Hi all!

I have the opportunity to purchase a 1998 Ram 1500 4x4 5.9 AT from work at a pretty good price. The body is in great shape, it has 192000 miles on the motor and a new tranny with probably about 18000 miles on it and cracked heads. I am curious what are some other likely issues with the motor due to the cracked heads? I am going to try to look at the repair appraisal before I make a decision on it but want to make sure I am not getting in too deep to try to repair it.

Thanks in advance for any info you can provide.

 

getting new heads are the way to go ,i am sure its only one cyl that the problem so repair is not worth it because it could happen in other cyl , and the fact that it was a work truck, i would go with new heads, is it cracked inbetween the valves

 

i hope you're getting it REAL cheap. at 192k, i'd lean toward a motor rebuild with new heads.

 

9 year old truck with almost 200k AND a known serious engine problem ... I might offer $1200 ... but only because of the newer tranny.

 

I agree with ^^^^^. I don't think I would buy a truck with 92,000 miles on it, let alone 192,000.

 

If this a a "company" truck are there any maintenance records for it?

Miles on the odometer have never scared me as long the price is right.

 

At 192k miles, that engine is reaching the end of it's service life anyways. Putting a new set of heads on it would be silly, unless you only plan on reselling / unloading the thing off on someone else. A work truck? I know how I drive work trucks!

Do a rebuild. A stock set of iron heads can be had cheap. An aftermarket set for however much you want to spend... A pre-built long block should be about $1500-$1700 depending, and they may not give you full core price because of the damged head(s) or block.