durango 2004 change engine

From : macarty

Q: passenger version reminds me too much of a beechcraft puddle jumper. shivers the nightmares return on wed 03 aug 2005 170018 -0500 me@privacy.net wrote i saw a dodge sprinter in my home town today!! i was coming out of the local coffee shop and the guy who owned it was taking stuff out of it. so i approached him and talked quite awhile abt it. man that things is cool!!!! id almost consider buying one and making it my only main vehicle here is link to a review on it http//tinyurl.com/34jbu anyone else have one have opinions on it .

Replies:

From : christopher thompson

i purchased a 1997 4x4 ram from my neighbor. it has 111000 mile on the 360. the truck starts just fine and other than the slightly rough idle which i am told is a pretty normal occurence in this engine runs great while sitting still and also has great accelleration and high speed 70+ mph performance. the problem is that while the engine is spinning at about 1700-2200 rpm a miss can be felt which makes the truck well shimmy as i run down the road. not the shimmy you feel when a tire is out of balance or round but the shimmy you feel when the engine is running sub-optimal. i put new tires 265/75/16 on all four corners and had them balance them twice and show me the readings as they did it so that i could eliminate a problem with tire balance. i also notice that if i shift down while the shimmy is occuring it abates quite significantly but does not entirely disappear. i took the truck up and had new dual exhaust put on thrustmaster ii and while in the shop they hooked it up to the diagnostic computer. while there were no codes set it was showing that the engine was running lean at those rpms. so here is my plan and i want to see if it makes sense. i have already replaced the pcv valve cap rotor plugs and wires. i have a k&n drop in that has been cleaned and re-oiled. carb cleaner has been used to clean the outside and inside where possible of the tbi. since it is running lean either the computer is getting input that the mixture is plenty rich and cuts back on the fuel even though in reality the mixture is now off or the computer has no idea that it is lean and is putting the perfect mixture through the manifold and the leak is occuring where the computer cannot detect it and fix it. my logics says i should first start with the o2 sensors. do i need to replace all three or is there rhyme or reason to which one to try first second i thooght about the fuel system itself. is it possible that the computer is telling the injector to put in x amount of fuel into the cylinder but the injector is unable to deliver it in the amount of time specifed can injectors really be clean without removing them or is replacement the only true option third the intake manifold gasket. it was replaced by chrysler when the truck had 36k on it for the vaccumm leak problem and i wonder if it could have happened again. i am up for suggestions since the o2 sensors are about 45 bucks each and any of these option will eat into my precious sit-in-my-chair-and-watch-nascar time. - thanks in advance for any ideas -jerry jerrynatlgaatgmail.com i have had three 360 powered vehicles a 74 roadunner best 360 ever by far a 77 power wagon horrible in so many ways a 84 or 85 ramcharger cant remember what year i sold it almost immediately back 10 years ago a week after i bought it for an insanely cheap price.. they all did this. from day one. i fixed the problem on the roadrunner and powerwagon by rejetting and/or a metering rod change. the ramcharger was gone after i changed the manifold gaskets. the 74 had no problems with the intake gaskets but the 77 took drastic measures the most obnoxious smelling sealing stuff smeared on them to solve it after changing them several times once by the dealer once by a garage and three times by me. of course if the heads would have been even remotely straight it would have helped a lot. the stock manifold was warped to match the heads so it wasnt too bad but it cracked and i wanted to go to a 4 barrel carb and so i bought an edelbrock intake and it was straight so not only didnt it seal well the damn bolt holes had to be enlarged to put it on. fine quality back in 77. one thing and i dont know how the later ones are set up that made this problem much worse was that the vacuum advance in the 77 caused the distributor pickup to graze the pole piece at a certain point in its travel. i found this out by putting it on a scope and it had a certain rpm point it started misfiring and we found out if the advance hose was disconnected it didnt do it. i ended up buying a direct connection replacement distributor and having it recurved slightly stock it pinged badly and it helped a lot but the cure was a little more fuel.. i passed on buying a ram in 2000 i just couldnt buy another la engine so i bought a gmc instead. after it was wrecked i bought a 2003 hemi ram. i sure dont miss the 318/360.. good luck.. bdk .

From : tom lawrence

roy i put in the new fuel filter and milage rose to 15mpg for the first 3 tanks. two tanks later and im down to 11mpg. anything else you can think of to check before i take it to chet the mini-moron dodge tech i think it may be running a little rich. there is a heavy diesel odor in the air when idling. much more so than my fathers or my friends. you changed the fuel filter and jumped up to 15mpg. id change the filter again and see what ya get. you may have a bunch of crap in the tank. what did the filter look like regards the smell of diesel have you changed the air filter tighten all the clamps at inter cooler and turbo. roy filter was blacker than me climbing out of a ships bilge looking racially incorrect-p. ill pull it again and take a look tomorrow. air filter has 5k on it didnt look too bad. ive never played with the intercooler and turbo. any tricks or pitfalls i need to be aware of or watch out for nah just check to see that all the hoses and clamps are tight.you may want to think about dropping the tank and having it cleaned if the filter is a mess again. .