Blown Gasket at 72,000 miles

[mdk2]

I just purchased the truck in April 2021. Had just under 69,000 miles on it. It is a 2018 Ram 1500 sport. 5.7l Hemi.

The past couple weeks I have been getting an alert saying “engine is too hot” then it shuts off. I took it to the dealership yesterday and they said it’s a blown head gasket. This is not a common thing for Rams, is it? How is there no other alert other than that for this issue. No low coolant alert or anything?

Anyways, luckily it is covered under warranty. Absolutely bummed I’m already needing to get this fixed 6 months into having the truck.

I’ve read that the head gasket failure can lead to other problems, so I am almost thinking of trading it in already. I don’t want to be taking it in for repairs every month or so now.

Anyone else have this issue?

 

[Burla]

Not terribly common, since it is a "head gasket" perhaps the heads are warped. Can happen if hot truck cools to quickly, you see it a lot in vehicles that tow heavy, but rarely in other then that. Could have been cooling system problem, we do see fan issues with the hemi from time to time, there are popular fan swaps if you keep it. Could be pcv clogged as well. I'd like to say keep the truck, but to be honest with those miles it is very possible the truck was abused by someone who wasn't aware the thing he did was gonna cause this issue. When you get it back it wouldnt hurt to see how much you can get for it, used truck values are through the roof, it looks like you may have bought someone elses problem.

I'm not sure the head gasket will lead to other problems, but rather other problems led to the head gasket.

 

[Burla]

wrong thread

 

[savage_46]

wrong thread

 

[savage_46]

Head gaskets seem to be rare on hemi. Pretty sure I've only seen a few on the 4th gen. Since it's under warranty, I wouldn't let the repair scare you away at the moment. Especially with the current market...

 

[mdk2]

Head gaskets seem to be rare on hemi. Pretty sure I've only seen a few on the 4th gen. Since it's under warranty, I wouldn't let the repair scare you away at the moment. Especially with the current market...

Yeah, I’m just shocked that was the issue with it. Hopefully they can diagnose the actual cause of the head gasket going. If they can, I’ll most likely keep it.

 

[PoMansRam]

It would be interesting to know the details. Did it run, perform and sound fine right up to the point the message/malfunction code pops up and the engine shuts down?

What does the engine oil and coolant look like?

Very unusual set of circumstances here.

 

[mdk2]

It would be interesting to know the details. Did it run, perform and sound fine right up to the point the message/malfunction code pops up and the engine shuts down?

What does the engine oil and coolant look like?

Very unusual set of circumstances here.

Honestly, it sounded fine and ran fine up until about a week and half ago. Never had a clue anything was wrong. Then I got the first “engine is too hot” alert. I thought it was maybe cause I was parked idle for a while with the AC running. Didn’t get another alert until 5 or so days later. It would alert me once the coolant gauge got up to 250.

 

[jws123]

Yeah, I’m just shocked that was the issue with it. Hopefully they can diagnose the actual cause of the head gasket going. If they can, I’ll most likely keep it.

Head gaskets only fail on these when you overheat them a lot or really bad as the warning stated it must of been running hot for whatever reason low coolant, bad tstat, leak, bad fan ect. You should of stopped driving it the first time it over heated/you got the warning to find the issue. I am glad they covered it under warranty I wouldn't be to worried about other engine issues once its fixed with that low of miles I am sure they will order new heads ect as the old ones are probably warped.

 

[mdk2]

Head gaskets only fail on these when you overheat them a lot or really bad as the warning stated it must of been running hot for whatever reason low coolant, bad tstat, leak, bad fan ect. You should of stopped driving it the first time it over heated/you got the warning to find the issue. I am glad they covered it under warranty I wouldn't be to worried about other engine issues once its fixed with that low of miles I am sure they will order new heads ect as the old ones are probably warped.

I haven’t heard from the dealership regarding what actually caused the bad gasket. Do you know if that’s something that can easily be diagnosed or is it a lot of guess work. If they just fix the gasket but not the issue that caused it then it’ll be the same thing over again.

 

[jws123]

I haven’t heard from the dealership regarding what actually caused the bad gasket. Do you know if that’s something that can easily be diagnosed or is it a lot of guess work. If they just fix the gasket but not the issue that caused it then it’ll be the same thing over again.

I am sure it is probably something obvious that made it overheat coolant systems are simple they have to test drive it after ect if it overheats they will find the issue.

 

[CamperMike]

Sometimes stuff just happens. Mine got a new head gasket and head at 58k miles. The head gasket leaked externally. Engine overheated AFTER the head gasket leaked out the coolant but i was able to get it home by filling up coolant and tennis were fine as long as it had enough coolant. There was nothing else wrong and truck runs great. Just got back from another trip towing my camper and it did great this weekend.