as long as you want, provided you can manage a couple of things.
1. controlling the ping. if you can elmininate the ping via higher octane gas, cooler plugs, and/or cooler thermostat, then you can keep driving. if you can't, i'd recommend you park it. pinging is premature spark and is not good for the engine.
2. oil usage. keep your oil checked. a very leaky plenum can suck up a lot of oil, possible running it dangerously low.

otherwise, its just running lean, hotter, probably low on power.

 

I am also repairing mine right now also. Along with cutting the runners down one inch how far down should I cut the divider? I have a 96 2500 4x4 with 5.9

 

I'd cut it out all the way, when I did mine, I did not have the divider so it's just my opinion and not my experience.

 

Ya, they say that the divider can be completly removed. It is not even present at all on intakes from '98-01, so even Chrysler got rid of it. The spare intake I have that I was going to mod ahead of time is from a '97, and it has ithat divider. I tried cutting on it, but it was very hard to cut it because it is so thick, and leave little room for your cutting tool. Seems like it will add a lot of time to the job of modding the kegger. So, i've decided to mod my '99 intake that's on the truck while I have it off instead of using the '97. Good luck with yours though.

I'm having a hard time finding an in/lb torque wrench that doesn't cost over $300. Soon as I get one though, i'll be ready to do my intake. Plan is for the first weekend of February provided nothing else comes up.

 

My wife has one of those, I guess I could use it. Question first, did you use the jewelry fluid too, or some other bath? Also, did you put the entire injector in, or just the tip?

 

Submerge the entire injector. Also, see this thread. I'm going to get one of those.

 

Does anyone have a picture of a plenum with nothing on it? I have to replace my heater core and don't want to mess with the evaporator, and I read that it is possible to unhinge the core from the plenum if you pull on it with the clips off. Since i've never been down there before, I was hoping for a heads up as to what the plenum is all connected too. And I also want to do the ABS kit in a few months. I can deal with the way it runs, which is fine, but seems like there's more power than what is being exhibited.

 

have a look at the DIY repair thread... it should have a pic of the plenum in there. if not I can post one when I get home.

 

FYI - Hughes Engines has a plenum plate that supposedly helps keep the plenum leaks from coming back in the future.
http://www.hughesengines.com/partDet...p?partID=11698

Most of the Dakota R/T guys (like myself) simply tossed the OEM manifold and replaced it with the M1-2bbl or M1-4bbl intake manifolds - they're 1-piece manifolds so there's no plenum to leak later on. I've gotten to the point where I can swap one out in under 90minutes.

 

Ya, the M1 is nice, but has its downsides too. I'm using the repair kit from APS, which is identical to the Hughes one (basically, a 1/4" thick alum plate to replace the steeel oem belly pan). It is considered a perminant fix to the plenum leak problem because the leak is a result of a steel surface paired against an aluminum surface, and the heat expansion/contraction rates are different for the two materials. Having the two aluminum surfaces means they expand/contract the same, and your gasket doesn fail as a result.