You said she bought new heads for the truck? She have receipts for that? What did she get? Stock ones again or upgraded?

 

I have the receipt right here in front of me. In Feb 2011 she had the following done:

Head Set - 225.00
Spark Plugs - 26.95
Oil - 12.00
Oil Filter - 4.95
Thermostat - 10.15
Coolant - 16.00
Rebuilt Heads - 750.00 (375.00 each head)
Installation of all above - 600.00

with sales tax it all came out to 1729.87


Looks like just a stock rebuild of the heads.

On another receipt, she paid 183.98 for just spark plugs to be changed. This is why I hate mechanic shops and prefer to do everything myself.

On another receipt dated January 2012, she spent 2,339.82 on the following:
Auto Trans Filter Kit
Trans Fluid Chrysler Synthetic
Transmission Assembly, Refurbished Used Trans Unit (5014772AA)

On another receipt dated May 2011 she spent 1,692.69 on the following:
Heater Core
Water Pump
Thermostat
Coolant
R134 Refrigerant
Serpentine Belt
Thermostat Gasket

 

Rebuilt heads? Hhhmmm..... putting the same potential problems right back on. Stock heads, the deck castings were too thin, leaving them prone to cracking. For less money, she could have got upgraded heads, that were thicker castings, and would have been a nice upgrade.

But, new heads are new heads. Had to be better than what was on there originally. At least, for a while.

 

Yeah, I figured that out a little after i posted it but didnt want to correct myself lol.

Yeah, Im not going to complain about it since I didnt have to pay for it. You would just think that a shop would recommend that to her rather than just putting the same crap back on. Once again, the exact reason why I do all my mechanics myself.

Maybe Ill look into getting upgraded heads down the line. Im gonna go out to my truck in a bit and see if there is indeed slop in the chain. Supposedly you can rotate the crank pulley back and forth by hand and if you hear a clunk then the chain is loose..... thoughts?

 

I did that while changing rod bearings. Didn't hear anything, but could definitely feel the slop in the timing chain.

 

I doubt that would tell you much. Chains don't really clunk.

But what you can do instead, if you're up for the bother of it, is to pop the distributor cap off and watch the rotor. It's best to do it with all of the plugs out so you're not fighting compression. Back the crank around (which it's said you're never supposed to do but I've never seen it cause harm) a few inches to take up the slack in the chain, then go back in the normal direction of rotation. Anything up to about or a little over ten degrees of crank rotation before the rotor begins to move is acceptable, anything appreciably more than that indicates excessive slack in the timing chain.

 

Well considering there arent any receipts for the timing chain, Im under the impression that it has never been changed. Now with almost 134k miles, Im sure its past due and it wouldnt hurt to change it anyway with a double roller and tensioner.

Aside from that I have an extremely annoying exhaust leak that loves to tick tick tick when Im driving. I dont really feel like swapping the gaskets as Ive noticed that the previous mechanic who removed the exhaust manifolds more than likely broke the bolts and bandaided it with threading in new bolts half way then tightening down with a nut. Probably the shadiest thing Ive ever seen, but Ill get to it when I get my long tubes.

Side note: I looked at the sticker in the glove box and it looks like it came with some good stuff, unfortunately no keyless entry

 

Im Pretty sure Stock exhaust manifolds don't have gaskets

 

Where they attach to the head- Yes
Where they attach to the y pipe- No

 

+1 No gaskets were used with the stock manifolds at the block.