Did my plenum and timing chain, thought I would share some pics from the job, and have a question.


During tear down:


Looking inside plenum, oil pooling in the rear:


Blown out gasket on plenum plate:


During tear down pics:

 

Back of the plenum:


New chain on:


Plenum bottom:


Plenum inside:


Getting things back together:

 

New plate on:


Inside the distributor cap:


Cover gasket:


Almost finished:

 

I'm going to do this next weekend, got any tips?

 

After working on the truck for a couple days, I still had the magnaflow cat to put on but I was pretty much beat and my hands feel like hamburger.

This afternoon I went down to a local Midas and the guy there had his "exhaust guy" look at it all who said he had "done a thousand of these" and then quoted me at $250-$300 for the y-pipe install, welded in. I was expecting more like $100-$150 or so. Dont see how 4 bolts and 2 welds should take that long, so I told him not today, and am going to shop around for install and hopefully can find something cheaper.

Put about 10 miles on the truck, sure seems to run better!

A VERY BIG thanks to those on this forum who have contributed to the plenum thread(s) and have helped others and myself get this job done correctly.

I have the clamps and the sleeve to do the exhaust, just ran out of time and energy. Does $250-$300 seem high for install? I thought I had seen posts where people had it done for like $80 roughly.

Any thoughts/advice appreciated!

 

That is hideously overpriced. To JUST cut out some pipe, and put in the cat you brought in, I would charge about 20 bucks. (and that's welding the new cat in.) If you have the offroad y-pipe, and want the cat installed in that, probably 75 bucks for the whole job.

 

Good lord thats a lot of oil!

 

Sorry, been busy with work and havent had a chance to reply..

Have a impact of some type, air, electric, or cordless for sure, and the 1 1/4 socket for your harmonic balancer(if its the same as mine). Vacuum and/or blow compressed air around the intake manifold a few times during the tear down. Pulling the injectors lets your clean the manifold alot better(in your sink or have it dipped).

I used a steel "spacer" I had laying around, like a huge washer really, is about 1/2" thickness when I was turning the crank to line up the timing marks, threading the bolt in all the way didnt feel right(dunno if this is necessary or not).

Found it easy to do the plug wires on the new cap by just moving one at a time over to the new cap, pulled rotor and put new one in, and then tightened down the new cap.

Search, search, search.. all the info is here really, take your time, take pics if you need to remember how things go, come to this forum during the repair and search for info if needed.

To be clear, this is what I have:



I have the clamps for it, but would like it welded in really. Have not gotten another quote on installing it yet, off work on Thurs and gonna try to hit up a couple places.

Have had a couple service writers come into my work and I ask them about it(neither have worked in an exhaust shop, both brakes) and they both told me the "thats too high I think" and "keep shoping around".

Yea! I was wondering where it was all going lol.



Truck is running better, sure likes the cold mornings better than the warm afternoons, alot more power in the cold. In OD up a minor city road grade at 45mph still feels sorta weak if I give it a little bit more throttle trying to reach 50+, maybe just me.. at 45 in OD it is at 1100ish rpm after all.

Its better but not quite as good as I had hoped for, maybe its the old cat and old O2 sensor holding it back some still. From the look of the blown plenum, and #7 and #8 plugs I took out awhile back I gotta think the cat and O2 sensor are fouled up as well.

 

I'd recommend a couple things:

1. Plan for a short jaunt in the truck, just couple miles or this same grade, but remove the precat O2 sensor. Tie it off, wrapped in a rag, in a secure spot (ziptie). Then drive it. If it responds better, then it is likely your cat is clogged.

2. You should get new O2 sensors anyways (both of them). Good place is Rock Auto and there is a thread in the "Discussion" forum showing discount code. AVOID BOSCH brand. NTK or Denso are the ones our Dodges likey.

3. Also, did you replace the PCV valve? If not, get it from the Dealer, plus new valve cover grommets. All of it is cheap....actually.

 

That was certainly blown for sure lol ! How the throttle responce with the new timing chain ? How many miles did it have , and was it pretty stretched out ?