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2/22/2004
22:20:19

Subject: RE: 4.7 junk
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Lets face it guys... ALL brands have there problems. Ford, Dodge, Chevy, etc... It's part of life. The titanic sunk, the shuttles explode, and your vehicles will bust. Thats the game. AND thats how they make the real money. Don't like it... Buy a BMX.

Oh, I own a 2K 4.7L cc. 60K Thing is a ROCK. Not a single problem and it goes like hell. Got my HO cams and intake. CANT WAIT TO GET EM IN!



RTbill
Dodge Dakota
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2/23/2004
03:59:37

RE: 4.7 junk
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I don't think the 4.7 engine is junk either. But it is flawed and Chrysler is ignoring it and driving future customers away forever. Just like FORD ignored the flamming Pinto's and GM ignored the unprotected pickup truck gas tanks from side impact. Of course we all know about those flaws because it cost those company's BIG BUCKS to compensate the victims. These auto manufactorer's simply do not learn from the past. I think a class action suit is justified in this case. There is no question the engine suffers from oil pressure problems. I bought a clean & straight, lived a charmed life in Dublin Calif., and was not a work truck or rental, 2001 QC 4.7/auto with somewhat dirty oil that the dealer claimed was changed during the safety inspection. I figured no big deal I'll change it again and put in the type oil I like. But, before I could do that the instrument warning chim went off and oil pressure was at ZERO twice on me the first week I owned it! I parked the truck immediately and shut the motor off. I left it on the side of the road and came back the next day to meet the tow truck. After checking the oil level, I decided to fire it up and see what would happen. The engine knocked a little then got quit and the oil pressure came up SLOWLY to the low end of the normal operating range. I had it towed to my home anyway where I flushed it twice using a new filter & oil each time and watched some chunk's of black jello like crap come out each drain. It sits in my driveway now until I can get some rack time to pull the pan and take a look at what's in there?

Even if I don't find sludge build up I will never feel confident about this engine and will keep a watchful eye on the oil gauge. And, the 4.7L isn't the only Chrysler engine having the sludge induced oil pressure problems.

Oh, I have shot upper ball joints too! But the paint & body is sure nice to look at.



RTbill
Dodge Dakota
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3/13/2004
17:18:31

RE: 4.7 junk
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Here's an update on what I found when I pulled the pan on my 2001 4.7 engine. As expected, the pan had a moderate amount of sludge in it. The oil pickup screen opening is small in comparison to 5.2 or 5.9 engines which makes it all the more susceptible to clogging. The screen was clogged with tiny burn't oil particles. The inside of the engine was varnished looking. The oil pump is attached to the front of the crank and if you have to replace it, good luck, because it's a big job. You will need to replace the oil windage baffle as it doubles as a gasket. I also installed a new pickup tube and cleaned out the oil pan which had lots of hard burn't oil particles. We noticed the underside of the pistons had dark burnt oil on them. We pulled a couple rod caps and thankfully the bearings looked good. I intend to sell this truck now before anything else goes wrong!



ZZ
Dodge Dakota
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3/21/2004
16:30:33

RE: 4.7 junk
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The engine with the sludge problem is the 4 banger in the Toyota Camry. There is a huge class action suit going on with that one.



bmxndakotas
Dodge Dakota
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3/23/2004
16:15:55

RE: 4.7 junk
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R u picking on BMX bikes. I have been racing BMX for the last 4 years and i do not like it when people talk crap. But if i am miss understanding you i am sorry. It is just that i like my Dakota and my BMX bike and dont like to compare them cause i like them both.



dakotaman
Dodge Dakota
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3/23/2004
16:21:23

RE: 4.7 junk
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i had a 93 dakota with a 318 and i had a slude problem. I did not no why i was getting no oil pressure at first so i brought it in and got a new oil pump put in. It worked fine for about 5 months until one day for no reason my engine started to make a pinging noise. and lots of them. so i pulled over and had my truck towed to a shop were they pretty much told me that my engine was done for because the oil pump sludedged up suddenly. So now i have a truck sitting in my driveway with a blown engine. and all that the shop told me was that dodges have sludge problems.



WipLash
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3/23/2004
22:51:45

RE: 4.7 junk
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ZZ,
The Camry's 4banger is also very prone to blow head gaskets. It has had a bad reputation for blowing head gaskets for over 10 years now and Toyota doesn't do anything about it. Everybody buys them though. Go figure! If Dodge designs something wrong they are forever damned. If Toyota designs something wrong they become the #1 selling car in the U.S. Smae went for the Taurus. The 3.0 V6 was the standard engine in that car and they all blew head gaskets if you drove them long enough. Somewhere between 75-150K the Ford 3.0L would blow a head gasket. It wasn't a matter of if it was going to blow, but when it was going to blow and it was the #1 selling car for 7 years. Go figure!



