Going to begin at the beginning on this one...
Wednesday we get a lot of rain in the area. By a lot, I mean over four inches in some spots, but most of us got about three and a half or so. So, it rained and apparently people got real scared because their shit cars might float away or whatever, and so they apparently forgot how to read road signs, like the merge signs. Long story short, the duck got overheated. I didn't think anything of it, because it will do this from time to time.
Thursday comes and the aftermath of rain in larger amounts is realized when the road to my job is blocked off and I am watching the temperature gauge rise. I try to find another route into work and all of a sudden I am greeted with a brand new top speed of about 40 MPH and the duck is running like total shit! yep, something is wrong.
finally I get to work, work my shift, get back to my truck (had to park it down the road and walk through knee high water) and decide to check the coolant...not too much in there. I then check the oil...and I find white slime...so it is head gasket replacement time!
No pictures this time, but here is the breakdown of findings and actions taken:
1.) Order a head gasket kit from advance auto parts. Spend $41.00
2.) Call about a dozen places before calling Dick Greenfield Dodge for head bolts. Spend $59.00
3.) Get two oil filters, 8 quarts of oil and engine flush. Spend $50.
4.) Get antifreeze, spend another $20
The idea is that since the oil is severely contaminated I am going to change the oil, add the engine flush (also known as very overpriced kerosene), run it for a few minutes and change it all again. Well, the first thing you have to do when you are replacing a head gasket is set aside a LOT if time to get it done. Essentially to replace the head gasket you have to take the top end of the engine apart, and frankly the duck has sounded like it is going to rattle something loose for some time now, so I decided when I ordered the head gasket kit that I would look into that, seeing as how it is all coming apart anyway.
Discovery one: There are broken bolts on the manifold. Dodge says that this will not affect performance adversely. My opinion is that if there is a broken bolt on the engine that it needs to be fixed.
Discovery two: All the remaining bolts on the manifolds are LOOSE. WTF?
So, after relieving the fuel pressure and removing the intake manifold, I find that there is shit all through the intake that looks like burnt on oil and oh, look, the cylinder head is full of it too. The exhaust manifold is devoid of burnt shit but closer inspection reveals that where there is supposed to be exhaust/intake gasket, there is none.
The intake and exhaust manifolds are separate pieces that take up space on the same side of the head. Just like a Jeep 2.5 liter. By now you should have realized that the duck, like every other four cylinder Dakota of 1996 vintage, does NOT have a dodge engine in it. This is a JEEP engine. to be precise, it is the AMC 2.5 liter. To that end, if you are like me and go to autozone.com for instructions and torque settings you had better be sure what you are looking at. In this case, enter your vehicle as a 1996 Cherokee with a 2.5 liter and follow those instructions. The instructions used for the Dakota on autozone.com are based on an overhead cam engine.
So, day one, after getting my gaskets and head bolts, I drain all the remaining antifreeze out of the block (which was not much) and relieve the fuel pressure. I then start tagging the many electrical connections found mostly on the intake and throttle body, and then proceed to begin to remove the intake and exhaust manifolds. This is about the time I discovered the looseness of every bolt on the combination manifold and find that the bolt closest to the front of the truck, and the one furthest from, are snapped off. What was even more fun is that when I removed the exhaust manifold (actually it just kind of fell off) was that the portion of the gasket that was supposed to be between the head and the exhaust was not there. Not as an assembly mistake, but more of a purposeful deletion, as the gasket for the intake and exhaust is one big piece...
Moving on, I then removed the valve cover and found white slime all over the rocker arms. This pretty much means that the oil contamination is as bad as expected. I finished the day by starting the disassembly process of the intake manifold and soaking the valve cover in degreaser.
Sunday morning, because the bolts on the head itself are 12 points, I go to home depot to get the appropriate set of sockets (more money) and this is when I pick up my antifreeze and yet more oil (more money). About 9 am I finally get the head removed from the truck. Here is a tip: when you remove the pushrods, do yourself a favor and get a shoebox, poke eight holes in it, and label one end of the box "FRONT". When you remove the pushrods, put them through the holes in the order and position you remove them from the block. Keep the rocker arms in the same order. This will keep these things in the same position and make life easier, as these things wear over time, and you want to keep them wearing at the same rate, because frankly you will spend another 200 to 300 dollars to get new ones.
The valve cover gets cleaned up and repainted a nice low gloss black while the intake and cylinder head are cleaned out. Why cleaned out? The cylinder head had loads of white slime in it, and the intake manifold (and head intake ports) had loads of baked on shit in them. While I used degreaser to clean them up, followed by hot water to flush and WD-40 on the head to dispel water, a dip tank or something else caustic would have worked better, especially for the intake manifold.
I took this time to extract the broken bolts from the head. Nothing really pretty about it, just a drill bit and a set of extractors. valve cover gets another coat of paint.
After cleaning the block up with brake parts cleaner, rags, and a razor blade I decided to install the new throttle body gasket and give the valve cover another coat of paint. A final cleanup of the block and I was reinstalling the head, using the new head gasket. The instructions say to use two old, long head bolts to keep the gasket oriented to the block, but I instead used a small amount of gasket maker to keep the gasket from sliding around while the head was placed back on the block. A couple of bolts later-LOOSELY installed- and I was torqueing the bolts down properly. After reinstalling the rockers and pushrods, I then installed the exhaust manifold, followed by the intake. Valve cover gets its third or fourth coat of low gloss black while this is going on.
Finally, the valve cover gets installed with its new gasket, electrical connections are made, and the truck is jacked up into the air so the oil and water combo huge mess can be drained. Overpriced kerosene gets dumped in along with four quarts of oil and a new filter. antifreeze is added and I start the truck up. five minutes later the oil is drained, not as white, but definitely not something you want in the block. fresh oil and a new filter are installed, and the truck gets a final checkover of all connections, vacuum lines, and other odds and ends. I then go for a short test drive, and I see steam coming from the front where I managed to boil over antifreeze and get that all over the radiator.
So, the grand total would go something like this, excluding tools purchased:
Gasket set from advance auto parts: $41.00
Head bolts from Dodge: $59.00
Oil $24.
Filters: $10
Loctite red: $8
sealant: $7
Coolant:$20
Motor flush: $6
Degreaser: $9
The grand total of me doing this myself: $184.00, again not counting tools purchased.
The shop average estimate: $1100
My savings: $916
