So a few days ago a hose on my engine cooling system blew and it drained all my coolant. This happened while on the highway and I was helpless as I watched my temp gauge climb quickly. I was able to pull into a parking lot, but it died. I did some poking around with a flash light (it was really late) and only found the hose to be the problem. I have AAA, so I had it towed to a nearby shop where they fixed it. They replaced two radiator hoses (one was wearing low) and a engine temperature gauge, which was said to be faulty after overheats. I picked it up the next day and drove it home, immediately feeling a difference. The idle is fine, sometimes dropping to a weak 500, but that was there before this. It usually stays at 700. The idle sounds fine, and when I rev it in park it is perfectly fine. However, when I get going, it all changes. Before this, flooring it from a standstill would result in tire-chirping bliss. It is fairly powerful and gets off pretty fast (2002 dodge ram 1500 reg cab with the 4.7, plus a few performance mods). As of right now, it accelerates with 60% to 70% of normal power, combined with jittery rpms ( the shutter as I accelerate). The same thing happens at highway speeds when dropping down, and going up hill. This does not occur when cruising, it maintains a steady purr and no shuttering. The guy at the shop said I would be due for a tune up and spark plugs soon, but I don't think this would cause this much of a problem. I would like to get this fixed because I drive this daily, and any damage I am doing to the car by driving it like this is only hurting. Please help!

 

Still in need of help......=)

 

check your oil for coolant..
check your coolant for oil..

you may want to invest in a coolant sample kit to see if there is particles from combustion in your coolant.. I'm thinking you may have blown a head gasket.

 

You might have a damaged head gasket... Try doing a compression test and see if they are all even. Also check the spark plugs, you might not have any "white smoke" coming out of your tail pipe, but this might be the issue. My brother had that happen to him. A few weeks later white smoke...

 

Would the spark plugs be caused by an overheat? Will Tell the mechanic to look at the head gasket and the coolant/oil purity. Thanks for the help so far. Was planning on replacing the plugs soon anyways.

 

4.7 and it's aluminum heads DO NOT take overheats well at all. I would suspect at best you have blown the head gasket and at worst you've warped the heads. It doesn't take much of an overheat on this engine unfortunately...

 

Going to take it to a shop later today, at what point should I go swap it with a hemi? (what price)

 

Agreed with everything here as far as the overheating/heads warped/cracked ECT/ get checked.

As for the 02 swap to a HEMI, doable but not cheap. Not only do you need the engine but also the trans, PCM and engine harness

 

would it really cost that much to put in a hemi? I found one on ebay for 2.3k, how much more would it cost if I did the installation?

 

The tranny is the same being you have the 4.7 and not the 5.9, you have the 45rfe tranny

Engine and electrics (PCM) as weed said.