts on the truck timing cover?
*Does anyone know where to find some eagle valve covers, other than the junk yard? There are no eagle hemi's that I can find in my area. Only other option is Holley Sniper covers, and they are $420.
*How thick are the intake spacers offered by MMX? Is it enough to make the eagle intakes clear the coolant passage in the front of the block? Is there anything else currently offered on the market that will allow an eagle intake to be used on a non-eagle block with eagle heads? I don't want to use a carb - I don't want to modify my OEM FI other than injectors (if necessary).
*Is it necessary to upgrade beyond the stock throttle body when stroking a 5.7 to a 6.5?
*Does anyone have real world experience with a 5.7 based stroker, eagle heads, and long or short headers? Is there enough difference with the LT's to warrant a whole new exhaust system?
*Will eagle headers fit in my truck, or will I have to bastardize an expensive set to make them work?
I spent all morning reading through all 176 pages of this post. The information herein is invaluable to someone doing this swap! I have some questions. Stu told me I could make a gasket and bolt my pre-eagle truck intake to the eagle heads. I have done some port comparison, and there is about 1/4" protrusion into the intake flow on the head side. The o-ring gaskets in the intake don't match up with the sealing surface on the heads, so a gasket would be required. In order to get the full benefit of the heads with the cam, I really feel the need to use an eagle intake, and I have heard the eagle truck intake works the best for torque. That brings up the problem of the alternator and a/c compressor clearance. MMX has a kit to put a car timing cover on the block and comes with brackets for the alternator and compressor -I have not checked into specifics because it's $1000 and I cannot justify that when the intake is going to cost another $3-500. I'm pretty good at fabbing - I think I can come up with some mounts if I source a car timing cover. I just don't know where they need to be, as there are no pics of that setup I can find online. I did find a pic where someone cut the top bolt holes off the truck timing cover and made a steel plate to mount the alternator and compressor to, but it didn't look nice or reliable enough for me to pursue that solution.
Now that you are up to speed on my situation, here are my questions:
Chris:
If you had it to do over again, would you go the same route with the timing cover and LX accessories/water pump?
What injectors did you use for your build?
Everyone else+Chris:
*Do I need to swap out my injectors since I will be increasing the displacement by .8l?
*Has anyone used the Holley Sniper intake? Will it clear the truck accessories and/or the accessory mounts on the truck timing cover?
*Does anyone know where to find some eagle valve covers, other than the junk yard? There are no eagle hemi's that I can find in my area. Only other option is Holley Sniper covers, and they are $420.
*How thick are the intake spacers offered by MMX? Is it enough to make the eagle intakes clear the coolant passage in the front of the block? Is there anything else currently offered on the market that will allow an eagle intake to be used on a non-eagle block with eagle heads? I don't want to use a carb - I don't want to modify my OEM FI other than injectors (if necessary).
*Is it necessary to upgrade beyond the stock throttle body when stroking a 5.7 to a 6.5?
*Does anyone have real world experience with a 5.7 based stroker, eagle heads, and long or short headers? Is there enough difference with the LT's to warrant a whole new exhaust system?
*Will eagle headers fit in my truck, or will I have to bastardize an expensive set to make them work?
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20,122 Posts
Welcome to HTC, I haven't seen Chris posting lately. Hope he is well.. Matt @ Moe's and Joe @ OCP can also answer many of your questions.
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2,119 Posts
Still around, just not active as much. Everybody is well on my end, added to the family a beautiful little girl, 4 months old now :smitten: The truck is still running decently, but started to get back into my old favorite hobby of firearms and competition so the truck is just being a daily driver now
So to answer a few questions-
Welcome and glad you had an enjoyable read, that's a ton of pages haha. I have a seperate and detailed write up on this forum on everything needed to convert to the LX timing cover. It's a simple process with only a few modifications and I'm very happy I went that route, it really cleans and opens up the engine bay. If you can find used parts it's not terribly expensive.
https://www.hemitruckclub.com/forum...timing-cover-to-a-car-timing-cover-29654.html
My personal experience from trying to reuse my old 03-08 intake manifold wasn't great. I did a slight port and polish on my eagle heads, and the manifold I was using looked like it had some slight imperfections from possibly over heating on the previous used motor I had taken it off of. The ports don't line up every good for one so I don't know how much that effects the performance. With all those little issues added up, I ran into vacuum leak issues around the intake gaskets that made the truck undriveable. I can't be positive if it was from the ports just not lining up correctly in the first place, or if it was from the slight port job, or if the intake was possibly warped from overheating, but it did not work out for me at all, I had to immediately convert to the eagle intake manifold.
