Hey all...

Well the '00 Durango acted up again this morning...

Roommate was driving wife to work and it seems to "stutter" while at freeway speeds, then bucked a couple times and shut off. Luckily they were at her off ramp and coasted to the bottom...Called AAA and had the Durango towed home. First thing I did was check for codes...P0420 was still showing (just got replacement Upstream o2 sensor and had been trying to get the driveway cleared from the '00 5.9l) and nothing else. Had roommate crank it over a couple times...horrendous sound from extreme front of engine...had him immediately stop...got in and watched the gauges closely as I bumped the starter...nothing showed on the oil pressure and the tach barely moved...I'm thinking possible oil pump or ? Remember this engine has just had heads, cams, followers, timing chain/guides/tensioners replaced...anyone got a suggestion on where to begin? ? ?

 

Recheck the timing stuff. Something may have slipped out of place.

 

Would that cause the shutdown as dramatically as is happened, or would it have shown more symptoms? We were initially leaning towards the oil pump but are certainly open to suggestions.

 

If it slips bad enough, yeah, the engine will stop running. I think you can just pull some covers, and see what you need to. I think......

 

Found the cause of the issue...passenger side (right) chain tensioner exploded and snapped the timing chain guide... the plastic guide over the metal is just GONE....no clue where it ended up. Dodging thunderstorms...hoping to look in the pan with my bore scope tomorrow.

 

That's likely where you will find it.......

 

...or ground up in the oil filter. Did you change the tensioner when you did all the work?

 

To clarify, you mean the L and R units that you have to pull the "hand grenade" pin to release the cylinder that presses up to the guides, then yes. I have changed them 2x to be safe.