Remember me? 97 Ram 1500 318 V8, Cyl #7 Misfire problems at idle, hold idle above 1000 rpm and no misfire.
Well, our P0307 problems eventually came back again, about 6 weeks after using the Mopar CC cleaner. You may recall we've been pursuing this thing for over 18 months now.
Symptoms: P0307 during decel. from 30 mpg and/or while idling in gear.
We've been the whole gambit of all the very good advice provided in this forum, for which I thank everyone.
However, the problem is back.
At wit's end we finally took it to the dealership. They've had the truck now for 2 days. The news is not good.
Final diagnosis: Cracked cylinder head.
Upon teardown they found a crack right across the seat of the #7 intake.
Cause: No definite cause given. Presumed to be possibly related to intake manifold gasket leaks of which several were noted in the area of #7, #1 and sadly, #2. A compr check showed #2 down 15 lbs #1 down 10 lbs and #7 down 25 lbs from spec. This is interesting because a prior compr check almost 2 years ago did not indicate more than 10# variance overall. Of course back then a simple injector flush bought us another 6~7 months before recurrence. Obviously it's gotten worse, much worse.
Repair estimate: Grab your chest. $2250 which includes two *complete* new cyl heads (incl valves, springs, rockers, plugs, wires, etc) and a
12-mo/12k mile warranty from date of service.So the next question, is it worth it? Would you do it? Why or why not? Altho 9 years old, the truck today has only 83k on the clock and the body is physically in very good shape and the interior is immaculate (non-smoker). A new truck (I checked) is over $20k and of course means a truck note. I haven't had a truck note since 2001. The $2250 repair equates to less than the amount of just 1 year of truck payments.
So what's y'alls opinion?