This is my first post and just for saying its a great site. Anyways my dilemma, I own an '01 Ram 155 QC 4x4 with a 5.9L gettin ready to hit 140,000. I just bought it around 4 months ago from a private seller. My gut feeling is that its a blown head gasket and i'll give you some hints why I think this. I still need to go have a compression test done to confirm this but unfortunately I think I'm right. Problems starting occuring with a P0306 code warning light (cylinder 6 misfire). So I checked and even replaced the plug, checked the wiring and even had the injection system cleaned. Light went out after system was cleaned. 2 weeks later I had a rough idle problem crop up and I mean stutter!! Light came on, P0306 code and I can't remeber the code but it was listed as a fuel relay problem. Checked and swapped the relay, nodda!. Took it back down to the shop and of course it didn't idle rough and no solution was found. So, the guy cleared the code and life went on. Another week and a half goes by and bam another cyl. 6 code. I cleared that out. I've been researching my problem and everything points to the head gasket. Here's what I've found: idles rough, coolant levels in resevoir seems to be dropping, poor gas mileage (I'm talking around 8 MPG) and it seems to leaking a little water from the exhaust. Now, I checked the radiator fluids with cap off and it was not a brown color like oil has mixed in with it and the oil filler cap did not have the milky color as is present. So, any thoughts or clues. Also, if it is a head gasket, how much does something like this cost or should I just go about it myself. Is it something I can do or is it way over my head. This kinda thing scares me to replace. Any suggestions or comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Chad

 

You need to do a compression test. It will tell you a lot about what is going on inside each cylinder. If two adjacent cylinders read really low, you can assume the head gasket is blown between them. If one cylinder reads low ... could be a valve not seating or the gasket blown or any number of things.

 

Try putting a bucket under the exhaust pipe outlet and jack up the front of the truck. See how much water comes out, and what color it is, what it feels like, and whether it smells like anything but water.

 

Misfire on #6 can also be caused by a clogged cat. Most muffler shops will pressure test the cat for free. It couldn't hurt to have that done.

 

yup could be the cat for sure. I don't know much, but when we took out a 4runner, did some puddle hoppin, we blew the head gasket, and you could see the oil in the coolant. I mean not mistaking it at all.

When my cat went in my 1500 the dealreship told me it was misfiring on all cylinders.. I didn't tuch the distro or rotorso it didn't make sence, so i put in a new cat, new plugs and wiring, Timing is/was perfect on all cylinders. Don't know what they were smoking. But mine was GONE, i had no power at all and was running ROUGH. I was also thrwing codes aswell.

 

[sm=alcoholic.gif][sm=dontgetit.gif][sm=huh.gif]

 

LOL

 

i think your mileage is just bad because you got a gasser