My $36.50 Oil Change

[Dibbons]

Did it myself, '96 Dodge Dakota (3.9L five-speed 4X4), STP oil filter, Castrol 20W-50 motor oil. After the engine warms up, I hear a slight rattle (and I can't remember now if that is a new sound or one that has been there for a long period of time).

I needed a breaker bar to remove the drain plug, and half-destroyed the oil filter trying to remove it (filter access on a 4X4 is limited). I can only assume my local quicky oil change guy uses gorilla strength on that stuff.

 

[Don Frelier]

20-50 is pretty high viscosity for a 3.9
Yours is the age where the converter can fall apart inside and rattle. When that happens you lose performance as the exhaust is restricted

 

[Dibbons]

With a desert climate and 292,000 miles on the original motor, I feel comfortable with a higher viscosity oil.

 

[pnora]

Timing chain tension-er rattle.

 

[moparedtn]

Did it myself, '96 Dodge Dakota (3.9L five-speed 4X4), STP oil filter, Castrol 20W-50 motor oil. After the engine warms up, I hear a slight rattle (and I can't remember now if that is a new sound or one that has been there for a long period of time).

I needed a breaker bar to remove the drain plug, and half-destroyed the oil filter trying to remove it (filter access on a 4X4 is limited). I can only assume my local quicky oil change guy uses gorilla strength on that stuff.

View attachment 1283987

...or he hasn't been changing anything at all in the past.

 

[Dibbons]

I've been having the oil changed every 3,000 or so miles for the past 17 years or so.

 

[33 IMP]

I was gonna say, that's pretty cheap! My oil changes are all do-it-myself, and run around $75. (Nine quarts of synthetic in the car, 11 and 14 qts in the diesels, plus oil and fuel filters of course....)

 

[Slap Stick]

Timing chain tension-er rattle.

There is no tensioner.
At that price, you are buying your oil and filters at the wrong place.

The noise you hear may also be the injectors firing.

 

[Dibbons]

I don't think a '96 3.9L magnum has injectors, maybe a throttle body (not sure)?

 

[pnora]

There is no tensioner.
At that price, you are buying your oil and filters at the wrong place.

The noise you hear may also be the injectors firing.

No tensioner?????? You had better do some reading.

 

[pnora]

I don't think a '96 3.9L magnum has injectors, maybe a throttle body (not sure)?

96 has both.

 

[pnora]

There is no tensioner.
At that price, you are buying your oil and filters at the wrong place.

The noise you hear may also be the injectors firing.

One more for you

 

[RemCharger]

I don't think a '96 3.9L magnum has injectors, maybe a throttle body (not sure)?

So you're saying it has a carb???

 

[Dibbons]

I just took another look and "found" the fuel rail for the injectors.

 

[Slap Stick]

One more for you

View attachment 1284298

Look it up for the 5.2.
My shop manual shows no pic of the tensioner or even mentions it.
I guess the bean counters figured it wasn't needed on the 318.

 

[Don Frelier]

When I bought my 93 Dakota 3.9l the chain was hitting the cover. (no tensioner)
I bought the chain and tensioner from the dealer for a 99 I think and they were pretty reasonably priced.
It was pretty snappy after i put it back together.

 

[Dennis H]

Isn’t anything paved down there?

 

[Dibbons]

Not in the outlying ("suburbs") areas. In the city, asphalt and it's accompanying potholes are being replaced by concrete, little by little.

 

[Dennis H]

You have suburbs?!

 

[Dibbons]

We call 'em "ampliacion" or extension literally translated.