My truck has been having trouble for about 3 months. First the heads cracked when the water pump siezed, then a bolt broke off the rocker arm for exhaust valve in cylinder 6. I had to helicoil the bolt hole and replaced bolt no problems. Ran fine for 4-5 days, did not take it out of town, today no problem started shuddering about 35-40 rpm, shudder went away above 50 mph. I need to know if this is a huge problem as this is our family's only vehicle and I have numerous appointments with the VA every month. I am also limited on cash as we live on a VA pension. I am not asking for a handout just some help with what might be wrong, I am just letting you know that I can't go throwing cash at the problem.

 

Getting any engine codes? Wonder if that helicoil pulled out. Shuddering at that speed, that gets MUCH more pronounced when you shift into O/D, is usually an engine miss.

Have you fixed your plenum yet? (see the stickied thread at the top of this forum.)

Thank you for your service.

Welcome to DF!

 

Fairly easy and fairly cheap if you have the tools. Other than that I'm afraid there is no free easy solution. Read this, that's what I'm thinking is wrong. Very common issue btw. https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...um-thread.html

 

Beat ya zman.

 

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Once it gets to highway speed it goes away. I'm going to check that rocker arm and since I will have the breather pulled off I'll check the plenum too. Let you guys know what comes of the inspection

 

You might also try turning OD off and see if it goes away at the trouble speeds.

 

When that water pump seized, you may have caused some serious damage to the upper end of your engine.

It may be advisable to check if your head gasket is bad or possibly that your heads are cracked by checking your cooling system for combustion gases.

Lisle (Part #) 75500 for around 30-40 bucks is a tool kit that lets you see if that issue has occurred.

You fill that tool with blue fluid, siphon air from the radiator into the tool using the supplied siphon pump, and if the fluid changes from blue to green or from blue to yellow then you will have determined that there is a leak present somewhere in the engine allowing explosive combustion gases to escape the cylinders, combustion chambers, or what have you into the cooling system.

This is a problem that can potentially cause the issues you are describing so you may want to invest in the tool kit from a local parts store or you may want to have a shop do the check if their price isn't any more then the tool itself. Like I said before, the part runs between 30-40 bucks and you can even order it online cheaper than that if you search long and hard. Anyhow, those are my two cents... Good luck.

 

Both heads did go and they were replaced with new castings, rocker arm bolt is holding torque. Forgot to check the plenum but will do that soon. Thanks for all the help.

 

Have you checked your ignition system? First take a look at your wires. Are they routed properly to prevent cross connections allowing the spark to arc into another wire? Are the wires worn out and no longer shielded properly? Did you check to see that the spark plug wires hold tightly onto the spark plug terminals and that there is not a loose connection between the wires and the plugs? Have you pulled your spark plugs to see what they have been dealing with, I.E. carbon fouling from excess oil leak inside the intake plenum area? Is the Distributor cap and rotor in good shape or is it past its prime and in need of replacement? +1 on the inspection of plenum. Have you checked to see if the intake manifold is properly torqued down into the cylinder heads? Sometimes the intake bolts will loosen up and allow for a vacuum leak to develop as well as who knows what else. What kind of fuel are you running in there; sometimes these Dodges get picky over the years and no longer can stomach the cheap azz fuels us Dodgers tend to dump our pocket books into. Chevron, Texaco, Shell are decent fuels to be running and also some higher octane 91 or 93 may not hurt for the extra few bucks to see if indeed that is related to your problems...

That should be enough to start you off on your quest for success. Look into that and we'll keep pumping out the tips.