If you are turning the bolt down on the rocker to get 21lbs with the stock ground cam and IF the aftermarket cam has a smaller diameter then the OEM cam, but you still tighten the nut until you get your 21lbs, the bolt you are tightening is accounting for the smaller base cam diameter. It may take another turn or two on the bolt to get the pressure you are seeking, but is the 21lbs you putting on the bolt that is setting the preload on the lifter, not the number of turns of the bolt. As long as the rocker isn't binding or making contact with the head when you get to the desired pressure, its all good. You are over thinking it.

all I was saying is that it took 1.8 turns to go from zero-lash to 21 lbs, that amount of bolt thread being the preload on the lifter. Whether or not that is enough or too much is the question. With a shorter base circle it will simply take more turns, and therefore push the plunger that much further down...by a couple thou...and I'm told between 1-2, maybe 2.5 turns, is 'good to go', which...with my OE push rods...is very likely within where I'll end up. I'll know for sure when I get it all back installed, and I'll report back.

the math is 1.000 [inch] divided by 18[threads per inch]. that equals .055555 per thread for a 5/16-18 bolt.
no matter the size of nut or bolt, threads per inch spread is determined by dividing 1" by the thread count.

geeze, whoops yup that's right . I edited the silliness from my earlier post. Well either way I'm gonna bolt it up and go...

rear main cap, oil pump and pickup all tanked, and that's as far down as I'm going. Rolled in a new rear main seal, and all reassembled - can definitely see the difference from the others. Oil pump looks brand new - the internal tolerances were all right in spec, reassembled it with fresh oil and bolted it back on with new G8 bolts and blue locktite.







Meanwhile, cleaned the decks, removed the grunge off the pistons, and now chasing the head bolt threads. Noticed there is barely any ridge wall. Should be installing the cam in a couple days, then bolting on all the fresh hardware

Before -



After -

so...a small block magnum oil filter plate - set it in place, and noticed that there is a decent gap between the plate and the mounting hole that 'looks' like it would just love to have some sort of durable round 'seal/gasket' between the two...but none of the books say so. I cranked down the double-ended bolt to 30 lbs to secure it in place, and it took quite a lot of tightening before it clicked - meaning that after making 'contact' it took a bunch more tightening to make up that gap. Now, it may be engineered to be there and requires a lot of pressure to seal everything up...or...is there supposed to be a round gasket between the two right at that main bolt? Anyone have solid gouge on this? Just seems to be 'too much' gap...but maybe it's supposed to be that way(?). I googled it to with no solid results, so...I'm asking here.

i have seen some of those plates with, and some without. however, my experience has been with early 318's and 360's. who knows what went on with those engines before i got them.
as a side note, i always drill extra holes between the ones drilled in the original plate if i have the plate off.
i read that in a direct connection manual one time, and i figure it can't hurt.
make sure you deburr the extra holes thoroughly, so no metal gets a chance to be ingested.

ok

I thought about drilling more holes; if it only had 4 I'd drill 4 more, but with 6 I'd be a little bit curious if 6 more might weaken the plate itself...and I figured 6 holes is plenty...plus I already have it bolted up n sealed tight...

Cool - since magnum heads are apparently notorious for developing cracks I had my machine shop check 'em out, and horray! - no cracks!, and the guides were good too! - double woot!! . While they had them they gave them a thorough cleaning, light re-surfacing, installed the fresh valve seals, and the new Comp Cams springs.

Note - being a magnum ya haveta drop in the lifters before bolting on the heads...a rather important step I completely neglected to remember ...

But...in the process of sourcing another head gasket ( ) I discovered that Fel-Pro has a 'Severe Duty' version of their magnum 360 head gasket, pn# 519SD (as opposed to the standard duty # 9898PT), so I opted for the SD gaskets for my engine. Chased all the threads, cleaned everything spotless, lubed the bolts with a light brush of assembly grease, sprayed the cylinder walls with a light coating of Amsoil Engine Fogging oil (to make sure the rings remain 'happy'), and bolted on the heads and valve train this morning. About 1-1/2 turns to secure the rockers and everything's looking good .

