Hey kids!
Got a couple of stories here. First, I got a chance to meet Sam
Partheimer(spelling?) Sorry Sam-------at the Mopar meet here in So Cal
last weekend. He is apparently helping Bruce Bridges of F&B "move
product". In any case, after attempting to drain the life out of Sam
with questions and gear talk(I didn't suceed, he's too damn easy going!),
I got him to move one of those "products" into my sweaty little palms.
The billet TB is really nice ---both in looks AND function. I'm very
happy. BUT, .......as I had been suspecting for a few thousand (yes
thousandS) miles ---my bellypan gasket was going south. So was my oil
level. I change my oil every 6-7k, and at the last change I had lost
about 1.5qts.!! On my current change I experienced the same thing! I am
accustomed to no drop at all w/ this engine, so this was quite a shock. I
had also noticed a drippy drip at the bottom of the auto trans bellhousing
too. Sooooo...........upon removing my little stock TB, the throttle
plates were dirty as expected but were a WET dirty ---the bad kind. My
99 5.2CC has 43k on it now, so I kinda considered myself lucky to have
gotten this far judging by the experiences of others on the list.
Interestingly enough, I have not experienced ANY knocking or the usual
oil puddle in the manifold. Just the interior walls of the manifold were
wet---strange. Well, I let the dealer do their thing, so well see. The
tech said that it was just starting to fail leaking out toward the back of
the engine--ahha! my drippy drip at the bellhousing! BTW I have had very
good experiences with my dealer in Simi Valley, CA -they were really on
top of the whole job, they said that they see these things all the time!
--usually I do these sorts of things myself, but in the interest of time I
just said to hell with it.
As for the billet TB, it's the 50mm flavor and really improved my throttle
response across the entire rpm range---torque and HP as measured by my
highly accurate Fanny Dyno indicate a major increase from, ohhh 2500 on
up--but the whole band is much improved. ok, thats it for now --I hope
some of you could glean some useful info from MY bellypan experience.
Enough ranting,
Ken H
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