well i was looking at my odometer today thinking... i wonder how much longer i got with this engine. it has 262 thousand k on it. i was just wondering if anyone has killed a v6 mag by having lots of kilometers on it. and if not, maybe a rough idea of how long i have left with it

 

Is it using much oil? knocking? does it start up fine?

I say if its still running strong, keep up with the regular maintenance and let the clock keep ticking. Just for peace of mind you could start looking for a deal on an engine though. I can't really tell you how long these engines will last cause mine only has 117,xxx miles on it (and its getting replaced with a 408 by the end of this year :P )

 

see thats the thing tho, is when it warms up, it runs fine, but its knocks until it warms up sometimes. it burns oil, but i put some lucas oil additive in and it still burns it, just not nearly as bad. it is due for an oil change, but because of the blizzard, i have to wait for a lil warmer weather. would i be able to buy your 318 off you? ill pay for shipping and eveything, its just no one has a 318 for sale in winnipeg. regardless of anything, when this engine dies, im dropping a v8 into it

 

Well, I've been thinking about giving the 408 at least 3000 miles before I get rid of the 318, just in case something goes wrong and I need to put it back in my truck, and the swap won't happen until christmas break at the earliest (the engine is still stripped down right now and all the parts I need seem to be on backorder). Chances are you can probably find something closer to you before mine is ready to go... but if you don't find something by then, I'll gladly sell it to you (I'll even throw in a mopar performance computer to run it)

 

sweet deals, ill probably hold out until your ready to get rid of your 318. i wanna run this v6 until it dies. ive been doing regular maintenance and fixing small things such as the water pump and starter and such, but other than that, im not fixing big things. the only problem might be if it dies before your ready to sell your 318. in such a case ill look harder for something closer

 

I was just thinking, if your engine is knocking when its cold, but it goes away, it could very well have no bearings left in it. Being a 2wd, it shouldn't be hard or expensive to put rod and crank bearings in it. You could probably do it in one weekend for about $100. It sounds like it needs rings too to help stop the oil burning, but thats a lot more work. If you put new bearings in it and run thicker oil in it, it should last a while longer.

 

im already running 1030 in it. the thickest i can get my hands on would be 1040.

how much do i have to pull off to replace the rod and crank bearings?

 

10W-30 is what these engines call for from day 1, its not really thick. Try doing half 10W-40 and half 20W-50 with Lucas oil stabilizer your next oil change.

Forget the crank bearings, you have to pull the front of the engine apart all the way down to removing the timing chain... PITA

To replace the rod bearings, you will need to remove the oil pan (I can't remember if you have to pull back the transmission to do this or not... if not the job can be done in a day). Once the pan is out, remove the oil pump. Next, remove all 8 rod caps (DO NOT MIX THEM UP... mark them so you know which rods they go to). Once the rods caps are off, push the rod/piston up off the crank so you can get the bearings out. Install the new bearings and reassemble. Any shop manual should have the torque specs on all the bolts.

If you do decide to replace the crank bearings, once you get the rod caps off and push the rods out of the way, remove the main caps and drop the crankshaft out. Replace the bearings and put the crankshaft back in, then put the new rod bearings in and reassemble.

You should go ahead and put a new rear main seal in while your at it.

 

my guess is it also needs valve seals. when they heat up they dont leak as bad. pretty easy to change if you tear down the motor
theres 270 000km on my 318

 

With these engines you don't have to move the tranny back to replace the rod bearings.
Mine 318 lasted 206000 before I just did a rebuild but it was still running and passing smog could of gone another 50,000mi but just wanted to beef up everything.