Dodge Durango = Sludge Engine

[thooks]

Anybody notice a 3 year old thread was dug up?

I'm gonna bet a quart of ice cream that many of these problems have been fixed, or most of the engines are done.

 

[JohnnyG]

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Anybody notice a 3 year old thread was dug up?

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MAN! Good catch! You have to watch so much stuff these days. I think it's called too much information (and hanging around for too long!)

 

[GT Mike]

quote:

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Originally posted by BlownF150:
Have a 4.7 Durango 4x4 in the family and the engines are known for durability like the 318's are. Wish I could say the same for the transmission and rearend...lol

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The 45RFE tranny behind the 4.7 has shown itself to be very dependable. When I first bought my Durango, I was certain that this was going to be a failure waiting to happen, but from what I've read on the DOC, so far nobody has had one fail. The older design 46RE interestingly has shown itself to be quite problematic, and this was the one I would have figured to be better, since it's roughly based on the old 727/904 design.

The only rear ends that had issues were the Dana rear ends. The Chrysler 9.25" were great and rarely, if ever, have they had problems. It seems like almost across the board, any Chrysler product with a Dana rear end has had problems. The Jeeps, fullsize rams, and others have all had issues with Dana rear ends.

 

[123GO]

Dead thread here but I'll give the main sludge causing answer up thats not here and why its effected so many manufactures all at once but some how missed some owners.
The oil sludge problem is reaching epidemic proportions on many 1997 and newer cars, with the following cars greatly affected: Audi - 1997-2004, Chrysler - 1998-2002,Dodge - 1998-2002,Hyundai - 1998-2004, Lexus - 1997-2003 ,Toyota - 1997-2003 ,SAAB - 1999-2003, Volkswagen - 1997-2004
Note: Lexus 400/430 ect.. was not effected due to having 2 cats...

Now notice they all started in 97-98?

Reason: Our lovely EPA passed stringent emmission laws into effect that car manufactures had too meet by late 90's. So in order to meet them they either had to add more catalytic converters to cars (2-3 like now) or raise the cylinder temps inside the engines. The manufactures on the list above chose the latter idea. Raising/extending cylinder temps/time to burn excess fuel out of the cylinder cooked the oil making the sludge issue.
Cars mostly effected early were the ones driven on longer trips,towing, idleing in traffic long periods ect...Short trip cars like to and from work, grocery getters took longer to have the issue show up. Although they will be effected sooner or later as its in that cars design...
Change oil everyday, it will still sludge up on you, I gutted my Toys cat to reduce back pressure so it could breath better as soon as I found out the issue and at 180k so far so good. No inpections here so I can get away with it as much as I hated doing it but my gas is up 2 mpg though...lol

Floor any car for a mile or so on a highway while watching oil pressure light/gauge and if the engines sludged up inside pressure will drop out due to oil pumps pickup screen blocked from sucking sludge from bottom inside of oil pan. Its like small paint chips in them.
Pull over immediately & shut it off a few minutes to allow oil/sludge to back flush back into pan witch allows you to return or go to the car lot. lol
So now you know why car makers were not worried about law suits. As usual big brother was behind it all. The EPA didnt stop there either they went after every engine maker, even forced weedeater makers to stop letting us adjust them ourself. Its gotten so rediculous!!

 

[slo town]

Hello:

I seldom buy American cars but my wife and I bought a 2000 Durango SLT Plus 5.9L AWD (full-time AWD, not a "manual" 4x4) while we lived in Colorado for three years. We put 117K miles on that thing, ranging from burning hot high mountain heat, to absolutely brutal cold (coming home from Monarch from a ski outing it dropped to -27 degrees).

Anyway, that Durango was a total "stud". It was one of the most capable machines I've ever owned, and I'm 61. The thing was a beast. I can't tell you how many times we passed high-zoot Land Rovers or people's choice Subarus stuck on the side of the road, unable to make the snowy highway climb.

But our Durango did without me having to do anything but apply throttle and steer the thing. That beast made it easy, even with the all season tires I had on it!

I ordered it with 3.92 diff gears, along with a Traction-Lock rear diff (or whatever Chrysler calls it). The 5.9L motor was STRONG. Even with it being an AWD drivetrain, if I stomped on that thing from a stop I could leave four 10 foot long rubber marks on the pavement. The thing was unbelievably quick given how big it was! At the time my son had one of those GPS/ET measuring things - I forget the name. That Durango beast ran high 14 second 1/4 mile runs consistently. I am not kidding! My son told me the motor had to be a "freak".

