I have a 2004 dodge ram 1500 4.7, couple of days again loads of white smoke coming from exhaust tips, no water in oil but antifreeze coming out the tail pipes. Figure blown Gaskets. Mechanic says if we fix gaskets that the top of my engine will be strong and the bottom will be weak and he already hears a clanking noise at the bottom. A noise I’ve never heard I know my truck has a tapping noise and once it warms up it goes away. Just kind of want an opinion on the top of the engine being stronger than the bottom if fixed is that true, should I just fix my head gaskets? He’s saying to look for a whole new engine that it will go out at some point. Makes no sense to me.

 

If no coolant made it to the oil, likely the bottom end didn't suffer from that event. How many miles on the engine though?

 

The truck has 123,000 miles rounded up. That’s what trips me out. I bought it from dealership used 1 owner they said very old man garage kept, only 80.000 when I got it he bought it off the lot brand new he drove 1,400 miles a year, Basically. But No heavy pulling nothing of that nature from my end since I’ve had it. About 4 years now.

 

It's likely that your engine's bottom end is in the same condition that it was before the blown head gasket. You mechanic may be hearing a clanging noise, but that noise was probably there before the head gasket failure. There also may be some coolant on top of the pistons causing the engine to run rough.
I recommend you first try replacing the head gasket. With the head off, take a look at the head, valve train, and cam lobes for any unusual wear. Replace the oil and filter.
I rarely hear of head gaskets just failing. Did your truck have an overheat recently?

 

I agree with the above... change your head gaskets and head bolts and move on. I dont know if hes trying to up-sell the job to a rebuild or if he is genuinely concerned about the bottom end. I have trust issues with most mechanics.

On my old 2002 QC 4.7L Ram I swapped the heads out for race ported heads at just over 100,000 miles I went on to put over 158,000 WOT miles on it before I sold it. No issues...

Do the gasket and bolts and "SEND IT!"


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