Looking at an 08, a few simple questions

Q

Quicktime_GT

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May 10, 2009
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I'm looking at an 08 dodge .. It's a 6 speed manual truck. 20k on the clock ..

Known mods are :
Xrt tune
5.9 exhaust
Southbend dd
Wheels / tires


I drove the truck for roughly an hour today , ( 28 degree day) and one thing I've noticed is that the heat seems terrible . I let the truck idle a bit before I took off and then barely had heat . After driving it some it got up to 200 degrees , but the heat still wasn't "hot". And it would seem to heat / cool off as I was harder / easier on the truck .

Once I returned I let the truck idle for probably 5 minutes and it began to cool off ! ? With again not a lot of heat ..

It runs and drives great but I'm afraid Of this heat fluctuation . I'm going to have a coolant pressure leak down test done on it before I buy it to see if some how it's losing coolant pressure some where ( hopefully not a head gasket issue )

Also at wot at roughly 170 degrees at around 3k it would cut out as if it was hitting a fuel cut / rev limit . I imagine this is a xrt 3k tune ? Or is there an issue here as well ..


How much heat do you all have (hvac) ? How long should it take to heat up ?
Any advice ?

I bought an 03 cobra with a head gasket issue after I got it and am just paranoid I guess ..

I've searched and read several threads , please take this as an opportunity to help out a newb !
 
Well I'm kind of bummed out..

I asked the owner if he was willing to let me take the truck to get some things check out. To get an idea of whether or not the truck might have a head gasket issue I used :

Test Tools Inc. - Combustion Leak Block Tester, Test for Blown Head Gasket
tt3m.gif


^ This is a great way of testing for head gasket problems, especially since on a diesel compression checks are a little more complicated than on a gas engine. On an 03 cobra it unfortunately showed positive, when there was no other sign of an issue other than a pressurized reservoir after a WOT pull.

After being ran pretty hard with an XRT tune the according to this test there were no combustion gasses in the coolant .. great!

But.. left me wondering why the truck was low on coolant. Turns out this 20k mile truck was leaking water around the water pump..

Here are a few things that I noticed that might be a good idea to check out for anyone looking at a truck:

No cab lights.. I've seen older trucks with no cab lights, but from what i've seen it's rare for newer ones to not have cab lights.. hmmm
Electronics in fold out mirrors didn't work..
Red paint on the radiator support.. This really got me wondering
Faint but visible Mud stains on the head liner
Rust under the seats on the brackets.
Chrome rear bumper on a sport truck (I may be wrong on this)

After doing a little research I found out that the truck was originally red (now silver) ( also explains red radiator support. It was a rollover, and had a complete body replacement from a 1500 ( no cab lights)..

I started worrying about whether or not the displayed mileage was the actual mileage on the truck, how long is ran upside down, and every other thing that could be wrong with it and decided to back out, money in hand, insurance quote, It sucks but I couldn't take the chance.

Price was $23,500 with a rebuilt title , 20900 miles.

Input? Should I re consider buying it?
 
i have no issues with heat, 150* its kinda warm. At 180* i have to start to turn it down, and 200* its as much heat as you can stand.
 
Thanks for the input...

I'm out, the last thing I need is to buy a truck that I have to work on all the time..


The right one will come along! I'll probably end up buying a 5.9 truck.. you guys are starting to worry me with all the head gasket talk anyway !
 
I love my 6.7L Mega... The 5.9s have almost been figured out, they still have the occasional melted piston issue with the later ones but all in all a great choice. The 67s will be figured before to long, guys are already ditching the high drive psi stock VGTs and adding wastgates. Studs are an almost must and like all the others a properly filtered fuel sytem is needed.
Good luck!
 
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