Damaged Engine Block

Upper oil pan… dodge calls it a ladder frame. Lower oil pan/Front cover/chain and balance shaft have to come out. Search ladder frame on alldata or Mitchell, if not lemme know and I'll try to post a link.

Hi mark, My advice is don't attempt this. Have the owner get a good used engine that has not been wrecked. These 2.0 engines are tricky to work with and you cannot simply swap out that segment. Not all 2.0's are created equal. The replacement will need to come from an exact year make and model. Too add to my earlier reply: In simple terms that a customer usually cannot understand, they think…

“Has the owner actually looked to see what the resale value is on this vehicle?” Just want to say that I hate when guys make that statement. The resale value should not have anything to do with repairing the vehicle.

Hi Bill, I completely agree, now. There was a time I would offer unsolicited advice until I ran into this one young lady. I start off with “You know, if this were me, I wouldn't be fixing this…” She breaks into tears and says how dare you tell me what I should do. This was my grandmothers car and it's the only thing I have to remember her by… Needless to say the girl left and I never saw her…

"I completely agree, now. There was a time I would offer unsolicited advice …. There is another aspect to it that has nothing to do with sentimental value. Going by Glenn's (and others) thinking I was stupid for spending almost $3400 last week for tires, shocks and front end work on my 1999 Tahoe that has 280K miles on it :) The resale value is probably in the $4k range BUT I have kept the…

Hi Bill, My credo is the vehicles actual value is what the replacement will cost you. The salesmen will give you a monthly payment amount and not give you what actual costs are. New - $70k, trade-in $4k. You're financing 66k @ X years and the payment will be $XXXXxx a month. There's the vehicle's depreciation which costs you money. There's the added registration, licensing fees. Increased…

I do not think I see Glenn as saying we are stupid with our or our customers spending. Probably an informed decision is a good idea. Nobody needs to justify to anyone else what they spend money on. The way we might poke into some customers thoughts and life could be overly intrusive and we need to tread softly and with respect of course. My treasures may be all trash to someone else. We should…

Hi David, It is interesting to see how an honest question can be taken so many different ways. It is a thought-provoking question, but one that should be asked to the customer to make sure they understand the complexity and expense involved.

Great story. A very long time ago a mentor told me that some cars are like old shirts. They are simply put on every day! I have old shirts, and have had forever.

Other thing to consider - check interchange. The wrong motor will bolt up fine. You’ll end up with camshaft related codes if it’s not the right motor. I had customer supply same 2.0 to me for Jeep Patriot swap.

I think I would get another engine. I might be wrong but the sealer between that part and the main block casting does not look original which tells me the engine has been apart before for some reason. Just too much of a chance to take with all of the labor involved.

It is not your problem until you try to fix it. Using a supplied, used engine is a bummer to start with. Past that it is a non starter.

Hi Mark. Tell the customer to get another engine and ensure to find one that is guaranteed correct for the application. I have no idea about the internal design of the casting that is broken, but on GM engines the casting (bed plate), is machine matched to the crankcase for main bearing bores. If the Dodge casting serves the same purpose with main bearing caps integrated, don't even think of…

Much appreciated , martin.

Yea, tell the customer you another engine. Not your issue. Don't die in a war you didn't start.

🤣

Junk. If you open that engine up it becomes your problem. Let the junkyard that sold it get them another one. I do not understand this “install customer supplied parts stuff”…. Nothing but one headache after another…

Ronald, agree with you 100%. Slowly but surely we have stopped installing customer supplied parts. Most of the time they get the wrong part or some cheap part from Amazon or Ebay. It's not worth it to deal with that headache.

Hello Saul, Once upon a time (25+ years ago) installing good used parts was an option to consider and a shop could still make money. Now, we are flooded with disposable vehicles that have little or no resale value and a shop can easily get stuck owning the vehicle due to labor costs alone.

The picture shows us a time bomb awaiting explosion in your neighbourhood! Bill has pointed out the problems indicated to be even larger than the broken cradle piece, the OMG what has happened before the collision problem. Yes, you might only need to seal up the broken section and it would be fine but you have no way of knowing and you are the professional needing to be responsible for the…

The other concern beyond the external case damage that clearly appears to be collision related, would be whether there is any other collision related damage. While working at a GM dealership for 23 years, some extremely diverse mechanical repairs to a wide variety of GM and non-GM vehicles arrived in my work bay. There is often little or no consideration to the possible extend of hidden damage…

Hi Martin, I left the regular shop life for a while and worked a few years as a Mechanical Damage Analysis instructor for a major insurance company. It was amazing some of the indirect collision damage that could occur. What was worse is when body shops would literally push vehicle around a body shop and perform all the cosmetic repairs but failed/avoided to mention that the oil pan and or…

Replace it