Hey all. New user, new to me truck and came across this forum in hopes of some direction.
Truck is a 2001 Ram 5.9 magnum with 216k miles. Recently it has began losing coolant out of the overflow bottle at a fairly steady rate. I lost 1/4 inch from the max line today in no time, like less than 15 minutes, and it is white smoking from the exhaust on cold start but it either has little to no smell, or my nose is finally giving out. After purchasing the truck I saw it began using oil and did the Hughes Plenum to the truck and solved that issue. While I had the truck under the knife I did rear main seal, oil pump, timing cover and appropriate seals, timing set, water pump, fan clutch, valve cover gaskets, and fluid services on the whole truck and I am sure I am forgetting stuff. I figured to just knock it all out at once and hopefully not worry about the truck for a little while, but it had other ideas it seems. Truck seems to run fine, it is not missing, no codes, shifts out fine, and seems to have decent power. Oil looks normal, and no signs of coolant anywhere.

I did a compression check today with results below. They are all over 100, but the variance between them is noticeable. I am doing a combustion leak test tonight when I get home, and can post those results then. Any direction I should look towards other than this?
Thanks

1-140 2-180
3-120 4-140
5-180 6-180
7-120 8-140

 

Do a wet compression test, and see what the numbers do. What you have there, indicates the engine is worn. (no kidding, with 216K........) I would expect the wet test will bring the lower cylinders more in line with the mid-range cylinders... Probably time for rings.....

 

Did the combustion leak test last night and the magic fluid went from blue to yellow fairly quick. This weekend or next I am gonna pull the heads and see what I find for the sake of curiosity. If I get lucky and everything other than the gaskets check out I will throw new gaskets on it and hopefully be fine while I am getting another engine and rebuilding it to swap in. If I am not lucky then my engine builder gets a call sooner than I thought. I rarely drive the truck except to haul loads a few miles to the dump or the one mile to the home store and back so less than 20 miles a month currently.

 

Most likely the heads are cracked as it's a known issue with them