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New ride
#753875 November 05th 2019 8:04 pm
Joined: Aug 2019
Posts: 21
J
stranger
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2001 Dodge B1500 "shorty". It's got a couple of issues with the engine but runs . Got it for $1500. Anybody know anything about the 3.9 Magnum engine?

Previous owner said the head gasket blew and after the repair, the engine makes a rattle at part throttle on the interstate. Just tooling around town it's ok except for what sounds like crickets under the hood. Like a tensioner bearing.

Someone said it could be the torque converter but it's shifts fine and doesn't slip.

I pulled the doghouse off and can make the rattle with the van in neutral by reving the engine. Sounds like it's coming from the valve covers or that large aluminum cover on top of the motor. Sorry I know little about Magnum engines.

Here's a video:

https://youtu.be/fzBk91OG5Yw

Attached Files
2001 Dodge RAM 1500.jpg (309.68 KB, 125 downloads)

1998 Chevrolet 1500 Explorer
2001 Dodge B1500 "shorty"
1984 Dodge B150 Slant 6 225, four speed manual
2003 Subaru Baja
1968 Ford Fairlane 500
1977 MGB
1980 Fiat 124 Spider
1981 Trabant 601
1987 Yugo GV
1987 Citroen 2CV
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Re: New ride
Jseabolt #753881 November 05th 2019 11:31 pm
Joined: Aug 2002
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Nice looking van. Kinda sounds like an exhaust leak I had on my old 91 3.9


[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

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Re: New ride
Jseabolt #753888 November 06th 2019 7:47 am
Joined: May 2018
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Nice Dodge, 3.9 was a fine motor early version was weak the later version was real peppy mother mopar should have punched and stroked it to 4.4...that would have cheesed off GM🤣


When in doubt..get the sawzall out..
Re: New ride
Astrocreep66 #753890 November 06th 2019 9:05 am
Joined: Aug 2019
Posts: 21
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stranger
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Originally Posted by Astrocreep66
Nice Dodge, 3.9 was a fine motor early version was weak the later version was real peppy mother mopar should have punched and stroked it to 4.4...that would have cheesed off GM🤣


It doesn't have as much pep as my Chevy Express 350 Vortec engine , but does fine around town. Getting past 60 mph on the interstate is where it falls flat on its face though.

I'd love to stick a 5 speed from a Dokota truck in it. The transmission should be straight forward. I may have to fab a mount and have the driveshafts spliced and modify the shifter to clear the doghouse.

The pedal assembly is the hurdle. I can't seem to determine just from photos of pedal assemblies on eBay if one from a RAM truck would work. They all look different from the one on my van.

I'd like to know if a pedal assembly from a 93 and older D-series Dodge full size truck would work. Apparently from 94 up the RAM trucks are a new design.

The brake pedal bracket on my van just bolts to the firewall.






Last edited by Jseabolt; November 06th 2019 9:16 am.

1998 Chevrolet 1500 Explorer
2001 Dodge B1500 "shorty"
1984 Dodge B150 Slant 6 225, four speed manual
2003 Subaru Baja
1968 Ford Fairlane 500
1977 MGB
1980 Fiat 124 Spider
1981 Trabant 601
1987 Yugo GV
1987 Citroen 2CV
Re: New ride
lukester #753891 November 06th 2019 9:19 am
Joined: Aug 2019
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Originally Posted by lukester
Nice looking van. Kinda sounds like an exhaust leak I had on my old 91 3.9


I took it to a muffler shop. They can't find anything wrong with the exhaust.

Sounds like it's coming from the valve covers or top of the engine. Like the guy who replaced the head gasket left a socket in the engine.


1998 Chevrolet 1500 Explorer
2001 Dodge B1500 "shorty"
1984 Dodge B150 Slant 6 225, four speed manual
2003 Subaru Baja
1968 Ford Fairlane 500
1977 MGB
1980 Fiat 124 Spider
1981 Trabant 601
1987 Yugo GV
1987 Citroen 2CV
Re: New ride
Jseabolt #753898 November 06th 2019 2:11 pm
Joined: Feb 2013
Posts: 887
Likes: 14
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That noise sounds like it's a loose timing chain rattling against the cover or possibly a timing gear that's eating itself. It definitely sounds mechanical, not like exhaust. hard to tell for sure from the video though.

