Over the last several weeks my Dakota has been running a little strange.
Sometimes it didn't feel like it had the pep it normally does and my mileage
was in the toilet (about 6 MPG). Other times, everything was OK. I had it
to the shop a few times and they were not able to find anything really out of
the ordinary. Well two weeks ago, me and the fiancée headed down to the beach
for the day. The truck ran great the 80 or so miles to get there. On the way
back, it started acting up again. We were about 5 minutes from the beach and
the truck suddenly lost power. There was a loud clicking sound for about 2
seconds and then the truck got real rough. Damn thing had a dead skip. I
pulled over but couldn't find anything wrong so I nursed it home. Go it to
the shop the next day and we started to check it out. We did the usual check
for spark, etc... then I asked "Let's do a compression check?" 0 lbs.
compression in the #5 and only 60 lbs. in #3. So we pulled the heads. The
exhaust valve in #5 was bent and there was a nick in the piston where they
hit. #3 looked rather burnt. Sent the heads over to the machine shop to have
a valve job done. Got a call two days later, both heads are cracked. I'm OK
with a wrench but not an expert. Can anyone tell me how I may have cracked
the heads? I'm a little heavy on the pedal but I don't beat the truck. It
does have 130,000 but I take care of it. Keep it tuned up, oil changes every
3000, etc... I just can't see it.
Walter_Felix@MSN.COM
88 Sport 4x4
http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Downs/9219
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