I'm picking up a 5.9L SLT with 86K miles on it this weekend. When I checked it out, everything LOOKED good and it drove great.

Can anyone tell me some things I might be able to look out for or have checked while I have the 90 day warranty on it?
Any known issues? (besides the 3 recalls)

I just read in another thread about the temp running high and having cracked heads and what not.

Any help would be appreciated.

Kris

 

cracked heads? As uncommon as a UFO.

The 2000 5.9L is excellent. Get the ball joints (upper and lower) looked at and the transmission/diffs serviced right away. If you keep up on the service yearly, you can expect a great vehicle for many many years and miles.

I drive my 2000 5.9L like a race car, a mud bogger and an everyday driver. With over 160,000 miles on it, it is excellent.

I recommend visiting here and the durangoclub.com sites often for info. Both places are full of very helpful folks. The moderators here jump in all the time with info and over there the general members do too.

Best of luck with your new D.

IndyDurango

 

cracked heads? common as the morning rush hour. they crack between the valve seats. you end up with a miss you cant fix and the only way to tell if they are cracked is to yank them.

as for issues... yes, the plenum gasket tends to leak, look down the TB and see if there is oil pooling on the bottom of the intake manifold, if you see any then it's leaking. if your more adventurous, yank the TB and look in the corners with a small mirror and flash light (mechanics mirror), my last 2 leaking plenums were in the corners. finally found the fel-pro gasket to fix the problem. the stock mopar gasket sucks and is a waste of $.

when you get it, I suggest adding the biggest aux tranny cooler you can, heat kills tranny's so the cooler you can get it the better.

I've had 3 trucks and 1 jeep with the magnum motor and all of them share the same common problems. they are good solid motors once they are dialed in. I would recommend them to anyone.

 

where would I go to find the tranny cooler..I was thinking of that also from what I was reading. I think i should have gotten one on my explorer. Are they expensive or hard to put on? I like doing things myself but don't have a lot of the tools or space to do most of the stuff.

My plan was to take the truck to a mechanic and have him look at some things. I'm guess they could check for the above items?

So they only way to check for cracked heads is to pull them? I don't iknow if I know how to do that. I'm guessing they could check at the shop. I'll probably make a list of things I want checked.

How do you find out if a trucks been serviced for recall items? Can I just go to a Dodge dealer and have them run the vin number or something?

Thanks for everyon'es help


Kris

 

You can have your mechanic do a compression check on the motor. That will tell you a lot if something is going on internally. As for the trany cooler, you can put it in or have the shop do it for ya. On the 360 it does have a head cracking issue. I wouldn't worry about it too much. When you pick it up throw a 180 degree thermostat in it to take care of the head issues before any problems occur.

 

what kind of thermostat? Sorry, I don't know too much about anything..kind of a newbie at this...I do plan on learning which is why i'm here.

And what do you mean "throw it in it"

So I'll have them do the compression check on the motor for starters.

I'm taking it in to this Cottman place so they can do a free transmission inspection...

 

get a t-stat from napa, drill a real small hole in the diaphram before you install it, this will help with the re-fil process so you dont get any air trapped behind the t-stat.

on the heads I dont think the comp test will catch it. I had a set of heads that were cracked, 3 on 1 side, 1 on the other and did the comp test on it and it was fine. the only way to tell is to yank them off and look at them. you'll see a carbon trail between the valves... looks like a small black crooked line.

to the original poster... I wouldnt worry about the heads at this point, if there is not CE light you should be fine. what I would suggest though is when you take it to your mechanic, have him plug into the obdII port and see if the on-board diagnostics are complete. if someone has reset the computer it will clear a code for 100~200 miles unless it's pretty sever, then it'll pop up pretty quick.

these motors are pretty rock solid once you get the plenum and heads squared away. I had 200k on 1 motor when I yanked it to put in a fresher motor, pulled the heads off and the cylinders were in excellent shape, probably could have put another 100k on it.

 

ok I found the thermostat..that was pretty dumb question...

 

Thanks. I'll have them check the computer also. Hopefully my guy will do it for free, we'll see.

What about the transmission cooler? Any reccomendations? Website links?

The thermostat is pretty simple, I did this on my explorer in about 20 minutes or so..

 

find a stacked cooler type, they are supposed to have better cooling propertis. if you cant find one, then get the biggest you can from flex-a-lite or equiv.