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delima

2K views 16 replies 5 participants last post by  g2tiger 
#1 ·
Well,

The old girl is using a qt of oil every 400 or so miles. I suspect a bad head after speaking to several people and mechanics. The local machine shop said it was most likely the head as his experience with the 318 magnum is that the intake and exhaust valves are too close together and under some situations the area between the two iwll crack causing issues.

Any thoughts on this before I buy a new head for $250 and go to work on the beast?
 
#2 ·
Couple things to check.

1. Is it smoking when revving? This would indicate either the issue you mentioned or bad rings.

2. Is it smoking only on start-up? This would indicate valve guides leaking.
3. Is the oil milky or are you seeing oil in the radiator? This would indicate a head gasket leak.

Key when using oil is to know where its going in order to fix the problem.
 
#3 · (Edited)
You my friend have a bad plenum plate gasket. A easy way to check this is too take off your intake and look down into the throttle body. If you see wet at the bottom than you have a bad gasket. the wet is the oil being sucked in.

this is the dodge service bulliten for it.
http://www.dodgeram.info/tsb/2000/09-05-00.htm

The reason that this happens is because the intake plenum is aluminum and the plate on the bottom of the intake is steel. the gasket in between in rips due to the different rates that the two metals expand and contract. Guys normally take a sheet of aluminum and trace out the steel plate on it and cut it out. using the aluminum plate will keep this from happening ever again.

Dodge made a recall on this and doing a pcm reflashed that was a bandaid on a lost lim basically. 99% of the time this is the problem.

this is what it looks like looking threw the throttle body:
 
#4 ·
Thanks guys,

I did replace the gasket on the plenum/manifold. And I will recheck
it probably today. No oil in the water, smoke from exhaust
during driving, most times you can't see it much. However
when sitting at traffic lights for a few minutes it does smoke
when I leave the light.

Had mechanic say the injector could be flooding the cylinder
causing it to wash out with oil and gas. Exhaust pipe is dark and
sooty.
 
G
#6 ·
The injectors could also be the problem but you are using a LOT of oil in 400 miles. I assume you've checked for external leaks as well.

It's definitely burning the oil of no external leaks are visible.
 
#9 ·
Ok,

There does appear to be a small amount of oil coating the inside of the chambers. It does not look anything like when I first replaced the gasket so I dont think that gasket is leaking. How did you get such a good shot? I have trouble lookinginto the opening with a mirror and light.

When I first replaced the gasket there was a large ammount of oil in the chanber so it was easy to tell but right now I gotta say I dont think that the gasket is leaking. It has only been about 1500 miles since I replaced the gasket. Let me saw that there appears to be a coating of oil but it may be due to age and it may also be varnish. I did not clean the inside of the chamber to like new more like clean off the oli and reassemble the thing to get her running.
 
#10 ·
well 1500 miles may not be enough to really coat like before yet. IDK man it sucks to say but it might still be leaking. what did you use to get the old gasket it off and did you torque it all down correctly.
 
#11 ·
Most likely the plenum. Am I to understand that you only changed the gasket on the plenum and not the actual pan?? BIG no-no. That steel pan does not respond to heat at the same rate as the aluminium intake, and you will keep changing gaskets. Get a Hughe's kit.

A quart every 400 miles is MAJOR. If there is no external leaks, then it's burning it. Burning oil on a magnum engine is 99.9% of the time because of the plenum.
 
#12 ·
OK, I'll check into getting a Huge's kit. Should I search under Hughes plenum kits?

BTW, had some fun Sat night with the beast. Was at a light when a Ram 4X4 (about the same years '94-2001) short bed pulled up next to the wife and I. Nice metallic blue (you know that real cool blue that got everyones attention) with the white stripe, sounded good too. So when the light changed we both went at it. Huge fun! I haven't done that sort of stuff since I sold mt GTO. I gott say the old truck did well.
 
#14 ·
OK,

Got the Hughes kit en route. bolts and all. Hope this works or Ill just find a wrangler to trade for...

By the way. The rear end seams to jump and bounce when the brakes are applied. It has new tires and I put new drums and shoes on it. The rims are the chrome five blade factory units. Any thoughts? I have a set of the work truck rims which have the beauty rings that I want to put on it. I wonder if nayone has had any experience wiht the rear jumping around only when the brakes are applied?
 
#15 ·
Installed the Hughes aluminum plenum pan today. Hope Ruiz
Fixes the issue. I wrote down the odometer reading and level
of oil in the pan. Truck seams to run smoother and have some
Power that was missing prior to the work.

Time will tell if the
fix works or if I have continued trouble.

Still gotta find out why the rear jumps around when the brakes
Are applied. I do have some steel rims with beauty rings to put on her
soon though. Just gotta paint the rims...
 
#16 ·
Well...
So far the ramster is doing fine. I thought I got a good oil level
Reading after the plenum work but she shows a quart low
Right now. The good news is that the plug that had all the oil
On it is burning much cleaner. Although it is dark brown right now
I believe it will continue to burn off the built up crux in the cylinder
From the leak.

Still want a wrangler...
 
#17 ·
heart sunk today

Well...

Drove the beast ot daytona beach yesterdya fot the trukey rod run car show. For thsoe of you not in the know the turkey rod run in the largest rod and car show in the southeast, period. they fill the entire Daytona speedway full of cars and car related stuff.

So i drove the ranster down for the heck of it since it was runnign well enough. But upon arrival (more like leaving) I looked at the area around the rear fender to see if there was soot build up on the fender (a sign of oil burning) and there was. this area was cleanded real well when I did the plenum. I'm upset.

I did drive her to the store after dark and did see the smoke again in the rear view mirror when I left a stop light. interesting how you can see the smoke due to the car behind you having thehead lights on but cant see the smoke duringthe day.

So today i will review and see what I can do. I'll check the plugs and such and try to determine my next step which will msot likely be to sell it.

there comes a time and point when you have had enough and put enough into it that it just cannot be justified any longer. I've had to rebuild the front end, new tires, new windshield, new dash, rework the A/C drain and vacuum system, repaire and repaint the hood and roof, and a numerous other things. I'm just getting worn out.

I need to spend some time fixing the wifes jeep before it falls apart. I'll keep everyone posted on the happs...
 
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