Truck is a 2000 Dodge Ram 1500 4x4 Sport - 5.9L Magnum Engine

I was driving in town and stopped at a red light.. i hit the gas when the light turned green to have the engine sputter, cough and shake.. i let off the gas and coasted to the side of the road... i put it in park and rev'ed the engine and all sounded well .. i put it in drive and and lightly touched the pedal and everything sounded good till i, again, gave it some gas and it began to sputter again.. eventually on the way home it went away... now it happens more and more frequently..

Yesterday i was topping off the fruids (coolent and what not) and i noticed oil in the rad fluid .. i asked my dad and he said i probably blew a headgasket.. he didnt seem to think it was a big deal but i dont want it turning into something worse..

Any Suggestions? I dont have the money to bring it to the repair place.. whom i know will charge an arm and a leg for anything.. Would it be a bad idea to just take it apart and clean everything and replace the headgaskets.. no idea how hard it would be.. any and all help would be appreciated...

 

A blown head gasket is a big deal, the AF in the oil will wreck the motor. Fix it now or plan on replacing the whole motor. Doing the gaskets is not that bad of a job. Get a manual, take your time.


Have you checked the motor oil to see what it looks like? And one more thing, are you sure it's motor oil and not tranny fluid in the AF? The tranny cooler part of the radiator could be leaking into core of the rad. If that is the case, check the tranny fluid. Because if AF gets in the tranny it will wreck it also.

 

Headgasket is an easy fix, but it'll cost you about $110.00 in gaskets and a 12 hour day/12 case of beer of your time if you've never done it before. Honestly, it's just a big puzzle your pulling apart, there's no voodoo involved.

Get the gaskets from www.rockauto.com and I suggest getting the felpro upper engine rebuild gasket kit. Some of the gaskets you won't use, but it's cheaper than buying the individual sets. You should also replace the head bolts, IMHO. if you choose to reuse them, put them back in EXACTLY the same holes.

Follow this guide to get you down to removing the intake. Then just remove the valve covers and take the head bolts off (the 10 big bolts, not the rocker arm bolts). Cover the intake area with a towel and use a scraper to remove all the old gasket material and wipe them clean. Put the new head gaskets on and reassemble.

While your in there, you might want to replace the Plenum gasket. The bottom of that big heavy piece of aluminum called the intake manifold will have 15 little bolts on it. remove those bolts and replace the gasket under the pan. It's best to buy new bolts as the tiny ones are Torque to Yeild bolts and should not be reused. Most dealers stock them, but Rockauto should also have the sets. Hughesengines.com and apspresision sell a better plate than the slim steel one to keep the gasket from ever blowing out again, but it's an extra $90 or so to buy it.

Make sure you follow all torque specifications and sequences:

Head bolts are 85~105ft/lbs. and there's a sequence to follow for proper torque.
plenum pan bolts are 84in/lbs. and a sequence.
intake manifold is 12 ft/lbs and a sequence.

The sequences and torque specs for all the items are here. This thing is the bible for 2nd gen trucks, so hang onto it. Just use the table of contents and click on engine>find your engine>then find section of the item you're torquing down.

two things:

As you remove items and bolts take a picture of the part pre and post disassembly, and put the items in a bag and label them. It's more time consuming, but for the first timer, it's a life saver. For bigger items like the accessory bracket, put the mounting bolts back into the correct holes and set it down on the ground somewhere you won't kick it.

Use torque wrenches on the bolts on reinstall and follow the torque sequences! If you try to "bubba" the procedures, you might as well not bother because you'll really hose it. This is critical on the plenum gasket, head gasket, and intake manifold mounting bolts to ensure a tight seal without destroying the gaskets.

Good luck and post up if you have any questions.

The job can be done for about $200 by yourself or $800 if you take it to a shop.

 

You should also have the heads checked to make sure they are not warped or cracked while they are off.

 

yea im looking into gettin the gaskets needed and takin it apart.. checked to make sure it was engine oil and not tranny.. i'll be takin it apart and cleaning it all up.. replace whatever is needed.. tis an oldy of an engine tho .. has over 255k km's on it haha .. looks like that case of beer will come in handy

 

yeah, you gotta keep hydrated in the summer

 

Had that on my car. Intake gasket? Not as bad as headgasket! Lol.

 

I'm not telling you not to do it but a Head gasket is NOT easy!

Now just from the way you're talking, I don't think you're up to it, but then again I could be wrong.
It does sound like it would be a first, and again I'm not saying don't do it but here's fair warning:

Why you didn't think they charged $1,100 just because they like taking your money, did ya?

Yeah sure, hey Bob look there comes that kid with his truck, whaddaya say we charge him $1100,
then you go make some noise in back while I go buy us the beer, tell the kid it's gonna take 3 days
and we go to my house and party, now we all know it won't take the two of us but 20 minutes to
fix that thing right in the last half hour before the dude comes get his truck back, you game?
Hell yeah Billy Boy now that sounds like fun...
.....

Sheeeaaa...

I'd rate a head gasket somewhere in the 9 range on a difficulty scale of 1-10, a 1 job being putting fuel in the tank,
a 2 maybe replacing the air filter, a 3-4 the spark plugs and most other jobs like alternator rate in the 3-4-5 range,
but a 9-10 job is something like replacing a convertible top.
I'd rather do strut shocks, and I said struts.

It's one of THESE jobs:
Hopefully you mark everything as you take it apart, otherwise you'll be stuck not knowing what came from where.
Yes, it's that many parts, hoses, lines, wires, connections, nuts, bolts, you name it.

If something goes wrong you'll be sitting around with as useless an engine as you have now.
You're looking at taking the top half of the engine apart, down to where you can see the pistons, literally.
Remember now about half this engine is stuck up under the firewall / cab.
I don't think you'd have to pull the radiator so as to get the engine half way out, but I can tell you
I HATE working towards the rear of that *%&^ 5.9L V-8!

We're talking everything down to and including the intake manifold, oh and the exhaust manifold, too.
I'm guessing some if not most of the fuel rail has to get taken out, which might require de-pressurizing the EFI system,
certainly the TB and all of those connections, vacuum hoses, and it's been a while but maybe the thermostat...
No, just the hose, but still. Oh yeah, some transmission lines or some kind of trans stuff.

Some of the accessories might be all right but a fair chance you'll have to move the half of
compressor and alternator and what else is in the way out of there, too.

Getting it back together, do you know how to use a torque wrench?

On a dodge, do the valves have to be reseated?
See I don't know, but on some cars if that's not done it won't work and I don't care how well it all went.

It ought to take all day, if you can get it right the first time...

Just warning ya, it's a BIG highly technical job.

 

air filter is a 2? lol .. took me about 5-6min to change it awhiles back .. i have a friend that is a mechanic and he has been tellin me to just save up some money and bring it in and get the engine done by someone who knows what they are doing.. if i were to do it myself yea it would be the second major thing i did to it .. the first being a rebuild of the rear end.. stupid rear axle assembly *mummbles curse words*.. anyways im at odds of doing it myself .. just like lb79theone's truck mine is the older 2000 offroad sport with the 5.9 and all..

 

Unlocking the door to get in is a 1 if you have remote locking, 2 if you have to use the key. Inserting the key into the ignition switch and turning it to engage starter then release it when engine starts is at least a 3. Damn, it gets hard after that!