1998 dodge ram project

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dartfreak75

dartfreak75

Restore it, Dont part it!
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I took on another project. I would say side job but I'm doing this pro bono for a neighbor. So my neighbor has this 1998 ram with a 5.2 the engine "blew" i have no other details lol. So she had "a guy" put her another engine in. Well 3 months and over 1000 dollars later the guy never got it running. So she got feed up and towed it home to have another "guy" work on it. He tried same story. So my neighbor was telling my wife about it and my wife said Kevin is good with dodges he will work on it. So agreed. I got it running in a half a day. The pcm was not grounded and it fried it. So I replaced it and now it's running but it runs bad! The guy who installed the engine did a real hack job i had to replace all the transmission lines he ran them all with rubber hose. None of the emissions stuff was hooked up etc etc. So after a few days of replacing stuff and getting it runnable I noticed it runs really bad under load. It will idle ok but when you give it gas its spits and spuders and will die under even the lightest load. So I dug into it. I found cylinder 5 and 7 are dead. I thought firing order nope. Its getting fuel I tested both injectors pulled the plugs they both are firing. And both were soaked in oil and fuel. Did a compression test and my fear came true. 7 got 30 psi and 5 has 60. The rest are good around 140 psi. So I'm gonna have to dig a little deeper. With the oil on the plug im thinking its worse than a stuck valve or two. What are the odds that both cylinders side by side have broken rings or a crack in the head.
 
Flat cam? blown head gasket? Crack between cylinders in the head?
 
MANY years ago I got hosed on one of these. Divorcee friend of a friend he talked me into fixing her Rally Sport 70's 'maroo. It had full gauges, she had no idea what they were for. Ran it out of coolant and ran it until it quit. Cooked the paint black on the front of the heads, cooked the cylinder walls "blue" and water in most cylinders. I told her "there is no way I'd try and fix that engine find a used one or spring for a rebuilt."

She "found" a "good" "used" engine and paid for it which I actually picked up. I wasn't that sharp then about 350/ 400 chevs and it later turned out to be a 400. I put it in, got it running, and it shook and burned oil. I told her, and she took it to the guy who sold her the engine and HE TOLD HER he could FIX HER OLD ENGINE.

So she screwed me out of the labor on the deal, took the car to the engine seller who "fixed" her old one ---but good--. I told her DO NOT come to me in a year when that thing starts hosing oil

.............About a year later.........her "friend" (the guy who got me into this mess) came in laughing "I just saw Kathy's Camaro go by----with a huge oil cloud behind it...........

I never did collect anything for all that work.
 
67Dart273 said:
MANY years ago I got hosed on one of these. Divorcee friend of a friend he talked me into fixing her Rally Sport 70's 'maroo. It had full gauges, she had no idea what they were for. Ran it out of coolant and ran it until it quit. Cooked the paint black on the front of the heads, cooked the cylinder walls "blue" and water in most cylinders. I told her "there is no way I'd try and fix that engine find a used one or spring for a rebuilt."

She "found" a "good" "used" engine and paid for it which I actually picked up. I wasn't that sharp then about 350/ 400 chevs and it later turned out to be a 400. I put it in, got it running, and it shook and burned oil. I told her, and she took it to the guy who sold her the engine and HE TOLD HER he could FIX HER OLD ENGINE.

So she screwed me out of the labor on the deal, took the car to the engine seller who "fixed" her old one ---but good--. I told her DO NOT come to me in a year when that thing starts hosing oil

.............About a year later.........her "friend" (the guy who got me into this mess) came in laughing "I just saw Kathy's Camaro go by----with a huge oil cloud behind it...........

I never did collect anything for all that work.
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That's Bullcrap. Some people can't See the Truth.. serves her right!
 
Dead between two cylinder would most likely be a head issue.
A leak down test will tell you in a few minutes.
 
Good learning lesson to never work on anybody else's junque but your own. And also to inform the wifey to never offer your services to people in the future on such things. Somebody else hacked the engine install, and installed a junk engine, and now you have to play trouble shooter / mister fixit with it. No thanks, I'll pass. That being said, now you got to figure out whats wrong with it, or just cut your losses on the time you spent, and walk away from it.
 
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Pressure test and look for bubbles, then pull both plugs and while it cranks see if it blows out both the same time-blown gasket between 2 cyls at the fire ring.
Bore scope for rust.
 
My bet, head gasket blown cylinders 5 & 7 blowing the compression back and forth between them.

Pressurize cyl #5 with air from your air compressor. Pull the plug on cyl #7 and see if the air comes out there.

At least it's only one side to pull the head and put on a new head gasket.

Can you imagine how that screws up the readings to the computer and the computer is trying to compensate going rich lean, rich lean trying to figure it out.
 
My guess is blown head gasket. While your in there, check that gasket on the bottom of the intake like Swingin said.
 
moparmat2000 said:
Good learning lesson to never work on anybody else's junque but your own. And also to inform the wifey to never offer your services to people in the future on such things. Somebody else hacked the engine install, and installed a junk engine, and now you have to play trouble shooter / mister fixit with it. No thanks, I'll pass. That being said, now you got to figure out whats wrong w it, or just cut your losses on the time you spent, and walk away from it.
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Kevin ain't that kind of nabor...
 
Mopar44134 said:
a quart every 100 miles? holy crap. smoked the hell out of the neighborhood. lol
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Actually that was the extremely odd part..
It didn't smoke at all or it didn't seem to..
Never set off any sensors or anything..
 
Mopar44134 said:
My guess is blown head gasket. While your in there, check that gasket on the bottom of the intake like Swingin said.
Click to expand...

OH YEAH!!! He's talking about the bottom cover for the intake, a thin flat plate that can leak and crack
 
j par said:
Kevin ain't that kind of nabor...
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Nice that Kevin's helping her out. I used to be that way, got burned too many times. Now I just dont do it. Hell my wifes caravan will be at the dealer for MTX and a repair that I just have no time to do. It's actually a combination of dont want/and no time. I have no desire to work on newer ****, unless it's a simple oil change or brakes.
 
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