You sir are correct. I failed at recording the noise though. I picked up a ( complete with the SP tube gaskets ) new set of Fel-Pro valve cover gaskets. There was a lot of sludge in their. Total mess! I'm in the process now of cleaning everything out including the inside of the valve cover. Going to do it engine flush now, then two more oil changes after this one with sea foam. Then refilling with a full synthetic engine oil. I don't see this being a in and out quick fix. I'll keep posting with any progress. Thanks man.

 

Ok. Here we go. After hours of dis-assembling, cleaning and re-assembly of the vavle covers and getting the sludge out and of the heads and valve covers. I decided to swap out my spark plugs while I was there too. Thank God I did. They were filthy and totally fouled out. One SP tube had let in some water and that plug had rusted completely. The Only SP that Advance had in stock was Bosch Iridium at $6 each. I said why not, it's better than what is in there at the moment. $105 and a 20 min drive later they were installed along with the wires. I get everything back together and attempted to start the truck before we start to pour in the engine flush. This took a while with all the 2+2 Gum Cutter in there. It finally starts and sounds the same as before. We drain the oil and see Pitch Black Oil with some sludge chunks coming out too. ( Note ; I had just changed the oil 8 days earlier. ) We poured about 4 quarts of new oil through the engine to help flush out the sludge. While this was going on, I while underneath watching. I stuck my hand under the fresh looking ( golden colored ) and "caught" a metal flake. Thus figuring that this is now a bearing is.
I did take a sound bite while it was running. I'll try to upload that tomorrow.

 

If there's been that much sludge in your engine, I bet your oil pickup has been fouled with it and you've dropped oil pressure causing damage somewhere.
Either way, this sucks for you :-(
Al.

 

That's something we were thinking about afterwards. It does suck, but if it's just the bearings ( fingers crossed ) , it's fixable. I won't know until this weekend or possibly later what the issue is.
So now I'm looking for a good website/store to order internal parts for a 5.7 Hemi.
Any suggestions ???

The one good thing is that my Wife is on board on getting it fixed. And not throwing a fit about it.

 

Moe's performance might be able to help you.
http://www.moesperformance.com/
Moe's Performance LLC
9939 Valance Way
Conroe, TX 77385
214-789-1110
sales@moes-performance.com


There's Henson Motor sports at:
Henson Motor Sports
105 South May
Madisonville, TX 77864

Sales: 936.348.3618
Service: 936.348.3618
Toll Free: 800.530.5337

Email: ArtK@HensonMotorSports.com

Art is very knowledgeable with Hemi's.
I've bought Valve seals, pushrods and 6.1 springs for my 03 Hemi from him.

There's also Air_Ram performance.
http://www.airram.com/parts.php?categoryid=0

I've not ordered from this company, but have read very favorable reviews about this company and he's also very very helpful on the boards.

Hope this helps?
Al.

 

ab - I appreciate the help. I will take a look at them for parts. The truck will be getting towed sometime this week to a nowledgeable and trust worth mechanic that I know in Randallstown, Md. ( I won't put website link up. Not sure if that would violate the forum ules. ) If not for spending $300 ish on the issue right now, I woukd be buying accessories for the Ram. Damn it.

I'm a definate noob on this forum. But not to the Jeep / Rock Krawling forums. (PIRATE4X4.com , Rausch Creek forum and several others. )So I appreciate all the info/advice that is given.

Thanks
- Greg

 

Man they robbed you with those Bosch iridiums. There's NO WAY they ONLY had iridiums on hand. That sounds like complete BS. Unless you have some mods done to your truck I would highly suggest taking those Iridiums out and putting the stock copper cores back in. Iridium plugs are way to hot to run in these hemi's. I actually have 16 brand new Mopar copper core SP still in the box that I have no use for because I decided to go with double platinums.

 

And as for ordering parts I would use moparsupercenter.com. They carry OE stuff and are decent on prices.
Where are you located at Greg?

 

After talking to a good mechanic about the situation, he said the it's a bearing issuee. That I should get a reman engine from Jasper. Now, I do value this guys opinion when it comes to these things, but, I do not want to go that route. I would rather have the bottom end rebuilt with new bearings and possibly a new cam as well.
Mike (the mechanic) also said to take out the Irridiums and go with copper ones.
On to the spark plugs. I was lookng at the screen at Advance Auto when we were looking for them. They only had two that were they had 16 of them. It was either the Irridiums or a set of E3 plugs. The Irridiums will be coming out no matter what. ( Thanks for the info )
I'm located just outside of Frederick, Maryland and I work in Baltimore, Md mon-fri on the evening shift.
As of now, I'm driving my '93 Yj (wrangler) fuel inj. 6cyl with 5sp manual trans to work daily. It has a spring over axle set-up with a Ford D44 front and Ford 8.8 rear with cromoly axle and 4.10 vears, Aussie locker in rear, spool in front with lockouts, PSC Hydro assist steering, 35" Super Swamper tires, Suspension seats with a custom roll cage, 57 miles each way.
As you can see, I can't wait to get my truck back on the road.

 

Are you going to have that same mechanic rebuild it? If you want these copper core spark plugs I would sell them to you for $1.50 a plug and just mail them to you. As far as putting a different cam in there I would go with the comp cam 268. Just put that in my truck about a month ago and I love it. Moesperformance has it for $395.