Is my engine shot?

[jay90174]

Hello guys Jason here I need some help 89 Dodge ram 50 2.6.

So I've had the symptoms of a jump timing chain for about a month now.
However yesterday on the way home out of nowhere started blowing white smoke and parked looked under the hood and all the almost all of the oil had busted out a crack in the valve cover.

This truck since I've had it has never smoked or leaked anything. Would an oil pressure regulator cause this?

What is the best way to troubleshoot these old trucks?
If it was the oil pressure regulator evidently with the white smoke it's caused more issues. So at this point I'm not sure if it's worth taking apart checking or just replacing the motor and getting something else to drive in the meantime.

When all the issues started that makes me think that it was the timing chain. The truck started to run real rough hard to start loss of power and it seems like you could hear the timing chain rattle. When it was cold and idling you would have to keep gas flowing to keep it running after warm up it would idle just real rough. When the truck was put into gear it got even rougher run and you'd have to hold the brake at a red light or any stop and the gas at the same time to keep it from running rough or dying.

Since I've had it there's been a slow coolant leak that maybe once every 3 or 4 days would have to add to the radiator which has stopped since the issues started no more adding coolant.

However oil has been going missing not smoking or burning just checking it'd be court court and a half low so I've been adding oil.

Change distributor cap rotors plugs wires coil.

Bought timing light that was okay played with it adjusted it moved it back back the way it was with the same issues nothing got better when adjusting.

Took off the catalytic converter no change same symptoms still running rough just louder with the muffler gone.

Put the exhaust back together and everything went back to normal no more symptoms no more rough running power was back.

Evidently muffler fell off on me a few days ago because the truck got louder and mufflers missing.

Coming home from work yesterday white smoke started pouring out of the exhaust and just out of nowhere.

I pulled over immediately and turn truck off had it towed to the house because when I opened the hood oil was everywhere and it was very low. A small crack in the valve cover seems to be where the oil came out.

So on the way back towing the truck to the house I stopped got some JB weld to patch the crack to see if maybe that was the issue all along got some oil. Top the oil off put the JB weld on let it harden come home from work today.
Started it right up fine instantly white smoke everywhere very thick.

As far as I can tell there's no oil in the radiator and there's no water or coolant in the oil that I can tell it's not milky.

But it does have a burnt smell and looks like it needs an oil change with all the new oil in there from just last night after a few minutes of running. When I bought this truck the first thing I did was change the oil and every time I've changed the oil in it it stayed looking pretty much new until the next change.

Is there something that I could be overlooking or is this major work cracked head crankcase bearings gaskets?

I'm not sure like I said no oil in the radiator that I can tell it doesn't smell like gas doesn't seem to be any water in the oil I need some help.

The only thing that was strange was I filled it up with gas probably 20 minutes before this happened my gas gauge does not work properly I normally just fill it up and it's never taken any more than $25 I'm in Tennessee gas is a little cheaper than some places but.

When it got to $40 and didn't stop I was worried that it was pouring out under the truck but it was raining very heavily so I couldn't tell.

I'm not sure what that was all about I didn't finish filling it up I just stopped at 40 because I knew something wasn't right.


However after the gas starting the truck up the gas gauge worked as it normally does not correctly but on a full tank it goes to half a tank and shows that you have a half a tank and it was almost at that Mark of a half a tank.

So I'm just baffled I don't know if I need to start tearing this motor apart or scrap it and replace it and what's the cheapest route and if that's the route that I need does anyone know where to acquire one or know anything about the diesel motors that people put in these trucks?

I like this truck a lot until this issue it has been very dependable always starts and goes it even starts right now I just don't want to damage it further it has four wheel drive at the least I'd like to keep it as a farm truck.

Thanks for any and all suggestions and help and information.

[jay90174]

I know I'm new here but I need some help I've gotten a lot of useful information from your forms on the site.

So I registered and became a member.

I've got an 89 ram 50 2.6 four-wheel drive automatic.
Since I've had this truck all I've had is regular maintenance it's always started up ran fine been dependable until about a month ago.

