I have been having some issues with my 2003 Dodge Ram 1500

First off, the heat started acting up. I wasn't getting any heat at idle and I smelled anti freeze. I'm constantly adding coolant, but I see no leaks underneath the truck and the oil looks fine. Doesn't look milky or watery or green or anything.

The other day I was driving and anti freeze shot out all over. Had to get towed to my house (nice that I have AAA)

Radiator cracked so I replaced that the next day. I also did coolant flush. This time I looked up some info online and I ended up taking my air compressor and blowing out all the crap. There was A LOT of white gunk that came out. I refilled and made sure there was no air in the system (no gurgling noise inside the truck) and went on my way.

Today it has started to make the noise, except it's more like a water trickling noise. (it's still sounds like it's coming from the dash/ around the heater core) and I mainly hear it when foot is on gas at idle. (1500-2000rpm)

I'm thinking maybe the heater core is leaking, but I have no signs of moisture inside... but the smell of antifreeze is always there.

Any ideas?

 

The smeall of antifreze might be there for a few days until it's all burns off your engine since it "sprayed" all over. I would suggest pressure washing the engine bay out a little so you can clean it up. After you spray your engine down, leave it running for a while so everything under the hood can dry. Maybe like 1/2hr -45min depending on how cold it is out.

As far as the noise goes, it could be that your heater core is plugging up especially since your radiator plugged up and I assume the radiator was because of corrosion(old coolant corrodes components). You could also stil have air in there. How long did you leave the radiator cap open for to purge the air? It should be off for 10-15min After the t-stat opens up!!! Lastly, did you use the correct coolant mixture? Maybe you bought a 50/50 mixture and diluted that with 50% water making the effective dose of coolant only 20% which would not protect from boil over.

btw. Tap water has minerals and deposits them into the system causing more corrrosion. You should technically use distilled water. You can buy gallon jugs at the supermarket for $1 or $2 so each. Eitherway, your flush is better than what your running in there b4 and has nothing to do with your current troubles. Just thought I'd inform you for next time if that be the case.

 

I suggest looking in the oil reservoir.....if there is foam there, then there is coolant leaking into the cylinders. If I read correctly, you are also losing coolant, which can lead to a leak into the cylinders, which would explain it not dripping. I recently (as in now) had to get my engine rebuilt in my 02 1500 because of a small overheat. Unfortunately, the aluminum engine does not react well to overheats and my head gasket broke.....

Anyways, if there is any foam under the engine oil cap, immediately get it towed to a garage so the least amount of damage is done.

 

i hear everybody talks about burping ur truck when u do a coolant flush or cooling system work but how come no ever mentions bleeding it?

 

Nevermind I thought these had a bleeder screw in the water pump like the hemis in passenger cars

 

Oh my... I've seen this before, but it was only on the bottom of the oil cap... and I was told that it was just caused by short drives (condensation in oil)

Now it's like 10x as much and... yeah it's probably throughout my engine.

there's about 3,000 miles on the oil right now.. I usually change it every 5,000 miles but probably going to start changing it every 3,000


https://picasaweb.google.com/1010922...5/2003DodgeRam#

 

Yeah man, that's bad........get a shop to evaluate the integrity of your head gasket, mine was fractured when the same foam was in my oil.

 

rgrafton......whay engine is this??
4.7...5.7??
Either way, that's bad.
Al.

 

4.7L engine..

 

So did you get it looked at? I'm curious how accurate my diagnosis was.