BAD ENGINE REBUILDING !!!

[YellowThumper]

Exactly my advice as well. If you are questioning the build parts you have seen. Then you have to question everything else within it. As noted get real pressure guage to confirm it is good. If within proper range. Drive it as is and build a complete new on the side. Then the only down time is the weekend swap.

[THE ZUKE]

It would appear your engine is using stock weight pieces. I agree that if they used quality lightweight pistons that generally you drill weight out of a crankshaft usually.
The good news is that you could re-use that crankshaft to build a 451 or 470 inch low deck stroker using a 400 block. Common practice is to lathe .1 off the counterweights in that application to lighten the crankshaft and clear the block. This is a combination you may want to try as they work really, really well.

I understand what you explain to me but it exceeds my mechanical skills.

I am working on this problem with a very good French mechanic specialized in American V8. He advises me to disassemble everything to control everything.

It is possible that the rest of the engine is good but nothing is certain.

I do not want to take any risk because rebuilding a motor prepared with a new block would cost me approximately 20,000 Euros !!!

I'm already doing a lot of work alone on my car but rebuilding an engine I do not know how to do

[THE ZUKE]

Exactly my advice as well. If you are questioning the build parts you have seen. Then you have to question everything else within it. As noted get real pressure guage to confirm it is good. If within proper range. Drive it as is and build a complete new on the side. Then the only down time is the weekend swap.

It is certain that this would be the simplest way but also the most expensive.

It's not a problem for me if I have no car for a few months.

[RUNCHARGER]

There's not much chance of the engine breaking as it is and it runs well. Your local mechanic wants you to invest money and downtime pulling the engine out and inspecting it. I see no sense in that without some more data to suggest it is necessary.
If the engine was to need some type of repair it is unlikely you can use any of the parts you have.
If you want to spend money and are convinced this engine is junk, order a complete engine from a reputable Mopar engine builder in the U.S. that does Mopar engines every day. Then you can have that engine shipped to you in France complete and you will save a bunch of money. That's my take on it anyway.

[Cudamike]

Did you buy this car from Southern Motors?

[Chryco Psycho]

Is there any reason to believe there is anything wrong with the engine , I don't see anything alarming in there , I might have built it differently using different parts , but I believe you are wasting time & $$ taking it apart , I have seen cranks with mallory welded in before , this looks nrmal to me
Good luck breaking that crank , 100s of clutch drops at 4000+ rpm with slicks would not break it , I have tried !!.
If it has good compression & oil pressure & no noise , run it !
You can pull it all aprt & mag test everything if you want or spend a bunch of cash building a 512 using that block or a different one , Your call .
Maybe you have 6 pack rods in there & weight was added to keep it internally balanced 
My 440 engine was balanced like that , it was shifted at 7200 rpm drag racing & street driven for 9 years & never hurt anything . Smooth a silk too

[Topcat]

This totally reminds me of the Stroker crank I bought.

10-12 holes drilled and filled with mallory. I was furious.   

http://www.musclemotorsracing.com/

They took it back and sent me an unbalanced Eagle crank No charge each way.

But what the Hell were they thinking then? 

[jimynick]

They likely welded- poorly looking- those pieces to balance the assembly. In a perfect world, they would have ground the welds so as to not leave a rough finish like they did, but as long as they're stuck on well and, as mentioned, it runs well, it should not make a difference. In that perfect world, the crank would look pretty, but as long as it does it's job, I would not get too bent out of shape over it. Put it back together, reseal it and drive it. Save your euros for the stroker build! Bonne chance! 

[YellowThumper]

I ask what prompted you to tear into it? Was there an issue?

[RzeroB]

Is there any reason to believe there is anything wrong with the engine , I don't see anything alarming in there.

Maybe you have 6 pack rods in there & weight was added to keep it internally balanced 

Can't really tell what rods are in there from the pics provided, but heavier rods being used was what I was thinking too that would have required that much material to be added to the crank ...

[Chryco Psycho]

when I built my engine I used 6 pack rods , nothing else was affordable then , they weighed a ton , but we ground all of the excess weight / lump off of the rod cap to reduce the weight as much as possible  & still had to add weight to the crank .

[THE ZUKE]

There's not much chance of the engine breaking as it is and it runs well. Your local mechanic wants you to invest money and downtime pulling the engine out and inspecting it. I see no sense in that without some more data to suggest it is necessary.
If the engine was to need some type of repair it is unlikely you can use any of the parts you have.
If you want to spend money and are convinced this engine is junk, order a complete engine from a reputable Mopar engine builder in the U.S. that does Mopar engines every day. Then you can have that engine shipped to you in France complete and you will save a bunch of money. That's my take on it anyway.

Frankly, today I do not really know what to think so much I'm disappointed, disillusioned.

At first, disassembled the engine will verify in which side is the reboring of the cylinders. Then to control the cylinder heads, etc.

Depending on the result, it will be time to choose a solution.

I know that my specialist mechanic pushes me in the disassembly way. He has already rebuilt the engine of my MACH1 351W. The engine then ran like a clock.

Now, I have no desire to spend more than € 20,000 to get a whole engine prepared in the United States.

[THE ZUKE]

Did you buy this car from Southern Motors?

Unfortunatly yes !!!

[THE ZUKE]

Is there any reason to believe there is anything wrong with the engine , I don't see anything alarming in there , I might have built it differently using different parts , but I believe you are wasting time & $$ taking it apart , I have seen cranks with mallory welded in before , this looks nrmal to me
Good luck breaking that crank , 100s of clutch drops at 4000+ rpm with slicks would not break it , I have tried !!.
If it has good compression & oil pressure & no noise , run it !
You can pull it all aprt & mag test everything if you want or spend a bunch of cash building a 512 using that block or a different one , Your call .
Maybe you have 6 pack rods in there & weight was added to keep it internally balanced 
My 440 engine was balanced like that , it was shifted at 7200 rpm drag racing & street driven for 9 years & never hurt anything . Smooth a silk too

Thank you Chryco for your comments and advices.

[THE ZUKE]

They likely welded- poorly looking- those pieces to balance the assembly. In a perfect world, they would have ground the welds so as to not leave a rough finish like they did, but as long as they're stuck on well and, as mentioned, it runs well, it should not make a difference. In that perfect world, the crank would look pretty, but as long as it does it's job, I would not get too bent out of shape over it. Put it back together, reseal it and drive it. Save your euros for the stroker build! Bonne chance! 

You're probably right about the crankshaft aesthetics.