It is a long roof, but not a GM

I Bought this thing at the end of July with a bad engine (dropped valve seat) and after pricing out every possible repair I bought and installed a reman engine.  It's up and running now and holy crap is it fun to drive!  Makes the LS olds feel slow.

And yes, it has a Hemi (anyone else remember those commercials??

Anyways, it's a 2006 Magnum R/T AWD with 208k on the clock.  2 owner car, maintained meticulously by both owners inside and out.  Hell, even the inside of the motor was clean!  Stock its rated at 345HP/390LBft torque.  It hauls ass and sure is fun when it's not doing annoying Chrysler things
Now, I kinda want to drive an SRT8 Magnum

So this is where I've been the last few months, had a lot to learn about these modern cars.









There's your problem




Ouch!


Look at that engine bay, this thing barely fits in there.  I've done a few engine swaps, and I have to say this thing has been the most the difficult by far.  The AWD components added hours to the job and this thing is just plain tight in there.  If you ever have the chance to do this, install the heads after the block is in the car.

Nice work! And the tow rating is still 1500 lbs.......

How cool! I can only imagine how much noise that old engine must have made. I've never sat inside one of those wagons. Are they pretty roomy? And, I gotta be nosy and ask-what does a reman Hemi cost??

Mark 96 Roady wrote:

How cool! I can only imagine how much noise that old engine must have made. I've never sat inside one  of those wagons. Are they pretty roomy? And, I gotta be nosy and ask-what does a reman Hemi cost??

Nowhere near as roomy as our wago s. I looked hard at these before I got a B-body. Then found out they got worse gas mileage and never looked back.

Never rode in an AWD drive one though....

Ive always liked the looks of these.

They're roomy for a "modern" car, but not compared to our land yachts.
After a month of driving it and fixing issues here and there like typical suspension clunks, I'll say I'm happy with the car for the most part. One thing I've learned about it is repairs are not as cheap as our cars, or even my 07 Lucerne. The prices go up as this car is AWD and there's very little after market parts in the suspension department as well as the motor mounts.
The power is awesome on this thing, but comes with meh fuel economy. I'm sure it'll get worse now that I got the Diablo tuner in and put a 93 octance performance tune on it. It's supposed to add 15-20 RWHP to this thing which I don't feel to be a lie. The first ride in it with that tune installed was a blast.

And for those wondering, the reman Hemi long block with a 3yr unlimited mile warranty was around $2800. By no means cheap, but could be worse. That's not including the extra gaskets and what not I needed.

Are you getting a penta star tattoo?

Are you going to thin the herd? Do you think you guys will come back in the spring for Wagonfest?

Must be some fun to drive that car!

There is a local guy who is trying to piece together a class-action against Chrysler to take responsibility for valve seats dropping out of those Hemis..... Apparently, according to this guy, Chrysler has more recently updated the valve seats, which he takes as an admission of guilt. Unfortunately, his car is years out of warranty and has over 100k miles.....
I have a friend that believes Magnum wagons would be good candidates for LS swaps.....

phantom 309 wrote:

Are you getting a penta star tattoo?

Yes, it's a secret where though

Mark 96 Roady wrote:

Are you going to thin the herd? Do you think you guys will come back in the spring for Wagonfest?

I'm always thinning the herd, everything has a price tag
Planning to come down for Dayona unless I can't get the time off.

andy caprice wrote:

Must be some fun to drive that car!

It sure is, makes me really want to build a better LS for my olds

AzDon wrote:

There is a local guy who is trying to piece together a class-action against Chrysler to take responsibility for valve seats dropping out of those Hemis..... Apparently, according to this guy, Chrysler has more recently updated the valve seats, which he takes as an admission of guilt. Unfortunately, his car is years out of warranty and has over 100k miles.....
I have a friend that believes Magnum wagons would be good candidates for LS swaps.....

I saw talk of that but I'd be way beyond whatever requirements I'm sure.
I googled LS Magnums and it has been done, for obvious reasons lol

I had an '05 hemi magnum, rwd. With 400 miles on it, I dynoed it. On 87 octane, it made 278 hp at the tires. The particular dyno was known to be a bit stingy. Great car, never gave me any trouble.