Hello,
My 2000 Dodge Dakota with the 3.9l v6 engine overheated.
For a few days I noticed when I started the truck it seemed to struggle with starting a little. When I cranked it…it kind of sputtered a little but then started as usual and was fine.
I went on a 30-minute trip and noticed some steam and then the gauge went to hot. I got it towed back home.
The upper coolant hose near the cap was off and antifreeze had spewed everywhere.
Could this just be a faulty hose? I am fearing it was probably another issue which caused too much pressure and made the hose fail.
What should I check?
( I can take it to a garage, but I enjoy learning about these things myself )
Reinstall the hose, clamp and add coolant. Warm the engine up idling with the pressure cap off of the expansion bottle and look for bubbles indicating a blown head gasket. Overpressure from a blown head gasket can pop off a hose but the radiator cap pressure relief should have prevented that. A new cap is in order.
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All you can do is what Mustangman suggested, put the hose back on and fill it up, bleed the air pockets and cross your fingers…
With the hose off and dumping the coolant fast, it takes the gauge a lot longer to show the hot temps, the gauge doesn’t pick up hot air as fast as hot coolant… My buddy did similar, but may have driven longer (hopefully), but he killed the transmission and engine, it overheated BAD!!!.. The over drive unit in those transmissions don’t like heat…
I told him to run a compression check 1st, but he went ahead and pulled the trans and brought it to me to build, it was mostly junk…
Had to buy a trans core and take the best of both and build a trans for him, well he installed the trans and found out the rings had collapsed, so had to put another engine in it…
Point is, if something is still wrong with it after you put it back together, then check everything before dumping money in it, could end up snow balling on you…
Yes even with the collapsed rings (low compression) it idled/ran pretty smooth, just had no power…
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