Bear with me; this is more ole truck related than you might think at first.
Background:
My wife just quit her job in Idaho to move home to TN. We're both
specialized engineers; hard to find jobs on the same end of the country at
the same time. 'Nother story though. . .
Drove the 2400 miles in her 97 Jeep Wrangler (well, at least she isn't into
Mercedes and Jaguars anymore but still can't get her interested in old
trucks). This Jeep has been very well taken care of and had only 27Kmiles on
it with 2 months left on the 3 year warranty.
400 miles from home the Jeep died; towed to the dealer; they say total
failure of engine oiling system (no details supplied); totally trashed the
engine; new crate engine at Chrysler's cost installed. Now I'll be worried
that it'll happen again though. . .
Arrived in Knoxville. When I drove it, it still didn't seem right so it went
to the local dealer. After extensive searching and finding nothing, they
finally pulled the timing chain cover on this new Chrylser engine. . .yup, on
the factory assembly line, they had missed the crank-to-cam timing giving it
poor gas mileage and low power. Fortunately not bad enough to do ping
anything or do any mechanical damage.
Moral of the story:
Just because it's new and brand name doesn't mean that you can trust the
parts you have; check everything. And before you say that this was just
Chrysler, I believe I've also heard of this same thing happening on a GM
crate smallblock once. Believe I'll check my GM crate 350's timing before it
goes in the Suburban.
Mark Noakes
58/56 Chevy Suburban
66 Corvair
86 Chevy Silverado
86 Corvette Indy convertible
Knoxville, TN
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