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=CQvCiI3ixbUThe 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.....