I sold it when we moved back to Cali in 2003. My only complaint with it was that it was a gas hog. Otherwise the thing was absolutely flawless in every way, even after 117K miles in an incredibly varied Colorado, high altitude climate. Even in brutal, high altitude cold I was 100% confident that Durango would get me home every single time.

Scott

 

[DoubleWasp]

Those Magnum engines were surprisingly strong for their ratings. I had a little 5.2 Mag in my old Dodge 3500 Ram Wagon, full size extended, with the 3.92 axle, and I would stomp on my boss's Expedition regularly. Couldn't make sense of the cojones that van had. It just felt powerful, and could execute a power drift very well.

 

[that_guy318]

As another member from the DOC I can confirm that there's no problem with sludge in any of these motors (4.7, 5.2, or 5.9). The only time sludge ever even gets mentioned is when someone new joins and asks about what all these misinformed [censored] clowns on the internet, claiming sludge, are rambling on about.

 

[tony1679]

Yep, no problems on these motors. Former owner of an '03 Dakota SLT 4.7L here. Used Synpower 5W-30 exclusively, and during the second oci, white snot disappeared and never came back.

Very strongly considering buying another one.

Threaddigging is getting pretty bad around here....

 

[Pop_Rivit]

How much time do you have on your hands in order to dig up and find a thread that was started more than a decade ago?

 

[slo town]

Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit
How much time do you have on your hands in order to dig up and find a thread that was started more than a decade ago?


Haha! I hadn't even noticed!

Regardless, it was fun reminiscing about our Durango. It was an amazingly capable vehicle.

Scott

 

[HangFire]

Originally Posted By: 123GO
Dead thread here but I'll give the main sludge causing answer up thats not here and why its effected so many manufactures all at once but some how missed some owners.
The oil sludge problem is reaching epidemic proportions on many 1997 and newer cars, with the following cars greatly affected: Audi - 1997-2004, Chrysler - 1998-2002,Dodge - 1998-2002,Hyundai - 1998-2004, Lexus - 1997-2003 ,Toyota - 1997-2003 ,SAAB - 1999-2003, Volkswagen - 1997-2004
Note: Lexus 400/430 ect.. was not effected due to having 2 cats...

Now notice they all started in 97-98?

Reason: Our lovely EPA passed stringent emmission laws


Congress passes laws. The EPA inflicts regulations.

Originally Posted By: 123GO

Change oil everyday, it will still sludge up on you, I gutted my Toys cat to reduce back pressure so it could breath better as soon as I found out the issue and at 180k so far so good. No inpections here so I can get away with it as much as I hated doing it but my gas is up 2 mpg though...lol


So your one individual car had a clogged cat and you chose to deal with it illegally and this makes you an expert?

Originally Posted By: 123GO

Floor any car for a mile or so on a highway while watching oil pressure light/gauge and if the engines sludged up inside pressure will drop out due to oil pumps pickup screen blocked from sucking sludge from bottom inside of oil pan. Its like small paint chips in them.
Pull over immediately & shut it off a few minutes to allow oil/sludge to back flush back into pan witch allows you to return or go to the car lot. lol


My '01 Dakota V6 has no such problems, and when the heads were pulled off a few years back due to a design problem (intake and exhaust valves too close together, often cracks), no sludge was revealed. At the same time the factory installed intake manifold leak was fixed and despite all these problems, at 115K miles no sludge. All it got was factory interval changes of QSUD.

Anyway it's not surprising to find sludge on vehicles in the 16-12 year old range. It's called "deferred maintenance" (neglect) or simply old age.


Originally Posted By: 123GO

So now you know why car makers were not worried about law suits. As usual big brother was behind it all. The EPA didnt stop there either they went after every engine maker, even forced weedeater makers to stop letting us adjust them ourself. Its gotten so rediculous!!


Nothing new about the EPA constantly cranking down on emissions, it's not like their agenda for the next decade isn't already written down for anyone to read. What I find "ridiculous" (besides your spellling) is enforcement is focused on interval checks while spot-checks of emissions at toll booths or even on the road would be far more effective at finding scofflaws like yourself... but instead the EPA chooses interval inspections that are easily gamed. That's the real shame, the most pain for the least gain.