Everyone knows the put a weak flimsy crappy gasket on our trucks and I heard from a very reliable source that dodge will do it for free?

If they will do it for free I would rather save 5 hours of my time and have them do it. Just seeing if anyone knew anything about this.

I have the death flash and probly a leaky plenum so I want it fixed before I hook up a tuner to my 2001 dodge.

 

Never heard of them doing that. This was the whole point to the death flash.

 

In their current financial situation I seriously doubt Chrysler is doing any service for free that isn't A) covered by warranty, or B) required as part of a NHTSA recall. The plenum gasket doesn't qualify under either. Your source is mistaken.

 

the gasket is not the problem, it's the belly pan

 

Well it was my bud who worked at dodge back in like 2006 and said that they had people bringing them in all the time to get the fixed and they had to do it for free... he said they were still doing it to his knowledge... I thought it was the design of the belly pan that was bad or sumtin? hell I dunno.

 

In 2006 there were still many 1999, 2000 and 2001 2nd gens covered by the factory 7 year warranty that was offered at the time. Those trucks are no longer under warranty, so while your friend may have been right back then, he no longer is.

 

You are right it is due to a bad engineering idea. The manifold is Aluminum, and the belly pan is steel (Stock form) When you apply the same amount of heat to both metals, they expand at different rates. Same goes for cooling, they will contract at different rates. Chrysler's MO was to release a PCM update that jerked a few degrees out of the timing. This pulled power from the motor, and in essence, covered up any noticeable signs of a failed gasket.

Now, you sir have two options. One is about a $100 fix and the other is about $500+

The first is simply replacing the gasket and belly pan. The pan replacement is made from Al, so it fixes the issue.

The second is to purchase an aftermarket intake manifold. Many if not all AM intakes will have the belly pan completely eliminated.

 

Would you rather spend a weekend working on your truck, doing it right, learn about how these trucks work, maybe even getting your children interested in this great hobby, and did I mention doing it right and fixing it right? Or would you rather have your Dodge dealer put another defective gasket on it that will eventually fail again while you sit in the showroom drooling over a 4th Gen?

Plus you can go in there and change your distributor cap and rotor, spark plugs, spark plug wires, oil and new Napa filter, timing chain, Thermostat, belts and hoses, and maybe even doing the Kegger mod. The dealer would not do that while they are in there without charging a huge fee in labor. It just makes more sense to DIY.

 

that makes sense on the 2006 thing. i was just trying to be lazy and if they were going to fix it I was going to let them lol.

And I don't have any kids thank god (only 18 haha).

I would indeed change spark plugs, spark plug wires, and im not sure what distributor and cap do or where it is but I'm guessing i would change that to, I would probly skip doing the timing chain cuz i dont know where that is, and I've been reading on the kegger mod and from what i can tell i would probably do it to though it sounds like a lot of work.

So does a m1 do away with the whole thing? I heard its expensive though and I'm not looking to exactly break the bank. Am very interested in just doing away with the whole thing though.

 

Wish I had a truck with a 13 inch lift when I was 18..