2007 Ram: Replace the engine or replace the truck ?
- Thread starter Kern Dog
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We use to... Haven't seen one since the early 70's...
A lot of states got rid of them. Statistical accident data compiled by insurance companies/institute showed no significant differences between states that had safety inspections and those that did not have them
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Bighouse
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Here it’s a $10 sticker that pisses me off for one full year if they put it on the windshield crooked.
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The car at the wrecking yard is a 2006 Chrysler 300C. The C model denotes the 5.7 Hemi.
The old standard for picking an engine was to look for a wrecked car. This usually indicated that the car was mobile at the time that it was wrecked so the engine has a better chance of being good as opposed to a car that looks great.
This one had both air bags deployed but hardly any front end damage. At what speeds do these bags deploy? I've seen a few like this recently.
The radiator and other stuff were gone, clearing the way. I pulled the intake and got a look. It was an MDS engine like I needed.
I'm impressed at the way they routed the heater hoses/tubes under the intake.
The rocker arms are short! Also, look at the odd angle they have atop the valve stem.
It seems like that would result in valve guide wear as the stem gets pushed sideways a bit during operation.
The old standard for picking an engine was to look for a wrecked car. This usually indicated that the car was mobile at the time that it was wrecked so the engine has a better chance of being good as opposed to a car that looks great.
This one had both air bags deployed but hardly any front end damage. At what speeds do these bags deploy? I've seen a few like this recently.
The radiator and other stuff were gone, clearing the way. I pulled the intake and got a look. It was an MDS engine like I needed.
I'm impressed at the way they routed the heater hoses/tubes under the intake.
The rocker arms are short! Also, look at the odd angle they have atop the valve stem.
It seems like that would result in valve guide wear as the stem gets pushed sideways a bit during operation.
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The first thing that I actually did was to put a breaker bar on the crank pulley bolt. It spun but then stopped. I reversed and tried it backwards and got the same thing. Something was stopping it from spinning in a specific spot. There wasn't a hole in the block with a rod hanging out, so I looked at the valve train. Check out the excessive clearance at this rocker arm.
I was able to pull the rocker away from the valve tip even more by hand. This led me to look into the intake port.....
Yep, the dreaded intake seat failure!
You can see the break in the seat in the above picture, The machined area where the seat is supposed to be was banged up a bit too. Surely it is repairable but I'm going to pass on this one.
I'm surprised though. Did the engine fail THEN they wrecked....OR did the engine fail and they faked a wreck to get the insurance money ?
I was able to pull the rocker away from the valve tip even more by hand. This led me to look into the intake port.....
Yep, the dreaded intake seat failure!
You can see the break in the seat in the above picture, The machined area where the seat is supposed to be was banged up a bit too. Surely it is repairable but I'm going to pass on this one.
I'm surprised though. Did the engine fail THEN they wrecked....OR did the engine fail and they faked a wreck to get the insurance money ?
themechanic
Oklahoma is OK
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Ask @patrick66 if he still has his D100 for sale.
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patrick66
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It's been living well in South Carolina since late March.
themechanic
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Good for you. I liked that truck.
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Yesterday I took the truck to my axle guy.
I have pretty good luck in many situations. THIS was one of them.
The axle that I brought to my axle guy was a 2002 or 2003 that I pulled from a self serve junkyard here in CA.
I was tempted to just swap the entire axle myself since the inside looked fine and the gears felt nice and tight.
My axle guy said the differential case was wasted....it had started to grind away at the main caps. The ring and pinion were fine though since any shavings that were worn off got collected by the magnet in the housing.
He took the 3.92 gears and just swapped them to my axle in the truck. My differential was still fine. He says that many of these Dodge 9 1/4 axles with the limited slip differentials have that flaw where these bolts in the case that back out and grind away at the main caps. Even at 375,000 miles, mine is still tight and quiet.
The 3.92 gears are just as quiet. The low speed throttle response is better. It feels like I don't need as much throttle input to get it up to speed. It does accelerate faster at WOT.
The cruising rpms are not that much more than before. At 75, it was turning 2200. Before, it was around 2000.
The axle guy only charged $400 to inspect the donor and to swap the gears over.
If I would have just swapped the whole axle over myself, I would have had a bad differential, damaged housing and main caps and still had to take it to the axle guy.
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ESOXER
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I had 3.92s limited slip and AWD in my 06 Dakota TRX4 I gave to my dad. Was good gearing for the larger tires I had on it. I always used Amsoil and a bit of LS additive. I liked that ratio, the 4.7 was its down fall from a stop though, highway passing was a breeze. @250k and still doing fine.
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that's what she said
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it was almost a wife joke
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"she" could be anyone 
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