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Good afternoon everyone, I own a 2003 dodge ram. I also own a small mobile mechanic business so I am not completely without knowledge of auto repair. I purchased this vehicle used and have done a lot of work to it brakes ,wheel bearings ,Iac,TPs, brake calipers, and a lot of other small nickle and dime repairs as this is my work truck I need it to be reliable. I have always had a small water leak about a quarter gallon every five hundred miles.Recently I took a thirty miles trip after topping off the radiator all my gauges were reading fine I stopped to put gas in when i finished and pulled away the temperature gauge jumped to full red line.
I refilled the radiator after it cooled and it held right back at normal temperature. Now every time I come to a stop i have to put it in neutral or the engine dies.The motor takes few second surges and sputters then dies. This is a new problem and the second on the list the first being priority is the leak.I have thoroughly checked all my hoses my radiator, resevoir , water pump and my heater core and I see no signs of leaks no additional white smoke or steam form the tailpipe on cold days either. Since I have checked the obvious suspects repeatedly all I can think of next is head gaskets or a slightly cracked water jacket in one of the heads as that seems to happen to these 4.7s every so often. I am just starting my business out and my one part time job does not pay a lot so I do not have a lot of money to throw at this and right now $300 for a head gasket kit and new bolts is out of my reach. Any advice if I may have missed something small or plainly obvious since admittedly I can get arrogant at times and over look something simple will be appreciated.
On to the second problem the stuttering death while stopped, all other times the vehicle runs nice and smooth the only error codes being small evap leak codes. I mentioned earlier I have recently replaced the Iac and the TPS and they have been functioning normally for several months now. I have only had this issue after the overheat and it reoccurs every time I stop. I have been doing some research and other suggest that the crank and or cam sensors like to die if the motor over heats and may cause similar symptoms to what I am experiencing. Either or both sensors are pretty cheep about $30 each so not a huge expenditure however as I mentioned earlier money is tight hence why I started doing the side work again so I really cant afford to just throw parts at it. I took it to the dodge dealer and talked to them since i work beside it told him all of my codes (small evap leak) and he insisted that the evap leak was the issue however since I have been experiencing the evap codes for a substantial amount of time without any issues I have the feelling he just wanted in my wallet.
I know i should fix the evap codes but like i said things are tight and it is hard to justify a new charcoal canister ( has a small crack buy the inlet ) when I am experiencing no running problems. Thank you for your advice .
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IT idles just fine about 600 rpm when in park or neutral simply stopped in drive or reverse kills the engine. As for vacuum leaks yeah I have checked and I am free of vacuum leaks, when i first purchased the truck the PCV system was riddled with leaks nearly every bit of tubing was replaced. I have also checked around the plenum, heads.
The truck has a tendency to burp out a bit of coolant from the burp tube from the resvoir up top whenever I cut off the truck. Coolant is perhaps not the correct word often times it is steam and not any liquid at all which come out of the over flow tube. I have never had a car or truck that has done that before.Take it to a shop and have it pressure tested. If that doesn’t turn up anything it’s probably internal. You can then try a compression test and a cylinder leak down test to see if it’s internal (head gasket, cracked head, cracked block, etc.). My wife’s car had a small leak like this that sipped about half a liter of coolant every two weeks or so and it passed all the tests. We lived with it in this state for about 6 years and took it to at least four garages and all of them were scratching their heads. What finally worked in the end was six of those Bar’s stop leak pellets (the tabs) in the coolant reservoir and that stopped it. On that car some of them had porous blocks and when they were under warranty the dealer would replace the engine. I know all the mechanics here will boo this idea, but to me 6 dollars vs. 2000-3000 was a risk I was willing to take and it worked. Finally don’t have to buy coolant jugs with my oil changes!
