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overheated...

5K views 14 replies 9 participants last post by  angelleynasdaddy 
#1 ·
i have an 05 ram 1500 with the 4.7 non flexfuel and today it overheated to the point of not running. i was able to reset the computer enough to get the truck home but with a significant power decrease. also has been losing MPG and power since i bought the truck the oil is clean and so is the transmisison fluid. there were no engine codes when this happenned either.

i am wanting to know how difficult it would be to put a bigger engine in and what all will bolt to my transmission and will not be too costly?

or if it would be easier to just rebuild the 4.7 and start over with it?

looking for advice on where i should be looking. also if its possible i was thinking of getting a 2nd gen ram 360 for it. will it fit and what will need to be replaced to make it work?

any help would be greatly appreciated...
 
#3 ·
sory it took me so long to get back. but i have looked the truck over and got some more info on what happened...

the truck is about to roll over 100k soon and i have no idea why but is losing coolant. i have checked the oil and trans fluids and nothing out of the ordinary in either one. im going to change the oil to get a better look soon to find out more on that point. also i have noticed that there is an amonia smell inside the cabin of the truck that started about last april-may...

dont see any spots where i could be losing fluids but havent checked the floorboards for coolant either yet. i have reset the computer for about a day and added 2 gallons of coolant and the truck seems to be right back where it was the day before it overheated on me. now, the next question is how hard is it to get more power out of my 05 4.7l?

i heave heard of supercharging/turbo charging these engines but how much would i expect to pay for that? also what other options are out there to get more power out of it?

i have a very limited budget to play with and im wondering where i should be heading. i plan on keeping this truck for many years to come.

any advise would be greatly accepted. thanks again
 
#4 ·
How fast are you losing coolant? That over heat was definitely not good on a 4.7 liter. These engines are known for head gasket failures and heads warping. Check your tailpipe upon first start up of the morning, smell for coolant and look for white smoke. You can still have head problems even without milky oil or oily coolant. You could be burning it internally, hence the white smoke out the tail pipe. My advice is to get a pressure test done, that will tell you where your coolant is going. My 2002 4.7 never over heated and the gaskets went on me a few months ago, 179,000 miles though.

The ammonia smell in the cab could also be a bad heater core, but if you are losing 2 gallons of coolant in a short amount of time through there you would have noticed wet floors and been overpowered with the smell.
 
#5 ·
As ^^^ said, I will bet money that its your head gaskets/heads. The 4.7l is famous for warping heads or blowing head gaskets after being overheated. Mine was overheated by previous owner right before I bought it and it would lose coolant quickly. I ignored the problem for a little while just refilling coolant when needed until it started to get where it was very hard to start after sitting overnight (due to too much coolant leaking into the cylinders.

I did research on different motors, and found it was best/cheapest/easiest to just replace and rebuild the 4.7. I bought one from powertrainproducts.com and everything was great with there's along with upgraded parts to help prevent future problems. So far I have put 2k miles on this new motor and runs better,smoother,and quiter then ever before! I did the swap myself and it was somewhat simple.

Also, as for upgrades to get more power from the 4.7L, the best website for that is definetly Airram.com The owner builds 4.7L's and gets crazy hp out of them (600hp+ i believe) and he sells a ton of parts from cranks/heads to simple bolt on power adders.

Hope this helps...any questions just let me know!
 
#6 ·
Overheating plus coolant loss on a 4.7L(or any engine for that matter) = head gasket or cracked/warped head.

Either rebuild it or put a hemi in it.

Hemi will bolt to the same transmission, use hemi motor mounts, need the pcm/harness/etc. Not sure how involved it is shouldn't be TOO hard considering it will bolt right to the frame and transmission. Hard part is getting it to communicate properly electronically with the rest of the truck.

Probably no more expensive to do a hemi swap than build up the 4.7L honestly. The newer 4.7L is decent the older one is slow. Has torque but not fast. Just depends what you want...
 
#7 ·
I had similiar problems with my 02 4.7. Went throught 3 heater cores in a year!! One blew out while on the road! Dealer ran checks and tests and foung blown head gaskets. When heads were sent to machine shop were warped and non-rebuildable.

