Hey Guys ... I'm new here .... I have never had to deal with a cracked head or a blown head gasket situation before. Got one now. Worse case scenario, I have a cracked head and need a very good replacement. Somewhere I thought I saw someone say that the thing to do is to get some R/T heads, and that a person could buy brand new ones from Mancini Racing. So we are talking Cast Iron heads that would just bolt right on to my 3.9 V6 ... no problem ... right?

I hope a Mopar Long Time Guru happens to see this and answers me .... cuz ... I just do not know enough about Mopar to have a solid answer.

So if it was you .... and assuming you are pretty savvy with Mopar ... and this was your engine ... and you felt that you wanted to get a set of new iron heads ... what would you do?

How do I know I have a cracked head / blown head gasket? 1 - Found evidence of coolant in the engine oil 2- found coolant dripping out the exhaust 3- found coolant apparently dripping from the head gasket area of one the the heads ( rear of the head )

What have you done so far? flushed the cooling system mega- good ... ( by the way did the flush on a stone cold engine with the thermostat removed ) .... changed my old busted water pump with a new, real Mopar unit ( water pump had failed 2 miles from home and I limped it back ... thus overheated the engine .. that is where all this trouble started ) ... changed-out the water pump and then found the above mentioned issues upon first start-up and test. Shut the engine down quickly. Changed the oil / filter. Ran a bottle of BlueDevil Engine Block Head Gasket repair per directions exactly.

Then what happened? No more coolant at all from tail pipe. No more water in oil at all. Runs quite well, actually. No weird sounds at all. HOWEVER ... still have some dripping coolant at the back end of the driver side head.

I am thinking run it around the neighborhood several more times up to operating temp and then park it and let it sit till the next day ... perhaps allow the BlueDevil to have more of a chance to do its thing, you know? I keep checking the oil and I swear there is - no - water found in it so far. And like I say .. no water or steam or anything out the tail pipe either. And it runs quite nice ... not missing or anything.

Never had to replace heads before, or do a head gasket job before either. Wish I had a good buddy who was a Mopar guy that would lend a hand, cuz I would love to learn more .... been working on cars for years ... just never been in a situation where I had to do a deep dive like this ... I'm bummed. I like my rig and I wanna run it again.

Sooooo ... is your van really worth the trouble? It is a B1500 utility commercial set-up ... and also ... it is a self-contained carpet cleaning rig. No rust. 115,000 miles. Not a sled. Straight .. good paint and so forth. Transmission good ( and I just did a total service on it just for the heck of it .... just cuz I could )

Ok, so I gotta ask ..... what heads would you use ( if you needed a set? ) What do you think of the aforementioned R/T heads from Mancini?

Appreciate it if you read this far and took enough interest to offer some ideas ...... be happy to buy you a cheese burger ..... !

--- THANKS ---

 

I would expect the R/T heads from Mancini are for the V-8's...... On the V-8s, cracked heads are actually rather common.... They were poor castings right from the factory. Considering the 3.9 is just a V-8 with two cylinders lopped off, wouldn't surprise me if they didn't suffer from the same issue. I know Clearwater Cylinder head, and Odessa Cylinder head service make NEW castings for the V-8's, with thicker decks, but, I've never look for heads for the V-6.... wouldn't surprise me if they aren't out there though. If you can find 'em, go with the NEW castings..... You should be able to pick up a pair for 600 bucks or so. While you have the intake off, fix the plenum plate gasket as well. (there is a thread all about that in the 2nd gen ram section. (Link) Read thru that for some really good pointers.

That said, If you can service a trans, you can swap heads. Gotta be sure to keep the valve train parts in order though, so they go back in the same place they came out of. Aside from that little trick, the rest of it really straight forward. Gonna take some time though, figure at LEAST a full weekend.... If you are doing it by yourself, and haven't delved that deep into a motor before, probably two weekends. Just bag and tag everything as you take it off, so there won't be any confusion when you put it back together.

 

Appreciate the reply with your information .... well ... I happened to find King Cylinder Heads who has new / improved heads for the 3.9 V6 ... and they have some good google reviews ... I have not bought anything yet ... just thought I would mention that I found this shop ... I will check-out the places you mentioned as well .. .. thanks !

 

I had a cracked head right after I bought my van with the 3.9
The new design heads are stronger. I used to have pics, but there is more steel between the valves because the usually crack starting with the valve seat or in that area.
It was the best repair I ever did to my van. It isn't a hard job either - just time consuming.
I have used Clearwater Cylinder Head and also used to live a couple of miles from the factory. They make a quality product.