Hey all,

just the other day I drove the van and it overheated. No heat in the cabin either.

Checked things over today and:

1. thermostat is stuck closed
2. oil pan is leaking
3. main pulley is leaking oil (possible crank pulley seal is leaking)
4. radiator is leaking...just replaced last year with an aluminum and I now see red color in the radiator which normally I only fill/run prestone coolant (yellow). I believe the transmission coolant lines that run into the bottom of the rad is leaking into the rad.
5. no maintenance has been done so it needs rotor and cap, plugs and wires.
6. big manifold exhaust leak...the exhaust manifold bolts are rounded off/corroded so I need to cut those off and put new gasket and bolts on.

so should I fix all the issues or plan for a motor swap. any ideas what motors I can use to do a swap? its currently a 5.9L v8 2002 dodge ram van 3500.

cheers and thanks ya'll

 

1. PITA but cheap to replace
2. did you switch to synthetic oil? it has a way of finding new ways to leak on older motors assembled with gaskets and seals that were not designed for synthetic oil
3. see above
4. Aluminium radiators are cheaper for a reason. You can find brass/copper radiators for these vans and I'd grab one while you still can. http://amzn.com/B000C8EPME
5. easy to replace
6. That won't be much fun with the engine in place. If you have to do the oil pan gasket anyway it might be a lot easier to do both of these jobs properly with the engine out of the vehicle.

The only engine you can swap it for is the same thats in there now unless you reprogram or replace your PCM. Right now if I were you I'd be more concerned about possible water in the transmission fluid at this point. 46RE transmissions are not cheap.

 

take sometime and resolve the issues, quite a bit easier than a engine swap.

 

I went with all aluminum 3 row from http://www.shepherdautoparts.com/all...ies)/2002.html
I've been very happy so far. Price is good too.