ZZ
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3/28/2004
15:06:15

RE: 4.7 junk
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GM had a sludge problem with the Quad 4 engine, now called the 2.4 Twin Cam. I don't know if GM ever fixed the problem.



CNOTE
Dodge Dakota
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3/28/2004
18:48:03

RE: 4.7 junk
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I have a 2001 4.7L EC with 48K. I have noticed in my past couple of oil changes that I need one less quart of oil to fill my resevoir. I change my oilfilter every time and I use Mobile 1 5w-30. The question I have is that is it because of a possible sludge build up in my pan that is causing my use of less oil?





GraphiteDak
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3/28/2004
21:01:18

RE: 4.7 junk
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1 quart less? That's crazy!
I bet you could put something telescoping into the drain plug hole and feel around for sludge. You may want to try that next time.

I hope it's not true!



WipLash
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3/28/2004
23:39:35

RE: 4.7 junk
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Cnote,
That sounds kind of fishy.... If you had a whole quart of sludge in there you wouldn't even be able to drain your oil. Also, you would be sucking all kids of crude into your engine because it only takes about a quart to submerge the pick-up tube. I would definately try what Graph suggested to see if you can find something in there.



HMMM
Dodge Dakota
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3/29/2004
18:25:41

RE: 4.7 junk
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CNOTE,have you moved recently.Sounds like your checking the oil on an unlevel driveway.



Greg Tompkins
Dodge Dakota
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3/30/2004
11:47:44

RE: 4.7 junk
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I talk to two dodge dealerships before buying a used dakota quad cab 4.7 and they both said one thing change oil early and often.The oil passages on the new overhead cam motors are tight and will not tollarate dirty oil so skip an oil change kiss of death !!!! 2500 miles!!!



Ms Scooter
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3/30/2004
16:23:50

RE: 4.7 junk
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I changed mine out at 1500 miles first time.



CNOTE
Dodge Dakota
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3/30/2004
20:39:59

RE: 4.7 junk
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Sorry "HMMM", but my truck is sitting on flat as flat can be surface when I check my oil. All I know is that in my owner's manual it says for a 4.7L to add 6 qts. with filter change. The first few times thats exactly what I did. Every time though, my dip stick gave a higher than normal reading on it when I check it, i.e. about a quart higher than the top "safe" mark. So the next time I changed it I put in a quart less (5 qts.) and the dip stick reads my oil level right at the top of the safe mark. My oil pressure on the idiot gauge also is in the higher end of its "safe" range. Those are the things that I know for sure. If I'm missing something let me know...



Mopor4ever
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3/31/2004
12:53:35

RE: 4.7 junk
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Have a '01 Quad Cab with almost 50,000 miles on 4.7 L V-8. Have used Amsoil 0W-30 since 2000 miles and only changed it twice. Have changed the filter much more frequently. While driving steady on highway above 2000 RPM I note where oil pressure gauge reads. When I notice guage starting to drop off I know filter is probably plugged and flowing through by-pass valve rather than filter media. Changing filter brings oil pressure back up. This past winter I've had to change filter about every 2000 miles-more sludge in cold weather. Wrapped insulation around oil fill and drilled small hole in oil fill cap to try and prevent gunk from building up in that area. Poor design....



danthoney
Dodge Dakota
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3/31/2004
15:31:11

RE: 4.7 junk
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wouldn't synthetic oils solve this problem?



R/TBlues
Dodge Dakota
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3/31/2004
22:17:19

RE: 4.7 junk
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I've never had sludge problems in any Dodge product, but I always ran Mobil1. I don't want to start another oil arguement so I will admit right now that Mobil1 sucks and all other brands are better and Amsoil is better than anything in the world. So there! FYI, I'll keep using Mobil1. Someone has to be the underdog.



Mopar4ever
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4/01/2004
16:27:55

RE: 4.7 junk
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Synthetic oils are great - some technologies (Amsoil) are more advanced than others. Synthetics have natural detergent properties and do a great job of keeping an engine clean but all the gunk that it cleans has to go somewhere - that's what the filter is for. In an engine like the 4.7L that has problems with sludge, synthetics help but changing the filter often is the key. Fram PH-8's are cheap at Wal-Mart.



R/TBlues
Dodge Dakota
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4/02/2004
00:09:28

RE: 4.7 junk
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Since I've been on this forum I've quit using Fram. I have a hard time believing all the hipe about the oils, but I have been convinced that Fram filters should be avoided. Although, I've used Fram for over 20 years and I have never had any oil or filter related problems. I have switched to Wix and Purolator on my cars and I use K&N now on my R/T. If you talk to any oil representative they will all try to convence you their oil is better. Who knows? I'm sure Amsoil is a very good oil. I'm not going to pay $9.99 a quart for anything. I change my oil every 3 to 4K. I know they say you can run Amsoil for 20K or more, but I'm not going to. I cringe at the thought of oil being in there for that long. I'll stick to Mobil1 just because I like to change my oil every 3K and I can't afford to do that with Amsoil.



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