Well, I already suspect that I have cracked my heads, I am just looking for a 2nd opinion, ( I will of course do the required checks first) Back in the summer I overheated my truck pulling my camping trailer up a steep hill.....and I mean OVERHEATED....I was trying to get it off the road on a blind corner while it was steaming like a locomotive...

I limped it home and the cause was a plugged rad, I changed it and all was fine for months...lately it has been running rough on cold startup but will get better after a few minutes, then I get a CEL, p0301 and p0304, random misfire on #1 and #4....new set of wires didn't help, and the spark plugs in 1 & 4 tell the story.......all 8 plugs are a nice light brown, but 1 & 4 plugs are 1/2 brown and 1/2 clean, with white residue on the edges of the clean side......

other clues are my new rad cap has some black/dark brown grime on the rubber (new coolant and new cap with the new rad) and I have just reciently heard a sloshing noise in my heater core that changes with RPM's

I am pretty certain about my diagnosis but this is my first magnum engine Dodge and any help would be appreciated.

the truck is a 1998 1500 5.2l

 

I'd guess warped rather than cracked, and with the gasket blown. Not that it matters much which way it went.

If you're planning to keep the truck for the long haul, you might just want to upgrade the heads and be done with them. Clearwater heads seem to be pretty popular and I don't recall hearing any bad things about them.

 

Try burping the coolant system for the gurgle noise. https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...nt-system.html


But, I'm pretty sure with all those misfire codes, that your lower intake is blown. Read this entire thread. https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...um-thread.html

 

Zman, my plenum is good, I did the Ebay aluminum plate about 3000 km ago before I overheated it, and I spent some time burping it after I put in the new rad, now I am losing coolant and its not leaking on the ground

 

Magnum heads crack a lot, in my engine rebuild, I found both heads cracked between the exhaust and intake valves below the seat. I had an extra set of the same heads from the wifes Durango, they were also cracked in the same spot on all valves.

 

Do you show water in oil (milky coloration) or oil in coolant? Should be some sign.

 

Ya I may yo clear water heads , but not sure if they will work with my 1.7 being bigger heads

 

No milky stuff yet, I am going to check further when I get home from work ( currently a plane ride away from home) but there was a little bit of dark crap on the rad cap, which was otherwise a completely new cooling system.

 

Maybe the t stat is faulty ? How full is the coolent bin ? Is it 50/50 coolent ?

 

I have put in 2 tstats as I chased the overheating problem for a bit until I figured out the rad was my issue, the truck gets up to temp fine.
The overflow tank was empty and the rad was a bit low when I got the CEL fpr missfiring.

I will give you a little history on my truck since i got it, maybe that will help.

I picked this truck up in the spring of this year, I immediatly did the Ebay plenum plate as mine was leaking, also a timing chain and a new tstat while i was in there.

i did a tune up, spark plugs were all as they should be, no abnormal deposits, but my plug wires left the metal clip on the spark plug on 2 or 3 of the spark plugs when I pulled the boot off, being cheap I jammed the clips back in the boots when I re-installed the new plugs, all seemed fine.

I went on a camping trip a few months after getting the truck, I had never pulled my trailer with this truck yet, the first steep hill the temp climbed a little high, the next steeper hill it went off the scale! but I had a backseat full of kids and I was willing to sacrifice my engine over risking anyone on this terrible blind corner so I pushed it to the top of the hill where it was safe to pull over, after cooling down for a bit and refilling the rad the temp would climb but I managed to limp it home.

At home I replaced the tstat again thinking it may have been a faulty one.....same results, overheating on a heavy pull, so I replaces the waterpump which showed a little bit of corrosion/cavitation on the housing and impeller.....same results still overheating on a heavy pull.....so I put a brand new rad in....bingo! all cured.

a few trouble free months go by and only a few thousand km's on the truck ( I havent even got enough km's put on the truck to do my first oil change since getting it) and then the trouble I described in my original post.....slightly rough idle on cold start up, missfire codes (thinking the crappy wires were to blame I put on a set of MSD plug wires) but when I pulled out my "almost" new spark plugs, as I said all were slightly light brown except the 2 I had the missfire codes for, they were light brown on one side of the porcellin and electrode, and the other side was completely clean with a slight white residue......so I am thinking that there is a crack in the heads and the coolant is coming in as the valve opens and keeping the one side of those two plugs clean from normal deposits........but I also could be entirely wrong.