Originally Posted by WD40

Not the Crossfire but I just pulled-off the largest auto-repair I've EVER DONE. I replaced all the gaskets on the front engine cover which meant I had to remove the oil-pan too cuz the front-cover goes over the forward part of the oil-pan, %$^#$& engineers!!. WHY did I do this? It is a 1999 Dodge Ram 1500 pickup and both the 3.9 V-6 and 5.2/5.9 V-8s have a common problem of the front cover gasket failing and leaking out a copious amount of coolant. The water pump was weeping too so that got replaced also and the crankshaft gasket in the front-cover got a new one forced-in since the cover was off. It took me 2 ENTIRE DAYS and almost killed me physically. The truck has been off the road for 10 months and when I filled it back up with coolant and road-tested it for leaks I honestly was surprised there wasn't a drop coming out of anywhere. ALL the belt-driven accessories had to come off the engine plus the fan-shroud (to get working room) and the fan/clutch assembly and harmonic balancer. I was quoted $1800 for a shop to do it and ON A GREAT DAY I might get $2500 for the truck so I never considered the shop option. I did the job for ~$100 in parts!!!

I literally started to feel sick when I was cleaning-up afterwards as I just hit a "physical wall". It took maybe 3 hours of rest after I showered to feel normal again and mentally after being off the road 10 months I'm still coming to grips with the fact I can drive it again!!! 😊
So why did I finally tackle it? I had a 5-month relationship end this weekend and needed to feel a sense of accomplishment.