87 Power Ram 50 Build- Adventure Ram

[tabor1000]

Finally taking the plunge and starting to build (for the first time) my 87 Power Ram I've had for about a year and a half now. Recently had a plug break off in the head and (according to the shop) mucking up my valves while trying to find a new truck to turn into a cross-country adventure rig, and figured I would use the chance to work with what I have to make that goal happen. Found a deal on a freshly rebuilt and lightly decked G54B head for $200 that should arrive tomorrow, and just placed my order for a 32/36 DGEV Weber and a Carter P4070. Things got out of hand fast....

Endgame is to have a nice little fire-road runner on 31s with decent get-up and go. Bed of the truck will have a sleeping setup with storage drawers underneath of my topper, and a basket over the topper with the brackets that mount to the bed rails and go over the sides/top of the topper- not sure what those are called, but I have quite a bit of time before I have to worry about that.

My main concern right now is getting the head swapped and the weber/pump installed to get this thing back on the road, as it is also my DD and borrowing my GFs car all the time is less than ideal. Future upgrades I'm planning on are new shocks all around and re-built front suspension with the "lifting" montero UCAs, and working out a rear suspension system to deal with the sleeping setup and roof rack on the bed- maybe adding a leaf.

I am an "amateur" mechanic, so this is a pretty intense undertaking for me- I will be painfully obvious and asking a lot of questions. I'm hoping if I keep my head straight and take my time with some help from y'all and my Chilton's I can make it happen. I think this site is great and I've already learned so much, so I'm grateful to be "contributing" to the community. Any tips or hints on anything you see above are more than appreciated.


Oh yeah.... here are some pictures of the truck.

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[Jeff V.]

Good looking truck. It'll be fun to watch this progress. :)

[tabor1000]

Today's like christmas- 5 boxes already and counting.

Got the head first, and started to clean off all of the foam fragments from how it was packed. came across a bent stud and a few scuffs/dings on the bottom face of the head. Will these give me trouble during installation?

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[tabor1000]

No nasty surprises with any of my other goodies though. 18380

[tabor1000]

In picture #4 in my above post, you can also see that my #4 combustion chamber has a lip around the edge, and a small raised lip on the surface of the head. Did i just buy a shittily machined head, or is that relatively normal? Sorry for the amount of questions- like I've said this is my first time diving into engine work.

[geezer101]

O.k. so this is a reman'd head? I would be concerned. The lip on #4 chamber and a few defects around the port indicate some problems not only with the machinework, but possibly with the head itself. I'm going off on a rant and there are a number of opinions on head reconditioning that X is right and Y is wrong. To me, it points towards the head originally being warped from overheating then having the galleries welded up and the whole thing refaced. It would explain why #4 chamber has that lip on it - the head hasn't been machined true (I can't see any other areas of the head, only the pics you've put up). And it's been dropped - a number of times (explaining the chips, dents and the bent stud...yay). I am of the opinion a head should be baked in an oven and pressed true before commencing welding and machining. Machining a warped head throws combustion chamber sizes out of whack, and also pulls the cam journals out of alignment due to the bed no longer being true. This then causes problems with the cam binding and wearing the journals out - not what I call 'quality work'. I might be wrong but I would get the head checked and if I'm on the money, send it back and flame them in the process.

[tabor1000]

The chips and bent stud are from shipping- USPS is less than forgiving in my area, and they aren't present in the pictures he sent me before purchase. the lip in the #4 chamber is the only spot with that strange lip, i almost didn't even notice it at first. I guess i'll find a machine shop and see if they can check it out for me.

[tabor1000]

The guy i bought it from said he had it entirely rebuilt, but had to scrap it after he threw a rod through the block and salvaged anything still good- the head being the main part.

[geezer101]

If the head was warped when it was machined, there's no fixing it. If you decide to take it into a shop they should check the minimum thickness of the head to ensure there is still enough metal to mill the face down in worse case scenario. The dents on the outer edges aren't deal breakers, they won't affect the head gasket sealing against the block. You could run a flat file over the deformations just to take out the high spots and you'll be right. I would even go one step further and radius off all the sharp edges in the combustion chambers. There is definitely something weird going on with the machinework. Note that all the other combustion chamber edges are slightly overlapped by the valve recesses except for #4.

