2005 Dodge Ram 2500 Cummins 2wd

[ProjectM880]

yeah plan to try and drop the pan this weekend. shall see how big of a pita that is. Sounds like its  huge, but shall see.

To drop the converter you have to drop the tranny. I might have to do that yet, as I am 99% sure there is an issue with the flex plate, but have to figure out the engine first.

The starter teeth are on the flex plate, so have to have it on to start it up.

I don't think most suggest it, but the manual says you can replace rods/ pistions/ bearing while the block is in the truck. Just have to pull her open and see how bad it looks.

what is strange to me, not that I know much, is how it can be an engine/ bearing/ whatever issue, yet it idles fine and sounds like nothing is wrong until you rev it up.   

Engine Harmonics and Vibration can be odd sometimes. At certain RPM a vibration can seem almost gone, but when RPMs are applied the rotational force and harmonics of the motor will amplify a vibrations that seemed like nothing at low RPMs.

The Cummins motor is a Shaker in stock form, So sometimes it difficult to determine a vibration at low RPMs because the motor shakes like hell stock.

Ask Noah why you shouldn't put a 360 Harmonic Balancer on a 318. Seemed fine at a idle 

[ProjectPW]

yeah plan to try and drop the pan this weekend. shall see how big of a pita that is. Sounds like its  huge, but shall see.

To drop the converter you have to drop the tranny. I might have to do that yet, as I am 99% sure there is an issue with the flex plate, but have to figure out the engine first.

The starter teeth are on the flex plate, so have to have it on to start it up.

I don't think most suggest it, but the manual says you can replace rods/ pistions/ bearing while the block is in the truck. Just have to pull her open and see how bad it looks.

what is strange to me, not that I know much, is how it can be an engine/ bearing/ whatever issue, yet it idles fine and sounds like nothing is wrong until you rev it up.   

Dont waste your time ... pull the motor it is trashed

[rjtx667]

Ask Noah why you shouldn't put a 360 Harmonic Balancer on a 318. Seemed fine at a idle 

man that had to be fun, those harmonic balancers are engine specific... then again I have a 318 balancer on my mx RamCharger... can you figure out why? lol

[rjtx667]

Dont waste your time ... pull the motor it is trashed

Noah, spoken like a true professional mechanic... I hope you are more gentle with paying customers

[ProjectPW]

Noah, spoken like a true professional mechanic... I hope you are more gentle with paying customers

nope...lol... the truth hurts....and I hate wasting time 

[rjtx667]

it hurts a whole lot right now, to the point I almost don't want to go in my garage for a while

I found a used cummins that seems too cheap, it's tempting but I know my score and luck with used engines 

if it is a new engine then it sits a while as I don't have another 6k to drop into it.

[SixGun]

if it is a new engine then it sits a while as I don't have another 6k to drop into it.

Oh oh, open another credit card account. 

[ProjectM880]

Dont waste your time ... pull the motor it is trashed

I guess I am more of a optimist then Noah, He is much more of realist , Sadly more times then not he is correct.

I guess you could change the oil and run it till explodes 

[ProjectM880]

Noah, spoken like a true professional mechanic... I hope you are more gentle with paying customers

He's not....... It's like ripping off a band aid, Just rip it off quick and the pain will go away eventually.

[rjtx667]

I guess I am more of a optimist then Noah, He is much more of realist , Sadly more times then not he is correct.

I guess you could change the oil and run it till explodes 

I would run till it explodes, but I fear that might be at any time the way it sounds lol. Now if its a rod bearing, I don't mind changing that out and then running it till it explodes. Let me get some use out of the $$ sunk into it thus far. 

As for ripping the band aid off... I never cared for band aids for that reason... nor do I really care for the pain even if it eventually goes away. I prefer to usually avoid the pain all together.... or think of something else until the pain goes away.

So yeah maybe I will focus on the heads on the 93. Thats a much less painful job 

For Noah's defense, he was not all that much for getting the truck in the first place... and he has not even done the I told you so yet... He's just done the spend the $$ lol

[rjtx667]

well I am still a little confused, apparently I put my hand somewhere I did not realize or something. 

Oil report came back, and it seems to be the best $25 I have spent in a long time.

report is blow, and here is how you read it:

http://www.blackstone-labs.com/report-explanation.php

but the big thing is this:

RYAN: Thanks for the note about the knock. All the wear metals in this sample look normal, so we don't
see any obvious reason for it here. That's good, because if the knock was a sign of poor piston or bearing
wear, it would probably show up as high metals, so at least we can be pretty confident you don't have a
major mechanical issue developing. Of course, the downside is, we can't really help you diagnose where
the knock is coming from. No contaminants or other issues were found. Averages are based on ~6,800
miles of oil use. Check back next oil to build trends.


so that means the knock has a good chance of being the flex plate. Either that or its not been ran enough to cause major damage to the bearing that is bad... but that seems hard to believe?

I am going to order the flex plate and other parts for the transmission and try to find a time to pull the tranny down.

As I said before, I could see when the truck was idling or rev'd to 1k rpm that the flex plate was not true and straight.

maybe it is cracked and it just takes 1k rpm to get enough of a load on it to cause it to hit whatever its hitting? 

[SixGun]

I hope your right about the flex plate. That would be awesome. 

[ProjectPW]

there is hope 

[rjtx667]

Ordered the flex plate yesterday and went by harbor freight with my coupon and picked up a transmission jack.

Get it a little warm next week and let the fun begin.

[SixGun]

Get it a little warm next week and let the fun begin.

No kidding, it was cold yesterday at 35*. I was fairly warm for awhile but my hands were freezing.