blown head gasket or plenum gasket?

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bigred318

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hey everyone, this is my frist post so don't hate...please.

i have a 98 1500 with a 5.2 and recently ive been losing coolant slowly but surely. i noticed some will drip out of the exhaust and from time to time will get white smoke. its not a huge white cloud, but occasially i will get some white smoke/ steam/ whatever it is. the truck does not idle rough, maybe a little high? (i dont have a tach). its not overheating, and again, its losing coolant slowly not dramatically. my question is, is it a blown head gasket or plenum gasket? cracked head? its always started, but every now and then it will sound like its going to bog and shut down but it always ends up starting. ive heard of something called blue devil, its suppose to 'stop coolant leaks'. its about $60 and im not sure if i should beleive it. i read up on it and replacing the plenum seems straight forward but time consuimng, i would replace the valve cover gaskets as well. i heard the head gasket is really what takes time (unless the plenum and head gasket are the same thing??) dont know. well, im looking for some advice on what could be the problem, how to fix it and what the parts would cost or a reputable place to order them from? thanks guys - shaw
 
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Hotroder383

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I can save you the effort, you have a blown head gasket or cracked head. Your gonna need to do everything it take to pull intak and then your gonna need to drop exhaust manifolds and pull the heads. Send them to a machine shop to have them hot tanked and dykum checked. It's a dye that looks for cracks in the head that can be too small to see by eye sight alone. Then I'd personally have them deck the heads to insure they are flat, and raise the comp ratio slightly.
Any place is a good place to get gaskets, as long as they sell Fel-Pro. You can try Fel-Pro HS26179PT2 - Head Gasket Set | O'Reilly Auto Parts. I also suggest a new set of head bolts List: Cylinder Head Bolt - 1998 Dodge Ram 1500 | O'Reilly Auto Parts
get you a Chilton book for your truck if you dont already have one as the heads and intake need to be torqued in a set way.
The "Blue Devil" or any other kind of permanent sealer is just a band aid. If your gonna get rid of the truck in the next year then go ahead an save you some time and money an go that route, BUT if you plan on keepin her, fix it right the first time. Trust me on this.
 

Okiespaniel

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Here's some common issues to check as well.

Loss of coolant caused by ...leaking T-stat gasket, frost plug/block heater seal, heater core going out, and the toughest one I fixed....missing hose clamp at radiator for overflow tank.
 
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bigred318

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a blown plenum wouldnt cause this? and would a compression test be any help to diagnose this a little more closely?
my friend had a cracked head and he has 10x the white smoke out of his exhaust, and mine hasnt dripped anything out of the exhaust or seen any white smoke in a few days (its my daily driver) since i had a cylinder 6 and 8 misfire (fixed that). when i did the plugs i mixed up the cylinder 6 wire with the cylinder 8 wire- duhh
also, I don't have bubbles in my radiator and I noticed where the connection hose comes out of the radiator there is some build up gunk that is constantly wet. so maybe I'm losing coolant there?
 
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Okiespaniel

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a blown plenum wouldnt cause this? and would a compression test be any help to diagnose this a little more closely?
my friend had a cracked head and he has 10x the white smoke out of his exhaust, and mine hasnt dripped anything out of the exhaust or seen any white smoke in a few days (its my daily driver) since i had a cylinder 6 and 8 misfire (fixed that). when i did the plugs i mixed up the cylinder 6 wire with the cylinder 8 wire- duhh
also, I don't have bubbles in my radiator and I noticed where the connection hose comes out of the radiator there is some build up gunk that is constantly wet. so maybe I'm losing coolant there?

Plenum issues cause oil usage and pinging(detonation) as the engine tries to burn oil thats sucked into the intake from the engine valley pan area.

If any part of the cooling system is leaking or showing signs of wetness that is a problem.
 

MikesRammin

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The easiest way to check for a blown head gasket is very simple. Pull your oil dipstick and check for a foamy milky white on it. Also if it was blown head gasket you would know. It would over heat a lot of smoke and run like crap. You could have a bad intake gasket/timing cover gasket etc.
 
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bigred318

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The easiest way to check for a blown head gasket is very simple. Pull your oil dipstick and check for a foamy milky white on it. Also if it was blown head gasket you would know. It would over heat a lot of smoke and run like crap. You could have a bad intake gasket/timing cover gasket etc.

pulled my dipstick, it looks as oily as oil can get. nothing unusual about it, I haven't been losing oil it's been at the same level ever since I changed it (2 months ago). there hasn't been smoke or anything dripping from the exhaust. my ******** unscrewed the radiator cap while the truck was still warm so it over flowed everywhere. maybe the could have caused some coolant to leak from the exhaust?, that's what I was seeing. I further investigated the build up on the coolant lines and I think it's the over flow spout on the radiator res that's dripping onto the hoses? I need to look a little more but I think it's safe to out rule a blown head gasket/ cracked head because it doesn't over heat or come anywhere close and drives well and doesn't produce white smoke.
 

Okiespaniel

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Exhaust will have condensation in it from sitting that turns to a white translucent smoke as it burns off. On colder days this may take longer.
Also...one of the byproducts of the catalyst process is an acidic water. This is one of the reasons most factory exhausts have a higher chromium/stainless content.

I wouln't panic about a bit of smoke on startup/warmup unless it is very thick and smelly like oil or antifreeze. :birgits_tiredcoffee
 
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Hotroder383

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The dipstick check only works if the oil in question is leaking into an oil passage. I have found major leaks going straight into the comb chamber, no water at all in oil, just loss of coolant and white smoke out tail pipe.
But I digress, it is hard to trouble shoot a car over the internet. =) i was going off of the info in first post. His second and third post clearly show it is NOT a head gasket. Sorry if I jumped the gun. LOL
 
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