Friend of mine is stuck in Arkansas with a problem to her '93.

She was cruising down the interstate when she heard a ticking noise coming from the engine and then it stopped accelerating. Steam started coming out from under the hood and the engine shut off. Then it would turn over but not start, even after putting oil and water in it.

She sent me pics today of the battery and cables. Serious corrosion, so we are addressing that first.

Do these trucks have an over-temp sensor which would shut off the engine?

Are there any common overheating issues which we can try to address first?

Thanks Dodge fans!

 

There are two coolant temp sensors on the intake manifold, one sends to the PCM, the other to the dash gauge. I don't believe either has the capability to shut the engine down.

The cause of the overheating could be a number of simple things, such as the thermostat is stuck closed, bad fan clutch, bad water pump or low coolant level.

If she ran it hot for a while, there's a chance she blew out one or more gaskets. Vacuum leaks from blown gaskets could be the cause of the non-starting issues. (Although I'm not 100% sure on this, maybe someone else could clarify if this is correct/which gaskets would be most likely to cause this issue).

The ticking sound could be a number of things and is hard to diagnose without knowing the general location the sound originated from.