14 Grand Caravan Broken Exhaust Valve

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted by Chris142
Originally Posted by HangFire
Originally Posted by Chris142
Is the head ruined? If it's just a valve have a machine shop fix it.

It's under warranty, it's not his problem.

I did not know it was under warranty still.

Was in the OP, mentioned in the last little bit of his post:

Originally Posted by cptbarkey
Fortunately I spent the cash on an extended warranty and its covered. We are borrowing another vehicle and the family isnt in much downtime, but jeeze I am not impressed.

 

[Job]

I thought cars had hardened seats as of 1975. I remember my 1971 Chev with 350 I was worried about it with unleaded gas but nothing happened. Of course I went through cars like popcorn back then. And they were priced about like popcorn.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted by Farnsworth
I thought cars had hardened seats as of 1975. I remember my 1971 Chev with 350 I was worried about it with unleaded gas but nothing happened. Of course I went through cars like popcorn back then. And they were priced about like popcorn.


Yeah, it's weird language eh? I'm assuming these are just "more hardened" or they've used a different material?

 

[clinebarger]

Chrysler has been pretty tight lipped about the exact cause. If history is any indicator.....The area around the valve seat is getting hot & the valve seat drops.
4.7L engines are notorious for this if gotten hot. The Pentastar obviously has a localized hot spot in the head?

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted by clinebarger
Chrysler has been pretty tight lipped about the exact cause. If history is any indicator.....The area around the valve seat is getting hot & the valve seat drops.
4.7L engine are notorious for this if gotten hot. The Pentastar obviously has a localized hot spot in the head?


Yeah, or did and the revised head also happened to fix that issue

I believe Ford had an issue on the 32V modular that was similar where the back of one head got hot and it could risk dropping seats or damage IIRC.

 

[clinebarger]

Yes...That's what I meant

The casting has likely been revised.

As heads on OHC engine need to be cast different from each other....These things can happen. Where heads on most OHV engines are the same for both banks.

 

[92saturnsl2]

Originally Posted by clinebarger
As heads on OHC engine need to be cast different from each other....These things can happen. Where heads on most OHV engines are the same for both banks.


Heads on OHC engines don't need to be cast different. The 3.5L in my Honda uses the same head casting for both banks. They are assembled different (unneeded ports [coolant & EGR IIRC] blocked off, cams reversed, etc. depending on orientation) but the metal casting is the same. I'm sure this is true of many OHC applications since it is more economical to cast one part instead of two.

FWIW, Chryslers have been about the most reliable vehicles I've owned. And if you ever do need parts, there's a night and day difference in price versus a Toyota or foreign make. I say that having zero brand preference-- never really had much trouble from Toyotas I've owned either.

 

[clinebarger]

You have a point with some Timing Belt engines, But as most OHC V engines have Timing Chain today.....Left & Right heads are different.

The cylinder heads on my timing belt VVTi 1MZ-FE are cast differently....I guess "Mirrored" would be a term? If I'm wrong.....It will surely be corrected!

 

[SteveSRT8]

Originally Posted by PowerSurge
Not buying the load you're selling.


As stated above, get a room. Any large mfgr has their issues.

Seriously, that Pstar engine is well worked out now after early model head issues. The overwhelming majority of them are fine, that same engine powers a lot of FCA products.

 

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted by Skippy722
Originally Posted by PowerSurge
Originally Posted by cptbarkey
I am pretty disappointed this happened with only 68k miles, and likely to dump it this upcoming summer for a Sienna.


Smart man. Once you've had a Toyota, you won't miss the Chrysler garbage. I have a family member that works for FCA and he won't even own one. Telling.


I bought a Toyota for their "legendary" reliability and it left me stranded... but all the "Chrysler garbage" in my family just keeps on going and going

Imagine that! I have a friend or two left stranded by Honda and Toyota, it happens. 10,000,000 Pentastar engines were produced as of Feb 2019, when you think of how many failed, the number is quite small.

OP check out Rock Auto, IIRC they have heads for the 3.6L. Maybe you can work a deal, maybe. Good luck.

 

[Corollaman]

We had to have the head replaced on our 2014 Town and Country at 70,000. Same issue as OP. Everyone was under the impression that the 2014+ models were fine which is incorrect. We liked the van, but unfortunately it started to nickle and dime us to death and had to move on. The head was covered under warranty I believe it still had a 5 year 100,000 powertrain warranty on that year of model we didn't pay anything.

