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Probably going to trade in my 2021 Ram 1500 Ecodiesel for a Ram 1500 with the 5.7 liter gas engine

21RamEcodieselOwner

New Member
Apr 16, 2022
2
0
Truck Year
2021
I just turned over 57,000 miles on my 2021 Ram Big Horn which I really like driving, obviously, right? Yes, that’s a lot of miles in 23 months. 5,000+ of those miles were spent towing a 31’ travel trailer with absolutely no problems. My story below does have a happy ending but is full of worst case scenario warnings that I think I should heed.

A month or so ago I had a constant engine light with a glow plug light that flashed for about a minute or so before going out. Dealer read the code and determined it was a #4 glowplug that was out and ordered the part. I was told no problem continuing to drive it for the month or so to get the part in. Part arrived this past week and I had an appointment to install it next day. My plan was to wait at the dealership for repair to be done. Service guy has a discussion with his maintenance tech and then asks me if I can leave the truck overnight so they can soak the glowplug area in solvent to ensure they don’t break it coming out. I mentioned that shouldn’t be an issue as this is a 2021 and that issue was supposed to be resolved with 2020 models head redesign. Service guy says they’ve already had a 2020 Ram glowplug break on them and it was a couple months before all the parts (head, etc) were in to get truck back to owner. Seems it’s rust that locks the glow plug in. Oh, and they don’t have any loaner vehicles . I told him I could wait for a couple of hours but this is currently my only vehicle. A couple hours later my truck is fixed with no issues. My concerns: the service guy was so elated that the glowplug hadn’t gotten stuck or broke upon extraction. Terms like “We really got lucky this time,” and “We really dodged a bullet this time” were being bantered about.

I thought when I bought my Ecodiesel that FCA had fixed most of the Ecodiesel engine’s systemic issues and I wouldn’t have to worry about what a lot of you are posting here. When I read the discussion about someone getting a $8000+ bill for having a glow plug replacement that included the head and the body being removed from the frame…that’s too much. Factor in that Diesel fuel is about 40% higher in price than gas right now and you’ve eliminated the higher fuel mileage incentive. I shouldn’t even mention the higher price I paid for the Ecodiesel engine, $4,995, already cut into the economic excuse to buy it.

So, in conclusion I have started shopping on line for a 2022 Ram 1500 with the 5.7 L V8 gas engine. I’ll let you know what happens as I’ve only started doing my research on them.
 

autoX

Member
Nov 6, 2022
76
13
Truck Year
2015
Good plan. The Hemi's are great trucks and ton of fun to drive. My brother and I rented one for a week and it was a blast. Drove it all over southern Ontario including a trip and some 4x4 to the family cottage.

Contrast to the 2015 EcoD and it's like what the hey. Probably the worst $$ per ton of metal decision I've ever made. However I did learn a lot about SCR, DPF, DEF, EGR, NOX, ULSD, lubricity, viscosity, regens, tunes, deletes, CP4s, and more! So being an engineer it's all good stuff. And we work for an energy company so having a diesel gives us cred with ops and maintenance.

Having blown our engine out at just 28K miles had me shopping seriously for the Hemi like you. But I decided to hook the EcoD electrodes back up to my body and give it another go. Good used motor, expert install with delete this time and we'll see how things go! Last chance here.

The deleted EcoD drives much closer to the Hemi in terms of throttle response and quickness. Went back country skiing today and we averaged 9L/100km, through snowy conditions. And have enough in the tank to head south on the Island for Xmas. It is a bit smelly though. Something a gas with cats is not.
 

Catfish

New Member
Oct 30, 2022
13
3
Truck Year
2016
Holy Cow! I just purchased my 2016 (used) Eco-Diesel about 4 months ago... After joining and reading some of these posts, I'm going to regret making this purchase if things go the way have for some of y'all. I'm not rich and I'm making notes on mine, there is no way I could afford to pay for an engine and not have the wheels. I'm riding around bragging about my truck to my friends, maybe I'll just be quite from now on!
Hope things work out, thanks- Mike
 
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