As the title says, I am FINALLY getting back to my 2001 Durango today! Its been a long, strange road to get here....rebuilt my '00 Durango from a dropped valve seat using all the stockpiled parts for the '01 (several times due to timing chain parts failure [and operator error]), rebuilt, delivered and then rescued a 2000 Durango 5.9L (after my son blew it up somehow), helped resurrect my roommates '00 Durango 5.9L, dealt with a '04 Pontiac (yuck) and now it has come full circle...back to my wife's '01 . Parts should be here today

Thanks for all the help I have received on the boards...hopefully this will go smoothly....

Steve

 

One can hope.

 

 

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Its going rather well at the moment. However, I have to step away from her to go help my folks in CA... Here's a progress pic going back together


Steve

 

She is all back together....now to get her to start and run....had to give up on her today due to mother nature throwing a fit (thunderstorm and rain)....Need to get fresh gas for tomorrow

 

Hope it starts up and runs nice for you, man. What kind of chains did you put in? What about the guides?

I didn't do half as much as you when I did valve springs, lifters and stem seals. It ran like total crap, knocking and trembling till the lifters primed. I swore the engine was done for till it smoothed out. Runs like a dream now.

 

I went with a "budget" grade timing chain kit: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 quality seems really good and I made DAMN sure the tensioner on the passenger side of the block did NOT have a metal backer plate that would obstruct oil flow (had to learn this the hard way on my '00) The kit came complete with guides, chains, gears and tensioners...looked really good compared to the ones with 280k that I removed from her

Steve

 

Got any pics showing what you mean on this? Would be nice to know for the future. Hopefully I won't ever have to do mine tho. Lol

 

I didn't get pictures of the damage the broken tensioner caused, but it snapped the upper timing chain guide for the passenger head when it let loose. I do have pictures of the failed tensioner that I replaced BEFORE the catastrophic failure...its been an on going learning experience...

A little background before the pictures...when I ordered the first timing chain kit, it was intended for the wife's 2001 Durango (the one I'm finally getting back to). Unfortunatley for me, my '00 dropped the valve seat on #2 cylinder and I had to fix it first as it was our only running 4wd...there is a whole long post about the trials and tribulations of that but suffice to say, when I received the timing kit, it had 2 metal plates, one for each tensioner...like a n00b, I thought, well if its in the kit...it needs to be installed...NOPE which led to the damage in the pics below:

First failed tensioner...note the missing teeth...you can see the silver plate behind the tensioner...


So thinking that I had received a bad part, I re-ordered a new tensioner from a different company...n00b mistake #2, the replacement one DID NOT come with the metal plate...so again I thought that it had been left out of the package so I transferred the metal plate to the new tensioner....she ran great UNTIL it totally cut loose...I got lucky and it just bent the intake valves on the passenger head:


While researching WHY this happened, I found this on another Durango site:


Here is a pic of what I originally purchased....the new kit is same manufacturer but only included the plate for the drivers side tensioner....


Sorry for the long reply but the knowledge may help someone some day...

Steve

 

That last pic did the trick. Thanks, Steve. I understand now. Did you get it up and running yet?