I am using injectors from a Dodge Neon SRT4 stage 0 or stage 1, it's been forever so I don't remember the exact designation. I think it's necessary to upgrade to a slightly larger injector with a bigger engine. I'm not an expert on that to be positive.
Eagle Valve covers are hard to find. Check ebay or Car-Parts.com to search junkyards nation wide. LX forums has a pretty big classified section for hemi parts, they pop up occasionally.
The MMX spacers are 3/8" or 1/2" thick, I can't remember off hand. I do remember machining them thinner after I got the intake fitted right to the engine. I tried heating the bottom of the eagle intake manifold and forming it to the coolant passage bump but I didn't have much success. I got a small indent formed in that helped with clearance, and I know of another guy that got his all the way formed where he didn't need spacers, but I wasn't that successful.
I'm still using a bone stock throttle body. I'm sure I'm at the point it could use an upgrade, just haven't wanted to spend the money on one.
From all accounts I spent researching, eagle headers won't fit without a ton of bending. I used a custom set from a power wagon truck which required a lot of heat and bending, and it wasn't a fun time to say the least. It took 2 torches and 3 guys to get them bent to the right shape. And after all that heat it warped the flange too much to sand straight with a belt sander. I think I have an exhaust leak around the header now from it.
Any other questions, feel free to ask and I will get back with what I can help out with
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2,119 Posts
Long time no check in, loving the new look here.
So I’m starting to plan on moving on from the truck right now. Been having a bunch of random issues, and I’m needing something more reliable to daily to work. The truck is up to 190,000 miles and starting to wear out. Been chasing issues with misfires and weird fuel trims on bank 2. Last night second gear went out which I think might just need the band adjusted. I still need a truck for hauling stuff occasionally so I plan on fixing the few issues and then having it sit till I need it. So my plan is to buy a Charger with a 5.7 in it to daily for awhile. When I’m in a position to buy a newer truck in a year or 2, I plan on pulling my stroker and dropping it in the charger, and scraping out the old truck. My motor is already running a lot of the car parts anyways so a swap should be fairly straightforward. So I’m debating whether I should get an 07/08 charger for the easy pre-eagle swap, or possibly getting a 11-14 Eagle charger and doing any conversion I need to. Can’t remember if a pre-eagle stroker kit will work in an eagle block with that one crank spacer adapter. But I’m excited about having a fast car. That’s been my biggest complaint with all my effort is the truck never really did anything great, it wasn’t really that quick and it didn’t tow very well with the cam/converter combination
So I’m starting to plan on moving on from the truck right now. Been having a bunch of random issues, and I’m needing something more reliable to daily to work. The truck is up to 190,000 miles and starting to wear out. Been chasing issues with misfires and weird fuel trims on bank 2. Last night second gear went out which I think might just need the band adjusted. I still need a truck for hauling stuff occasionally so I plan on fixing the few issues and then having it sit till I need it. So my plan is to buy a Charger with a 5.7 in it to daily for awhile. When I’m in a position to buy a newer truck in a year or 2, I plan on pulling my stroker and dropping it in the charger, and scraping out the old truck. My motor is already running a lot of the car parts anyways so a swap should be fairly straightforward. So I’m debating whether I should get an 07/08 charger for the easy pre-eagle swap, or possibly getting a 11-14 Eagle charger and doing any conversion I need to. Can’t remember if a pre-eagle stroker kit will work in an eagle block with that one crank spacer adapter. But I’m excited about having a fast car. That’s been my biggest complaint with all my effort is the truck never really did anything great, it wasn’t really that quick and it didn’t tow very well with the cam/converter combination
Wishing the Toner Ring was a direct fit. NOPE! Car -vs- Truck two different critters. 
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