Hello Everyone,

I have 2003 Dodge Ram 1500 Quad Cab with a 5.7L Hemi with 8' bed. Engine has 134,000 miles on it and has been running like a top for a number of years. Last week I went to cold start it and with-in two seconds of turning it over I heard a huge explosion under the hood. Sounded like the truck was hit by another truck. Smoke came out from under the hood for a minute or so. Anyway had it towed to my mechanic. The engine would start but would race to 4-5000 RPM for about 5-10 seconds and then settle down to a super rough idle around 1000 RPM. Turns out the intake manifold is cracked and my mechanic couldn't do much troubleshooting. He did compression tests on all the cylinders and all are good. Valves are good also.

Anyway I purchased a used intake manifold on eBay and it arrived today but with a lot of metal chips inside it. I was able to shake some out but there's still a lot of chips stuck to the oily walls of the manifold, at least the visible areas that I can see. I'm sure there's more in the non-visible areas. One Youtuber mentioned if there are metal chips in the manifold there's a good chance that some of chips melted onto the walls of the manifold and can come loose over time and be ingested into the engine - even after cleaning. So should I return it or should I try to clean it?

Second question... As mentioned the engine has been running like a top for 3+ years and there was no warning when it back fired. If the valves and cylinders are fine where else should we be looking?

Many Thanks,

John
2003 Dodge Ram 1500 Quad Cab with a 5.7L Hemi with 8' bed.

 

Not sure you are going to be able to clean that intake enough to make it 'acceptable for use'......

Gonna have to put a good intake on it, and get it running again, to troubleshoot further..... I would be real curious what caused that backfire.....

 

Plastic plenum? ( I am a new, recent RAM Hemi enthusiast, so I am just learning these vehicles, join date above is my ownership date)
Plastic plenum burst at a seam from backfire explosion? I would clean the plenum and run it. You could garden hose and soap, Your mechanic likely has a parts washer and pressure air.

My question is where did these metal flakes come from and is it so common an occurrence that a YouTuber is speculating on them?

AND, if they are so small that they can't be cleaned out or are somehow imbedded into the plastic and somehow could be dislodged, I doubt the engine would even realize if they were ingested, nor do any damage.

Of course we want or baby to drink pure gasoline and breath fresh, clean air... In a perfect world, well, reality is that nothing is perfect. If the price was right compared to a Mopar dealership part, I would go ahead and run it.

If it is on the internet, it has to be true.
I find myself telling Martha over and over, that just because anybody can edit and post a video to YouTube does not necessarily make them an expert or really mean they know what they are talking about.

I LOVE EweTube, and I learn a whole lot about a whole lot of things.. I learned how I can clone my 14 year old beloved Pomeranian and if I really wanted to be cool, I might be able to genetically modify it to stop leaking when it gets super excited... Alas, what a Frankensteinian experiment that might turn out to be.

Again, I could be wrong and I bet someone is chomping at the bit to debate my belief.

Back in the day I witnessed a mechanic remove the air cleaner on a small block chevy and while it was revving at high RPM's, he dumped a few handfuls of raw, uncooked, rice into the carburetor that the engine greedily sucked up. The explanation was that like popcorn, that the rice would pop under pressure and heat and clean the combustion chambers of carbon build up that was causing run on after the ignition was turned off. The engine would grumble and cough after the key was off (and this was after making sure it was not because of low octane fuel or advanced ignition)
It fixed it. But we couldn't do anything like this today without taking a whole lot of steps like temporarily removing the catalytic converter.

Maybe your engine needs to eat more rice... If it is here, on the internet, it must be true!
I hope this helps you. Please hit the [ LIKE ] button… 😊

Please return and tell how this information worked for you, what you find, and how you eventually fix your vehicle (even if it is that you brought it to a mechanic / dealership for repair)
It is your feedback and final repair report that will make these forums useful to others in the future.
Many times I search and find the same exact fault that I am having, someone suggests how to fix it, the patron follows the suggestion and then never returns to say YEA! or NAY...


The forum thread just goes dead because the person fixed their fault and has not a care to offer the answer anymore. Please don't be that guy.

Cheers!

 

I would clean it and run it.

Who knows what the YouTuber experience is.
Where could the metal chips come from and what damage could they possibly do? How big are we talking.

Post a picture

 

Thanks for responding everyone. Manifold was purchased from a junk yard via eBay. When I lifted the manifold out of the box there were rattling noises. l shook the manifold upside down and out came some gold sized nuggets of metal and smaller. Manifold looks in good shape otherwise. Don't know if the junk yard engine blew-up and sprewed metal into the manifold or metal chips found it's way another way.

Ugh!

 

I would love to see some pictures...
Both of the manifold that *popped* and of the new manifold and some of the stuff you are seeing.... metal nuggets gold metal nuggets.... Was the flea-bay junkyard in Anchorage, Alaska?

It is hard to say without seing somethinig,

How about a link to the YouTube video where the poster said that his was not a good manifold?

 

I'll try to get pics tomorrow or Sunday.

Here's the video. At about 1:08 he mentions about "metal scattering" into the manifold - What do you guys think? Does he have a valid point?:

 

So, my interpretation of what he said: he was saying IF the previous engine had a catostophic failure where schrapnel goes ejecting from the engine (backwards) back up into the intake manifold (imagine a volcano spewing molton rocks and ash)... to me that scenario is something out of Fast and Furious racing... probably less than a 1% chance that this previous engine died that sort of glorious death.

More likely, someone didn't change their oil and let a vehicle sit neglected. It does start or runs rough and then it gets parted out because the sum of its parts is more valuable than the assembly as complete.

Now I am just speculating with words based on information said in 'words' so it should be up to the mechanic installer who decides if it is a road worthy part. If nothing else, it should be at the very least, good enough to install for troubleshooting purpose.

Now, my girlfriend would make an excellent aircraft inspector... because, she can find something wrong with anything. BUT, the entire fleet would be grounded and the airlines would go broke. We need to keep aviation affordable, automotive, reasonably dependable. 'Perfect' many times is the enemy of good enough...

Cheers.

Please keep us up to date with how this plays out. This 'complete' record of fault and repair will help others in the future just like you came here for advice regarding your truck.

Throw some prices and costs out there too. What did you pay for used intake plenum (manifold) (including shipping) VS what it would cost new in July 2023?? The prices of EVERYTHING is rapidly changing while the shadow government and Dr Evil reset our dollar on par with the Peso .

 

I would not run it, and I would return that using ebay's guarantee that they did not send a usable intake manifold. You might not get it all out, and then one chip of metal goes into the cylinder and ruins a valve seat or gets logged between the piston and cylinder wall..