Rebuilding motor, questions.

[Mysterio]

I'm going to have my motor rebuilt shortly and get all the parts I've got waiting put on at the same time. I want to get all the gaskets ready and bring them in with me to save time. So I have a few questions now that I'm looking through fwdp/TU. First off it's an 87 charger 2.2 non common block.

FWDP sells Clevite 77 main & rod bearings. What size of these should I be getting for my motor? Are these pretty good bearings? Any other options or will these be fine? How do I know which size bearings I need?

Am I best off going with a mopar performance head gasket? The felpro & cometic don't handle up well in these cars I beleive I read. Is this correct? Which MP head gasket would I use? The 006 says it's for Turbo2 which my car is converted to.. So I assume that one?

I see ARP head studs & head bolts on TU, which would I go with? Studs are stronger than bolts correct?

Is there anything I need to know that a non TD'er at a garage working on my car wouldn't know that I might want to relay to someone rebuilding my motor?

Is there anything anyone that has had their motors rebuilt before recommends I do or get done?

I've never had a motor truely rebuilt internally all my previous cars I had replaced top end pieces but never done any internal work. So this is new to me.

FYI what I'm putting on the car:

TU performance swirl head
forged .020 over JE pistons & T2 rods
fwdp ported intake manifold
tu ported exhaust manifold
garrett t2 turbo w/ lightened turbine wheel (stage2 i think it was? i forget) .63 a/r

its already got fwdp stg5 cal, +40's, afpr, 3'' exhaust, spearco fmic

[Speedeuphoria]

normally you should have the machine shop check the block and crank and tell you what pistons/rings and bearings to get

[Mysterio]

normally you should have the machine shop check the block and crank and tell you what pistons/rings and bearings to get

I had already got forged pistons preparing for the rebuild. I wasn't sure if they had to check the block for bearings and things. So I wanted to find out ahead of time. I'm trying to make the rebuild go as fast as possible.

[turbovanman²]

Do you have the old engine apart?


Crank and rod bearings are hard to say as your old crank could be damaged, so then you would need undersize bearings. That will have to wait until the motor is apart. Any machine shop can order crank bearings locally.

Head gasket, use the MP 005 unit, for a DD, thats all you need.

My preference is studs, reusable and more even clamping load.

MAKE SURE you get new intermediate/aux shaft bearings and carefully check over the gear for wear or pitting, if so, its junk. Get a new oil pump and you need all new seals too. I would buy a gasket set, IE felpro as then you get everything, and just buy the MP gasket.

I would get the engine balanced.

Have the rods rebuilt with new ARP rod bolts.

It doesn't really have any special tips, just make sure all clearances are correct.