[Jimi3]

Do they said what would cause it? Did they found any bad rocker bearing? thanks for posting.

It had a #2 cylinder misfire error in the history when I had a mechanic look it over. It had been cleared and never came back prior to the engine hatching.
Dealing with the Chrysler dealer was an awful experience so bad I had to order my own engine.
I drove 90 miles to pickup other parts that I had to locate because they were a week out according to the service department.
My wife and I were stranded out of town for a month!
Anyway they said "my coolant level was low and an air pocket could have been trapped near the #2 cylinder and blocking coolant causing this area to overheat".
I checked the coolant levels and oil before the big trip across country.
We were running up the road the check engine light came on flashing buy the time I pulled over she was dead.
If you look a the pile of parts the piston head is mangled I think it dropped a valve or seat but no convincing them of that.
No help from FCA because I was 1500 miles past the warranty and I was a second owner.

 

[Kip-on-truckin]

Much to put in context here, but i’ll be brief.

Never ever go to the dealer again. Double the price for half the competence. Just in this post, they failed basic automotive. When presented with multiple weird electrical problems, you suspect a bad ground. You confirm this by making new grounds from the engine to the body and the body to the battery. If the problems go away or change, you have a bad ground. So simple, so basic, snot at the dealership.

The cam code is absolutely caused by low oil. Before you start throwing engines at it, determine where that oil is going. Incorrect filter cap o-ring installation would be a guess.
For the record, none of us have EVER had a promaster that uses oil. Not a drop. With my best of 540k on an engine, not a drop. It’s kind of amazing.
Advice: find a local shop, tell him everything, pay him for an hour of inspection. If he balks because it’s weird looking, tell him it is IDENTICAL to a chrysler minivan 2011-2018. The way to find a good shop is to call around. The guy who cant even look at it for 2 weeks? That’s the guy to go to. He’s busy because he has repeat customers.
Advice: I say this not to insult or denigrate, but if you are going to go off the grid, it’s incumbent to have more automotive knowledge than I suspect you have. Doesnt mean you cant do it, it’s just that without the knowledge, you’re more likely to get eaten by a bear. This applies to any vehicle, and machine in fact. Off grid has consequences.
Empiracism: thinking through, unless you want to loose a pile of money, you’d have to fix most of the issues with the van before you sell it. Ergo, the desire to sell it is independent of having to fix it.
Detective: it would seem to me that I have enough pieces of the puzzle. Independant contractor - cheapskate. Oil related cam issues. I conclude that dude probably put whatever oil was cheapest in it, and probably sporadically. Probably neglected many things on it. I suspect as you go along you’ll find half assed fixes and lots of zip ties.

 

[Somebodyelse]

Coolant is definitely, probably a non-issue unless really low. No matter how many times I've filled it, it drops just below the min mark and stays there. Most people report the same, and I almost feel it's a purposeful scapegoat problem for the worthless dealer mechanics to point at. Kip was being generous calling them half competent.

 

[Uvan]

I used to have the same issue with the coolant dropping below the min mark and just stays there no matter how many time i filled it back up. But I recently change out the my leaky oil cooler/filter housing due to small oil leaks. the coolant level remain the same( near the high mark), i assume I had coolant leak too as well as the oil leak.

 

[Candoot]

Thanks again to all of your thoughts and input - it is very helpful! @kip as a minor clarification, this time around I brought the van to an independent mechanic that was recommended to me. So really disappointing that they are incompetent. Agree with everything else. The van conversion is my pandemic project and I'm hoping to learn more about the mechanical side as I go through this process. I definitely do not know much at this point and everything from the conversion side comes from YouTube. I'm reading through "Auto Repair for Dummies" If there are any other resources that could help, please let me know!

As an update, the mechanic just called back. They did a flush of the oil system twice and can't get the code to go away. Now they're thinking it's a bad oil solenoid control valve on bank 1 sensor 1 of the engine. They're quoting $900. Thoughts? Is this the sort of thing I can figure out how to do myself? I'm wondering if I should just get the initial stuff fixed then bring it back home to do myself.

 

[Uvan]

here is the video to get to oil control valve, he is actually changing the cam and rocker/lifter but he did test the oil control valve too. you can google pic of it too. I think it the giant bolt that goes on the end of the cam shaft. I'm not familiar with the code and not sure if it will fix the issue.

Or he meant the vvt control solenoid??, you can test it by swap the vvt from a good bank to bank 1 and see if the error code change to the swapped bank. Looks to be very easily done at home or even at the current location, just remove a few torx bolts holding the vvt solenoid.

 

[Kip-on-truckin]

Good thinking. Move both of the solenoids from the rear of the engine to the front, and move the front ones to the rear. If the code moves, you’ve just saved $900.
Even if you dont do it yourself, you should mention it to the mechanic as it would take him less than 5 minutes to do that job.
But if that’s not it, then $900 to replace the internal phaser isnt out of line.

 

[Uvan]

I found this video that might help clean out the camshaft phaser, but you will need the AlfaOBD app($49 from the playstore), a BT or wifi obd2 scanner(i used a OBDlink LX), you don't need it for this cleaning procedure but a yellow cable adapter for adjusting other function(tpms tire thresholds, etc) that require the yellow cable.
I just checked the app and the phaser cleaning is under the Engine drop down selection which doesn't need the yellow cable, click connect, click on the drop down manual and scroll near the bottom and you will see all four phaser cleaning like the video. Also reading the comments on the video, you are supposed to turn off the engine and restart the engine after every cleaning procedure. I'm also assuming the engine should be fully warm up before you run the cleaning procedure.

 

[CarKeys]

Sell it , take a hit on the loss , purchase new .
You will never be content with this van , it's going to be a full time problem child .

 

[Motor7]

Sell it , take a hit on the loss , purchase new .
You will never be content with this van , it's going to be a full time problem child .

WOW!

I have been leaning towards buying new.......that pic just sealed the deal.

 

[keeponvaning]

Unless you are seriously low on funds new is the only way to go. People who buy these "used" vans from a dealer have no real idea what they’re getting and can end up spending as much as if they bought new. Spending a lot of time & money to convert a used van makes no sence unless it’s your only option.

 

[el Jefe]

@el Jefe - Lab for analysis? You must be one of those "Bob is the Oil Guy" types. ;-)

I love my tribology but the engine oil is probably been changed recently?