Hello all my name is John I got my son an older 1990 Dodge D150 with the 3.9 V6 and auto tranny last Oct when he turned 16 and got his drivers license. The truck looks pretty good and he has drove it since then. It ran hot the radiator burst and we replaced it. Some issues with the brakes we rebuilt them all the way around replacing everything but the booster and 1 caliper. The truck has had a pretty bad knock coming from the bottom end since we got I knew it was there and bought it any way the truck it self only had 130000 miles on the odometer so for 750 dollars I thought we get a year or so out of it hell I could sale for scrap if I had to and recoup a lot of my money. Heres the thing he loves this old thing and want give it up cant really blame him my first car was a 1973 Dodge truck my dad gave me. We began pulling the motor yesterday and going to make a project of it him my self and his grand dad. We are on a tight budget real tight but it has been running hot again and the knocking is getting worse. What can I expect to find. When we tear this thing down. Any input or ideas are very welcome as I am NO mechanic and he is a 16 yr old book worm and computer geek. Grandpa on the other hand been shade treeing for 40 plus years. But none of us are mechanics by trade. So let me have it people.

 

Moving to the correct section. Welcome to DF.

 

well, it could be a LOT of different things, the running hot part could be a bad thermostat, head gasket issue, bad radiator cap, low on coolant, air locked, any of those. the knocking from the bottom end could be piston slap from worn rings, bad crank bearings, bent connecting rod hitting the cylinder wall, a bunch of other things. since your taking the time to pull the engine id either completely re-do the v6, find a replacement engine, or change it out to a v8 truck. I like the 3rd option the best but its not my truck to decide that on. if you run into any problems try to post them on here so we can try to assist you in any way we can! good luck!