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Hello all.
I though to post my first on this subject of “what are you working on” What I’m working on is rebuilding the top half of my 1997 Dodge Ram 1500 5.2L with 139000. The reason being is that it had a ticking noise coming from the engine but was unsure where. I know a knock from a ticking noise and some people in my research seem to think it could be considered a knock.
Anyway I did all the preliminary tests and two being compression testing and leak down testing I did confirm issues with valve train. in my compression testing I had barely 60 psi on most of the left side and average 100 psi on the right. In my leak down testing I mostly confirmed my issues were mostly intake valve and some exhaust valve issues. So those being main issues for this rebuild I also decided and after long tedious research to redo the infamous plenum gasket replacement, a well know issue with the dodge magnum engine, 5.2L and 5.9L. I will show you common problem via picturesAs you can see the build up of oil caked along the top of the engine in front of the plenum.
My rebuild consists of:
reman. heads
reman. water pump
plenum repair kit
new lifters
new push rods
new timing chain
and misc. other parts ie: thermostat pugs wires etc.I have been on this build for a couple of weeks now picking at it a little at a time but mostly because my schedual does not allow me to be on it 100% With that i hope to do a start up by the end of next week.
Well by for now and please if you have questions or sugestion dont hesitate to contact me or reply to this post.
A special thanks to you ETCG!! for all the great tips and videos.
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Thanks for sharing. Please post pics as your progress through the repair, and share any issues you ran into.
Hello all, sorry for taking so long on updating my post but it has been a very busy year for me and it is hard to find some time for just about anything relaxing anymore. Although busy is good…keeps me out of trouble 👿
anyway on my Ram I have gotten down as far as the camshaft, which i was not going to replace…more on that in a bit. With everything striped down as far as i can and want to go i have been doing some cleaning of parts and components,,,waiting for parts not expecting to replace, and for the fun of it doing some painting of components…it might look like a clown engine when I’m done with it but with “gonads” 😛
Once again the reason for the top end build was because of some ticking noise, and after doing preliminary tests. ie: compression and leak down” i determined valve issues. and the famous intake manifold gasket problem these engines tend to have. So my conclusion to replace the heads with re-manufactured ones. and the intakes with Hughes Engine’s manifold repair kit.
As i mention earlier the cam was one of the components i was going to leave out for replacement only due to the visual i had after everything was removed…but it kept eating at me to replace it! because, i was going as far as replacing the lifters and rods. I let it go until my gut told me to at least pull it and check it. So what the heck, timing chain and sprockets were off anyway….what are a 3 more bolts!!
Pulled it out and for the most part had normal ware i guess for 130000 + miles but looking at it some more I see two lobes badly pitted. So further down the cam, sure and behold the last lobe before the distributor gear I find badly grooved at least an 1/8th of an inch worn on the top of the lobe.
Needles to say I will replace the the cam along with everything else. Although talk about gut feelings huh? If I didn’t checked the cam it would of been a disaster afterward!!
So to all of you out there “rely on gut feelings”
I have my progress so far in pics.
Um yeah…new cam required. You’ve worn through the surface hardening treatment.
As far as “clown paint” goes, that’s pretty respectable and it looks good. Kinda no nonsense and business like. At least you don’t have a yellow fan, red heads and green manifolds. Personally, I’ve always wanted to do an engine and transmission in high gloss white.
A glossy white engine and transmission huh? interesting B) That would be cool!! At least it would be easier finding leaks! :blink:
Unfortunately from what i know unless i pull the motor completely out i can’t replace the cam bearings. one bearing in the engine does have some surface pitting but does not show any evidence on the cam journal that may be causing any problems…as you see in the pics. most are just surface issues and maybe could have been just buffed out.
[quote=”Evil-i” post=141878]Um yeah…new cam required. You’ve worn through the surface hardening treatment.
As far as “clown paint” goes, that’s pretty respectable and it looks good. Kinda no nonsense and business like. At least you don’t have a yellow fan, red heads and green manifolds. Personally, I’ve always wanted to do an engine and transmission in high gloss white.[/quote]
I painted one motor white because I thought it would look super clean and pro; it never made it off the stand because it just looked ‘wrong.’ I used to paint everything I built light gray so it would be easy to find leaks and it looks very professional.
[quote=”lljram” post=141899]A glossy white engine and transmission huh? interesting B) That would be cool!! At least it would be easier finding leaks! :blink:
Unfortunately from what i know unless i pull the motor completely out i can’t replace the cam bearings. one bearing in the engine does have some surface pitting but does not show any evidence on the cam journal that may be causing any problems…as you see in the pics. most are just surface issues and maybe could have been just buffed out.[/quote]
I don’t believe the engine has to come out to change the cam bearings. You will have to rent or buy the removal/installation tool, though.
Having said that, it might be worthwhile going all the way and pulling the block anyway. You can have the block “hot tanked”, which should clean out the entire lubrication path. I’m mentioning this just in case any of your cam issues are due insufficient lube, but I doubt that’s the case for that wiped cam lobe. The lobes tend to be lubricated by oil splash and haphazard gravity drain oil returning to the sump.
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