lol never considereda deisel in a mud pit... interesting observation.

 

damage would occur only if they didnt maintain it by changing the oil regularly... no one for sure would ever know but the original owners.

My suggestion is to find the truck you like, take all the info from this site and know what to look at before committing to one truck or another. there is alot of info here that when used right, can get you an awesome truck to begin with and not someone elses problem.

 

My 360 gives me anywhere from 13-15 mixed driving, which seems about right with what most others are getting. I say get the 360!!

 

Some years ago Popular Mechanics had a survey
of Dodge Ram owners,
then a second survey on Dodge Durango owners.

In both surveys the 318 owners reported about 0.75 MPG
better than 360 owners.

If you load the same data in the PT Fuel Economy Calculator program
a 318 Ram is predicted to get about 0.75 MPG better than a 360.

I don't consider 0.75 that much myself.

The 360 has larger crank bearings than a 318, so in theory those
bearings should last longer.

The one thing I don't like about the 360
is that its pistons have 'soapdish' depressions in their tops
that tend to collect carbon deposits
whereas the 318 piston is a flat top design
that tends to stay cleaner.

Generally as they get older and higher mileage
the 360 has more tendency to ping under high load and likes slightly
higher octane gasoline.

When the 5.7 Hemi came out the official press release said it was
8-12% more efficient than the 360 and the EPA tests showed about
a 6-8% advantage between the engines when mounted in the same
model year 2003 trucks.

 

I have a performance built-up 360 that gets 13 to 14 with regular driving and 8.5 when pulling 9000 pounds of fifth-wheel camper. A properly maintained 360 is an awesome engine. The truck you're looking at is also pretty nice looking.

Before buying it with the engine off, pull the airbox off the top of the throttle body, open the throttle plate by hand. and while looking through the throttle body shine a flashlight down into the intake manifold. If you see oil pooling at the bottom of the manifold make the dealer replace the plenum gasket and plenum with a fel-pro gasket and aftermarket plenum. A light skim of oil is OK, but pooled oil is not.

This isone of the items that usually goes out on these engines and it's best that if it needs replaced, have the dealer do it, or reduce his selling price by a few hundred and you do it.

 

i LOVE the 360.. dont know why they didnt put them in ALL the rams... my old ram i had the 360 in.. and it was flawless.. and i was getting lousy milage.. around 10 with the plenum gasket blown... after i replaced it.. cleaned up the tb.. tuneup. all that crap.. i was up to around 17.. NOW i have a ram 1500 with the 318 in it.. and it SUCKS.. matter of fact think im going to find a way to put a 360 in it.. so yea... if u dont want the 360.. get up with me.. we can trade

 

Well, I went and checked it out, awesome truck everything checked clean except the steering box was pouring lol. he was asking 6400 i offered him 6 and id take care of the steering box.. and the power door lock on the passenger side lol forgot about that... and the guy turned it down, it was a lexus dealer so im not suprised haha, so after looking it over for like an hour and playin around with it, i ended up not getting it... thank god there are more than one truck out there... lol

 

your best bet is to find one that doesnt have any problems... less for you to fix initially...

 

I love it. I think it's a solid motor and I have NEVER had a problem with mine. -25 at Houghton, MI started on first revolution without a hesitation. I've seen a handful of these motors over 300K still running original and strong. Mine has 152K and solid oil pressure. Darn good motor.

 

A picture of the Magnum 360 short block with the soapdish piston crown
that collects carbon deposits: