1999 Dodge Durango help

[dresslered]

My wife's Durango has been briefly flashing the "check gauge" light over the last couple of weeks. This has been in addition to other intermittent gauge/indicator warnings these Chrysler's seem to be plagued with. However, after her call this morning, I'm giving this some concern. It seems that the oil pressure gauge momentarily dropped to zero, but then returned to normal. I told her to leave it parked and to take my car into work while I gave this some thought.



After a quick web search, I have found numerous reports of this often accompanied by finding sludge in the oil pan and/or a completely destroyed motor (the owner often denied warrantee as Dodge claimed sludge proves negligence with maintenance). I change the oil every 3000 miles and NEVER seen it dirty. This Durango has the 318 V8 which has been a proven motor over the years so it kind of surprised me. However, I came across a post made by someone who claimed to know what the problem was. It is as follows:

the solution to all of the engine problems with the durago as far as oil pressure and sludge is concerned. dodge used an upper timing gear made of aluminum and put a nylon coating of some type on the gear, the coating breaks into pieces falls down to the oil pan and it clogs the oil pump pick up screen causing low or no oil pressure wearing out the motor resulting in engine failure if not detected and replaced early enough , and a mechanic calling it oil sludge is bull****, it does not feel like or look like oil sludge, my oil is always clean , the way the oil drain nut is in the oil pan keeps the nylon pieces from running out when you change your oil, it holds it there for the pick up screen to suck them up and keep clogging the pump, makes me wonder if they knew this was going to happen as it looks designed to happen, I just fixed mine and it took me over an hour to clean the crap out of my oil pan, so take your timing chain off and replace it with all steel one and take oil pan off clean pick up tube or replace and replace oil pump put it back together and your problem is fixed,

Has anyone else heard of anything like this? I’m also wondering how easy it is to find a steel timing gear to replace the aluminum one. Thanks for any help.

 

[Bob4x4]

All the big 3 have used nylon coated timing gears for years,If run too long they all will fail and the pieces can plug the oil pick-up.

 

[Bob4x4]

Mopar performance has always offered dual row steel gears and matching chain

 

[B.G. Smith]

Quick way to find out if the pressure is really dropping is to hook up a mechanical gage. The sending unit is behind the distributor, the fitting is 1/8" pipe thread. You sure that is a 318? I thought all the early Durangos were 360. The serial # is stamped into the front of the block just below the drivers side cylinder head and will have either 318 or 360 in it. And as Bob said above, all the Mopar stuff I have torn down in last 30 years have had double row roller chain with steel gears on cam and crank. I had a 85 Chrysler with 318 and the screen on it plugged with sludge. I pulled the pan and cleaned it but it finally came back and wrecked the engine, too much sludge in the heads etc. I doubt that sludge is your problem with that oil change interval. Most oils nowdays are pretty sludge free. bg

 

[dresslered]

Thanks all. I will be draining the oil through a coffee filter this weekend to see if I can find any contamination. I also will be adding a 'real' gauge to see if it is not just a faulty reading. It is definitely a 318 (5. 2L) as I was afraid to try the new engine that had just come out.



Bob, are you saying that just replacing the nylon coated timing gear with new would be sufficient? I like the idea of double row roller chain with steel gears.



P. S. I forgot to mention that the engine has 140,000 miles on it. However, my BMW straight-six has 300,000 miles without any problems.