You sure can learn a lot if you spend a day in a junkyard taking things apart. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

I stripped a 3.0L DOHC engine from a '95 Diamante today. The first thing I learned was that I really feel sorry for anybody who owns one of those engines. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" /> Yesterday, I stripped a '90 SOHC Montero engine in 2.5 hours. Today's follies took 6 hours of steady work. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/shiner.gif" alt="" /> Granted, it was the first DOHC engine I've stripped, but it's not something I'd look forward to repeating. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/barf.gif" alt="" />

I did get 2 DOHC heads that appear perfect and should be worth more than the $150 I paid for the engine:

I also got a very nice steel crankshaft to use in the blower engine:

And... I pulled the rods, since the DOHC rods are the same part number as the VR4 TT rods... should be fine for my engine and a lot better than paying $600-1200 for aftermarket hi-po rods. I can't tell any difference between the Montero/Raider, Diamante SOHC and Diamante DOHC rods except the numbers on the sides, but maybe they are rated differently since the Montero rods have a different part number. Here are all three shown together.... Diamante DOHC on the left (marked "72-H"), Diamante SOHC in the center (marked "72-Y") and Montero/Raider on the right (4 marked "72-R" and 2 marked "72-S"):


Perhaps the most important thing I learned was wrt the head bolts, because I've been trying to find head studs to use in the blower engine... without luck. ARP lists studs for the 24v DOHC engine only, so I called them a couple of days ago to see if they had something generic that would fit the 12v SOHC engines. I gave them the size and they said they had nothing in that thread pitch.... bummer. When I pulled one from the DOHC engine today, I thought it looked familiar, so I brought it home. Here's the DOHC head bolt (bottom) and a SOHC 12v head bolt (top) shown together:

Yep, they're the same..... meaning that we can now use ARP head studs in the SOHC 12v engines. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" /> I was concerned that some applications might use different tensile strengths, so I asked the ARP rep about it and was told that everything they sell is rated 200,000 psi. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" /> Oh happy day! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

All-in-all.... a good, but long day!

Frank