Note #2 - the Fel-Pro severe-duty magnum 318 head gasket is pn# 540SD

so I wasn't overly thrilled with the OE Dakota (and Durango) oil pan - instead of having a nice big deep sump to contain all the oil they instead have a smallish sump combined with a 'deep' middle section, which combined 'contain' the 5 quarts of oil. Strange concept but I guess it works if the engine is 'flat n level'.....but of course for me and everyone else that take their magnum engines off-road and experience fairly steep downhill angles...well that's no bueno. On any sort of downhill descent the majority of the oil would rush right towards the front, leaving the pickup tube nearly exposed almost immediately - not awesome. I don't remember it being a problem when I wheeled the truck before the buildup and others have not indicated there being a problem either, but, still, as I was pondering this 'issue' I naturally started checking around for an 'off-road' magnum 360 oil pan, and discovered something interesting.

First off, turns out the oil pans for the magnum 318 and 360 share the same 'fitment' and bolt pattern - meaning the bolt pattern up to the block(s) and the front/rear timing chain cover(s) and rear main(s) are all the same 'size' - essentially using the same oil pan from the 318 to the 360, which is not true for the LA-series engines (360 is its own animal). I also discovered that...while the Dakotas and Durangos (with a mag 318/360) share the same oil pan...the Rams and Jeeps with the 318/360 mags use a different oil pan...with a way better sump. Huh, that's cool- wait!

See, lately I've been looking for a running magnum 318 for eventual awesomeness under the hood of our 71 Demon, and I recently found/procured one still inside a derelict but complete 94 Grand Cherokee parts Jeep for the wife's own 94 GC off-road toy. When I discovered the Jeep pans were the same as the Ram pans with their nice big deep oil sump I quickly ran out to peek under the Jeep and hot diggity damn - there it is! (insert happy dance!).

Since the Jeep is going to get a car pan (LA 360) I rapidly unbolted the Jeep's pan, hit it with some cleaner and the pressure washer, and brought it into the shop for 'comparison and analysis'. This is what I found -

This pretty well sums up the differences between the Dakota/Durango vs Ram/Jeep Magnum v8 oil pans - note the 'depth' of the Dakota pan vs the Ram pan - this additional depth is 'part' of the overall oil sump -









Pulling it out of the Jeep - nose-to-nose with it's bigger and much more intimidating brother -



With the pans side-by-side, I wanted to 'see' where 5 quarts (of water) came up to in both pans -



Dakota pan, with the oil level marked on the outside (strange design) -





Ram/Jeep pan -



In order to use the other pan the respective pick up tube must also be used, but the Dakota/Durango dipstick can be re-used - just have to re-mark where 'full' is -

pt 2:



So - Ram/Jeep pan for me. But not to be outdone, I fabbed up a nice baffle and had Wayne TIG it in place, all the way around - no seepage aiming downhill. Now, with 5 quarts in the pan, tipping it forward retains about 75% of the oil in the sump vs over half of it rushing towards the front - even if I shut it off and park it for an hour, meaning less potential for air getting into the oil system, which is way more awesomer 👍. I used a bore scope to peek through the drain plug to see how much room there was between the pickup tube and baffle, and the baffle is as close as I deemed appropriate.

All cleaned up after a few days soaking in the tank at my machine shop, and a final clean with a scotch pad and WD-40, then rinse with brake cleaner -







Filled with 5 quarts of water - just at the baffle line -



and finally bolted on -

maybe it's just me, but i would have left a couple of small areas open about 1/2 way on the sides of the baffle so when going down hill and the front of the pan fills, it would get back to the sump easier.
especially if it was 60 degrees or more nose down at times.
maybe i'm thinking wrong ? wouldn't be the first time i didn't understand things.

