Well, as I mentioned in my coolant loss thread, the head gasket failed the chemical test. https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...loss-4-7l.html


Again, the only symptom I ever saw was a persistent small coolant loss. The truck runs perfectly and I have never overheated it. I mean nothing... no white smoke, no running rough, temp needle below halfway, no oil in coolant or vice versa. NOTHING! (aside from adding coolant once a month).

Some history... The truck was already up in miles with about 245K on the clock when I bought it. I've had it since late 2013 and when I got it, it was low on oil and coolant was also down half a gallon. I later found out that the radiator was leaking, so I replace it. Now that means the PO could have overheated it at some point, but for all of 2014, I never saw a coolant loss...it was always up to the neck. It was only last year that the loss manifested and I never overheated it. I'm pretty much **** with checking stuff and I check it every week, so I'm not sure how or why the head gasket failed at the point it did. Also the failure was so slight. I mean it passed multiple pressure tests with truck running and off. Even when I ran this chemical test the color only changed when I upped the RPMs with the throttle cable.

Anyway.... I love this truck. It's probably the cleanest I've seen around here, even with the high miles. No rust here. Furthermore, I've done a bunch of work to get it damn near perfect (till this). That said, I didn't pay much for it and it's not worth that much. They go for around 3 - 3.5K on craigslist.

I don't know if I can justify the cost and time of replacing the head gaskets. Also, If I dig into it, it would be a sin not to also replace the timing chains at this mileage. I'd say I'm looking at an easy $600 in parts alone, if I attempt this by myself and probably well over $1200, paying to have it done. Now you know where I'm going with this and I hate the thought of pouring in anything, but what do you guys think of this? Specifically, the K&W stuff.

http://ricksfreeautorepairadvice.com...k-with-sealer/

With me catching it early, I think I might be a good candidate for this. Lord knows I hate pouring any of this stuff into cooling system. I plan on bypassing the heater core while I do this. Also, I'll probably use the K&W you mix with water, then flush it out... this stuff...
http://www.zoro.com/kw-permanent-hea...Q&gclsrc=aw.ds

Flame suit on...don't be too hard...I'm depressed with this sht.

 

Pull Both heads and replace all the chain parts. If you have head damage, a reman engine might be the route to take




Or....you could trailer it up to Nashville and sell it to me (: I would love to take it off your hands..maybe even trade my '97 so you'll have something to drive for a while.

 

You may find the previous owner knew it had a leaky head and used a sealer just to seal it up so he could sell it knowing full well it would show up sometime.

Probably installing a new rad and flushing the system out loosened the leak up again.

This can only get worse not better applying a sealer again.

Sounds like you need to pull the heads new chains would be a good idea.

 

I dunno, guys. This K&W is getting rave reviews all over, with situations much worse than mine.

http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f310/...57/index2.html


LOL... I've got an Accord. I drive this truck daily right now... around sixty miles a day, much of it in extremely heavy traffic. Could probably drive it to Canada and back as is.. I'm being proactive in troubleshooting this problem and I finally found the cause. K&W here I come. I'll do the block test again after. I've seen folks who claim 80K on it with no further leaks.

If I fail, I can still change the head gasket later on.

 

The previous owner barely knew where to put the oil, once I pointed out it was low. He ran into Walmart and came back with full synthetic, which he poured on top of that black oil. LOL

 

Before you make the final call, consider the test might be a false positive? I did a bit of reading on that test as I hadn't seen it before and saw that any antifreeze being pulled in would give a false positive. That plus the fact that you said it only failed after bringing up the rpms (potentially splashing a bit of coolant up to bottom of tester) would make me look for a more definitive answer before taking any potentially expensive actions or dumping chemicals in your cooling system.

Not saying your test is invalid, just something to consider.

 

If you want to be 100% sure have a shop use a analyzer on it that will give you a 100% sure result. I saw a YouTube vide were they showed these tests are not very accurate at all in fact very poor.

 

That is a very astute observation and I thought the same thing. At that point, it would be green coolant mixed with blue liquid which equals...cyan? I'm pretty sure that didn't happen but to remove any doubt, I'm going to run it again. This time I'll removing more coolant from the radiator to keep the level completely out of the hose. I've got the fluid and tester, so why not?



I don't see how it could be highly inaccurate unless liquid coolant infiltrated into the tester, as stated above. The tapered rubber end seals off any exhaust gases which might be coming from under the hood. I held the tester near the tailpipe as a test and it instantly turned yellow.

 

I still say if you want to be 100% sure take it to a shop and get a reliable test done with a gas sniffer.


You seam to be 100% sure now so why not get a professional opinion as a second test by a accurate test.

 

DakAz,


I would love nothing more, than to have you be right and me wrong. It's not just the chemical test...it's the additional fact that I'm losing coolant with no visible leak and trust me, I've searched for one. I won't spend more to have another test done. The chemical test is dead reliable and it is also a "gas sniffer". That was the reason why I chose it in the first place. It's probably even more reliable than eyeballing the head gasket. I'll just make sure the coolant level is much lower than before, when I retest. I'll post results.


Thanks.