Check your oil for coolant contamination. Sometimes there is not enough coolant contamination to be visible in the oil so the sizzle test is conclusive for this. The easiest way to do this is to take a little bit of the oil from the pan and drop it on a very hot surface. If it ‘sizzles’ then there is water in it. If it just rolls around and smokes, the oil is not coolant contaminated. Next, a cooling system pressure test. This will tell you if the system is capable of holding pressure. If it is, then the head is most likely fine, since there aren’t any other symptoms of gasket failure, such as coolant contaminated oil, smoke from the tailpipe, etc. If the cooling system does hold pressure, then your pressure cap is probably bad (most likely) or water pump is failing (less likely). Overheating does not always equal bad head gasket. Sure, a bad head gasket can cause overheating when combustion gases heat up the water, but the cooling system pressure test will rule that one out. You can double-down with the compression test while watching/listening for bubbles in the radiator, or use a chemical test kit that reveals the presence of combustion gases in the coolant. How this relates to the stalling is a bit more of a mystery, unless the overheating is causing a strange anomaly with the coolant temperature sensor and the computer is doing weird things as a result. If your oil does show signs of coolant contamination, or the compression test is off, then the possibility of a bad head gasket has just gotten more likely, and loss of compression can cause your stalling. Tests need to be done to confirm. 1) oil sizzle test, 2) cooling system pressure test, 3) compression test and/or leakdown test.
No coolant contamination just did an oil change three days ago and that oil was beautiful just rolled around and smoke when I got some on the heads.
I will pressure and compression test it again in the next day or so . the pressure / leak down test a few months ago was fine but things could have changed
Update I lose no coolant when the vehicle is sitting. I checked coolant level since it has been sitting at work with zero coolant loss. Then I started the engine let it run for fifteen minutes and rechecked the coolant and there was a noticeable loss of coolant.
sounds like its time to pressurize the cooling system to find where the coolant is coming from.
see if these links help.http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/what-to-do-when-your-engine-overheats
I just finished a pressure / leak down test I showed a very very small drop in pressure like 1/2 lbs drop in thirty minutes. I found a spot where the radiator was rubbing against the frame creating a small leak. Tomorrow I am going to pull the radiator and repair the hole and see if that fixes the leak issue. I did not find any evidence of leak around the heads, water pump, hoses or resivoire (never could spell that right). Once i get this leak figured out I will try and figure out the stalling problem. I will keep you all updated tomorrow after i have repaired the radiator and inspected the rest of the system more closely.
Thank you for all of your ideas so far.
Glad it seems to be external. Those leaks are a lot cheaper and less time consuming to fix. Hope the rad can be repaired. If not and you have the 5.7L you can pick a new one up for $100-$250 on rock auto.
I pulled the radiator and inspected it far closer and it was not a leak in the radiator it was slightly worn in the spot but very solid. I moved some of the mounting bracketry around and made certain the radiator now has clearance to eliminate that potential issue. I flushed the system completely when I pulled the radiator and reinstalled.
After reinstall and test drive the truck idled perfectly in drive and reverse. The bottom radiator hose did pop off during the test drive even though i tightened the clamp securely. I did not notice any change in temperature or even that there was a problem until i pulled up at the gas station. I noticed water dripping from the truck I thought it was a leak but the hose had popped off with the clamp still tightened down on the hose. I reinstalled the hose and tightened the clamp to the point my screwdriver was twisting and it has stayed on since then .
I also replaced the radiator cap even though the old one seemed to be in decent shape good spring tension( only slightly weaker then the new one) and gaskets in good shape. There has been a noticeable increase in system pressure since the new cap is in place. The hoses are firm until the engine cools when they used to be squeezable even if the engine is hot, at this time they are only flexible when the engine is cold so there apparently a the radiator cap was leaking some.
I will keep you updated depending on what happens next or at least make a happy everything is running post.
After flushing the radiator and the complete engine block as well as replacing the radiator cap which was only very slightly worn everything seems to have been holding up fine for the last 2 days. I took it on a 70 mile test drive with no problems what so ever. I am somewhat supprised that a barely leaking radiator cap appears to have solved the issues and i am waiting for the other shoe to drop so to speak but for now back up and running.
Thanks to everyone for there ideas.
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