We bought a used '01 Caravan with a small 6 cyl. engine and 68000 miles about 5 years ago. A year later at 78000 the heater wouldn’t work and it was determined that we needed new head gaskets and had the repair done which included machining the heads down. The car has worked fine for four years (and 30000 miles) but recently, I noticed some oil seepage on the engine and the car dealership is telling me that the head gaskets need replacing again. We haven’t had any problems with the car overheating and can’t figure out why the problem has happened again. Does anyone know why the gaskets would give out like this so quickly? Also, I’ve been looking for a 6cyl. truck and see many 2001 and 02 Dodge trucks for sale on the web . Could there be a problem with this particular engine?
Thanks
I am not aware of head gas issues with this engine. I think this is a old fashion push rod steel block, and head engine. The leak could be from the valve cover. In any event the leak could be so di minimis that its not worth fixing. Is it causing a oil stain under the car when parked?
There doesn’t seem to be enough leakage to drip on the ground. There is just an accumulation of dirty oil on the valve covers. The first time the gasket problem happened, the heat wasn’t working and was the symptom of the problem, but there have been no issues like that this time. The service manager even asked me if we were having trouble with the A/C, which we are not. How do you tell for sure that the diagnosis is correct. Could the dealership be steering me wrong?