hey guys.. i have a 98 ram with a 318, its got well over 220,000 on it and ive owned it since day 1. i take good care of it and its never been over 3000 miles on oil. i get on here about everyday since i joined andsee whats going on. i see you all talking about replacing the plenum gasket all the time and you say that it helps with alot of stuff. my truck has never had the plenum gasket replaced and as far as i can tell theres not a thing wrong with the way it runs. what i want to know is what might i notice if i need to replace it??? i know my truck doesnt have the power it did when it was new but maybe the plenum may help with that. also if theres anything you can tell me about it and how hard is it to change? thanks alot everybody that helps and i enjow what you have going here!!

 

Since your truck displays no symptoms of a faulty plenum gasket (excessive oil usage, bad pinging) ... I'd leave well enough alone. With almost a 1/4 million miles on it ... the engine won't have as much power as when new. Try some Restore and count yourself as one of the blessed.

 

To sass-ify your couriosity, I'd take the Trottle Body off and look at the pan for any oil. I did a visual check on mine with the TB on and didn't see much oil. Later took the TB and Wow! Oil pooled up in there good!
Mine had the only symptom of oil usage- no real pinging problem.

Hope this helps!

 

Agree with the post above, just look down the throttle body butterflies to look for oil pooling in the bottom of the plenum. Don't fix it unless it's broken. When mine went, when i bought it, it would go through oil and give a good puff on start-up, it would also ping a lot.

 

thanks for the help so far, and i have felt blessed considering the only thing ive ever done is replace the battery twice. and a few upgrades.(knock on wood) guess if you take care of them thats what happens. and i will check down the butterflys, and i never add any oil but what are yall considering oil usage. 1 qt or a half or 4 lol.

 

Mine would use slightly less than a quart about every fill-up at highway speeds (75-80mph), but wouldn't use a drop in town - under 55 mph anyways.

If you see any oil pooled in the pan - and I mean pooled, not just oily-looking- then you'd be looking at the plenum gasket problem. If the truck is level, the oil will be towards the back (towards the fire wall) of the pan. As I stated above, I recommend pulling the TB and inspect with a light.

 

If you're not using a quart between oil changes, a plenum gasket problem is remote. If you're really curious, you can either pull the TB and look or just open the butterflies and use an inspection mirror and flashlight.