Re: New ride
Jseabolt #753902 November 06th 2019 7:02 pm
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Sweet ride. Hope you get her sorted soon.


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Re: New ride
Jseabolt #753908 November 06th 2019 7:23 pm
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Very nice and hope you find it!


Jim & Lucy Newkirk
1965 Chevy Bad Influence
1981 Chevy-the Love Shack
2012 Chevy Van , 2020 chevy van
2020 Chevy van Sapphire Sweet.
Club Vannerz.
vanninvanner@comcast.net
Re: New ride
Jseabolt #753911 November 06th 2019 8:38 pm
Joined: Aug 2019
Posts: 21
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I spent today giving my van a good polishing. I should have mulched some leaves but you know how it goes...

I thought about changing the wheels but I kind of like them.

Unless I come across some Shelby Slots. I have some 10" slots to go on the rear. I bought them for my 68 Ford Fairlane. I think they are the same bolt pattern.

Attached Files
IMG_20191106_145700601_HDR-1612x1209.jpg (527.38 KB, 88 downloads)
Last edited by Jseabolt; November 06th 2019 8:41 pm.

1998 Chevrolet 1500 Explorer
2001 Dodge B1500 "shorty"
1984 Dodge B150 Slant 6 225, four speed manual
2003 Subaru Baja
1968 Ford Fairlane 500
1977 MGB
1980 Fiat 124 Spider
1981 Trabant 601
1987 Yugo GV
1987 Citroen 2CV
Re: New ride
Jseabolt #753973 November 08th 2019 11:10 pm
Joined: Aug 2019
Posts: 21
J
stranger
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Posts: 21
Despite some issues to sort out on my van, I think I'm gonna luv it. The only thing that would make it even better was if I could stick a 5 speed from a Dakota pickup in it.

I've been driving my van around just to see if I can figure this out. So far I've put about 100 miles on it since I got it. 60 miles coming home and 40 around town. I put 25 miles on it today.

I think the reason the noise was worse coming home was the PO didn't have one of the latches secured on the doghouse which was allowing more noise to enter the cabin.

Best way I can describe this noise is it sounds like a diesel engine at part throttle. Despite the muffler shop looking at it, I'm kind of wondering if this could still be an exhaust leak. One day my Fiat 124 turbo Spider started making what sounded like detonation after topping off the fuel tank. Being a custom turbo system, I've always got my ears tuned to engine noises. I thought I had purchased some low octane fuel. Turns out just some of the nuts on the turbo and exhaust system had loosened at the same time I topped off the fuel tank. What a coincidence!

So far today in 25 miles and several stops, the van has not stalled on me. Yeah that was another issue. This happened as I was leaving the guy's house! He said just turn the key off and it will restart. Now you tell me. If this had happened before I handed him the money, I probably wouldn't have bought it. Then it happened again after leaving my parent's house. And a couple of times at the foot of my driveway.

There seems to be a pattern going on.

1) Engine warm
2) Start 30 minutes later
3) Move about 500 feet
4) Loose power then stalls
5) hit the switch and it restarts

It also starts popping like it's running lean before it stalls.

It has never stalled after a cold start and just driven. It's only seems to happen after restarting the engine after it's sat for awhile.

It's almost like this thing has a carburetor and it's vapor locking or heat soaking. I was hoping it could just old fuel.

The guy said the van had been parked for about a year. It had 2 gallons of gas in it . The low fuel light kicked on. Luckily I made it to a gas station. I put premium in it and drove it 60 miles home. It had stalled a few times after that. I added some of that Sta-bil marine ethanol treatment in the tank and added about 5 gallons on top of that. I'm not sure if that stuff really works or not to be honest.

99% of the time when I have a problem, it never seems to be the fuel. I did have water condense in the fuel tank of my riding mower a few years ago and blinded the fuel filter where gas couldn't pass through it but that's about it.


1998 Chevrolet 1500 Explorer
2001 Dodge B1500 "shorty"
1984 Dodge B150 Slant 6 225, four speed manual
2003 Subaru Baja
1968 Ford Fairlane 500
1977 MGB
1980 Fiat 124 Spider
1981 Trabant 601
1987 Yugo GV
1987 Citroen 2CV
Re: New ride
Jseabolt #753976 November 09th 2019 12:44 am
Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 18,286
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Van sat for 2 yrs with a couple gal of gas … that gas should have been drained … addin hi test may have helped but now it needs a couple of tanks run thru it …. then a good tune up …. Stabil doesn't work on old gas ….bad gas reaks havoc on a tune up …. hard to find whats really wrong with it.


