2015 RAM Monster-Ram Upgrade Stops Bolt Drops
Hector Gordillo narrowly saved his 2015 RAM 3500 from catastrophic disaster. A loose bolt nearly turned his Cummins engine into another grid heater failure casualty. Initially, he ignored an intake air heater trouble code. However, his truck suddenly shut down during a remote start attempt. “I pulled the intake plate and saw the nut had broken off,” Hector explains. “It was sitting right there in the manifold runner. That discovery was truly sickening.”
Hector quickly researched the error code online. He discovered that factory grid heater terminals frequently fail on 6.7L Cummins engines. Without hesitation, he ordered the Banks Monster-Ram intake system. “Buying the Monster-Ram was the best decision I ever made,” Hector reports. “That loose nut could have destroyed my entire engine. Installing this kit provided instant peace of mind and better pulling power.”
“So, I randomly got the code once a couple of months ago, and didn’t think much of it. About a week before I installed the Monster-Ram I tried to auto-start the truck, but it immediately shut off and came up with the same error code. I researched the code and saw that the heater grid was a problem for these trucks. You don’t expect something like that to happen to your truck. I thought that it couldn’t be THAT bad, so I brushed it off. I had this feeling that maybe I should do something nonetheless. After researching solutions, I ultimately went with Banks. I didn’t install it until a week after I had gotten the last code, so I might have been driving around with that nut sitting in my manifold. When I took the plate off, I immediately knew buying the Monster-Ram was the best decision I could have made. I almost lost an engine!”
“When I was looking online for more information, I spent a lot of time on YouTube,” Hector confesses. “YouTube is good, and it’s bad at the same time. You can go down a rabbit hole, and it can be really confusing because everyone is a self-proclaimed expert mechanic. They all had their opinions, ranging from ‘it’ll never happen’ to ‘save your engine by getting rid of that heater grid’. Banks looked like the best option. But I kid you not, when I saw that bolt there, well, the Monster-Ram was the cheapest insurance I could have ever bought in comparison to what that bolt could have cost me. People dismiss the problem and say that it only happens to a small percent, but I just so happened to be in that percent!”
“The install was really pretty easy, and I had no problems. In addition to peace of mind, the truck now performs better and pulls harder. As far as I’m concerned, the Monster-Ram is a total win.”
Electrical Arcing Mechanics and the 2015 RAM Monster-Ram Upgrade
Factory 6.7L Cummins engines feature a dangerous flaw in the intake heater design. Engine vibration gradually loosens the retaining nut on the electrical terminal stud. Once mechanical torque preload is lost, severe electrical micro-arcing superheats the fastener above 1,000 degrees. This extreme heat degrades the steel threads until the nut breaks free. Airflow and gravity funnel the loose nut directly into cylinder number six. The resulting piston collision shatters valves and destroys the entire engine block.
The 2015 RAM Monster-Ram upgrade permanently eliminates this catastrophic hazard. It replaces the failure-prone factory grid with a CNC-machined billet aluminum intake plate. An isolated vertical coil heater preserves cold-morning starts without placing hardware in the intake tract. In addition, the high-flow elbow outflows the stock intake by 88 percent. This system lowers exhaust gas temperatures, improves throttle response, and provides total mechanical protection.
Related Cummins Airflow & Engine Protection Articles
- Cummins Grid Heater Bolt Fix — Learn how the Banks Monster-Ram permanently eliminates factory heater grid failures on 6.7L Cummins trucks.
- Another Failure on RAM Grid Heater Bolt — Read how electrical arcing and loose intake fasteners destroy Cummins engines in seconds.
- Monster-Ram Upgrade: Power and Protection — Discover how upgrading the intake elbow boosts air mass flow by 88 percent over stock.
- Cummins Grid Heater Failure | Monster-Ram Fix — Explore the engineering breakdown of how the billet intake plate protects cylinder number six.