Can anyone tell me how to check for a plenum gasket leak, i have a 2000 ram 5.9 and noticed some oil loss but no leaks, it has 87000 miles on it. it does not knock or idle bad, gas mileage is not great .

 

Pull off the air filter housing, turn the butterflies, and look down into the intake manifold with a flashlight. If you see any oil pooling anywhere, your plenum is blown.

If you do a search here on the forums, I believe you'll find at least a few posts that mention some kind of pressure test you can do as well.

 

I have to replace my plenum gasket again after only about 6000 miles, I pull a heavy trailer so I figure this is the reason it has blown out so soon.
What other things should be replaced when doing the plenum gasket?? I read on here someplace about other things that should be replaced but cant find the write up
any suggestions would be great.
thanks

 

search around. I saw a HD billet plenum gasket on these forums. Costs like $80, but will probably last the life of the truck.

 

Yeah instead of putting the stock gasket back in that will probably just fail again shortly either get a M1 intake manifold that eliminates that design completely or go with a APS or Hughes pleneum kit.

I'm happy with my APS kit. You can get them at APSprecision.com but I'm not sure of the link for the Hughes.

I always said I would just get a M1 when I wanted to replace mine but then after reading how it only helped power in the upper rpms where most stock trucks wouldn't ever see. I think it was over 6500rpm or something like that. Maybe it was 55. Not sure but it was way up there. Then on mostly stock motors there were some reports of a low end loss. Most said it was about the same. This coupled with the fact that it cost way way more than the APS kit turned me away from it.

If you have a mostly stock truck the kegger mod seems to be good if you want more power. Silver did a write up on it.

If you want to do that or just want a pleneum that will last get a Hughes or APS kit. You need the bolts and all so just buy that kit unless you want to get them separately.

 

this is good information, how long have you had the the aps kit on your truck?

 

9 months or so.

 

who has actually done a kegger mod on a stock 5.9L and how do you feel it did for power gain?

I did just buy the new 1/4" plenum plate for my intake, and going to do the mod to the intake when putting in the new plate.

I have read some of the old posts on here about the kegger mod, but looking for some solid proof that it is worth it, and how did it hurt MPG at all?

 

I have completed the kegger mode on my truck a few months back but couldn't really tell ya if it improved my power gain as much as just fixing the plenum gasket ( It was leaking bad).Put off replacing it since spring of '07. But it sure feel better when I mash that peddle to pass someone on the highway.

 

I believe that, mine has been leaking for about a year now and i'm getting like 4 mpg now.
so I cant wait to change out the plenum plate. Think i'm going to tear down the motor tomorrow night. Just hoping that cutting the ribs down dont make me loose any low end torque, as I pull a heavy car trailer from time to time.