[pennyman1]

Fel-pro makes a head saver shim that goes between the head and the block to restore the spacing lost due to over shaving the head past the maximum of .015. It won't solve the issue of a warped head shaved without straightening.

[tabor1000]

took the head into the machine shop, and it's not warped, just machined strangely. the ring in the #4 chamber is from a piston impact, probably when he threw a rod after the rebuild. however, the valve in that chamber is bent. especially frustrating since I bought the head for the valve job.

decided to to pull my head and evaluate its condition to weigh my options. got most of the way through removing my intake manifold, and ran into a strange problem- one of my head bolt washers is off center, preventing the fuel pump "arm" on the camshaft from sliding out of the hole. tried to loosen up the head bolts, and I couldn't budge them with my ratchet... going to come back tomorrow with a breaker bar and see if I can't loosen them up to slide the pump out. hoping that this isn't indicative of my head being super warped. 1838418384

[geezer101]

I was going hedge a bet on piston impact but the rest of the machine work looked sketchy so I ran with option #1. Fuel pump rod being witheld by an off centre head bolt - that's a new one for me. The bolts are probably good, just well torqued up. Hopefully the head is sound and you'll only need to swap a valve out of #4 chamber.

[tabor1000]

loosened the head bolt a tad and pulled the fuel pump studs and it came right out. intake manifold OFF, but judging by the state of my exhaust manifold it's going to be a whole different story... 18389

[tabor1000]

and here's the "intake manifold success" photo 18390

[tabor1000]

Got the head off today. Found 2 cracked combustion chambers. Took my new head back to the machine shop to get the bent valve replaced, grind out the ring from the piston impact, and set my lifters and it should be as good as new. Also checked the minimum head thickness and i'm still about .02 over, so as soon as it's done i should be good to go.
The original broken-plug chamber: 18426
The other cracked chamber (kind of hard to see): 18431

And the head in it's filthy, jet-valved glory: 18432


My new head has the jet valves blocked, and I understand with the Weber I won't need them anyways. Is there anything else I have to worry about in eliminating those?

[pennyman1]

Nope - you are good to go. If you scrap the head, keep the rocker arm assembly - they are a good trade piece for other parts.

[Chargerx3]

Love these build threads. And it's a 4x4 like mine!

[tabor1000]

Ok so my head has 2 exhaust valves that need replacing, and none of the parts stores in town have them in their database except for napa, who want over $20 a valve plus shipping and 2-3 days. From the looks of my pictures of my old head, could a couple of those exhaust valves be re-used? or does anyone have recommended online source to grab a couple new ones?

[tabor1000]

Nevermind, grabbed some from Sealed Powers from O'Reilly because they'll be here tomorrow morning and this thing is still supposed to be my damn dd... if I ever get it back together.

[geezer101]

No machine shops have any good used ones lying around on their shelves? Maybe a member can post out to you...

[tabor1000]

turns out I got majorly screwed by o'reilly's and they "forgot" to deliver my valves to my machine shop... so the head won't be done until monday. major PITA, considering i was hoping to have it rolling again this weekend.

in the meantime, i'm looking at some bilsteins and A/T tires online... and found a 98 montero locking rear axle at a junkyard also in ohio, but I think that swap might be a little out of my depth/monetary limits for the time being. but an air locker would be sweeeeeeet.....

[pennyman1]

if you go that route, be sure the front axle ratio in your truck matches the rear axle you buy. That axle is most likely a 9 inch rear and may have a different ratio in it.

[tabor1000]

so evidently the head I bought was revalved with some mystery valves that are longer than stock and my machine shop cannot find a replacement for them. they're now recommending that I just re-man my old head instead. incredibly frustrating.

[tabor1000]

The valves that are in the head that I bought have a squared keeper and have an OL of 4.244. The stock G54B valves I ordered have a rounded keeper, and are 4.173 OL. Anybody know why this might be? The head I got also has mechanical lifters instead of the hydraulics in my stock 2.6 head. Any suggestions as to finding the correct valves so I don't have to cut my losses and drop another $300 just to reman my old head?

