[red-dog100]

Hi, I am a new member with hopefully a fairly easily answered problem.
I have a 96 Ram 1500 with a 5.9 V8.
It runs well,even with 150K miles,but uses quite a bit of oil.
The thing which bothers me the most,is as it reaches its shift point rev,and the engine unloads,it emits a rather loud rattle,sounding like all of the lifters are loose. It never does it on a pull,only on overrun.
Some have mentioned a timing chain,but it really doesn't sound like that to me.
Any suggestions?

 

[hydrex]

I'm with the timing chain guys. I had a Tacoma once that had no timing chain tensioners from the factory. Got louder and louder. Finally got them to warrantee after a lot of hassle.

 

[red-dog100]

Thanks. I will look into that. The old trick on Jaguars was to turn the engine back and forth and see how much crank movement there was before the distributor moved. Doesn't work too well with the new cars (no distributor)

 

[red-dog100]

It is somewhat disappointing to find out that a 6 liter engine is only rated at 230 HP. It must breathe horribly. Are there any reasonable modifications to liven it up? I pull a small 5th wheel trailer with mine and it just doesn't have the power I want. My plan is to get a V10 or a Cummins but my truck is in good shape and I hate to just give up on it.
The IO360 in my Mooney only put out 200 HP,but it did it at 2700 RPM