Our trip to Louisiana was a bit more eventful than I had hoped. The Dodge sprang a trouble light on the way out of Humboldt. I checked it with my computer tuner thingie and it reported a misfire on cylinder 8. I zero'd it out and kept going. I'd been irritated by trouble lights for about a year due to a power steering pump sensor. Apparently it tells the computer when the power steering is working to force a slight increase in the idle speed. If idling, that is. So I was not too worried by this report of a misfire.
Two days later it was actually misfiring at idle in the gas station just across the Arizona border from Needles. Premium gasoline in Needles costs $4.06. We arrived at Auntie Bernice's in Lake Havasu on Sunday night after Thanksgiving. The next day I took it into a recommended Chrysler shop for a checkup. Error codes had spiraled to vastyness. A failed oxygen sensor and injector errors along with the misfire. Bummer. Then it turned out that cylinder 8 was showing 75 pounds of compression. Ah. Heart drops.
I bought this truck new, my first new four wheeled vehicle. I babied it, changing the oil many times the first few thousand miles, then running synthetic. So, I authorized a valve job on the right head. Two thousand dollars later the shop starts it up and it bangs and seizes. Pulling the head back off reveals a disintegrated number 8 piston. Incredible.
I just put four new tires and shocks on it and that is about the value of the truck at this point. Now I have to put in a new long block engine. The shop is very sympathetic and helpful but it is going to cost me $6,000 to get a running truck back. That might be the value of it when it is done, might be a bit more than it's value.
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