ok well new here and nice to find this site. need advice asap. so here's the deal, 5.9 on a 98 ram 1500 has been leaking for a while on the timing cover around the top bolts( took 5 months to figure that out.) but I hardly drove it cause im a over the road truck driver and did not have time to work on it. so in November while I was gone to Texas my brother used it and saw it low on antifreeze and added water, he then parked it at our moms and we got hit with a cold front that froze it up solid. Mom tried to move it a little in drive not realizing this and the serp belt snapped and found the front freeze plug on the drive( it came from the very front driver side). when I returned I reinstalled it and thawed it out by running it for short period of times till pump moved freely and installed belt. oil stick looked a little high but assumed it was from having to slightly bend dip tube to get on belt( working outside at night -10 at that f) figured it was ok.
then the other day on the way to work its -28 and I was late so I did not have a chance to warm it up first like I usually do and after 18 miles it must have gotten so hot it seized up and died on side of road. I figured the gas line froze up because the temp gauge read 200* but looking under hood saw antifreeze spilled out of rad cap. being middle of now where and freezing I got it started ( after sitting a hour) and made it to work finally another 6 miles. I parked it in the heated shop and 8 hours later filled it with 3 gallons of fluid, pulled it outside while looking up shop (15) minuets max. get to truck and looks like a lot of excess smoke coming out tail (white) but it was very cold too so. checked fluid added 1 gallon and put on cap tight, should be all good now I thought. nope again she over heated and this time gauge went through the roof but not till it stalled out in the middle of now where again. again freezing and pissed I did a even dumber thing ( I through snow all over motor to cool it enough to start it and make it to brothers house 3 mile down road ( it ran like *h*t there ruff run but cant blame it. apparently the antifreeze is running into the oil pan because it looks like chocolate milk and is way over full on the dip, my brother tell me there is a freeze plug that can only be gotten to from inside the oil pan compartment that may have come out but iv not heard of this before. is that right or not.
so where is my best bet to start to find the leak. im thinking that for shore the timing cover gasket is shot to hell but how to tell if the heads are ok or gaskets ect without removing them. if I pull the pan and add fluid in the rad and see if there's a drain into the pan area and get some idea where it coming from ,front or back ,cylinder walls ect. also could a timing chain cover drain that much fluid into the the oil but no oil into the radiator. read a lot on this site but only find bit of info . please help my brain is overloaded some what trying to figure this out. thanks

 

Likely blown head gasket, possibly cracked heads. Classic symptoms. Do a compression test if you want to verify.

Water in the oil usually fries the bearings in short order... Likely some damage there as well.

As for a freeze plug under the oil pan, I don't believe so. There are plugs on the back of the engine that seem to only be accessible by pulling either the engine or tranny.

Good luck on this one... Sounds like you're in for a swap or rebuild.

 

im most worried about the cylinder walls, id be willing to replace bearings and gaskets , new timing gears but cant go into the cylinders the fix needs to be don asap till iv time to give her a real overhaul

 

Buy a used motor to drop in there. That's gonna be your best/cheapest/surest option.

 

This is indeed your best move R&R the motor. I have dealt with a lot of frozen/split blocks over the years as a marine tech (not winterized right). You fix them as best you can, they psi test good when cold get them up to opt temp and things go bad fast, the cracks open up and water/oil mix the end.