[464K '93]

In 1993, much to the opposition of most everyone I knew, I bought a new Dodge Dakota LE ext cab 2wd with 4 miles on it. It has been a daily driver for 29 years now. New distributor 2018. New timing chain set 2019. I think I did plugs and wires at that time, or possibly since then.
Reason for post however is I changed the oil and filter Saturday at 464,000 miles. While driving to work Monday truck started fine as usual. Blacked out of garage, and headed down the road, no issues. At about 3 miles while cruising about 40mph I noticed what felt like a misfire. The further I drove the worst it got. Absolutely no engine noise. Got it back home by feathering the gas up and down.
I have worked on two nights and both nights truck starts fine with a misfire, eventually stalls, and won't start without holding pedal about half way and cranking hard. Only code that comes up is, MAP sensor. Changed it, no difference. I know this is something minor, but looks like it may cost me shotgunning parts. Anyone have an idea?

 

[464K '93]

Well tonight I found culprit. Broken intake valve spring number 5 cylinder. Anyone have any advice going forward?

 

[immattj]

Personally, I find nearly half a million miles incredible!

But definitely don't drive it 'til you address the issue. Back in '87 I bought a '75 LTD with a 460 for my daily driver. I used to abuse that old car & engine, & in '90 it developed a dead miss. I threw about every ignition part in the book at it to no avail. After some time, a noise like someone beating on a coffee can under the dash developed, & the next thing I knew, "whooooshhhh!!!" & a cloud of steam from out back & then she was no more. I was working line maintenance for usair at an out station back then, so I got another engine & did the job in our vehicle maintenance shop. When I took the old engine home & stripped it down I saw the broken valve spring. What happened was the keepers finally came off & the valve must have dropped down into the cylinder & started banging into the piston, & then the piston fragged out, & a piece of piston got caught in between some rod & the oil pan, poking a hole in the pan, & something must have cracked through the cylinder wall, & hence the trail of coolant I left until I went as far as I could coast. What a mess it was when I pulled the head, twisted mangled rings. . . .

But I digress--If you get a spring compressor, you could buy set of springs (& probably keepers also) & change them yourself (and do your valve stem seals too). Is the LE a V-8? You would have to price the springs out (I'd probably go with Rock Auto, myself) & a spring compressor shouldn't be much, but I'd say do the math & decide if you don't want to put even that much into a truck with 464k on it. I mean, at 464, who knows what will fail next.

If that is a job you'd have to farm out, I think it might be time to consider retiring the old beast.

 

[464K '93]

During my diagnosis of this problem I have not heard the first noise. That's why I was shocked to find no compression on that cylinder. My plan is to start with replacing the spring and see what happens. If still no or low compression I'll probably take topside of engine apart and go from there.

 

[immattj]

Well, if you saw a busted spring when you pulled the valve cover, I'd probably bet a lot of money that's where all your compression went. I just looked on Rock, & springs for a '93 318 are dirt cheap. If you change that spring & it brings your compression up to acceptable parameters, I would think that you might as well change them all.

 

[464K '93]

"might as well change them all"

I thought that too, but working in the auto repair field I see daily how inferior new parts are compared to OE parts. Therefore I'm torn on wether to do that or not

 

[immattj]

LOL! If you would have said you did this for a living, I would have spared you my unprofessional advice!
I would only say, though, that OE parts with nearly a half a million miles on them are probably entitled to be suffering from metal fatigue that after market parts (although possibly inferior to OEM) are not.

 

[464K '93]

True. Honestly it's a gamble either way. Who knows which way I'll go. Sometimes I have the time to do extensive work, and others I just got to get it back on the road, as I said it is my daily driver. I am a fleet technician, so the vehicles I work on daily I know well. It being an old fleet, other stuff I'm behind on.

 

[immattj]

You know more about this stuff than I ever will, but you have got to be wondering how many more miles past 464 it can go.

 

[464K '93]

Goal is 500K. A friend of mine said "if you make it to 500K I'll buy you a new truck" in front of 3 other witnesses. That was 12 years, and a 165K miles ago. Of course I could never hold him to that, but it's fun to make him sweat. Haha.

 

[immattj]

Okay, I can see that, and I guess that settles it . . . you are definitely changing at least one spring.
But I gotta take my hat of to 464. (Esp considering the relative minimal amount of work you've actually had to do to it.)

 

[464K '93]

Why, thank you. If the spring fixes problem, the plan going forward is to replace all springs and seals. I also need to repair a leak in the timing cover at the point where it connects to the oil pan. The RTV I used when replaceing the timing chain is slowly blowing out.

 

[arrow]

Why, thank you. If the spring fixes problem, the plan going forward is to replace all springs and seals. I also need to repair a leak in the timing cover at the point where it connects to the oil pan. The RTV I used when replaceing the timing chain is slowly blowing out.

Just replace the one spring and go forward.. You may never have another spring problem anyway or something else will go awry and you'll end up replacing the entire engine.
At Lou's Garage of Medicine where I do cars and patients where you can have your appendix out while waiting for your oil change, I never replace all the ribs when they break just one.

 

[464K '93]

That's true Lou, but it needs valve seals anyway. An update. Changed the springs on #5. When finished had no compression. My heart broke as I said I've owned this truck for 29 years. Coworker said to take rockers off and smack em several times with a hammer, put rockers back on and fire it up. Did that tonight. With a little cranking it fired up. Checked compression 110#. we will see what happens next.

 

[arrow]

That's true Lou, but it needs valve seals anyway. An update. Changed the springs on #5. When finished had no compression. My heart broke as I said I've owned this truck for 29 years. Coworker said to take rockers off and smack em several times with a hammer, put rockers back on and fire it up. Did that tonight. With a little cranking it fired up. Checked compression 110#. we will see what happens next.

Wait. You smacked the rockers while off the truck? Theses aren't rollers correct? Just the stamped steel ones which have no moving parts to get stuck with so I'm not getting this.
I can see tapping the valve train parts or tapping the rockers while in place and why wack all of them if no. 5 went south?
I'm puzzled at this point.

 

[464K '93]

Wait. You smacked the rockers while off the truck? Theses aren't rollers correct? Just the stamped steel ones which have no moving parts to get stuck with so I'm not getting this.
I can see tapping the valve train parts or tapping the rockers while in place and why wack all of them if no. 5 went south?
I'm puzzled at this point.

Sorry, wasn't clear on that. Removed rockers on #5 tapped the end of the valves with a hammer.

 

[arrow]

Sorry, wasn't clear on that. Removed rockers on #5 tapped the end of the valves with a hammer.

Now I'm getting it and yes, tapping the stems on a stuck valve is an old trick.
Glad it worked out for ya. You could have actually left the rocker on there and with a small file or metal bar or anything that would lay across the rocker rails and tapping that may have freed it up as well.

 

[immattj]

Lou's does rib replacements? Wow! That must be a medical breakthrough!

 

[arrow]

Lou's does rib replacements? Wow! That must be a medical breakthrough!

Nah. piece of trimmed nylon rod and super glue. I love super glue...and gasoline as a disinfectant.

 

[immattj]

Is Lou's hiring? I haven't worked for a few years, but I've kept my RN active . . . but I'm kind of thinking that licenses are not all that important at Lou's. . . .