Upgrading Oil Filter Housing....Anything else I should do?

[garycarrick]

I had Dodge chase oil leaks last winter. Among many, was the oil cooler. They replaced that but swapped my sensors over. 1200$ cdn for that job that I was going to do myself in the summer. Had to replace the sensors this summer. About 3 hours to tear down and put back together, but found that when they had put it back together, two of the upper intake bolts were stripped out in the lower.. (never get them to admit it.) So replaced the lower intake. Replaced all the injector o rings while in there. And plugs. Not a bad job but having to do it twice after I found the stripped bolt holes. (Had to put it back together and wait for lower intake to come in.)

 

[Flryder]

Check the valve cover gaskets. If they are leaking then replace the PCV valve.

 

[FORGEDRAM]

Just take your time my brother. I have a 2016 with 125k Miles. I replaced with Doorman Aluminum oil cooler at around 100k and used the seals that it came with and i still had a very slow leak. I changed out the gaskets with OEM like many others have recommended and still have a very slow leak unfortunately. I have been in and out to address that oil cooler area at least 10 times now.

I just got in there last week to replace the wiring harness that connects to knock sensors/oil pressure/oil temp sensor. Have gone in there so many times now took me only an hour to 1.5 hours to get in there and take the cooler out lol. Unfortunately upon putting everything back together, when you torque the upper intake manifold to the lower, I over tightened and stripped one of the bolts. They can strip EASY so just take your time with those plastic manifolds and torque to spec. Ordered a PUG lower manifold, should be here today late afternoon.

I did spark plugs and valve cover gaskets the same time of replacing with doorman oil cooler just as preventative maintenance. I looked at your picture and your valve cover gaskets look to be the issue but like others have said, clean and de grease that bad girl to pinpoint.

To check if your oil cooler is leaking, you can look straight down the filter housing with a flashlight and can usually spot oil there in the valley, take a video with flash to see. If its leaking, it will leak down the backside of your motor.

Again, just take your time. Let me know if you have any questions dude.

 

[Toon12]

I replaced my oil filter canister with a Baxter oil filter adapter because I read the 3.6L engine suffered from dry starts caused by the oil filter element not having an anti drain back valve. With the high mounted filter this would cause premature engine wear. Has anyone else heard this or did I get bad information?
The problem thereafter was the air box needed to be removed to change out the spin on oil filter.

Today I installed the K&N air intake system to make it easier to do an oil change.


I now have easier oil filter access.

 

[BenchTest]

I think Baxter has a good marketing team.

 

[Toon12]

Yes I think they do too and their accounting team is certainly working hard for them as well.
If you live in Canada here are 654 reasons you may not want to do this upgrade.


I suppose we all live on hope of some sort. Some of us leave their equipment stock and hope that it will be OK, others do what they can to mitigate failure and hope that it's enough.
I started down this road because at 30,000 Kms my Ram engine started to develop a tick, and I seriously dislike an engine tick. I really would like this truck to last me 10 to 20 years. I'm old and I just can't afford another new one.
I did some research and several sources, Truck U, Northridge 4X4 and several forums suggested that oil drain back and dry starts were a possible shortcoming with these 3.6L engines. So I begrudgingly bit the bullet, 654 of them and did the upgrade. Now I admit these sources may be prone to some marketing bias.
However in my real world experience after driving for a while with this upgrade the tick is gone and the engine sounds better on start up (no rattle). I have now driven 14,000 Kms with this upgrade and so far so good.

 

[BenchTest]

Yes I think they do too and their accounting team is certainly working hard for them as well.
If you live in Canada here are 654 reasons you may not want to do this upgrade.
View attachment 575626

I suppose we all live on hope of some sort. Some of us leave their equipment stock and hope that it will be OK, others do what they can to mitigate failure and hope that it's enough.
I started down this road because at 30,000 Kms my Ram engine started to develop a tick, and I seriously dislike an engine tick. I really would like this truck to last me 10 to 20 years. I'm old and I just can't afford another new one.
I did some research and several sources, Truck U, Northridge 4X4 and several forums suggested that oil drain back and dry starts were a possible shortcoming with these 3.6L engines. So I begrudgingly bit the bullet, 654 of them and did the upgrade. Now I admit these sources may be prone to some marketing bias.
However in my real world experience after driving for a while with this upgrade the tick is gone and the engine sounds better on start up (no rattle). I have now driven 14,000 Kms with this upgrade and so far so good.

Well, hopefully it gives you the longevity you seek. I have about 112K miles on my 3.6L currently. It has the startup rattle that you reference. It's had it as long as I can remember. In my previous life, I had about 70 of these engines in a fleet. They got driven hard (most of them), lots of hours of idle time, guys not keeping up with timely oil changes/maintenance, etc. Most of the engines ran over 200K without any failures. We had several that rattled and ticked ticked ticked away at idle due to failing bearings in the rockers. Some guys pushed theirs until they died and subsequently ate up some cams. The earlier units seemed to have the most problems with cams/rockers and the later units didn't seem to have the issue at all. I've read quite a bit and spoken with several guys "in the know" about these Pentastar engines... a common thread is idle time. Doesn't seem that they oil the extreme ends of the cams very well when they are idling, at least in the earlier versions. I don't know what, if anything, changed in the more recent versions. Better oil pressure running through better orifices at lower speeds? Maybe. Just because, I throw in a bit of moly (about 100ml) during my oil changes to help possibly mitigate low speed oiling issues and get a bit more "cushion". If it doesn't end up helping prevent early failure, I'm not out much. If it does help, then yay for moly. We shall see.

