Thread: Major Problems-Blown gaskets

Hey guys, its been a while since I've been on here. 2 months ago I had some problems go wrong with my 2000 GP with an XP and top swap. I was so fed up with constantly dumping money in my car so I went out and bought me a 2014 Dodge Ram.....Now...I miss my car so it's time to slowly start trying to fix it. So I was getting on the freeway at open throttle and at high RPMs around 70-80 there was a loss in performance and a weird rattle noise coming from the motor. Bunch of KR and normal coolant temp. I continued driving and it cruised just fine. Tried accelerating a little hard again and same rattle noise. I cruised about 7 miles to work then noticed there was oil spraying out of the front valve cover when the motor was revd. There was no smoke coming out the back. Towed it home and replaced the valve cover the next day. Restarted it and there was still some smoke coming from the rear of the motor, seemed like the Valve cover. At the same time rack and pinion seal busted and dumped fluid all over the ground....that's when I parked it for 2 months. Started the car up for the first time since then the other day and checked the oil...no water, nor milky. Coolant was full before starting it. let it idle for 15-20 min and coolant level stayed the same. No smoke coming from the exhaust. I lightly reved the motor and noticed white smoke coming from the rear and front of the motor. When reving there was white smoke coming out of the dip stick and a little oil seeping out of the front header bolt. Seems like there is some back pressure...made me think of a clogged cat...I put an old one on no more then a month before crap hit the fan, which the cat was sitting on the side of my house for quite a while. Needed it for emissions. Before the major problems I was having some studdering during hard acceleration. Could a clogged cat cause this much back pressure to blow out my gaskets? I was thinking the head gaskets possibly blew too. I am going to unbolt my exhaust underneath like running open headers and see if smoke is still coming out of the motor when reved.

Any suggestions of what I should do or check????
Thanks guys.

Originally Posted by Fivefingerdeathpunch

Smoke out the dipstick tube can mean you have tons on crankcase pressure.

What causes crankcase pressure?

I'll be doing a compression test soon, once I get my hands on a tester, need to borrow one from a family member.

Originally Posted by machinegunsquid

The normal operation of the internal combustion engine.

If you let the motor run for a minute, then remove the oil cap, can you hear/feel pressure being released?

If so, more than likely the PCV has taken a dump, quick easy fix fix. Pop the 2 bolts off, swap it out, and then repeat the above test.

Thanks I'll check that when I get a chance. That will be a little cheaper to replace then piston crap. lol

If you let the motor run for a minute, then remove the oil cap, can you hear/feel pressure being released?



So I removed the oil cap and theres air coming out like a freight train! lol decided to check my plugs and the front left plug is messed up. the tip is completely gone, down about 1/4 inch in the plug. the middle front L shaped tip looks like its getting burned since some of it is missing. the front right is ok. Haven't checked the rears yet. What can cause this to happen to the spark plugs?? they only have 25K miles on them or so. Im going to replace the PCV valve and spark plugs (they were Autolite 104s). What should they be gapped at? since I'm running a GEN3 with XP cam and 3.2" pulley...and all the other supporting mods.

Here's the middle front. First pic is front left

chipped piston....great! Any other possibilities? I just got back from buying a new pcv valve, all new spark plugs, and injector o-rings. I believe my rear valve cover is leaking and possibly one of my injectors as well. So i was planning on replacing all that and seeing how it ran. See if a bunch of air still comes out of the oil cap port. Should that be my next step???????

maybe just put the new plugs in and compression test??? Any other way to "scope" the piston??