Hi Everyone,
And thanks for being a part of this website.

I have recently purchased a 2004 Ram 3500, and have come across two issues that are needing maintenance. Your comments and recommendations are solicited and very much appreciated.

1) I need to change out the oil pan gasket. It is leaking a very small amount of oil. I have been told by a couple of mechanics that I can live with temporarily. I understand that I need to unscrew some oil pan screws and lift the motor. Lifting the motor to facillitate removing the pan. Can you recommend a procedure?

2) I noticed that I am slowly loosing coolent. I haven't identified exactly where the leak is coming from, but at first glance it looked like it may be coming from the water pump gasket area (not sure though). No indication has been given that the engine has gotten hot (ie red lights on the dashboard). I've kept the radiator full of coolent 50-50 mix coolent and water. I haven't and am not driving the truck until I fix the coolent system leak first and the oil pan gasket replaced asap.

I had the truck fluids serviced:including oil, transmission fluids/filter and radiator flushed a couple of months ago, when I bought the truck, and haven't seen any leaks per se until now. As you might know, it's gotten really hot in East Texas - in the 100 degree F range. I'ved noticed the A/C takes time to cool and performs better, ie is cooler, when I had driven it a while (Don't know if that helps you any) I made a trip to Oklahoma with my fifth wheel - about a five hour trip and then pulled a horse trailer back to East Texas the next day in pretty heated weather. I noticed small amounts of coolent fluid leaking on the ground. Any comments or suggestions? Thanks!

Your investigative insights and comment are welcomed to help me resolve these above issues as economically as possible. I haven't done alot of mechanic work but I'm not lazy. Thank you for any help.

 

Welcome to the DTR.

Start a new thread in the 3rd Generation Forum to get more views and responses.