I picked up a 88 Dodge Ram this evening. I traded a guy a 95 Jeep Wrangler for it, so I was pretty excited. 360, ~120,000 miles 6" lift on the rear and 8" lift on the front with 36.6" tires. I was ~70 away from home. An hour into the drive the temp gauge was about a 1/4 way to H. All the sudden it started raising quickly all the way to H I Tried pulling over right away and right as I pulled to the median the engine died. I waited a while to let the engine cool off. I tired starting it again. It was hesitant but eventually started. It ran for a few minutes then died again. Waited 20 minutes or so. I could not get the engine to start without giving it a little gas. Once it started it would die if I did not continue to give it gas. Eventually it seemed like the battery died. I ended up having to have it towed home.

3 hours and $200 later the truck is on my drive way and I have no idea where to start. I called the guy I got it from and he said I probably got bad gas. I never hear of bad gas causing these types of problems.... I also noticed fluid on the ground and a bunch of it on the front drive shaft. I was told there was a small oil leak from the oil pan but nothing serious and that the oil level was full. When I checked the ground as the truck was pulling up on the tow truck it seemed like coolant but I am not positive.

Overall I really like this truck and hope it is nothing serious and I can get it running again right away. It does need an alignment, steering stabilizer and possibly a tire balance.

 

Have you checked the coolant and oil levels now? Have you started it since it totally cooled down and if so how does it run now?

 

I did not have a chance to check anything. I was on the side of the highway for awhile. I did not get home till a little after 11PM. I noticed this morning there is a done of fluid on the ground. It looks like royola purple. I'm really afraid the motor was ran with low oil and is damaged. I seriously hope not. I am not sure if I mentioned this or not but there was fluid on the ground and fluid leaking once it was on the tow truck. It was tons so I am hoping I have having two different issues here and the engine dyeing is not related to the oil.

I did not restart it again. If it was over heated and I let it cool down for 10-15 minutes, could it still not want to start and run if it is still over heated?

 

You said you don't know where to start. The basics are always the best place to start. An overheated engine is not going to cool down that much in 10-15 minutes just sitting there with nothing else being done. Let us know what you find when you check the fluid levels as this is the most basic thing right now. Be sure to look for water in the oil when you check it. If the fluid levels are OK or can be made OK by adding fluid then try to start it and see what you have. Trying to comment on what could be wrong without more information would be like shooting in the dark.

 

All I know right now is it was over heating and died and wouldn't start again and now there is a bunch of fluid which looks like oil on the driveway. I'll get a better look at it on Sunday. I did talk to the guy I got it from and he said he can get me a rebuild engine for $300. He said he'd pay for half of it. Sounds like a deal to me, but we shall see as I'd rather fix this motor if it is nothing serious instead of swapping motors.

 

$300.00 sounds more like a junk yard engine rather than a rebuilt.

 

it almost sounds like you ran out of gas but i do agree with SEAL. you should check all the fluids first. then if all the fluids look good then i would do a compression check on all of the cylinders and if the compression check looks good i would try pouring a bit of gas down the carburetor.

 

Thats I thought. He said he knows the guy. The guy rebuilt the engine for years ago for his Son's 88 Ram w250. His son totaled it.

 

It could not have ran out of fuel. I spent $60 on gas and drove less then 30 miles. The tank was empty when I picked the truck up. After I put gas in it went to 3/4 of a tank. When I started having the issues it was at a half tank.

 

maybe the fuel filter could be clogged. it sound like the engine was not getting the fuel it needed. if the tank was pretty much empty you could have been sucking up all the crap off the bottom of the tank which would clog the filter.