Finally got a chance to do most of the disassembly on the Challenger's 440 yesterday and figured I'd pass on what I found. FYI, this is a tear-down resulting from having screwed up last fall and run the engine at the track while low on oil (estimate being down 3 quarts) due to not identifying a "mystery" oil leak that turned out to be a broken spot weld in my oil pan.
I'll give the highlights (lowlights?) now and will see about taking pictures later to add some visual context to my descriptions. So, w/ that introduction...
Rod bearings: All are toasted and look pretty much exactly like what the Clevite bearing problem tech sheet shows as being subject to oil starvation. I was wondering if maybe they'd look better the closer to the oil pump, but they all look like crap. I'll also mention that the bearings have all lost their crush and basically fell right out of the rods when the caps were loosened.
Main bearings: TBD... I haven't had a chance to pry off the Pro-Gram 3-bolt center caps, yet. Given the rod bearings' condition, I'm not expecting anything good.
Crank: The rod journals are not scored excessively, but they all show wear marks that I expect won't just polish out. This crank is already .010"/.010", so I guess it's time for another one.
Pistons: These are custom Ross pistons which replaced the previous JEs when I had to take the bore out from 4.375" to 4.380". All of them have some vertical wear "stripes" on the skirts that correspond to "polished" stripes in their respective cylinder bores. I don't know if this is indicative of having been run w/ insufficient lubrication, or possibly the piston-to-wall clearance was too tight, or ??? I don't see any issues w/ being able to clean up the skirts w/ 600 wet-or-dry and re-honing the bores, though.
Lifters: The Schubecks look fine. I was wondering if I was going to find any more odd swirl marks etched into the ceramic pucks like I did on a couple of them when I tore the engine down in 2000, but they all look good. (I had them touched up by Joe S. before putting them back in service in 2002).
Timing chain: The Pro-Gear setup still looks tight.
Oil pan: There's sludge in the bottom of the pan. Is this a side-effect of running Brad Penn? I never saw sludge when using Valvoline VR-1 or Mobil 1, so I suspect it's the BP I started running in 2008. I don't like sludge...
Oil pickup tube: Uhhhhh... it snapped when I was trying to remove it.
And since it broke off while still in the block, I can't tell whether the pipe threads in the block are stripped out or not. "Something" doesn't look right on the remaining threads that were left on the part that broke off, either. Anybody know where I can find an E-Z Out for a 1/2" NPT tube?
So, now I'm wondering if the internal oil pump pickup threads are trashed, leaving me w/ no option but to convert to an external pickup setup in order to still use this block. Considering I was trying to stay w/ a low-profile "Street Hemi" style pan, hanging a 7" sump w/ an external feed line, etc., wasn't in my (original) plans.
