Well I went to talk to the mechanic after work and got a little more information. Apparently they began to flush the engine and the sound got much louder at which point they stopped. They said they then "pulled the pan" (I assume they mean the oil pan) and they found chunks of bearing material. What was a moderate knock is now a death rattle which seems to be coming from the lower part of the engine (crank shaft?).

The shop quoted me a price on a crate motor ($3,600 installed with 7yr 70k warranty) or a rebuilt motor ($2,100 installed with 3yr 36k warranty). I needed to replace the plenum gasket as it was and the price of the rebuilt motor includes the Hughes kit.

I had planned on taking the truck to Dodge for a diagnosis, but after flushing and freeing all that metal in the engine I am afraid to drive it for fear of ruining the trade on my current block.

Does this sound right?

I have owned the truck for about a month. I took it to these same guys to have the truck inspected after I bought it and they drained about 8 quarts of oil from the crank. I would have checked the oil before I bought it but there was no dipstick (should have been a clue). Sounds to me like the seller was trying to cover up the problem. Even if a new engine is my only option I still feel like I got a decent truck for the money ($2600 for the truck and $2100 for a new engine).

I live in Dayton Ohio. The shop that has been doing the work on the truck is called South Metro Automotive in Centerville. They seem like pretty honest guys, they let me stand there and BS with them while they do the work if I have the time.

Thanks again for all the help guys.

 

[sm=roll.gif]

Thats halarious. I think the only sound he knows is Cha Ching, and the money rolling.

You don't need a new engine, nuff said.

 

Sounds like the pervious owner had a lot to cover up. I would go with the crate engine if I were you (sounds like you don't have the luxury of rebuilding your old engine). Also, if you have the remains of a broken bearing in your current engine, it will succeed in damaging the crank, oil pump, and whatever else it can collide into.

 

I thought $2100 seemed a little easier to stomach than $3600. What benefit would I get by going with the crate motor?

 

The longer warranty and the fact that it has never been run. Break it in yourself.

 

Is the rebuilt motor your motor rebuilt or a totally different off the shelf rebuilt motor? is he rebuilding it or is he purchasing it from an engine rebuilder? If purchasing is it a local shop or a larger national chain?

 

They are purchasing it from a engine rebuilder then sending my block back to them as a trade in I guess. I don't know the name of the company they are getting the engine from. When I talked to the owner of the shop that is doing the work he said that they have been using engines from this company for 3 years and haven't had any problems.

All I know is that the engine is coming from Indiana. It is a rebuilt 5.9 360 from a 2000 Durango (I think that's what he said) with 28k miles on the block prior to the rebuild. I asked if they would need to put a new PCM in and they said this motor would work with the old one.

I like the idea of the longer warranty in the crate motor, but I think I would have trouble coming up with the extra $1500 on such short notice. It's going to be tight as it is with the rebuilt motor.

 

Find out the specifics regarding the warranty. Some warranties only cover a very minimum amount of labor charge should there be a problem. I have seen them as low as $250 which hardly covers the engine analysis to determine the problem.

If it were me I would decide which engine to get by how I use the vehicle and how long I am really looking to keep it.

Is this your daily driver where you are really not looking to do major performance modifications and just want a good reliable truck? Do you only plan on keeping the truck maybe 3 to 5 years? Would a 36,000 mile warranty cover me for close to 3 years based on how many miles I drive? In this case I would choose the rebuilt engine as long as the warranty was a good one.

Will you be taking it four wheeling, pulling major loads, doing major performance upgrades for speed and power? Definitely keeping the truck over 5 years and driving less than 70,000 miles during that time? Then I would consider the better crate engine.

The final consideration will have to be your pocketbook. Can you do your planned mods at a later date when money is more likely to be available? Can you do those mods later by yourself or with help from a friend so you can reduce the labor cost?

Hope this helps.

 

truck gets wrecked, gets towed to wrecking yard aka junk yard, yard pulls motor and sells it.... wrecking yard motor...

I recommend this route, it is your cheepest route to get you back on the road. if you can find one with even compression (yard guys should test this before they yank it) and the #'s are 150~160 and up, go for it. I did this with my jeep grand cherokee 5.2 motor and had it on the road for about $1200~1400 bux (my labor) swapping everything that could possibly be ready to go wrong, new gaskets, front crank seal etc... when I was done, it had awesome power and was ready to go for another 100k... 2 months later I hit a deer... Ins paid me $6300 for it because of all that I put into it. if I'd tried to sell it otherwise, I'd a maybe got $4k~4500 max.

anyway, I still recommend going this route. it will get you back on the road quicker & cheeper IMO...

 

The bad part about a junkyard engine is knowing if the truck was rear ended. Yes, being rear ended can cause a domino effect of the rear axle getting moved forward, which shoves the driveshaft forward, which puts strain on the crank and can even damage/break the crank, mains, etc. I have had engine builders tell me of this happening.