[tabor1000]

After some research, turns out that the lifter/valve assembly is from an 83 starion, which had longer valves to accommodate the mechanical lifters. The head should FINALLY be done today, which means I can actually get this thing on the road again this weekend. Time to prep the block for the new head and gasket- any tips? I've read to NOT use a scotchbrite pad, as many suggest, but to go with a razor and brake cleaner.

[pennyman1]

After you scrape and clean the head surface on the block, run a tap down the thread holes of the block to be sure there is nothing in the holes that would interfere with torqueing the head bolts. checking the top of the block with a straight edge is also a good idea to ensure a flat surface.

[tabor1000]

do you know off the top of your head what size tap it is? i'd need to buy one and the truck is in a buddy's garage so i can't check myself.

[pennyman1]

not off the top of my head - I have to look it up.

[tabor1000]

head finally back from the shop. started working on getting it all back together today.
18495 block with arp studs and gasket ready for the head

18496head with intake manifold bolted up, ready to drop on
18497closeup of my mechanical pump block off plate. this and the egr plate are actually the first things I've ever fabricated, with a little help from a bud who owns a shop. had a lot of fun and think they turned out pretty well. 18498
got the head slipped on, and called it quits for a dinner break- off course I forgot to take a picture. back in the shop in a little bit to get as much done as I can this weekend.

[tabor1000]

18499

everything on and looking pretty. however, now i am paranoid because some oil seeped out of a bolt hole while threading in one of my studs. I blew them out before hand, but just did some reading about hydrolocking. should I go back and pull the head and re-clean the holes? all of the studs went in without a problem, and are all in the same depth, judging by the height. my brain tells me that I couldn't hydrolock a stud, since torquing it will essentially pull the stud "up" instead of pushing it "down" by tightening a headbolt.

[geezer101]

Tidy work on the block off plates. I know you are itching to get the beast back on the road. Getting close now! :thumbup:

[tabor1000]

quite a bit done today. head torqued, exhaust manifold back on, starting to install my Weber. went fine until I got to the throttle cable mounting using the supplied "boomerang." what am I supposed to attach to this thing? I tried the cable retainer from the old carb, and don't have nearly enough room. then I modeled it up with the old throttle cable retainer from the valve cover, but it barely works and there's no way it would hold up to any kind of driving.

am I missing a piece? do I need to fab something up?

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[tabor1000]

18504

this is is the original hold down I pulled from the mikuni- looks nothing like the one in the Weber instructions.

[tabor1000]

did some reading and ordered the damn bracket you need that doesn't come in the kit. another couple days spent waiting for parts... at least I can get my fuel pump all hooked up in the meantime.

[yamahlr]

I would also use the ARP stud kit for the head to block. Not that expensive and much better than the factory head bolts.

[yamahlr]

Interested in what bracket you ordered for the carb install. Was it a Weber sourced part or Mitsu factory part? Can you post a pic when you get it done? Thanks.

[tabor1000]

here's the link the the bracket that I ordered. a little spendy, but came with some other spare throttle linkage parts that i don't mind having around, especially since i already lost that tiny lynchpin once and don't want to have to find it again :banghead:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281051844927?ul_noapp=true

Got the girl running again saturday night, been futzing with the weber all day- it's running pretty well, except for some dieseling when I shut it off after i've been driving for more than 5-10 minutes. I'm going to order a pressure regulator tonight and put that on soon so hopefully that clears up a little bit of my problem.

Here's the overall picture- the bracket I used is sort of visible, it mounts on the two left-hand carb mounting bolts. I'm going to go take more detailed pictures of my installs tomorrow but i've been pretty busy.

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and some pictures of my fuel pump install using the method outlined in the 2nd gen fuel pump thread. Great method, going to look into putting some kind of enclosure over it to protect it from debris, but for commuting around town it's fine right now. Lucked out on the fuel pump wiring with a trick I read in here- splicing into the two black wires from the stock carb harness for the keyed power for the pump and the weber choke. pretty simple until I can get my oil pressure safety switch hooked up.

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not sure why all of my pictures come up sideways in here... anybody have a suggestion? i'm sure you're all sick of turning your computers on their sides.