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Re: New ride
Jseabolt #753980 November 09th 2019 9:03 am
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 32,696
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Old Timer
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Best thing is just start with everything new , had the same problem with my 77. redid it all and runs great now for over a year. Good luck with it.


Jim & Lucy Newkirk
1965 Chevy Bad Influence
1981 Chevy-the Love Shack
2012 Chevy Van , 2020 chevy van
2020 Chevy van Sapphire Sweet.
Club Vannerz.
vanninvanner@comcast.net
Re: New ride
newkirkinc1 #754129 November 15th 2019 10:27 am
Joined: Aug 2019
Posts: 21
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stranger
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Originally Posted by newkirkinc1
Best thing is just start with everything new , had the same problem with my 77. redid it all and runs great now for over a year. Good luck with it.


Is there a drain plug on a 2001 fuel tank? What's the best way to completely drain the tank?

It started loosing power again as I was leaving Walmart but just as always I shut the engine off, restated the van and it ran fine.

I replaced the idler, tensioner pulley and belt yesterday and got rid of the crickets under the hood.

There is still this noise at part throttle. Sounds exactly like a diesel engine. Could that be the torque converter?

Correct me if I am wrong but I tend to think automatics and or torque converters useally crap out without warning. They either work or they do not.

The TC on Dad's 94 Plymouth Voyager died going up a hill and destroyed the transmission. Sure enough it failed at 60,000 miles which was the life of the Mitsubishi 4-speed Shit-o-matic.


1998 Chevrolet 1500 Explorer
2001 Dodge B1500 "shorty"
1984 Dodge B150 Slant 6 225, four speed manual
2003 Subaru Baja
1968 Ford Fairlane 500
1977 MGB
1980 Fiat 124 Spider
1981 Trabant 601
1987 Yugo GV
1987 Citroen 2CV
Re: New ride
Jseabolt #754140 November 15th 2019 4:52 pm
Joined: Aug 2008
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Sweeeeeeet Van


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Re: New ride
Jseabolt #755918 January 17th 2020 5:47 am
Joined: Aug 2019
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OK. Update on the van. Concerning this engine noise.

So I bought this van back in October. I gave $1500 for it which I thought was a killer deal. Well sometimes you get what you pay for.

The guy said the van had a rattle that he could not determine the source. I couldn't here it on the back roads. Sure enough when I got out on the interstate it started making this awful noise at 55 mph. I could make the noise go away with my foot by either giving it more gas or letting off the throttle. To make a long story short, I took it to two mechanics and they both said it was a rod knock. I always thought a rod knock would show up at idle. At idle and below 55 mph in Drive, the engine actually sounded OK. I could actually make the rattle occur as low as 30 mph by shifting into L1 to increase the RPMs.

Here is a video of the engine rattle:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQvCiI3ixbU

The owner told me the engine needed an oil pump because when the engine heats up, the oil pressure gauge drops from 30 PSI to 0 and the check gauges light kicks on. What I think was happening was the rod bearings were so worn, it wasn't the oil pump that was bad but rather it loosing oil pressure from the worn rod bearings. So not allot of pressure was reaching the top of the block were the oil pressure sending unit is located.

This guy totally misrepresented this van. He claimed it blew a head gasket then the rattle happened after he had the van repaired. I'm starting to wonder if none of that actually happened. He knew it had a rod knocking but didn't want to lose out on a sale. Yes I probably would have passed on the deal if I had known that. Nobody wants to buy a car with a bad engine unless of course they can get it cheap, have a good motor ready to drop it in and do it themselves. These Dodge vans are a dime a dozen and I had plenty to choose from. I guess I chose this one because it was black and a short wheelbase. Not so much the price.

So I had a few options.

1) Sell the van as is and take a loss on it if I had to. But be honest to the seller that the motor is stuffed. Otherwise this guy may come back to me!
2) Run it through one of those auctions and let it be the next guy's problem.
3) Run it until the engine blows, then worry about it.
4) Find a used engine to stick in it while there are still Dakotas left in junkyards.

