Hi all.

My 2003 Dodge Ram 2500 5.7l hemi is over heating on me. It over heated a few days ago, as well as my battery gauge in the truck showed it was not charging. I managed to make it to a friends house that night and left the truck there. Of course I had lost a lot of coolant so the next morning I topped it up with water to get it home. I started it and it appeared to be leaking out instantly, so I looked for a leak under the hood and could not find were it was coming from. After running for about a minute the leak just stopped, so I drove the truck home (about 20 miles) and it ran flawlessly. The next day I went to drive it and it overheated in about ten minutes. The belt was also squeeling and there was no heat in the cab. It also was not charging and the power steering was sloppy. I would assume the charging and power steering issues are because the belt was wet and slipping. Is the no heat issue in the cab related to the belt slipping as well. Also why is the truck over heating. Any Ideas of what the problem is would be appreciated.

 

I don't know these engines good enough yet, is there any chance a thermostat by-pass hose has a hole in it?
if there's no cab heat then your heater core has no coolant in it, or no flow. the heater core should always have flow, (depending on where the flow control valve is) even if the engine is still cold and the thermostat is still closed

 

My amatuer guess would be your water pump is seized up.

 

my guess: waterpump or heater core...

 

Me too. Take the belt off and try to spin the water pump by hand. If it's binding up, has play up and down, or you can hear/feel the bearings rattleing around, then the wp is your problem.

 

Check the hose between the radiator cap and the overflow bottle. When the cooling system is full, the pressure pushes the coolant out of the rad cap into the overflow.
As the system cools down, the cooling system contracts and sucks coolant into the block (system). If there is a hole in the hose between the two, or it has fallen off, or the bottle has a hole or crack in it, the coolant ends up on the ground. The engine will run fine while its warmed up. When you shut it off and it cools down, it draws air, instead of coolant, back into the block. Next time you start it up-----not enough coolant, and you overheat, plus you get to re-burp the engine and heater core.

 

No heat in cab, most likely heater core.

 

Heater core does not make sense since he has other issues: "belt was squealing, alternator not charging and the power steering was sloppy". If you could get coolant spraying on the belt from a heater core leak, that would be some crazy physics. He either has a leak that is spraying on the belt thus allowing it to slip and cause other issues, or the water pump is going out and puking coolant out the weep hole and/or binding up and causing the belt not to spin. The overheating is due to loss of coolant or the water pump not spinning and circulating coolant, both of which would also explain no heat in the cab.

 

Odds on it's the water pump

 

had any stop leak or anything like that been added? heater core might need flushed and im also +1 on the water pump!