The engine will run with a bad plenum gasket. But maybe he got lucky and got the only one that didn't break

 

147k on mine with a factory plate... gasket is fine... its an issue yes, does it effect everyone like so many hear wish to believe?...No I have three older friends with 2nd gen rams who have had no issues either... one has over 300k on his and replaced the gasket once..

 

I'm glad some one brought this up as I was about to make a post asking about this. I have a 97 1500 5.9L Sport that was given to me my brother with 186,000 miles on it. He bought it used in 1999 and when I learned about the plenum issue on this forum, I asked him about it, if ever had any trouble with it or if it was replaced. He had never heard of the issue. I also asked him about oil consumption or leaks and he never had a problem with either of those. There is about 3200 miles on the current oil and I haven't had to put any in either. So unless the previous owner did something to fix it (newer gasket?), nothing has been changed since it left the factory.

I was all set to purchase the Hughes plate, but before I did, I took the air cleaner off and went searching through the TB for the oil pooling just to verify. Nothing. Just to be extra sure I used a bore scope as well. No oil pooling. Tried the magnet trick to see if the plate had already been replaced, it hasn't.

Interestingly, I talked with a mechanic friend of mine and he had heard of the plenum issue and knew what was causing it. He stated that the fix was just swapping out the factory gasket with an aluminum gasket. He'd never heard of swapping out the plate.

Oh well, I guess I'll just keep my eye on it till I notice a problem...

 

I changed mine at 150k. Not sure it needed it, but changed it anyway. Truck burned about a quart of oil every 3k, thought the plenum change might help, but still burns about the same amount of oil. 180k now. I've seen people put 300k miles on these motors and never touch the plenum gasket. I also knew a guy who bought a 96 new and it started sucking down oil. Bad plenum gasket, dealer fixed it under warranty. I don't know if dodge had more issues with the gasket/bolt length during a certain production period more than another or what. Its a fairly common problem for sure. Whether the gasket will always ultimately fail or not I'm not convinced. But the transmission...that'll fail. Not a terrible idea to change the gasket for nothing more than peace of mind if you can do the work yourself I guess. I'd say the same thing for the transmission too if it wasn't so expensive. If I had the time and talent to rebuild the transmission myself successfully, I'd have a spare one sitting in the garage for peace of mind too.

 

I am sure that there are some trucks that do not present the plenum gasket issue. And if your is good and clean, that's great.

I have never, and cannot now find, heard of an aluminum gasket for these.

My brother-in-law, whom I picked up my Ram from, had changed the cat twice in just over one year. He, nor anyone he talked to appears to have known about thenplenum. He did know he was burning some oil. When I pulled the intake, there was about 1/2 cup of oil pooled in the intake. It was really blown....

Moral of the story - some plenums are blown, and some are not, and some dashes are busted all to pieces, and some are not. Best to those without these problems, and to those with it, the plate can be purchased on e-bay for about $50.

 

Gdstock, my dash was fine until I came here.. I hold everyone here suspect for its demise.. scoundrels, the lot of you..

Come to think of of, my bank account has suffered too, but I'm having a harder time drawing a correlation between being here and that, though I can't let go of the suspicion they are also.related..

 

tell me about it...I just found a sweet rollbar on craigslist that actually works with my toolbox... and I wasted money on coil spacers and shacle lift only to find the first owner already had some slightly smaller ones installed... turns out I had 5 inches of lift all the time.. by the rust you would never know..the new shocks are day and night difference though..