i died on the way home...j/k


you can learn a little bit how cool the ls motors are
http://www.spike.com/full-episode/ls...-engines/41108

 

Interesting thread for me to read. Hope I don't get flamed for responding.

I found this site to help my roommate with his troubled cooling system (among other things) on his 1997 Ram 2500. I personally own a 93 GMC Burb K2500. We have always traded fun barbs about his truck vs mine. I believe the bottom line is: he loves his truck because of its appearance and I love my burb because of its ability to get the job done safely.

Of course my burb (150,000 miles) has had its share of common things to break and I have become a DIY mechanic on my burb. But the way my truck is designed has made it easy and fun to learn to work on. On the other hand, I have recently learned that the way Dodge designed its truck makes it a much bigger pita to work on than a GMC.

Having said that... time for me to get back to learning more about the ram's infamous heater core problems and weird piggyback radiator set up.

 

What it comes down to, is: What are you most familiar with. I am in the same boat as you. I have been pretty much a GM man since time immemorial.... But, when I went looking for trucks, the GM flavor were rare as hens teeth, and outrageously priced. The dodge, was not..... So, now I am on an extreme learning curve, trying to glean just what the dodge engineers were thinking when they designed and built these trucks. LOTS of things are 'different', but, in the end, if you boil it down to the basics, it becomes a lot easier to grasp. Everything still works the same way, the dodges just have a different approach to it.

I don't know of many vehicles that doing the heater core on is anything I would consider 'easy'. I think that is a universally fun part to change.

 

When I was in high school, the shop teacher told a guy to change a heater core in an old Chevy one day.
About 15 minutes later that student reported back to the teacher and said, "done".
The teacher couldn't believe it so he went to investigate.
There was a plate on the firewall held on with two bolts that held the heater core in the dash.
You unbolt that plate from the engine side of the firewall and you could pull it straight into the engine bay to swap it out.

 

Back when cars will built with real materials, and engineers didn't hate mechanics so much. Musta been pretty old. I only WISH engineers today would consider putting things that are prone to failure in easier to reach locations.

 

I wish engineers were real people instead of robots, too. One of the reasons I wish not to become one.

 

Oh, but Purpl... They are well paid robots......

 

Actually, from what I understand... all I'd have to do to replace heater core on my truck is to remove the core's bottom cover from under dash (do not have to remove dash). Then, unhook the hoses and the core basically comes out. It's a half day job at the most.

 

The heater core in a Ram is only a half day job.

 

oops... sorry, I was not clear. For an experienced person, I'm told it is a 15-30 min job, tops. For ME, who is very very slow... about a half day. Still don't have to remove my dash, though.