Chrysler EHD (3.9 Magnum V6)
3.9 L · V6 · naturally aspirated · petrol · 1992–2003
Also known as: ehd, 3.9 magnum, magnum v6, 3.9 v6 dodge, dakota v6
Chrysler's 3.9 V6 — the 5.2 Magnum V8 with two cylinders removed, sharing its bore, stroke and much of its parts bin — in the Dakota, Ram and Ram Van.
That relationship is the most useful thing about it. A fault documented on a Magnum V8 describes this engine directly, and a great deal more has been written about the V8 because far more were sold. Read V8 material as being about this engine, not merely adjacent to it.
It shares the V8's intake manifold plenum pan gasket, and the symptom is the same and just as misleading: manifold vacuum draws engine oil straight into the intake, so the car uses oil steadily with a dry engine bay and no smoke. It is a comparatively cheap repair that gets diagnosed as rings for years.
The timing chain stretches enough by high mileage to retard the cam noticeably, and the distributor wears. It is an unstressed engine in a working vehicle, so a running fault is far more often one of those than anything internal.
Cars fitted with this engine
3 generations, across 2 makes. From the authored catalogue — an absent car means the catalogue has not reached it, not that the engine was never fitted.
Information, not instruction
CarGeek is a reference, not a service manual. Its pages are written from public sources and from what other people have found, never from a manufacturer's own service information, so they can be wrong or incomplete for your particular vehicle. Some of what they describe carries real risk: high voltage, fuel under pressure, stored energy, hot and moving parts.
Have anything you intend to act on checked by a trained person against the manufacturer's own procedure for your vehicle. Nothing here replaces that procedure.
Posted about this engine
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What makes one worth reading:
- The car — make, model, year and engine. The same fault behaves differently on each.
- What you measured, not only what you replaced.
- What actually fixed it — or that nothing did, which is worth knowing too.
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