In an absolute bind one time with my Charger, i was forced to buy the only big block i could find locally... a "good" 440 still in its attractive (though completely trashed) 67 Imperial carrying case. The wiring in the Imp had been so mangled that there would be no starting it up before buying it, and the owner could not tell me exactly why it was parked (was selling it for some long lost relative). So i bought it, dumped it in the Charger, crossed my fingers and started it up.

Well... didn't take a second to learn why it had been parked... and i mean aside from the plumes ov blue smoke out the sidepipes. The engine had this absolutely brutal sounding screech. It literally sounded like the crank was trying to scrape its way through the oil pan... sounding exactly like a very slow grinding wheel on sheet metal. We couldn't diagnose it. No dented sheetmetal, nothing loose, no metal in the oil, no hot spots, nothing. I just ended up driving the damn thing, and after a couple weeks the noise had pretty much gone (steadily) away. Man it sure got some looks in the first week though... that noise was LOUD.

That engine burned just too much oil to last more than a few months in the car, but it had served its purpose. I was actually extremely excited to finally get to pull it apart... I'd been anticipating this since the initial start-up. We couldn't find ANY evidence ov grinding/scraping/anything that would cause this noise. The mystery remains... a mystery.