not sure what you mean about 'it would get back to the sump easier', but my main goal was to try to retain as much oil in the sump as possible at all times, and going downhill is the only time that's an issue, so no holes anywhere along the edges otherwise it would leak through the holes when aimed downhill. Going flat or uphill all the oil will settle back into the sump...at least that was my thinking

outSTANding! - filled the engine/filter with 5 quarts of Lucas 'Hot Rod & Classic' (high-zinc) 10w40 conventional (#10683), plumbed in an old oil pressure gauge, dropped in the driveshaft and spun it up with the drill, and after about a minute all 16 rockers were flowin' oil, with ~70 psi showing on the gauge :thumbsup: . This confirms a magnum indeed does not need to spin the cam in order to get oil up to the rockers, instead it flows into the lifter galleys, through the lifters, out through the top into the pushrods, then out the tip, down onto the rocker pedestal, and ultimately, the valve tip. Cool design - fun to watch

Yah I know with a roller cam I don't technically 'need' the high-zinc oil, but I know it won't hurt, especially for a fresh break-in.

retaining as much oil in the sump as possible at all times is a worthwhile goal, however, that retained oil will be pumped through the system, but it then needs to be able to return to the sump.
if it collects in the forward part of the pan due to to the degree of nose down attitude, [with a rear sump] it will need a way to be able to return to the sump and pickup.
this may be an extreme example, but possibly worth noting ?

I hear what you're saying and it's certainly worth noting, tho I stand fast that, at those steep angles having the baffle fully welded to retain more oil is more important than having holes to allow some oil (if any) to get back into the pan at those steep angles. The majority of the oil can't return to the sump until the engine levels out no matter which pan or baffles are used - it has to level out at which point all of whatever is sloshing around up front will just return as normal. However, I imagine there may be 'some' of the oil shedding out of the bottom end that is diverted 'away' from the sump, but I think that is less a problem than having the sump nearly uncovered. If the baffle isn't fully sealed (welded) all the way around then at steep downhill angles that much more oil would just seep out, leaving less in the sump for running/start-up - in my mind having those holes won't allow enough oil back in to warrant having them. No oil can return directly into the sump until the engine levels out, and to me...while having holes in the baffle weld might enable oil to return into the sump a little bit sooner, the fact those same holes would allow oil to escape outweigh the benefits of the majority of it being retained in the pan.

woot! Followed the Edelbrock instructions to the letter and used Gasgacinch and a front/rear bead of RTV to seal everything up, and torqued the bolts to a meager 12 lbs, but the intake is 'on' . Tomorrow I'm hoping to hoist it into the engine bay and bolt it up to the tranny to finish motor mount and exhaust mock-up -



And used these nifty devices to confirm TDC - a compression whistle and a simple gauge -

alright - got a set of 2wd engine mounts bolted up to the block, and the engine is in place :thumbsup: . Now I can fab up the frame brackets, exhaust, and extend the shroud a couple inches, and it's pretty much ready for 'final assembly'.

so this was kinda cool - pun intended . I was checking out water pumps for my 360, and I noticed something interesting about the Gates replacement pumps for the magnum engines - they have a really nice, 'better' bypass nipple in their pumps...at least in the pictures of their pumps. The original nipples are 1" NPT (I think), and they have two slots in the edge...the edge that is supposed to seal the nipple to the hose...and I just thought what a stupid way to design a nipple. But the Gates pumps have a nipple that is solid all the way around...and so I picked up the phone. Talking with the tech guy at Gates, I asked...hey can I order just the nipple? Long story short, he took my info and a few weeks later I found a small box with 4 of their full-ring nipples at my doorstep - they didn't even charge me which was just extra cool. In case anyone would like to upgrade their magnum bypass nipples, the pn is #43034.

Hat's off to Gates - I sent this schematic...and they did the rest 👍



...I don't know how a nipple with two giant slots in it is supposed to seal to a hose...but the full-seal Gates nipples should definitely seal 'better'. Note the internal hex slots to install them -



and speaking of 'how to install them', I used a 1/2" bolt with a nut that fits perfect, and just crank it in -







oh yeah, it's painted

Nicely done.Does the side gutter send oil to the sump when the truck is nose down?
I have a 99 2wd, and the 51515 filter won't clear the frame, looks like a dimension is different. I have to run a 51068 instead.