You know I ran big shops for years. My last stint was a Chrysler store. 30 plus techs. Big truck business. I and others made lots of money off of oil and gas sucking, oil pickup clogged up gutless Magnum motors. Believe what you want. Your in a your own fantasy world. Some of you Dodge gas guys are a real trip. Like dealing with a 3rd world country. Bet you take family photos and have tailgating picnics at Walmarts.

 

All I KNOW is if you do proper maintenance on them the 318/360s were tough dependable motors and if driven like you should would do a lot of WORK very adequately. Were they a powerhouse, no, did they get good fuel milage, no, but they were very durable. My son is still driving a 1997 1500 with a 318 tht I bought used with 90,000 miles on it and it just rolled over 200,000 miles. At 150,000 it was still only using a quart of oil in 2500 miles. What your experience is might be different but this is mine and I had 8 of them and every one of them went at least 130,000 miles and I only had one go bad, probably due to an overheating issue with the vehicle. So if you feel differently we will just have to agree to disagree.

 

Its the difference in what is ok and whats not. You stated 200,000 miles. Thats nothing outstanding in this day and age.. You state a Quart of oil every 2500 miles. Thats a LOT of oil being used. They wern't a powerhouse. Correct. Far from it. They got lousy fuel mileage. Correct. ALL the ones you have had went at LEAST 130,000 miles. Thats nothing in this day and age. That was outstanding in the 1960s. But this isn't the 1960s. They are a outdated old design caste iron V8. They had lousy two piece intake manifolds. They are prone to stop up the oil pickup. As they get higher mileage valve guides are a issue. Its facts. Not make beileve.

 

I don't know what planet we are talking about here, not very long ago new cars would use a little oil and the dealer would not do anything to it if less than a quart in a 1000 miles. Other than the 97 the next newest 318 I had was an 86 so these were the older motors. I realize that 200,000 is not unusual even for a gasoline motor these days but you said they are junk so I thought it was pretty good for JUNK. Everyone is entitled to an opinion and mine is the 318 family of motors were good ones with the exception of less than optimal fuel mileage. Oh BTW are you familiar with a small sport called NASCAR? The motors that Penske used to win the championship with last year are based on the 340 which is the same family as the 318/360 so maybe they aren't so junky after all. That being said I will keep any further thoughts on the subject to myself.

 

The 340 and pre 87 are not Magnums. Whole different engine. Completely different. The discussion was about Magnum's.

 

I read the posts, nothing was said about magnums or non magnum and I also checked to verify what I was fairly sure of and the blocks are basically the same just different heads and intakes. Just FYI.

 

The discussion was late model trucks. The Magnum is entirely different then the 'LA" series of engines. There were hundreds of differences and changes from old style to the Magnum. Changes also took place every year the Magnums were produced. Some not interchangeable from year to year. The Magnum line was most certainly not like the LA old style. In fact the discussion was that the 2nd Gen trucks in general were pretty flimsy and weak. So was GM trucks then also.

 

Actually, the Cummins is a better motor, especially for towing. It's an inline 6 so it's in balance with itself. It doesn't need a special crankshaft for it to be balanced. And, they have higher torque at lower RPMs, all thanks to the mechanics of the inline 6. And out of the three diesels in production, (Powerstroke, Cummins, and Duramax), the Cummins gets the best gas mileage.
And the Powerstroke will walk the Duramax any day of the week.
And just food for thought, the new Ram 3500 with a Cummins has a tow rating of 30,000lbs. The new Chevy 3500 with a Duramax does not.

 

You are correct! I was trying to avoid the V8 diesel thing. Diesels work better and last longer in a in line configuration. I had a old diesel mechanic that worked on HUGE earth movers,cranes and such years and years back say "Stay away from V8 diesels. They rev to high and have vibrations that effect engine life. PLUS they don't put out the low down torque that diesels are known for. There is a reason most 'hotshoters' are pulling with a Dodge/Cummins. Go to rodeos,catte sales and such. Dodge/Cummins out number Ford and Chevy 2 to 1.

 

Yeah, another thing people don't realize is that all the big rigs you see riding around are powered by, you guessed, huge inline 6's. And there's a reason they use the inline 6 configuration. Freightliners, Western Stars; they're all powered by giant inline 6's produced by Detroit Diesel. Inline 6's that displace up to 15.6 liters, produce 600 hp and over 2000 pounds of torque. And the max hp is produced at 1800 RPMs and the max torque is produced at only 1100 RPMs.