Hey everyone, sitting here bored in my engineering class now and found this forum for ram50's and mightymax's. Three days ago i bought a 95 and I'm absolutely in love with it. I've been staying up til all hours of the night with my roommates just standing outside looking and talking about the truck, coming up with excuses to run an errand just to drive it a little, and just thinking about it all day. While it looks and sounds great, the truck does have a few issues that I'm going to try to go through on my broke college kid wallet.
THE GOOD
The truck has good bones, solid rust-free frame and body, drives and shifts great, and after getting a new dryer for the A/C it blows ice cold. The alloy rims its on look great lowered down. It has a nice exhaust on it, not straight piped so it doesn't sound like someone stole my cats while i was in Walmart or something. The body is okay, few dings and dents but I think it adds character, plus these trucks were used and abused all over the country, I imagine it would be pretty hard finding one that's in perfect shape. I've already had people yelling "what year is that?" and someone in an M3 trying to set up a roll race, but we both shared a laugh after i yelled out "I wouldn't stand a chance!" The truck is the perfect example of Loud doesn't mean fast.
THE BAD
It has a valve tick noise coming from it. I wasn't able to identify the noise when I was looking at it, as it's not very loud so I was hopeful it was just a belt or ps pump or something. But as I've been driving it, its been bothering me more and more, and I'm really nervous about the issue, I want to get it fixed ASAP. After looking up some cheapy solutions like Rizlone or some other engine treatment, hoping the noise came from some sludgy oil and could be cleaned out with the rizlone, I'm wondering if its even worth it as it looks like it was a victim of overheating. The Head gasket was recently done, the head was machined, and it got a brand new radiator, which makes me think that the noise could be a result of a bad exhaust valve somewhere. I'm not scared of pulling the head off and doing a valve job myself, I would like to think of myself as being pretty mechanically inclined and able to do the job. Not to mention I couldn't afford the hundreds (maybe thousands) it would take to get it done someone here in Miami, but I would want to do a lot of research before doing so. The other problems it has are pretty simple, just some cosmetic issues like a door rattle going over bumps, a slight floppiness in the shifter, and the tailgate doesn't open. I've already looked through some of the threads here about doing a valve job on the truck from some other users, and have watched a couple videos. While it seems pretty daunting, I'm willing to take it on if it's something that makes me park the truck until that's fixed, and I need to do right now.
VERDICT
Even after talking down the seller and picking up the truck for 5k, i still think I overpaid for the truck. It's just so hard to find something that's not completely clapped out or extremely overpriced with the market here in south florida for light duty pickup trucks right now (i saw another 95 for 9grand the other day!). However, I'm still extremely in love with it, I'm going to take the best care i can provide for it. I followed the advice of the welcome thread and I'm looking up parts to order for this weekend to do some preventative maintenance. If you made it to the end of this post thanks so much for reading and checking out my truck. Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated, god bless
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