Hey all,

I've got an '01 318 mag out here that is in good shape other than its dirty as all get out inside. Sludge city. I bought it as a core, mechanic said it lost oil pressure when hot and now I can see why.

Anyway the bores are real nice, no ridge at all and still have crosshatch so I want to re-ring and re-bearing it and drop it in one of my trucks.

Also can I hot tank the heads with the rocker gear on them still? I simply pulled them off without removing the rockers. What about the pistons, can they be hot tanked or is it best to use a parts washer on them?

This is only my second attempt to rebuild one (first was a Slant in my teens) and this time I want to be sure that I get it right.

the hot tank is not too friendly to pistons and bearings or the intermediate shaft bushing. it has to be stripped to nothing for a thorough wash. all oil galley plugs,freeze plugs etc,it all has to come off. after the heads are dissassembled and cleaned check them for cracks real close,magnum heads had issues.

Strip it completely. It's going to kill the cam bearings too. Heads can be jet-washed (basically hot water and a bio-friendly degreaser) with no real damage but if there's any more detergent than that the cleaner will eat the valve seals.

put 2 or 3 pistons/rod assys at a time (depending on the size of your basket) into your carb soup. As said w the mag heads being crack prone I'd have them oven baked then magged for cracks

The hot-tank will kill your cam bearings, and unless you have your own cam bearing install tool, you will be paying a shop to redo them for you. I've heard the thing to do is only dunk the pistons in carb cleaner up to/including the ring lands, not putting the whole skirt in the cleaner. The skirt and rods don't get that dirty anyway so I don't know if that's really an issue or not. Also you may want to have the rods looked at if the engine overheated and/or lost oil pressure.

Scrape what carbon buildup you can off the tops, then hit the tops only with a brass wire wheel in a drill. Clean the pistons in solvent with a mild scotch-brite pad. Its not a performance motor so a little carbon residue and staining isn't going to hurt.

You may want to consider "jet washing" the block instead of hot tanking. Neither will touch rust and if its not a performance build you probably don't care if all the paint doesn't get removed. The jet wash will get rid of all the oil and gunk but won't hurt the bearings. If they spray down the bores with WD40 right away you could probably get away with just running a ball hone down each bore just for a quick cleanup. Whatever, strip every plug out of the block first.

Any small parts you can tie up or string on a coathanger can also go in the jet wash - rods, rockers, shafts, cam, oil pump, etc..

Do the lifters by hand - disassemble, clean, reassemble.