The 1st mechanic said he found a used engine for $2800 with 150,000 miles on it but that did not include labor. I'm like what? I told the guy, you mean that's the best you can find used engine for? They may not have built that many RAM vans but they did build 100s of thousands of Dakotas that use the same engine. I told the guy, why would I want to do that when I can get a Jasper engine for $3000? But I really didn't want to put that much money into a 20 year old van. I mean if I knew someone wouldn't hit me and total it and the van was in mint condition. Maybe.

I knew a guy who ran a junkyard and called him. He said he had a good used engine he pulled from a 1999 Dakota with 140,000 miles he would sell me for $600. WOW! What a price difference. Then I found a guy who would install it for $600. So I decided to go that route. I ended up paying the mechanic $750 in the end. I think he had to buy some gaskets for it. I also had to get a new radiator. The guy who ran the junkyard found me a new one radiator with a lifetime warranty for $120 and cut me a deal on the engine and radiator.

So now I have a good running van for about $3000. But I have seen other Dodge vans for sale for that much. So in the end I really didn't get the deal I thought I did.

I still have this nagging issue where the engine starts flooding out one minute after a hot start when the engine temperature is between luke warm and 130 degrees. Anywhere from 15 minutes to 3 hours. But doesn't happen when stone cold or if I restart the van within 10 to 15 minutes. I can time it on my watch when it's about to start running like shit. It either happens at the foot of my drive way or passing the bus stop at Wal-Mart if I park around the side. Electronic fuel injection : Best invention EVERRRRRR.....

I'm thinking why this is occurring almost exactly 1 minute after starting the engine is this is when the ECU is going into a closed loop and is expected feedback from something and is malfunctioning. I can either hold the throttle to the floor for 30 seconds and eventually it will clear out or just shut the ignition off and restart it. Then the engine runs fine.

I'm leaning toward the heated element in the Bank 1 O2 sensor. Reason is the OBD II stored a code regarding something to do with the Bank 1 O2 sensor but dumb ass me cleared the code! Maybe the heating element is burned out but once the exhaust heats up, the sensor starts reading normally.

The weird thing is the cat converter has been cut off this thing and not once has it flashed a code saying Bank 2 O2 sensor detected high carbon emissions or whatever. It should. When the distributor cap and rotor button went bad on my 98 Chevy, it dumped fuel into the exhaust and ever since then the computer said the converter was bad because the Bank 2 O2 sensor detected a bad reading or something. I had it checked by a muffler shop and they said it wasn't bad. Eventually the CEL bulb blew! It's been running fine for 8 years after that. I figured if the cat converter had suffered a meltdown, I'd know it.

Anyway, I got my van back. It seems to run pretty good. Although my carbed 225 Slant 6 seems to run better for some reason. Like I said before, Electronic fuel injection : Best invention EVERRRRRR.....

Last edited by Jseabolt; January 17th 2020 6:33 am.

1998 Chevrolet 1500 Explorer
2001 Dodge B1500 "shorty"
1984 Dodge B150 Slant 6 225, four speed manual
2003 Subaru Baja
1968 Ford Fairlane 500
1977 MGB
1980 Fiat 124 Spider
1981 Trabant 601
1987 Yugo GV
1987 Citroen 2CV
Re: New ride
Jseabolt #755922 January 17th 2020 9:35 am
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Yep I have two vans with rods knocking, I am building a 350 right now for a 78 Chevy, And picked up a 5.0 h.o. for my 89 e250. Now I have to find the time to work on them.


When in doubt..get the sawzall out..
Re: New ride
Jseabolt #755935 January 18th 2020 5:24 pm
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 32,696
Likes: 172
Old Timer
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Good luck with it.


Jim & Lucy Newkirk
1965 Chevy Bad Influence
1981 Chevy-the Love Shack
2012 Chevy Van , 2020 chevy van
2020 Chevy van Sapphire Sweet.
Club Vannerz.
vanninvanner@comcast.net
Re: New ride
Jseabolt #755943 January 18th 2020 7:25 pm
Joined: Nov 2013
Posts: 2,286
Likes: 153
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Hi Jseabolt,

Welcome to the site!

$1500? another 15 into it? Turn that frown upside down! I think you did alright. Pretty nice little unit, Sir.
The Factory Service Manual has a ton of info on the fuel injection, and troubleshooting. EBay
Questions, Still a 3.9? Throttle body, or MPI?
Adequate Fuel pump pressure, output, flow?

Good Wrenching! shift

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