Finally! The update we have been waiting for! For those who have been following my magnum drama!

Broke in the cam last night. The motor fired off with no problem and sounded good.

The temperature held steady for the entire duration of the cam break in. No water leaks anywhere, no smoke from the tail pipes. I thought I had a leak from the new radiator, but it didn’t drip a drop during break in.

16 lbs of rock steady vacuum at 2500 RPM.

The only issues encountered:
1) Small pinhole leak in the steel transmission line which would spray the exhaust = lots of smoke (easy fix)

2) Leaking at the tranny fitting while under pressure in neutral (also an easy fix)

3) Engine runs smooth, but when the RPM’s are dropped to 800 RPM, there is a miss which causes the engine to rock/shake.

I suspect a bad plug (I just used the plugs that came with the used magnum heads).

There is a little watery black tinged “splatter” on the ground from the passenger side tail pipe (no cross-over pipe) after 30 min of break in + 5 minutes idle for cool down. The kind of thing you would see from running rich. It never smelled rich though.

Anyway, I will get new plugs and see if this cleans up my idle. It’s just fine tuning at this point, but I hope to get it on the road soon so I can beat on it and break in the motor!

Eightlitermopar