Pentastar 3.6 recommendations

nobb said:
I'm wondering if that's from people overtightening. It's a plastic housing and the cap is sealed with an O-ring. Therefore there's absolutely no reason to try and torque it down any further once it's fully tight. I may go as far to suggest that you loosen the cap by 1/4 turn after it's bottomed out to relieve stress.
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BINGO, That's from the oil monkey's that have no clue on how to tighten those filter housings. If you do your own oil changes it shouldn't be an issue.
 
I can tell you I did every single oil change on our ‘17 Wrangler and it STILL leaked at about 60k miles. Not from overtightening; they also leak from failed oring seals (there are nine of them on this unit), or plastic casting plugs. It in my opinion is an unnecessarily failure prone design that is difficult to service.
 
The use of plastic and the gasket design is a bad one and even when taking extreme care not to overtighten, they will still leak because they warp. The Dorman models are also very much hit or miss as far as leaking so it is not an absolute solution.

I am planning to install a Baxter remote oil filter adapter in mine when I replace it soon (it is starting to leak at just under 70K miles) so that I am not touching it at all from that point forward. I tend to think despite being very careful, the length of the oil filter housing can act as a lever and over time the loosening and tightening facilitates the leaking.

I have a new Dorman and a new Mopar in the box and will decide which one I will use when I start the project. I can say the Dorman has very rough casting flash everywhere and the sealing surfaces are not uniform so I may work on that a bit if I choose to use it.

I run 5W-30 or 0W-30 in my 3.6L. I have a friend who has used 0W-40 in his from the first oil change and 100K+ miles later no issues. These engines are very flexible on oil visocity.
 
racer12306 said:
I'll disagree with that.


I always torqued ours per the spec (No, I don't trust my feel) and ours leaked.
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My argument here would be that because these have an O-ring sealing the cap, you don't need to apply any torque on it at all.

I'm wondering if the leaks are due to the housing cracking or is it from the various smaller sealing o-rings around the housing? If it's the ladder, then there's almost nothing that one can do except upgrade to the metal housing.
 
nobb said:
My argument here would be that because these have an O-ring sealing the cap, you don't need to apply any torque on it at all.

I'm wondering if the leaks are due to the housing cracking or is it from the various smaller sealing o-rings around the housing? If it's the ladder, then there's almost nothing that one can do except upgrade to the metal housing.
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The torque spec is around 24N-m which is next to nothing. I do it just to make sure. Be safe.
JC1 said:
What year is your vehicle and after how many years did it leak?
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2017, leaked last year.
 
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nobb said:
My argument here would be that because these have an O-ring sealing the cap, you don't need to apply any torque on it at all.

I'm wondering if the leaks are due to the housing cracking or is it from the various smaller sealing o-rings around the housing? If it's the ladder, then there's almost nothing that one can do except upgrade to the metal housing.
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They typically do not crack. They leak where the aluminum oil cooler is attached to the plastic body OR where the plastic body attaches to the aluminum engine block.

As I noted above, the aluminum version of the filter/cooler is not always the answer either. The design of the sealing surfaces combined with the o-ring material and design is just a bad one no matter what version you choose. Dorman should not have cloned the Mopar version in aluminum, they should have looked at changing the o-rings and surface designs.
 
CarbonSteel said:
They typically do not crack. They leak where the aluminum oil cooler is attached to the plastic body OR where the plastic body attaches to the aluminum engine block.

As I noted above, the aluminum version of the filter/cooler is not always the answer either. The design of the sealing surfaces combined with the o-ring material and design is just a bad one no matter what version you choose. Dorman should not have cloned the Mopar version in aluminum, they should have looked at changing the o-rings and surface designs.
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Interesting that even the aluminum design would have problems. I'm not a fan of Dorman, but in this case they clearly identified a problem with the OE design and came up with a better metal one. Dorman's product page claims that the problem with the OE plastic is that it warps. I'm not entirely sure how they could've redesigned this part any better...the inherent problem is that Dodge/Chrysler made an assembly reliant on way too many little o-rings and thin elastomer gaskets to seal.
 
nobb said:
Interesting that even the aluminum design would have problems. I'm not a fan of Dorman, but in this case they clearly identified a problem with the OE design and came up with a better metal one. Dorman's product page claims that the problem with the OE plastic is that it warps. I'm not entirely sure how they could've redesigned this part any better...the inherent problem is that Dodge/Chrysler made an assembly reliant on way too many little o-rings and thin elastomer gaskets to seal.
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They should have machined both sides of the oil cooler and main body for o-ring grooves instead of copying Mopar and leaving the oil cooler surface flat.

This would have created a more positive sealing design and better retention "boundaries" for the o-rings/gaskets versus only on one side.
 
At only 23k miles no issues yet - I use a T handle … 2x OCI on filter …
But this is one flimsy filter/cooler design … wish it came with a spin on filter and an oil cooler that’s not on top of the engine … and that includes an O-ring galaxy … do like how easy the filter is to reach …

I switched to 5W30 once my stash rolled in that direction … the oil temp runs around 228°F driving slow in sand - and oil pressure is the same - so likely to just stay with 5W30 …
 
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Something for a lot of you guys to look at. On the Pentastar there's a bolt threaded in up against the oil filter housing. The spec'd bolt they used was too long. When the engine flexes on the motor mounts, the bolt pushes against the housing causing it to pull away from the mating surface. This issue caused oil leaks and it happened on ours. We noticed it right away and made the dealership aware. Nothing a Dremmel wheel couldn't fix in 30 seconds but the dealership was super grateful for us pointing it out as it was a major recall issue at the time. They took care of it under warranty and no issues since.
 
tnt_motorsports said:
FWIW I’m currently using Citgo 5w30 FS HM in our 2014 T&C with the 3.6L. I’ve used a variety of Mobil and some Citgo oils with decent results. I always tend to use 5w30 regardless of brand.

Just my $0.02
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Friend of mine with I believe 17’ Ram classic with 3.6 has been using Fram EG cartridge and Providence blend 5w30 for 5-6 for about 119k now. No issues.

Heck, at my work they are getting jobber filters and Safety Kleen synthetic 5w30 for 8,500 mile OCI’s without issues
 
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