I've had to turn a lot of wrenches on this truck to keep it properly maintained and road-ready in my ownership time. No vehicle is perfect, but this one certainly has required a lot to keep it going.

 

[Toon12]

Some of the threads here indicate that their oil pressure at idle is quite low in the 5-10 psi range which may be causing the oil shortage at idle on the camshaft ends. My engine seems to be much better as seen in this photo.

240 kPa is equal to about 34.8 psi at idle which is much better. One advantage of doing our own maintenance is awareness of condition when we service these engines. I recently used a Fram XG10060 filter and when I removed the filter it had gotten hot enough to bubble the non slip paint.

Now I understand the oil goes through the filter before it goes through the oil cooler but unless this is crappy paint, this engine runs quite hot. That probably explains why the OE plastic oil filter cap cracks and fails on these 3.6L engines.

 

[tiffytiff25]

Does anyone have experience/tips for removing and replacing the hose that connects to the oil cooler?

04893244AC Is the part number I believe…

 

[star_deceiver]

Does anyone have experience/tips for removing and replacing the hose that connects to the oil cooler?

04893244AC Is the part number I believe…

Buy one of these.

 

[tiffytiff25]

On that note, while I was back there where the hose inserts, I noticed this…..looks kind of like a nylon strap that snapped? Was it anything important? Or just something attached there to hold the hoses, and it’s not a crucial part.

Like it’s not a belt or an electrical cable, is it?

It’s like maybe orange and green…

 

[Toon12]

To me that looks like the engine ground strap and if that is what it is, then yes it needs to be repaired.
From service manual.
Engine-to-body ground strap - This length of braided ground strap has an eyelet terminal connector crimped to each end. One end is secured to the engine cylinder head(s). The other is secured to the plenum at the exhaust heat shield forward/outer attaching stud.

#1 is the ground strap at the cylinder head location.

 

[tiffytiff25]

To me that looks like the engine ground strap and if that is what it is, then yes it needs to be repaired.
From service manual.
Engine-to-body ground strap - This length of braided ground strap has an eyelet terminal connector crimped to each end. One end is secured to the engine cylinder head(s). The other is secured to the plenum at the exhaust heat shield forward/outer attaching stud.
View attachment 575799
#1 is the ground strap at the cylinder head location.

Thank you!!!!

This might explain why sometimes I have been having random electrical glitches - like occasionally my truck won’t start, then I gotta remove the key and try again and it starts; or the screen will randomly turn off and then on (like maybe a couple times a year), and sometimes random door locks won’t open with the remote.

I’m guessing this is the spot the other end attaches to (hmm the one I ordered had the eye hooks on both ends, not this clip but I guess I can just attach this end to any bolt near by, right?)

 

[tiffytiff25]

Buy one of these.

View attachment 575784

Hmm bought a pair but man oh man it’s so hard to even touch the clamp back there.

How do you know when a hose reeeeaaaalllyyyy needs to be replaced, or if I can just leave it be hahah

 

[Toon12]

Look around carefully to see if you can see the ring connector for the broken end of the ground strap. It would be best to know for sure that this broken ground strap is not specific to some other purpose.
Most vehicles I have worked on, the engine ground strap goes from a cylinder head to the firewall somewhere near the motor. Yours looks pretty corroded. I think for all there worth I would pick up a new one and install it.

This is the one on my car, but you can get the idea.

 

[star_deceiver]

Hmm bought a pair but man oh man it’s so hard to even touch the clamp back there.

How do you know when a hose reeeeaaaalllyyyy needs to be replaced, or if I can just leave it be hahah

Considering your truck is 12 years old, I’d go this way: If you intend to keep your truck for a while, change the hose. If you’re going to trade or sell the truck, leave the hose. If you feel like testing your already well exercised 4 letter word vocabulary, change the hose. If your OCD demands it, change the hose.

Almost every coolant leak I see on this forum on 4th gen and newer trucks is from a cracked radiator. If you leave the hose it’ll probably be fine.

 

[BenchTest]

Considering your truck is 12 years old, I’d go this way: If you intend to keep your truck for a while, change the hose. If you’re going to trade or sell the truck, leave the hose. If you feel like testing your already well exercised 4 letter word vocabulary, change the hose. If your OCD demands it, change the hose.

Almost every coolant leak I see on this forum on 4th gen and newer trucks is from a cracked radiator. If you leave the hose it’ll probably be fine.

This is gospel.

 

[rvance]

There isn’t the space for that attachment. There isn’t space for vice grips. There barely space for regular needle nose. It’s an old style 2 ear clamp in a space that 4 letter words bounce off of.

In the 60s we called those MF clamps. That's 12 letters.