Some Mopar things I have seen lately

[65 sporty]

I have had a few interesting Mopars recently. First one was a long time customers 1988 B250 custom van, it needed a water pump. So while I was in there I decided to pull the timing cover also because of the fear of the gasket being disturbed from pulling the water pump. I put a timing set in while I was in there also. Here is the set I removed, still in decent shape for being original

We had a 73 Charger with a 318 in the shop, this one jumped time, this is the gear we found upon tear down. Very typical for the age of the gear set.

I had a 12 Grand caravan in with a 3.6, it had over 300,000 miles on it and it needed spark plugs. Upon removal of the plugs I found these.

3 plugs had to have been original, these were the worst plugs I have ever seen. The other 3 had been changed at some point, those could be changed without removing the upper intake manifold. I have no idea how those plugs were firing being so worn

 

[kiwigtx]

Wear and tear, and they still keep running...... not Mopar, but my Toyota van needed a water pump chage a few years ago - at around 250,000km
What we found when removing the pump was almost beyond belief.....

That tells me the cooling was been managed solely on convection rather than flow. I often sit with the engine running and the A/C on full cold.....and the engine never gets very hot. The 4-cyl 3.0 litre diesel is a pretty solid engine. I have had it 19 years now and it has been a reliable work horse for me. At 28 years old, it is still going strong.