Low-Mileage RAM Grid Bolt Failure

00:00 if you’re a ram cummins owner you  may have heard about the dreaded grid heater bolt failure that kills engines but what is it exactly and how can you prevent it i’m gale banks and i’m going to show you when we designed the monster ram intake  elbow from the cummins 6.7 engine

00:28 our goal was to improve power and efficiency  and i have to say we knocked it out of the park we achieved an 88 percent increase in mass airflow  compared to stock that’s a huge gain that you can feel but what we didn’t realize is that we had  also designed a device that prevents engine

00:49 failure with every 6.7 monster ram comes a bank’s  high flow billet intake plate it replaces the factory grid heater we did this for performance  the factory grid heater absolutely kills airflow you can see the difference our plate has no  obstructions we also designed a coil heater

01:11 that sits vertically in the monster ram so we  don’t leave our friends by the side of the road but what we didn’t realize is that by removing  the grid heater we were also removing a point of failure and when i say failure i mean total  engine failure to show you what this looks like

01:32 we’re heading north to kamloops british columbia  brad hunt and his team at protech diesel center are the go-to guys for diesel repair in western  canada and he’s got a ram in the shop right now suffering from the heartbreak of broken bolts

01:56 like gale says here at protech diesel center we  do a lot of cummins repair and we see quite a few major engine failures and engine replacements due  to this one little bolt as you can see here this is a heater grid out of a ram 3500 6.7 liter  comes out due to heat and condensation and bad

02:14 connection this bolt has a tendency to erode  and rot away and fall into the intake runner which then runs down the intake channel ends up  in number six cylinder and either bends the valve or puts a hole in the piston and or both so here  we have a 2016 ram 3500 with a 6.7 cummins diesel

02:34 it has the infamous intake grid heater bolt  failure where the bolt is broken and gone into number six cylinder we’re going to tear down  the top of the engine pull off the heater grid and find out how much damage there is so whether  or not we can salvage this engine and put it back

02:51 together with the bank’s monster ram intake to  show where the exact failure point is and you can see it right here here’s the 10 millimeter  bolt head and wire that goes to the grid heater assembly as you can see when i touch it it is  loose and broken off inside the intake and then

03:08 we will go from there we’ll start tearing this  down so that you guys can see where the failure is and how banks has come out with a solution to  avoid spending potentially twenty thirty thousand dollars on an engine replacement so i’ll introduce  hayden at this point who is one of our techs here

03:24 at protect diesel center uh he’s gonna start  the tear down process and we’ll go from there i have done a couple of these so this is  your stock intake horn that cummins is put on there from factory right in here  on the motor is where grid heater is

03:42 the power wire going to the intake powers  the grid heater that is underneath here well with the new setup that we have this is  no longer going to be installed it will be a different style heater all together so this is  the piece in question as you can tell that bolt

03:58 has broken off and here is the rest of the  intake so as you can tell this is supposed to be fixed to this it is no longer fixed okay so now  that we have this intake grid heater off of this 6.7 cummins engine there is quite a bit of carbon  in here from the egr system underneath you’ll see

04:20 it’s quite dirty and you see here there’s a  missing bolt so you have a bolt right here a nut that is in place 100 percent and you look  over here and then that is missing flip the intake grid heater over and here we go so now we  have the top half of the stud and plastic assembly

04:37 has melted and corroded and broke off and now  that has fallen from here and gone down the intake runner into the cylinder and uh is either wedged  in the valve or in the top of the piston right now banks monster ram intake assembly would have  prevented all of this from happening and would

04:56 have saved this guy this very costly repair and  possible complete engine replacement which we’ll know soon as soon as we have the cylinder head off  we’ll determine how much damage so by purchasing one of these intakes and going to this coil style  intake heater assembly versus the factory 6.7

05:17 intake assembly it’ll save you in the long run  it is a very good update so now that we have the intake off i have to hold the valve cover the  valve train injectors the jar cooler exhaust manifold and then remove the cylinder head and  then we can inspect the cylinder six to see if it

05:35 is embedded in in the piston or if it is scratched  the cylinder wall if this block is even usable so now we have the cylinder head off of this  this ram uh 3500 6.7 as you can see right here that’s where the heater grid bolt went down the  intake runner and in through the valve and slapped

06:12 around on the piston and hit the bottom of the  cylinder head right there it’s probably about a six or eight thousand gap dent in the head valves  are gonna have to come out it’s gonna have to go to the machine shop and get repaired the bolt is  wedged in the piston we’ll show you in a second

06:24 so at this point we are going to be pulling the  engine and sending it to the machine shop to have it built properly and repaired and then we’ll be  installing the monster ram intake system and the truck will be back up and running on the road it’s  not the worst case scenario it could have been

06:41 but we should be able to fix it as long as that  won’t go below minimum thickness on the head deck when we have it machined then we’ll be able to use  this head if it goes below minimum thickness then unfortunately the customer is going to have to buy  a replacement cylinder head that’s the bolt head

06:54 right in the corner of the piston right there  you can see it you can see it in the picture and it’s come it scuffed up the side of the  cylinder wall a little bit but nothing deep hello again everyone here we are with this  2017 ram 3500 6.7 turbo diesel this customer

07:21 here unfortunately had to replace the engine  due to the heater grid bolt falling into the number six cylinder wrecking the cylinder  and the piston the scene in the earlier video had he had this monster ram intake system he  would have saved his engine and potentially twenty

07:35 thousand dollars in costly repairs as you can see  this is a much better design you got your you got your intake heater up here monster ram intake it’s  a good way to go it’s a clean fit and finish you

07:46 can see everything plugs in nice and sits in there  nice there’s lots of space lots of room around it improved air flow 50 state emissions compliant  well i couldn’t have said it better thanks again brad to you and your team at pro-tech diesel  center not only is the monster ram the only

08:05 50-state emissions compliant high-performance  intake manifold from 2007 to current rams it may very well save your engine if you  want to learn more head to bankspower.com you