I started getting symptoms like the timing wasn't correct running real rough loss of power have to hold the gas down to keep it from dying at idle. When putting it in gear had to match the gas instantly to keep it from dying.
I went through all the troubleshooting steps that I could find on these forms here starting with the cheapest simplest things and moving up.

I replace the spark plugs wire distributor cap rotor distributor itself the coil.

Got a timing light checked and adjusted all that it didn't do anything I set it back where it was it didn't help play with the carburetor a little bit it didn't help didn't do anything still ran rough all the same symptoms.

I even cut out the catalytic converter and muffler to see if maybe that was clogged up temperatures were different on both sides.
Still nothing same issues so I put the exhaust back together.

When I did everything was restored back to normal power was back no rough idling no slow starts it was back to normal.

I parked it for 2 weeks and when I got back in it all the symptoms and issues were back again.

About a week later it sounded like it didn't have a muffler I checked muffler fell off somewhere.
So then I was left with the timing chain set which I did not get into replacing. I really thought that was the issue.

Yesterday on the way home from work out of nowhere I started pouring out white smoke. I instantly pulled over shut the truck off it was not overheating. Pop the hood and oil was everywhere seems it came out of a small crack in the valve cover now.
Almost all the oil had sprayed out so I had the truck towed back to the house got some oil along the way and some JB weld to patch the small crack just to see if that's what was causing the issues to begin with.

Came home from work today started right up still pouring thick white smoke.
To the best of my knowledge I don't see any oil in the radiator or the coolant I don't see any milky residue on the dipstick or in the oil. I can't smell gas in the coolant or in the oil however the oil that was just put in yesterday now looks a year old after a few minutes of running and smells burnt.

If anyone has any ideas suggestions or been through this experience I do need help.

I know the white smoke is not good could be the head cylinder block bearings.
Or it could just be a gasket. What else could it be to cause white smoke if there's no gas or oil in coolant for no gas or coolant in oil?

Could the whole issue have started with a oil pressure regulator being bad and cause pressure to go up crack the valve cover and potentially created major internal problems along the way?

Or maybe feasible to fix this problem because it does start right up and run just very heavy white smoke?

Point I'm getting to I guess is if someone thinks it could be easy troubleshooting easy fix possibly or more feasible to just do an engine swap?

And if I go that route does anyone know where I can get a replacement engine?

Thank you for any and all suggestions information and help.

[SubGothius]

White smoke sounds like a head gasket breach, leaking coolant into some cylinder(s), which would also explain the sudden rough running and loss of power. Possibly also a cracked/warped head, and a bad warp might also explain the sudden crack in your valve cover. At least no "milkshake" in your oil suggests the coolant leak didn't get into your oil galleries, so if you're lucky you might just need a new head.

[geezer101]

Primary indicators of a head gasket or cracked head - white smoke (as SubG has posted), exhaust smells 'sweet' (ethylene glycol has a sweet smell to it) removal of one or more spark plugs and examination (coolant entering the combustion chamber will scour carbon deposits from affected spark plugs etc leaving it uncharacteristically clean) The cracked valve cover is very uncommon. Normally happens when whoever was working on it has overtightened the 2 top bolts holding it down. If the engine as a whole has been 'fine' I would go down the path of sourcing a new head and installing a VRS kit with seals. A replacement JY engine is always a gamble as you have no idea of the history of the donor truck and it could be in the yard for something equally or worse than what you are already dealing with. Automatic optioned engines are rarer to find and the flex plate for the A/T by itself is near impossible. Be prepared to go in deep if you are pulling the engine and replacing the head (new timing chains and guides, water pump etc). If you have a head with jet valves, try to source a replacement head that is a non-jet valve type as the jet valves are a weak link and can cause cracking through the combustion chambers due to thermal expansion of different metals.

*it's always a possibility that you can get the head repaired but make sure the shop handling it is competent. Warped heads should never be milled straight but a light skim to reface it is acceptable. You might get lucky and it's only a bad head gasket, but you won't know until you have cracked it open...