Is this a head gasket (2000 Dakota)

> Have you looked at the oil? You need to find out if water has gotten
> into the oil. I suspect it has since it overheated and that can be
> really bad.
>
> Pull the oil dipstick and hold a lighter or flame under it. If there's
> coolant in it you'll know because it'll boil out. It also may look
> foamy which usually means there's quite a bit of coolant in it.
>
> We've had this happen to 2 vehicles and in both cases it was easy to fix
> and get them running again but they both failed soon after because the
> bearings were ruined from lack of lubrication with the oil diluted so
> much.
>
> One of them was a 1997 Chevy Malibu and it was actually caused by a
> cracked intake gasket which is (as I found out later) a known problem
> with these. The car was like new with only 57k miles even though it was
> 11 years old at the time.
>
> The mechanic that worked on it was also not aware that this happened to
> a lot of them. He complained to my wife that she never changed the oil
> and it was really sludged up. I told him she's a fanatic about changing
> it and questioned whether it might be antifreeze but he didn't think so.
>
> After he replaced the gasket and got it running again it seemed to be
> fine until she drove it more than 10 miles and then it died. Turns out
> the camshaft locked up at one end and broke in half because the cam
> bearings were ruined by the "sludged up" oil.
>
> We don't use this mechanic any more. :-(
>
> Best Regards,
> Keith Marshall
> tooladdict@progressivelogic.com
>
> "I'm not grown up enough to be so old!"
>
>
>
> Well, I looked at the 2000 Dosge Dakota I have at home that was my
> brothers. 1st I tried to start it but it had sat so long the battery was
> dead. Charged the battery for a minute. Got it to crank a few times but
> not start. I went ahead and took the plugs out:
>
> 6 = 90psi 3 = 190 psi (120 checked later) 5 = 105 psi 2 = 90 psi
> 4 = 95 psi 1 = 95 psi
>
> These are the compression readings and the order I checked them. 1 being
> the drivers side front, 3 the drivers side back, 4 being passanger side
> front, 6 being passanger side back. After checking all compression I
> re-checked # 3 because of it being so much higher than the others. It
> was 120 at this time.
>
> When I pulled out the plugs the best I could tell they were ok. Looked
> worn. Except number 3. It looked wet but not drenched. Also, On this
> plug, the porcelane on the bottom of the plug around the gap was broken,
> also, the grounding part that curves over (The part you adjust the gap)
> was brken in half and missing.
>
> Cranking with no spark plugs, light vaporized mist or or something came
> from most of the holes but #3 I could tell had more coming out. It was
> like water or droplets as I cranked much heavier than the rest.
>
> I took a piece of winshield washer hose and stuck it down a few of the
> spark plug holes and sucked with my mouth. (Probably not smart). Never
> really got much of anythign out with the exception of #3. There was some
> gas in there but also a sweet taste. (Would this be antifreeze?)
>
> Inside of radiator hose had brown granulated crud that I could pull out
> with my finger. Almost looked like brown sugar but a more red color.
>
> If I did not mention, truck has 151,000 on it. Overheated on my brother.
> White smoke rolling out when it warmed up. When he had it towed to my
> house, I started it right up and drove it about 200 feet to park it and
> had no trouble at all and did not notice any sounds or anything unusual.
>
> Can I assume this is a blown head gasget around # 3? What is the
> liklihood this is a cracked head? Should both head gaskets be replaced?
> Should I go ahead and have the heads machined or check with a
> straightedge and then if ok donÂ’t worry about it?
>
> I want this to run right but money is a factor. My salary has been cut
> recently due to the hard economic times. (Still thankful I have a job
> though).