Hey everyone, I have a 99 Ram 1500 4x4 5.2 L that is in need of quite a few repairs and would like to get your opinions tips and ideas on all that i have going on. I am a total do it yourselfer I am always fixing all sorts of things by myself, because i honestly dont trust the work some people do up around this area and i know it will be done right if i am the one doing it.

Any ways Ill start out with my list of problems that i have diagnosed so far. After a brief history of the ole beast.

First off when i first purchased my vehicle it ran fine and i had no serious problems in the beginning. I found my vehicle in the state capital and looked like it had been an in town truck most of its life. There in is where the trouble starts. I live out in the country and now more so than ever our roads have gone to sh*t, gravel roads and highway alike because of all the insane oil field traffic mainly semi's that have turned our once decent roads into pure garbage.
My truck now has just about 140,000 miles on it.

After being driven around my area for a while with some random 4 wheeling and hunting, the first problem arose. Out of no where after driving a little ways maybe 20 miles or so my truck immediately just bogged down and almost completely lost power. So i shut it off and let it cool down and had a pretty good idea of what it was, started it back up and ran fine till i got it to my pops garage. Once there i let him know what happened and we traced it to the exhaust probably being clogged ... put my hand at the end of the pipe and there was little to no exhaust coming out. Also a CEL code was triggered as well for the o2 sensors not reading correctly a po138 i think. So i first checked the cat out by cutting it open expecting to see the honeycomb somewhat broken up and possibly clogging off the exhaust. But to my suprise it was completly empty, so everthing broke off and was now jammed into the muffler. In turn pointing to either fuel or oil, or both coming out of the exhast which caused the cat to be ruined. I welded the cat back up, then chopped off the old muffler and put a decent one back on that i had laying around. That fixed the exhaust problem for now.

Im planning on doing the Spark plug fouler trick until i can afford to buy a hiflow cat. The next thing is why the cat failed like it did??? And after reading a little bit about the plenum fix on here logic would point to that problem here in my truck. I noticed that she uses about a quart or less in between oil changes and sometimes it looks like it smokes a bit when shes first fired up, and i have noticed around the valve covers that there seems to be a bit of a leak from them as well, which probably is contributing to the oil loss tho not the main problem; but at this milage it sounds as tho the gaskets just need to be replaced. --- Does this make sense or sound about right???

If it is most likely the problem should i do the kegger mod if i have to do the plenum anyways? I have the time and the tools... Is it worth the time and effort??

I also have to change the transmission and transfer case seals. I checked the fluid in the trasfercase and it ran out so that shows that the seals are bad and the tranny and transfercase are sharing fluid. I have read the article on it already which was quite informative.

The last thing i wanted to ask about is the air cleaner. 14x3, custom cold air intake, or keep the original??? Keep in mind I live in the country and will be driving gravel quite often. I am interested in the 14x3 but i would like to know what you all think.

Any and all thoughts and opinions will be greatly appreciated!


Thanks,
Allpar7

 

Fix the plenum, it is the root of a variety of problems on our trucks.

At your mileage, do the timing chain/gears as well.

Kegger mod is kinda indeterminate. Most folks that do the mod are pulling the intake because of the blown plenum, so, before and after comparisons aren't really of any use. It probably helps the engine breathe a bit better, simply by sorta unshrouding the runners... No worthwhile data available though.

Trans and T-case both use ATF +4. If the T-case is getting overfilled, you may have a problem.

There are a couple threads on the assorted options for CAI (or not, as the case may be.) Have a read thru some of them. Lots of good info.

Welcome to DF.

 

Definitely Thanks for the advise!!

 

Is there any articles on here about doing the timing chain/gears on here??? with pictures possibly. and ive never done that before as of yet on a dodge ive done a few other vehicles ... do you need any specalized tools? also where should i get them from ...dealer or does it matter???

 

Here is a decent write-up on the timing chain replacement: http://www.pavementsucks.com/tech-article-37.html

Link to the other write-ups there:
http://www.pavementsucks.com/tech.php

 

What do you think about the timing chain and gears ... should i get them from mopar? or should i just get a set from Hughes or some other site? ..any recomendations??



I have also had another idea .. since all of these repairs are going to be extensive i was thinking about doing some performance upgrades ...such as good cam (what would be a good one for this style of motor??) and other co-inciding parts? maybe headers... any recomendations would be helpful thanks
Allpar7

 

Get a Cloyes dbl roller from Rock Auto. And use this, https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...disc-code.html

 

Thanks zman that was quick status! .. any thoughts on an upgraded cam/lifters?? Im pretty old skool but i know from working on some 70's 318's that upgrading a stock cam and a few other things can really give those bullet proof motors some serious power for a 318. But really have no idea on the modern 318's and would really like to give my truck some nutz since im ripping the engine apart anyways .. what ya think??

 

I'm old school too. And there are lots of threads about cams and such, but, give it a day or two and guys will chime in with the best cams for different purposes for your truck. Meanwhile, list what you use the truck for mostly and what gains you would like to see the most.

 

Another option to cam could be Harland Sharp roller rockers. A number of members installed them on their trucks.