So my Ram 1500 with 157k finally needs major work. Steam was coming out of the heater vents and it had a skip at hot idle in gear. So last weekend I pulled the dash and swapped out the leaking heater core and the a/c evaporator, fiberglassed the underside of the dash top to help keep it from cracking (still in great shape with one minor crack after going through RI 3 weeks ago) and since it had thrown a code for cam/crank sensor installed new ones as cheap insurance.

Now mind you, up to this point the truck has been running great- never burned a drop of oil, ran fine on the highway hot or cold, WOT perfect, cold start and idle no problem. Cap, rotor, wires and plugs had all been done the last service about 800 miles ago.

Just when fully warmed up would get angry just in gear, mostly reverse. It would pop, hardly run even ping!

Well son of a biscuit!

The truck now idles fine in gear, hot or cold but pops time to time at WOT and would ping time to time while at anything over 3/4 throttle. If I had any hair I'd be pulling it out!

I had a spare TPS and coil so I swapped them out to no effect and checked the harness and grounds, all good.

Finally, I blocked off the PCV valve and checked the valve cover.

$%^^&%$##&&**!!!

After 157k it finally sucked in the belly pan gasket! Guess what I'm doing today darn it! If I knew the gasket was sucked in it would have been a heck of a lot easier to change the crank trigger with the intake off.

when you do the pan gasket, check that the bolts are not too long. many guys have found that the threads are not tapped deep enough and the bolts bottom out before the pan gasket is pulled tight and seals.

WOW! You took the whole dash out? Never done that. Just dropped the column on the seat, remove the air bag module on the trans hump, remove the A-pillar trim, unbolt the dash and swing it out of the way (pivot point on drivers side). I can usually do a core/evap in about 6 hours give or take. My biggest pain is the A/C lines getting them undone. I have yet to find a "good" tool made for the purpose.

As far as the intake job goes, You don't have to diassemble the whole thing. Pull the fuel line, unplug the sensors and hoses and unbolt the intake. Pull it as a unit. Done.

Your right, doing the crank and cam sensors is a whole lot easier with the intake off. I have that kind of luck too though.

157,000 miles, you betcha, best vehicle on the road.

My '01 is just hitting 200,000 miles and it's had u-joints, a pinion seal and bearing, water pump, TPS, and cap/rotor/wires/plugs (one set). Haven't had to do that intake gasket yet.........

From the sounds of things these 3rd and 4th Gen Rams are even better, now that the miles are getting racking up. Complaints/issues seem to be few and far between.

Truck trying to kill me today!

All the 5.2 and 5.9 magnum engines I have had apart and I have not broken one. single. bolt. and today my truck has tried to make up for it by breaking three!!

The one holding the waterpump tube sucked as I had to strip off the front of the motor to finally get the bracket to budge. Getting the thoroughly corroded bolt out from that point was no fun either.

The front intake bolt was a [Edited by Moparts - Family Friendly Site - Keep it clean] as it had to take soaking with 2 different kinds of liquid wrench, tapping on it with a hammer to work the solvents in, FOUR different pairs of vice grips and finally the old heat wrench (torch) before it finally decided to give up.

All this fun reminds me why I retired from working on cars for a living.

The last one hiding next to the distributor? The one where the bolt head was actually just sitting on the intake? spun right out with my fingers, thank God.

Gasket on the belly pan was popped in two spots on the right bank, real bad over the 6 & 8 ports. I got the intake cleaned up well, popped the new gasket in place and glued just one side. I'll let it sit overnight and tomorrow after work get back on it.

Not to late to get that SRT-10!

Picture of the gasket with brightness cranked up in Photoshop, you can clearly see where the gasket is pushed out.

(this is a repost from the general section)

Long story short- I beat my head against the wall on my '98 Dodge Ram for two weeks due to the fact I got defective crank/cam sensors from Rock Auto.

I would suggest anyone who is considering purchasing sensors from them to either get them from Mopar or at least a local store where you have some recourse. Rock Auto is giving me crap since they were installed (of course I installed them fool, that's what the were purchased for!) and states they have to send the back to the manufacture for testing before they will issue a refund.

Care to guess how that is going to go? I don't expect to get my money back.

Truck banged and popped and pinged like crazy until the Standard sensors was pulled and a Mopar ones installed in their place. You field techs know what a [Edited by Moparts - Family Friendly Site - Keep it clean] it is to change on a hot engine, I had to do it twice this week chasing the problem.

My buddies who are still dealer techs told me there have been a rash of drivability problems related to aftermarket sensors, so its not an isolated event.

We had the truck on a scope, pulled the intake and changed the belly pan, swapped out coil, cap, rotor, wires and TPS with known good units, borrowed a DRB-III to make sure the distributor sync was set, checked the grounds all to no effect till Mopar ones were installed.

I'm not saying to not buy from Rock Auto but I'm damn sure saying I'd not buy anything electrical, sensors in particular for sure. And every time they will say the same thing- Well looking at our sales history we sold "x amount" and no one complained. They said the same thing when they sent a junk O2 sensor a few months ago.

Well guess what bub, I got the junk ones and it laid up my truck for two weeks. It cost me money have to rent a truck for a job.

I'll keep you posted as to what they report, the sensors went out for return and RA has them back.

PS they were not the bottom of the barrel sensors either but the more expensive premium brand name units. Fool me once...

PPS The phone jockey at RA also indicated that "of course the dealership techs would say Mopar is better" but could not explain why the truck runs now. I have worked with both before I retired and known both over 2 decades. If they say they are seeing a lot of problems with aftermarket sensors you can take that to the bank.

Some additional info..

The 2 sensors were initially changed since it had a skip at hot idle and it would throw a code for cam/crank sensor. Both were replaced since they are not excessively expensive and had 157k on them. The tune up parts were done in the fall as a routine service, everything else was done as process of elimination to try and narrow down the problem.

The real problem was the skip/stall at hot idle was gone but replaced with a new issue that wasn't there before the truck was pulled into the work bay. So are you dealing with a defective part or a new issue that was being masked by the old one? The new part was in compliance at idle (where the initial issue was) but anything over 2000-3000 rpm while under load would ping, pop and backfire like a bad coil or lean condition.

Checking fuel pressure and watching the O2 datastream while the problem was happening eliminated fuel as a possibility.

Since getting the truck running well, I also changed out the headlamps for new units and I can see at night again! I'll post a picture of the truck (and older one, but all I currently have)

At LVD

That is a good point. There are certian things that I will not buy anything but factory items. Tune-up parts being one of them, and o2 sensors too.

I seen also working in a dealer for many years, before the great economic upset, what aftermarket electronic stuff can do. I'd rather pull used original OEM parts from a junkyard before buying some of this crap that "fits" what it is replacing.

Update-

Much to my surprise there was a refund in my Paypal account for the two sensors, clearly something didn't pass testing or Rock Auto gives everyone a hard time on general principle.