Dakota Forumz banner

Blown head? crack? Coolant system issues

4K views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  SXT 
#1 · (Edited)
Hello All,

I am new to the forum and looking for some advice. I have an 04 Dakotahttp://***************/forum/#, 3.7L v6. 114,000miles

About a week ago, the trucks check guages light came on and My temp was very high. This had never happened before. I pulled over and let it cool down and noticed my coolant was extremely low, so I topped it off and headed home. After about 10 mins, the truck started overheating again, heard some knocking and coolant blowing out of the overflow all over the engine compartment

Next day, coolant was basically empty again so I added a little to get me to the mechanic, the whole way it ran at normal temp and seemed relatively OK.

Mechanic said the thermostat gasket needed to be changed, so he changed the t-stat and gasket. He also said he did a cooling system pressure check and determined it to be OK.
Drove the truck very little all week until today when I took it for an oil change, (it was due anyway) and i noticed a "weed whacker type noise when accelerating. It was almost hard to notice but I know my truck and this is definitely a new sound. Truck runs and is not overheating after driving around all morning.
Suspected a blown head gasket, as I have some rust colored fluid leaking from the front around the water pump and more beneath the coolant reservior. (Its hard to tell if its new after the overflow last week but the truck is definitely low on coolant again today.)
Got it home form the oil change and let it cool and checked the oil for coolant and it looks ok...not milky...yet...or thats my fear at least.

Any advice on what I should look for next? here's a recap of the symptoms im having.

-No white colored smoke
-Definitely a coolant smell while driving coming from under the hood, but again, coolant was sprayed all over engine compartment last week so i can't tell if its new or old coolant burning up)
-significantly fast coolant loss, without obvious new coolant leaking
- no obvious misfiring
-Rust colored liquid leaking under coolant reservior (new coolant is classic neon green) but the leak is rusty brown
- Weed whacker type sound when accelerating
-Water leaking from tailpipehttp://***************/forum/#
 
See less See more
#2 · (Edited)
I was going to advise you to take it easy; there have been lots of times when I was paranoid and believed my loss of antifreeze was a blown head gasket. However, it has always turned out to be something less drastic, i.e. water pump installed crooked (my own fault), leaky hoses, thermostat, temp sensor, etc. Your mechanic said it passed the pressure check. So in regard to all that, I'd go through all the basics first.
However, your last line got me! Water in the tailpipe? We have to sort that out. Is it just morning condensation (water) or really, really, green antifreeze? Wrap a few layers of white cloth (towels, t-shirts, etc) around the tailpipe, and have someone start it up and rev it a little. Green would be bad, and would confirm our worst fears. Hopefully, it'll just be water. P.S. weed whacker sound could be a frayed serpentine belt, or a water pump bearing.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top