Hello to all.
I just registered last week and been lurking since.
I own a 1500 97' 5.2l 4x4 club cab. Bought it brand new and I've done several things like a superlift kit, 4.56's front and back, gibson exhaust, K&N, optima, alpine, american racing wheels, 35" BFG's A/T, slotted rotors, power slider, and many other things that I can't remember since I've had it so long.
I started noticing the oil consuption on my truck had gone extremely high and could not figure out where the hell it was going. my oil pan gasket was leaking so I replaced it and leak was gone but the oil kept disapearing for some reason, then I started getting a p0301 (misfire) code. It wasn't until monday that I came across a thread which mentioned the TSB on the intake pan oil leak. So yesterday I started taking things apart after work and today I was able to pull the intake out and remove the pan. It turns out the pan had two bolts next to each other that were loose and the rest were nice and snug, then once I removed the pan I saw that the gasket was completely gone from in between the two loose bolts. I'm not sure if the gasket was blown off then the screws became loose or if the bolts were left loose causing the gasket to break. Never the less my mysterious and extreme oil consumption was revealed. I have material (aluminum) to fabricate a new pan and will be ordering the gaskets. I hope all turns out well and my code (P0301) goes away for good. I plan on getting a TUNE after it all gets put back together (any tips/sugestions).
PS. Tune up is also getting done including 02 sensor and coil.

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Sounds like you got a plan, but I got a question for you, power slider? custom install, a kit, do you have pics, any info would be appreciated

 

Replace the pre cat o2 sensor and make sure the cat is not clogged or halfway there.

 

^+1 for that.
Might as well do a cap/rotor change since the keg's outta the way.


Kegger mod?

Good job.

Also, wasn't purple supposed to make a new pan outta aluminum...didn't it fail or something?
Just wondering...

 

Why do you want to make a new pan? Is the existing one somehow damaged? I ask, because short of using T7076 or something, that OEM steel piece has much more rigidity than you'll get with anything thinner than 1/4" aluminum. It's not completely flat.

 

^The keg is aluminum....the pan is steel...think about it.
Aluminum and steel contract and expand at different rates....therefore gasket go KA-BOOM!!
An aluminum plenum pan is what the Magnum engines have need for 16 years.

 

x2 not that the difference in metal is that great, plus most people use 1/4in aluminum plate some even thicker, and it also solves the long bolt theory

 

Power slider is the rear winshield with an electric center piece that slides open and closes with a switch I mounted on the upper center consel.

o2 sensor is being replaced and I will check the cat. Thanks

Never heard of Purple. Sorry. But I'm using 1/4" 7075T6 mat'l. Should be fine.

Thanks for your input everyone.
But how about SCT for a tune? Is it worth the money on an engine with 133K miles?
I have an SCT program in my Viper from Roe Racing that kicks a$$.

 

Right. Mating steel and aluminum parts will always result in gasket failure, which is why no other engines put aluminum and steel parts together..................

Guess he'd better use aluminum bolts, too.

That's why it's a low yeild design. 12 ft/lbs allows for the expansion and contraction without destroying the gasket. But like any other gasket-sealed surface, they don't last forever.

A futher analysis of the suggestion that mating like materials is less likely to cause sealing failures; Let's also remember that just because two parts are made of the same or very similar material does not mean that they exhibit identical expansion at a given temperature. Cast does not expand at the same rate as extruded, neither of which change their dimensions parallell to forged. And that's just the manufacturing process, which does not account for differing compositions of the alloy and dimensional differences of the material. You think a big cast manifold, structurally reinforced by it's internal design, and with it's surfaces exposed to all different levels of heat, will expand at the same rate as a thin piece of cold rolled aluminum sheet with a more constant linear increase in temperature? Hell, different parts of a homogenous piece don't even expand at the same rate under real-world conditions.

I don't mean to sound condescending, but this concept is both more complicated and much simpler than you guys are making it. If an aluminum pan were preferable, I submit that Dodge would have done it that way in the first place.

Use the steel pan with a quality gasket, torque it to spec, and use red thread locker to prevent the bolts backing out. That's what I've been doing for my entire career.

 

Great response sixty-six. Now we know why your 69 R/T has no engine, your looking for an aluminum block/heads to mate up to your aluminum intake and w/p housing so you won't have that confounded intake and w/p leak Not to forget that annoying connection between the iron engine block and aluminum transmission housing.