Before I start, yes I have searched about every thread on head gaskets, coolant loss and the like. I would like to get a little help diagnosing my couple of issues.

Subject
Vehicle: 2002 Ram 1500 4.7, towing package, bought used from private seller
Mileage: 168,000 miles


Truck runs great, idles great, only hiccup I have had was a rocker came off on startup one morning, had it put back on and got to look under the valve cover, clean as a whistle, no sludge.

Problems
1. Air in Coolant
2. Hard Starting(takes 5 seconds or so)

First, I have air in my coolant, I have added coolant up to the cold fill level to see if I am losing coolant, I notice a slow drip from the area of the water pump just the other day, so of course I will be losing coolant. Just prior to this I was hearing a whining noise like a bearing going out but couldn't quite pinpoint it, I guess now I know what it was. My first question is would this leak allow air into the system. I am so scared of having a HG leak that I have performed a combustion leak test with one of those napa test kits. results I got back were kinda inconclusive, the fluid turned green, not yellow, also the bulb would not expand to suck in combustion gasses. According to the instructions if the bulb doesn't expand, no combustion gasses are present, also I may have inadvertantly sucked in a little bit of coolant explaining the green fluid, I ran the test 2x. My next step is going to be to check cylinder compression.

Second issue, vehicle takes about 5 - 6 seconds to start unless it's been 15 minutes or less from last time I ran it. I ran some seafoam through the tank not to long ago and I think this is possibly when the problem started, I pulled the front 4 plugs last Friday to see their condition, they need to be changed electrodes looked to have normal wear. #4 cylinder spark plug smelled badly of raw gasoline but was not wet. I am going to replace all plugs when I check the cylinder pressure. If this doesn't fix the problem, is it possible I have a bad coil pack or bad injector? Should I run a techron treatment through this as opposed to the seafoam.

Thanks for your help in advance, I really love this truck and want to keep it going for many more years to come. As I looked longingly at it the other day my wife asked if I loved it more than her, "of course not" I said, and then under my breath I said "almost as much."

 

Do a leakdown test. This will show a leak. Pump each cylinder full of air (one at a time) with valves closed. If you get bubbles in the coolant, it's either a head gasket or head cracked.

 

classic head or head gaskets issues with air getting sucked into the coolant system

 

If this did turn out to be a HG leak, should I replace the heads or put a new motor in. My current engine has 168,000 on it, I talked to one place just to get an estimate on a head job and they said with that many miles they won't do it. I could probably do the heads my self but I don't have a garage and winter is coming on. Another friend said it might be cheaper and faster to just drop a newer used motor as opposed to doing a head job. Thoughts? I looked at the water pump again last night, the gasket has failed and is leaking all around it, in a pressurized system if water goes out something has to take its place.

 

I would have the heads checked for cracks first and IF they pass then I would shave them and slap them back on with new gaskets and bolts.

 

Yes in a situation where water is lost air will displace it. Most of the coolant you're losing is mostly when the the coolant is hot and the system is pressurized. Under those conditions the air replacing the coolant lost is most likely being drawn in through the expansion reservoir for the cooling system where the pressure is lowest at operating temp. The air is actually sitting on top of the coolant in the reservoir. This being said once the engine is shut down and cooling, it is quite possible for air to be drawn in where the water pump and/or gasket is failing.

 

With the mileage on this truck if it was a head gasket issue I would be hesitant to do a complete cylinder head service. I'm making this statement from a liability standpoint of a business owner. If it were a headhead gasket failure and if it were my truck and I was doing the job myself and my budget was tight then I probably would remove the engine top end, have the heads checked for straight and cracks. If close to spec straight and not cracked I would just replace the gaskets and head bolts and reassemble. That would probably buy you some time. But it will fail again. Milling the head most likely will increase the compression slightly, adding stress to the crank and rod bearings with lots of wear and mileage on them already. Thus accelerating wear in the bottom end. If the heads couldn't be reused as is then a used or reman engine would go in. Its almost impossible to diagnose this particular truck in this thread without actually laying hands on it but with the info I've read so far I wouldn't conclude that the coolant loss is a head gasket issue.

 

Appreciate the responses I got on this thread a while back, I'm finally getting around to doing this so I let you all know how it turned out. What's the consensus on putting copper spray on a mls head gasket? Will it do anything to help prevent another leak, slight warped heads and so on?

I never mentioned that I have never had an overheat on this truck so with all the other research I've done, this will hopefully resolve my lost coolant issue.

 

with that mileage I'd do compression and leakdown and if the results came back bad, it would get a motor swap... simple as that....

 

Out of curiosity, what have you been doing with the truck over the past two years? Driving it, working on it, sitting it?