The real problem here wasn’t just a blown head gasket. Once the engine was opened up, the factory grid heater was missing a bolt, and that bolt was found down in the cylinder area sitting on top of the valve. That’s the failure point Ram owners need to pay attention to. The stock grid heater puts a restrictive, failure-prone part directly in the intake path, and when hardware comes loose, it can turn into expensive engine damage fast. Our Banks Monster-Ram Intake and Killer Grid Heater Upgrade is built to remove that stock grid-heater layout from the airflow path. It replaces the factory restriction with a high-flow intake plate and redesigned heating strategy, so you’re not leaving that bolt risk in place. The result is better engine breathing, stronger throttle response, and one less factory failure point waiting to come apart upstream of the cylinders.
The Banks Monster-Ram for 2007 through 2024 Ram 6.7L Cummins trucks is designed to improve airflow while eliminating the factory grid heater. Banks describes the stock grid heater as both restrictive and failure-prone because its hardware can loosen and enter the engine, potentially causing severe internal damage.
Brad from ProTech Diesel Center introduces a 2017 Ram 3500 equipped with the 6.7L Cummins. The truck originally came into the shop for a blown head gasket. During teardown, technicians removed the cylinder head and factory heater grid as part of the repair.
Once the heater grid was removed, the technicians discovered that one of its bolts was missing. Because the grid heater sits directly in the intake path, the missing fastener raised immediate concern that it had entered the engine and could damage a valve, piston, cylinder head, or other internal components.
The shop used a borescope to inspect the rear cylinder and located the missing bolt sitting on top of a valve. Fortunately, the bolt remained in one large piece rather than breaking into multiple fragments, significantly reducing the potential for widespread internal damage.
Visible wear marks on the bolt showed that it had been moving around and making repeated contact with internal components. Although the engine had escaped catastrophic damage, the condition demonstrated how close the truck was to a much more serious failure.
The technicians successfully retrieved the bolt intact. Brad describes the discovery as a disaster averted because the fastener was removed before it could cause more extensive damage inside the combustion chamber.
Finding the bolt in one piece also meant there were no additional fragments from the fastener to locate before continuing with the repair.
With the foreign object removed, the cylinder head was sent to a machine shop for the necessary machining. The plan was then to reinstall the repaired head with a new head gasket, addressing the original failure that brought the truck into the shop.
After completing the cylinder-head and head-gasket work, the shop planned to install a Banks Monster-Ram. In this application, the Monster-Ram serves as both an airflow upgrade and a preventive reliability measure because it eliminates the factory grid heater assembly responsible for the loose-bolt hazard.
The truck's teardown provides a real-world example of the failure Banks is seeking to prevent: a grid-heater bolt had already separated and entered the engine, but was discovered and removed before it could cause catastrophic damage.