 

[wag123]

Originally Posted by clinebarger
You have a point with some Timing Belt engines, But as most OHC V engines have Timing Chain today.....Left & Right heads are different.

The cylinder heads on my timing belt VVTi 1MZ-FE are cast differently....I guess "Mirrored" would be a term? If I'm wrong.....It will surely be corrected!

BTW cline, how is that Avalon working out?

 

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted by OVERKILL
Originally Posted by clinebarger
Chrysler has been pretty tight lipped about the exact cause. If history is any indicator.....The area around the valve seat is getting hot & the valve seat drops.
4.7L engine are notorious for this if gotten hot. The Pentastar obviously has a localized hot spot in the head?


Yeah, or did and the revised head also happened to fix that issue

I believe Ford had an issue on the 32V modular that was similar where the back of one head got hot and it could risk dropping seats or damage IIRC.

I wonder if all of the 2014's had the revised AC head, or if some were still getting leftover AA and AB heads? I have yet to see someone post which head they had on failed model year 2014 head. I was told from what I consider a reliable source that there are 2014's, and later, that did not have the revised heads. The problem is I haven't seen the casting numbers posted when head failures were mentioned.

 

[supton]

I'd be disappointed too. But is a Sienna really going to be better? I test drove a couple and didn't like them--they felt larger and more ponderous than the Caravan. If nothing else I'd bet the Caravan is cheaper to repair out of warranty. IMO I think you'd lose money hand over fist on an exchange.

I do get a little confused about this site though--when I thought about buying a Caravan, people were telling me to only buy new and then get the extended warranty. It was a very confusing message in a day of "everyone is good now and everything goes 200k plus without issue".

 

[emmett442]

Originally Posted by PowerSurge
Originally Posted by cptbarkey
I am pretty disappointed this happened with only 68k miles, and likely to dump it this upcoming summer for a Sienna.


I have a family member that works for FCA and he won't even own one. Telling.


Telling? Na. This is pretty standard no matter what the brand.

Almost no one buys the product they work on/for. Seeing all of the flaws (yes, they all have flaws) day in/day out is a huge turnoff. Plus, 8 hours a day with the same stuff is already boring. Nice to have something different than what you spend your whole day with.

My BIL is a tech for the largest Toyota dealer in the Milwaukee area, yet he drives GM nearly exclusively. Doesn't mean Toyota is bad and GM is good. Doesn't mean a thing at all.

 

[cptbarkey]

I knew what I was getting into when it came to reliability 3 years ago and hence the liberal extended warranty. My parents also bought a 14 caravan and it is running fine but it has only 31k on it, but the side molding is peeling, the AC light indicating which vent the air is coming out flickers also. Not to mention its a running joke on youtube for most watchers of South Main Auto of the multitude of Dodge electrical issues. Given all of those things, my primary driver is a 15 ram hemi that I love to thrash daily, and at 62k the exhaust manifolds needed to be redone, and brakes at 65k. I will probably also dump it later next year for something else before the manifolds pop again. (TBD).

 

[clinebarger]

Chrysler has had electrical issues in the past, But they've cleaned up their act in the last decade, The Caravan, Ram, & LX platform have been pretty good.

ARP chromoly bolts will fix your exhaust manifold issues. GM, Ford, & Toyota also have issues with manifold bolts on trucks that work hard.

Good luck with whatever you do!......BTW, I don't own any FCA products, GM & Toyotas in my aging fleet,

 

[clinebarger]

Originally Posted by wag123
Originally Posted by clinebarger
You have a point with some Timing Belt engines, But as most OHC V engines have Timing Chain today.....Left & Right heads are different.

The cylinder heads on my timing belt VVTi 1MZ-FE are cast differently....I guess "Mirrored" would be a term? If I'm wrong.....It will surely be corrected!

BTW cline, how is that Avalon working out?


Very well.....I've always liked full size sedans!

 

[zzyzzx]

Originally Posted by clinebarger
Chrysler has had electrical issues in the past, But they've cleaned up their act in the last decade


This is the first time I have heard that! Specifically the cleaning up their act part.

 

[supton]

Originally Posted by zzyzzx
Originally Posted by clinebarger
Chrysler has had electrical issues in the past, But they've cleaned up their act in the last decade


This is the first time I have heard that! Specifically the cleaning up their act part.

I've heard they're all good and all is fine now. Well, on BITOG that is... I'm still keeping myself open to getting a Carvan, jack of all trades vehicle for me, so I try to stay unbiased and open to getting a well-used one in the future.