Ok, so I took my truck to a local repair shop, and they're telling me that my intake gasket is not blown. They said what I saw down through the throttle body was not pooled oil but carbon buildup.
I'm a bit leery to believe them, considering that their mechanic said "the only way for oil to get into the intake is through the PCV valve." They said he's "never heard of oil through the intake gasket before."
However, my truck used 2 qts of oil in less than 2000 miles- of course all of my driving with the truck has been very short weekly 10-mile drives or so- with occasional 50 miles drives during the winter.

Something had to have made my cat converter go bad- although like I said- the spark plugs were very bad and had probably been that way for years.

UPDATE:

Funny, just after I posted this my phone rang, it was the repair shop. "Um, we called over to the Dodge dealership, and they confirmed that you are right. So we're getting a list of parts together and will call your warranty company for approval to get the gasket replaced." So they're willing to base a repair off confirmation of a problem through the Dodge dealership, without finding any proof of a problem themselves. This makes me very leery of them actually doing the work, but I'm just glad that it is going to be replaced, and under warranty.

 

do how did it go with the replacement? did the shop do a good job? how does the truck run now?

 

I'm not sure whether the shop did a good job or not, considering all of the hassles I had with them- I will never take another vehicle back there again. With that being said, I'm not having any fluid leakage or problems- so I guess they put everything back together properly. It also appears they put a MOPAR gasket kit in, instead of one of the better gaskets.
Never again will I have work done by a mechanic who has never worked on a Magnum engine before. Considering how plentiful they are, he obviously wasn't a 'seasoned mechanic'.

However, it's tough to complain too much about something I didn't have to pay for, considering it was covered under my extended warranty. However, if I have to have the gasket replaced again, I'll be buying one of the better gasket kits and taking it to whatever shop I have replace it.

Knowing that my cat converter and front O2 sensor were shot, I didn't drive the truck much after the gasket was replaced. I finally got the new Magnaflow universal converter, Flowmaster Delta 40 muffler and O2 sensor installed on Friday... and now it runs AWESOME and sounds VICIOUS! :-)

There is no more rough idling either. Now when I lift the hood up at idle, it doesn't wobble like it was doing before. I haven't driven it a whole lot since Friday, but the times I have driven it have been problem free.

However, I do believe I have the death flash- because my PCM has the 'official software update' sticker. I'm assuming I do, because most people that have that sticker also have the death flash... so next summer, budget permitting, I'm going to go with a Fastman throttle body and order a SCT tuner. Then I'll KNOW the true power of the beast. ;-)

 

how much does the tuner cost?

 

You can do a forum search on "sct tuner" and get more information.

Here is one of many: https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen-ram-tech/144808-sct-tuner-wow.html

Basically, the SCT tuner is around $600 and comes with two 'vehicle specific' custom tunes. Unlike generic tuners which may be cheaper and would work well with stock vehicles, those generic tuners will not take full advantage of any custom engine mods. To do that, the tuner needs to have the software program written for exactly what your engine is running. Generic tuners are written for stock engines only.

From my understanding about the SCT tuner as well, is that you work closely with the person who writes your vehicle specific tune program; he can e-mail updates which you download into the tuner. This way, you get the best performing custom tune. Later, if you make additional mods, he can e-mail another update to incorporate that mod into the tune program.

So unlike generic tunes, the SCT tuner is never obsolete. People complain about the price, but for $200 more than a generic tune, you get a much better product.

Hope that helps. :-)

 

cool .

 

UPDATE:
I took the truck to a mechanic, who diagnosed the rough idle and lurching problem. Turns out one of the posts on the distributor cap was completely corroded, and I had been running on 7 cylinders since about late May or early June of this year. I'm somewhat embarrassed I didn't check the wires/dist cap when I checked all the spark plugs, but I think its good it worked out this way. The mechanic also told me that the awful rattling was coming from the water pump, and its bearings were shot.
RESULTS: New ball joints and fixed brake leak in the shop. New water pump, spark plugs, wires, dist cap, belt, coolant flush, and upcoming tranny drain/filter change, all done on my own. I'm pretty proud of myself for the job I did. Before this weekend, 'working on my truck' consisted of opening the hood, listening to see if I could find the source of the rattle, checking the oil, and then figuring the truck was on its way out as I slammed the hood. Looks like I'll be asking for a good tool set for Christmas.

 

I'm glad you found out what the problem was, I know how frustrating it can be to have problems, and not know whether it's something simple or something major.

When I was having those problems, I replaced the plugs, wires, distributor cap, and rotor. Still had the problem. So when the CEL light came on again- finally it pointed to the problem (bad cat converter and oxygen sensor). Well, actually it pointed to the result of the problem, which directed me to the cause- the faulty plenum gasket. The cat converter was completely hollow- obviously it became clogged with oil from the leaking plenum gasket and burned itself out- causing the oxygen sensor to become faulty in the process (which then caused my truck to have sporatic rough idle and lurching). But since getting the gasket fixed and replacing the oxygen sensor and installing a Magnaflow converter and Flowmaster muffler... the truck runs SOOO much better.

Now I'm on to planning my project for next summer- a 5" suspension lift.

It is very rewarding working on your own vehicle and learning a lot in the process. When I was younger I used to have a lot of fixer-uppers so I gained a lot of knowledge then. But now I also own a Mitsubishi Galant- and it's not quite as easy to work on- nor as fun. I usually take it to the dealership if I need anything major done to it, but thankfully it's been very reliable for me and I haven't needed much done to it.
With the truck, everything is much easier to work on, so I've been able to enjoy being mechanical again.
This summer I also replaced the axle oil and transfer case fluid- because I wasn't sure the previous owner ever did it. I put synthetic oil in it as well- now I'm really thankful that plenum gasket is fixed! Next summer, I'm also going to replace the tranny fluid & filter, along with a thorough cleaning with Seafoam.

I've always been big on preventative maintenance. 8-)

 

Been chasing a rough idle on my 98 ram 5.9L for the past month. Installed a stroker kit over the summer and was in the process of tuning the engine through FRP when the problem started. Thought it was related to the tune but found out otherwise. Pulled the timing cover multiple times to verify marks and installed 2 different timing sets. Replaced fuel pump and verified no vacuum leaks. Replaced MAP and IAC sensors, replaced crankshaft sensor twice and camshaft sensor 3 times thinking the aftermarket sensors were defective. Changed coil, wires, plugs, new distributor, intermediate shaft and bushing. Replaced computer and still had fuel sync signal jumping between -5 and +20 with rough idle. Replaced the K13 personality key on my MT2500 scanner. Ordered an entirely different engine wiring harness and was in the process of installing when it dawned on me to check the flywheel.

Prior to the rough idle, I stripped the crankshaft bolt and had to use a 3/4" drive with extension bar to remove the cross-thread bolt. This was a tremendous amount of torque on the crankshaft, and the only way I could brace the engine without damaging pistons was to lodge a steel pin in one of the tabs on the flywheel and let it catch on the transmission housing. Truck is manual, so it has a nice think flywheel. At one point I remember the pin kicking out as I was putting my full weight on the extension bar to turn the bolt. I didn't think much of it and rotated to the next tab to get a clean bite on bracing the engine. This is what I found when I dropped the dust cover.


Damaged flywheel where crank position sensor rides.

Closeup of most significant damage

New flywheel and what the tabs should look like.

The tab damaged the most was widened by 30 - 40% keeping the crank position sensor confused at all times. With the new flywheel installed, engine fired up immediately and has never run better! Fuel sync is dead on and does not drift. Wanted to share this scenario for others dealing with idle issues to consider.
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