2001 dodge ram 1500. Just changed the water pump after a broken surpentine belt, also replaced the fan clutch. After getting it all back together ,tried to start it up and the water started building alot of preasure imediately and filling the overflow can. I took off the radiator cap and water started gushing out of the filler neck. tuned engine off. tried turning engine over and water gushes out of the filler neck with cap off checked oil and there is a slight sign of oil water in oil.
also engine turns over kind of irratically not smoothly and did not do this before the belt broke? any thoughts would be appreciated...H

 

Did it over heat when the belt broke?
If so you may have blown a head gasket or cracked a head.

 

This sounds like a bad head gasket (I almost typed plenum lol), or a crack in the block somewheres... this would give you the pressure from the combustion chambers, and also water and oil together is a bad sign

 

run a compression check on the cylinders. my first guess is severe compression leak into the water jackets. as said, this could be head or head gasket from over heating.

 

Yep. The heads are weak to begin with, and if you overheated...... time to run the compression test, and see what it says.

Pull ALL the sparkplugs, take off the radiator cap, prop the throttle wide open, and do your test. When you test the 'bad' cylinder, you will see coolant come out of the radiator. But, just the fact that you ARE getting pressure in the radiator on a cold engine tells me the heads need to come off.

 

It is My sons truck. when the belt broke ,He said that the temp did not get above 210* but who knows You know kids or Young adults!
Any how Now there is Milkshake! Also with engine running I can see on Pasenger side ,bubbles at the joint between the block deck and the head around the 2nd and 3rd cylinder. I do not see the bubbles on the driver side, so I gues I will have to do a compretion test on the driver side to see if there is a leak there as well.

 

run the compression test as a baseline measurement BEFORE pulling the heads. it gives you a clue of what you are looking for. if you have a local machine shop its a good idea to have them magnaflux the heads to check for hard to see or hidden cracks. it sucks to have to pull them back off a second time.

 

Cylinder pressure in Radiator. Check.
Coolant making its way into oil. Check.
Evidence of external coolant leaks at head gasket. Check.

The heads need to come off. End of story. Given the extent of symptoms, and that these heads are weak to begin with, I would not bother having them checked. I would just replace them. You can get stock replacements for 275 a whack for fully assembled heads off of ebay. Or, you can pay more, and get a beefier set, that are MUCH better than stock. Many companies will be happy to sell you a better set. Hughes being right up there on the list.

 

if you can afford the approx $600 for new heads - i'd recommend that route also. if the money is not there, check them before rebuild or replace. used or rebuilt stock heads won't be any better than your old ones, and still subject to cracking. whereas the new castings are supposedly better.

 

Ok so who offers the best price on a set of oem replacement heads?
If I find that it is only the one side ,what would I expect to pay if it is only warped. to have it trued?