What is the shops Diagnostic ?

 

they haven’t told me much, they said it needed a new engine and when I asked what exactly caused it they just said “could be a lot of things” - I’m going next week to talk to the mechanic and try to get a full breakdown of all the possible causes

 

My 2-cents: It sounds like an oil cooler gasket was not seated properly. The offending gasket should show signs of being pinched or broken. It failed too quickly to suspect something unrelated.

 

thank you

 

Ouch. I also supplied a Dorman unit to the shop for replacement, and they were very clear that their warranty didn’t extend to supplied parts. They did, however, say that their labor was covered.

So this might turn into a finger pointing exercise, with them saying the Dorman or its supplied gaskets failed and you saying that their install was faulty.

If it comes to engine replacement, dig deep into Kip’s videos.

Good luck!

 

I’m not directing this at OP, just adding a thought about future Dorman installs

Thinking about Edwards Deming’s wisdom, I would not ask a shop that commonly and frequently installed OEM oil/coolant heat exchangers (such as a Ram dealer) to install a Dorman heat exchanger.

 

@FrankFrankFrank — I’m genuinely interested in how TQM relates to the install of widget A versus (literally) interchangeable widget B? Are you suggesting that shops accustomed to the lesser quality widget are less likely to be competent? Or is this really about dealers, whose competence many people have strong opinions on?

 

I’ve never installed either but I would have my doubts that they are identical. For example, I have my doubts that installing the gaskets would be the same motions for the two designs

anyway, imagine going to a production line that churns out hundreds of the exact same product and asking one of the assembly people to install one different part in a particular unit.

 

I would not ask a shop that commonly and frequently installed OEM oil/coolant heat exchangers (such as a Ram dealer) to install a Dorman heat exchanger.

I’ve never installed either but I would have my doubts that they are identical. For example, I have my doubts that installing the gaskets would be the same motions for the two designs

It's made of of different material. The procedure is exactly the same. Why do you assume it's different?

 

“It’s made of different materials”

The difference might matter in my mind for shop that commonly and frequently installed OEM oil/coolant heat exchangers

it would not make a difference if I were installing my own

I hope this is clear enough. It is for me

 

Sorry it’s not clear to you. Oh well.

 

it take more mechanical skill to get to the cooler than it does to install/bolt it in place.

 

Getting back to the issue, I would guess one or more of the replacement gaskets got misaligned during the rebuild or incorrect torq on some of the bolts. So unlikely it was anything but a mistake on the repair and not the new parts. I would have another auto repair shop pull it apart with a extra set of gaskets, rebuild it and let you know if anything looks amiss. Need @Kip-on-truckin to let us know what he thinks.

 

This post is worth reading. #20

https://www.promasterforum.com/threads/oil-leaking-on-top-of-transmission.104162/#post-851454

ADVICE - (1)be careful when you change your oil and filter. make sure you use the correct oil filter. there was a change in design of the oil cooler and filter and if you use the wrong one it will not permit oil to pass through properly. (2)if you have a leaking oil cooler replace it with an aluminum oil cooler. it has solved my problem.

 

Just saw this. The ONLY thing I can think that can allow the two fluids to mingle is yeah, the seating of the cooler or the seating of the cooler on the top of the engine. Of course, if the cooler section is internally failed, that would do it but you should be able to test that with a garden hose or compressed air or some such. The thing is, if the cooler was mis-seated, yeah both oil and coolant would pour into the valley, but I doubt they would have the opportunity to get together internally, just leak externally. I can only think of one other place where coolant and oil even get near each other, and that's in the heads. In theory, you should also have oil in your coolant, which would show up on the inside of the res bottle.

So I guess, you got a bad cooler from Dorman, and that may or may not have taken out the engine. It occurs to me that the engine may very well survive a brief shot of water. It'll make sludge, but that sludge may clear pretty quickly, and it would be blown clear on all the pressurized surfaces that count, like the bearings. I'd be incluned to suggest that you replace the cooler, save and document everything because Dorman may help you out if the part is defective, put oil in it and see if maybe it survived. Very possible. Another trick; unplug the connector for the oil pump solenoid. It's behind the power steering pump going into the lower part of the block. That should force the pressure to go high, 70+lbs at idle and well over 100lbs when reving. This may blast the sludge into non-critical places. Worth a shot.

 

thank you!

 

If not due to the cooler, it could be a head gasket or cracked head. I don't know if these engines are prone to that type of failure.

Perhaps they do a leakdown test on the cooling system to see if water gets pushed somewhere obvious.

Any white smoke when it was running?

How much driving was done post-repair before this became obvious?

 

Never saw any white smoke - only drove it 30 miles tops post repair and there were no signs anything was wrong until the knocking noise when I started it up to drive home. It still ran when I towed it back to the shop, but after they replaced some gaskets they saw parts of the piston had come out into the oil pan - doesn’t even run anymore and it doesn’t sound like an engine can come back from pieces of one of the pistons breaking apart and falling out