Since motor had bottom end work done the year before and truck had 249,000 miles on it, decided to replace with a used motor (69,000 miles on motor)

Been fine since.
 
#8 ·
well the smell comes and goes... it started about a year ago. as for the coolant i double checked it at about 99400 miles and I'm at about 99940 and still no variation on coolant. i have treated the truck a little rough trying to accelerate what is going wrong so i can find it easier and still nothing. i have changed the oil and found a gold colored sludge in the bottom of my drip pan. the next thing to find out i guess is where im leaking at. without putting any more money in this engine or tearing down this engine how can i find out if its in the heads or the cylinder wall?
 
#10 ·
Here's my experience with this same issue. It worked for me but others will tell you to not do it.

My 2002 4.7Ll was losing coolant slowly for a year or two. I'd just add more coolant as needed. I've also always run Mobil 1 Synthetic oil as well. There was signs of coolant in the oil when I pulled the oil fill reservoir but no signs of sludge.

Around december of 2008, It was about 10F out one morning when I took a ride to my house I was building at the time. The truck started making all types of alarms and I finally noticed the temperature was shooting up fast. It was only hot for maybe 15 seconds at which time the coolant must have expanded enough to hit the water pump and start circulating again. Even at 10F it overheated pretty fast.

It was running a little rough for a few minutes when I left to go home for the day but it all of a sudden started running properly after a few minutes. I think it had about 85,000 miles or so at the time.

The next morning, it was running extremely rough. I pulled the head covers and found that that 2 exhaust lifters had fallen off. I popped them back in and it ran fine after that. The heads were perfectly clean with no signs of sludge.

It was too cold out to be repairing the truck so I decided to perform a quick fix until I could get to it during the spring. I grabbed some "permanent" head gasket leak repair which is basically small carbon fibers with sodium silicate (liquid glass).

I never did get around to taking it apart to find and fix the problem and it now has 132,000 miles on it. The coolant level stays about the same and I've never had to add to it.

Everyone will tell you liquid glass might buy you a few months or so and to not do it but I'm going on 4 years and almost 50,000 miles.

I also had a radiator split down the side in it prior to that but I was pulling into my driveway and it never came close to overheating.

Since then, I've made several 220 mile trips to my beach house and 220 miles back with it with no issues. I've hauled 1,500 to 2,000 lbs of rock and sand with it multiple timess since with no issues.
 
#11 ·
well it looks like im just going to have to deal with what its doing for now. i have a few months to pull the money together to see what i can do. on a good note i have a second truck i can drive in the mean time should the ram die unexpectedly. also im thinking that if it comes to it and it does die before i can make any changes im going to turn it in to insurance and have them do the work under my comprehensive ins. dont know if they will work on it that way or not but its worth a try.
 
#12 ·
If the heads or head gasket has an issue
I believe that you go to just about any garage or even Pep Boys
Have them put a pressure tester on radiator
they just remove the radiator cap & put the pressure tester on in its place
then they pump up the pressure & watch for leak down, that is the first step

i like the way Eric the car guy explains things

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUzOTnsWImI&feature=relmfu

http://www.ericthecarguy.com/
 
#14 ·
My '04 4.7 blew the head gaskets at 87,000 miles too, and they had been partially blown for a long time before I realized it. I kept smelling antifreeze from the front of the truck when i shut it off. Then one day they finished blowing. The orange antifreeze from the factory will turn to concrete inside the radiator if it isnt replaced on time. I put the green stuff back in it after I had the heads fixed and the head gaskets blew again at 136,000 miles. This time its K&W Blockseal to the rescue, and Im at 140,000 miles and so far so good. These damn 4.7s are known for that. And the rear end is my next issue.
 
#15 ·
sorry it took me so long to get back on here to update everyone..

i got the heads off and took them to a machine shop locally and found out that one head was warped .006" and the other was warped .008" so i definitely found my leak and my loss of compression...

after about $600 all told im back on the road and doing good. no loss of coolant or discoloring of oil... yet. i have only put about 1k on it since the rebuild and everything looks good so far.

if any more issues arise ill let everyone know.

and thank you too everyone that helped me brainstorm on what was wrong.
 
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