Hey everybody, I have a Dodge Ram Van 3500 and it's symptoms lead me to believe it has a cracked engine head: leaking coolant, muddy contaminated oil, overheating, idling rough. We're pretty sure it's more than just a blown head gasket.

Just wanted to see what everyone else recommends and whether the engine is worth replacing, if I can even find a used engine head. 1997 Dodge Ram Van with 177,000 miles.

Thanks.

 

Engine size?
For the 318/5.2:
http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=dod...head&_osacat=0

For the 360/5.9:
http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=dod...head&_osacat=0

 

why do you think it's more than just a head gasket?

 

True, based on the symptoms listed, it could just be an intake manifold gasket.

 

When I went to a service station to get a diagnostics check they mentioned "depressurization." Is this also a symptom of a cracked engine head or could that be due to a blown gasket as well? My mechanic and I are going to open up the engine and see whether it's the gasket or a cracked head this weekend hopefully. I guess that's the only way to find out.

 

using an engine analyzer would pinpoint what cylinder is the problem. using other diagnostic tools, you can determine if it's a cracked head (rare) or bad head gasket based on combustion gasses showing up in the cooling system. these two simple diagnostic tests can pinpoint a bad head gasket or leaking intake to head gasket.

One caution, is if you've been running a while with coolant contaminated oil, you will do damage to the engine bearings.

 

don't beleive a computer just pull the head and see what is wrong.... i doubt it would be a cracked head probably a head gasket or intake gasket... no big deal... theres no sure way to variate between the two unless you just pull the head

 

yes there is and I said exactly how to do that. and it doesn't involve a computer. it's called an engine analyzer. it reads spark patterns. a cylinder with coolant in the mix will show up with a different spark pattern. it takes less then 5 min to do the whole test. then you don't pull off the wrong head. and with a quick test at the radiator cap will tell you if it's a bad head gasket and not a bad intake gasket.

 

I agree, after all we're not talking about swapping out a water pump here. No one wants to pull off a cylinder head only to find out that it didn't need to come off.