Just traded for a 98.5 24v 4x4 3500, 150 sticks and god only knows what else was done. PO was driving down the road and head gasket blew, pegged temp guage for about 4 miles. He replaced head gasket and truck would;nt start. Told him to re-bleed system and it fired off but ran like crap, extremely rough, sounded like 3 cylinders, then oil started pouring out the tappet cover, so I traded him for my 98 gasser. He pulled it over to my house and I charged the batteries and got it to fire up, but ran terrible..missing, no power, slow throttle response. Had 2 sheriff cars and city police pull up because of all the smoke blowing out the twin stacks. I've read many threads and can't figure out if it's vacuum, timing,turbo, cracked rings or a half dozen other things that cause similar problems. Anyone up for a challenge?? Ran good before he (soninlaw) tore into it. He stuck $3500 in it with new wheels, tires, u-joints etc. and I'd lke a back-up for my livestock haulng so figured it was worth the trade even if i have to throw in a used motor. What do ya all thnk?

 

Best case scenario that I see is there is a bunch of raw fuel on top of the pistons as the injector orings have failed. Was just the head gasket done, or what else was done while it was off? Were injectors pulled when the head was removed? If not, damage may have happened to the tips of the nozzles.

 

Not sure about njectors, just ran it again and stuck my finger in radiator and it came out black, so probably not a best case scenerio...Any one have a used engine? Might be the best and easiest way.

 

Well, how redneck was this dude? Did he flush the oil and coolant, obviously as you said coolant is black, but is the oil diluted with coolant or fuel? what's coming out your exhaust? anything as far as smoke (blue,white/grey, or black) or any obvious odors? I wouldn't jump ship just yet. Might be worth taking the time to just redo the head gasket yourself, and have the head checked for true.

 

He IS the number 1 redneck, just ask him... Tons of smoke comng out the stacks. It's cold up here so it's hard to tell about smoke color, i'd say it's a bluish grey, gets a little darker as it revs up.I held it at 2500 rpm for a minute or so and it looked more grey colored Hate to run it more than a few mnutes in fear of someone calling the fire dept and is dumping oil out the tappet cover. Thinking 'll find someone with a warm shop and have em help tear it down. guess it needs to come out either way. It did run nice before the gasket blew, just not sure how hot it needs to get to fry the rings

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update....got a shop offer, so kind of excided to tear her down, may be on here often asking. never worked on a diesel before, built a few 500hp 360 mopars, so a wrench is nothing new.