2013 Dodge Dart Head Gasket Replacement

[Wrenchturner44]

Hello Everyone,

My Dodge Dart started using coolant about a month ago. I suspected that the head gasket was leaking since I could not find any external leaks. A combustion coolant tester confirmed my suspicions. I have attached some photos for you all to review. I have 2 sets of photos that I will post.

Needless to say the engine is really clean on the inside. I acquired this car with about 60k on the clock. It has the 2.0 litre Tigershark engine. The CARFAX at the time indicated that the car had regular oil changes and I have followed the same service intervals of changes every 5 - 6k. The car now has 82k.

I am really surprised by the evidence of hardly any wear whatsoever in the cylinder bores. There is no ridge line and the bores are really clean.

I plan to replace all of the usual wear and tear items while it is apart (timing chain, and guides, water pump, serpentine belt, idler and tensioner pulleys etc).

Since I have owned the car the oil used has been Mobil 1 full synthetic 0w20. Filters have varied, from Mobil 1, and Purolator brands. Head will be eventually cleaned and decked before reassembly. The cam lobs and bearing journals are all in excellent shape.

I wanted to share these details with you all in the hopes of reassuring what many of us who do regular maintenance on our vehicles already know. That is, that today's synthetic oils do a wonderful job when it comes to wear protection, and keeping engines clean internally.

Please reply with any comments or questions. I will be happy to reply to all who may want to know more detail.

 

[redhat]

Pretty clean looking, yes modern synthetics (and oils) do wonders for engines.

Surprised sub-100k and you're doing a head gasket, but honestly, I am not up the slightest bit on Dodge/Stellantis/Fiat/Chrysler vehicles.

Looks as if in short order you'll be back in business.

 

[Thermo1223]

Well you know what cylinder was burning coolant. That is a clean piston top. Odds are it was improper tq at the factory that took enough time to manifest or just a faulty gasket.

 

[Wrenchturner44]

Hey guys, thanks for responding. @ Redhat, yes I was surprised to have to do this repair at less than 100k. I can tell you that after ordering the correct Mopar parts that Chrysler has had multiple design revisions for the headgasket on this engine as well as those for the 2.4 Multi-Air variant. It seems that the siamesed bores are a little harder to seal since there is less capture expansion on those sides of the cylinder bores. Although this was not the first year for this engine (2.0 litre) it was the first year of Dart production and there may have been some needed changes due to cooling differences as compared to the previous applications. For example this car / application has a built-in oil to coolant oil cooler. This was probably an addition given the increased temps that this engine runs at to improve combustion efficiency for improved mileage charecteristics.

@ Thermo 1223, right you are. The combustion chamber for that cylinder was equally clean and the valves looked brand new. I dropped the head off at the machine shop today to have them check it for leaks and to deck it whatever is necessary to make it as flat as possible within desired specs.

Here are a few more pics. Third pic is one of the timing chain tensioner guide blocks. This has hardly any wear at all. Intake ports are nearly spotless.

 

[andyd]

Generic advice. Did you find the leak in the head gasket? So the leak isn't a cracked head or block. At 82 K miles the timing chain should be fine, An I-4 shouldn't have anything but a tensioner. If you din't over heat the engine, check the head for flatness with a straight edge and a feeler gauge. Find out if the headbolts can be re-used or are one time use. Please post a follow up

 

[michaelluscher]

How'd the repair come out?

Still on the road and successful?

 

[Wrenchturner44]

Repair was successful. Head was machined, and no cracks were found. I replaced all the necessary wear items while apart; Timing chain, guides, waterpump, serpentine belt, all cooling and heater hoses, thermostat and cam cover gaskets. I did reinstall the sparkplugs as I had changed them earlier. @ Andy D, these engines all have torque to yield head bolts which means they are one time use and have to be replaced, so I did that too.

This engine like most modern 4 cylinders, has an aluminum block with steel liners, and aluminum head. The bores are siamesed design which makes the head gasket ultra-critical from a design standpoint. It is imperative that coolant be kept clean, full, and by all accounts do your best never to overheat the engine. I did find the leak point on the head gasket, and my guess was that engine was overheated sometime earlier in it's life before I owned the car. The spot was right under the thermostat and my guess was, that someone added cold coolant or water to an overheated engine and that caused the gasket to pop off the siamesed bore seating surface, thus causing the leak.

Moral of the story, never add cold coolant to an overheated engine.....let it cool completely down first.

 

[someonesomewhere]

Yep, cold water in a hot motor has equaled bad news since the beginning of time. Quick way to a cracked head, block, what have you. One of the first things my Dad taught underhood.

 

[Exhaustgases]

Looks like the typical, designed to fail engines of the now.

 

[super20dan]

crap car to start with

 

[Wrenchturner44]

crap car to start with

Well you know what they say about opinions.

 

[someonesomewhere]

Well you know what they say about opinions.

Idk. My BIL bought a Dart brand new in 2017ish. At about 20k miles, it burst into flames underhood for a reason fire dept, insurance, nor Dodge could ever pin-point. He took the payout and went back to Toyota (he'd had an older Prius, iirc). He still has that Toyota (newer Prius, I believe).

I will admit, they were good looking cars. Had a myriad of fit/finish, paint, leaks, and just a good-sized list of issues that shouldn't be a number for 1 example of a new car. Seemed like it was at the dealer more frequently than he has possession of it. Must have been a Monday morning car. Lol. I had questioned his sanity when he bought it (to my wife, in private), but he was a youngish adult at the time and I didn't want to take any wind out of his sails while he was establishing himself in the world. Let his Dad (my FIL) handle that one. Haha

 

[brianl703]

Moral of the story, never add cold coolant to an overheated engine.....let it cool completely down first.

One of the durability tests that automakers perform on engines is to run them to operating temp, then flush ice cold water through them (via the coolant passages).

 

[Thermo1223]

One of the durability tests that automakers perform on engines is to run them to operating temp, then flush ice cold water through them (via the coolant passages).

Ya this was exactly what they did to the Ecoboost 3.5

 

[Exhaustgases]

One of the durability tests that automakers perform on engines is to run them to operating temp, then flush ice cold water through them (via the coolant passages).

The catch is, the all aluminum block and heads are not shocked like cast iron would be nor is it as brittle, so yes its just fine to do that.
But then just like cold water into a cast iron cooking utensil I suppose that could work too, anyone want to try it in there old collector vehicle?
I have never liked wives tails.

 

[brianl703]

The catch is, the all aluminum block and heads are not shocked like cast iron would be nor is it as brittle, so yes its just fine to do that.
But then just like cold water into a cast iron cooking utensil I suppose that could work too, anyone want to try it in there old collector vehicle?
I have never liked wives tails.

I don't think you could pour cold enough water fast enough into an overheated engine to damage it.

 

[Wrenchturner44]

I don't think you could pour cold enough water fast enough into an overheated engine to damage it.

Guys, please let me clarify the point I was trying to make in my original post about the cold water / overheating situation. Most of these new 4 cylinder aluminum block engines are an "open deck" design. That means the cylinders are siamesed with open water jackets.

The head gasket itself acts as the deck with the thin metal material of it being the only seperation between the head and the engine block. It is that thin metal that can pop from a suden cold water temperature chance and lose the seal at the top end thin wall area where it seals. Go back and look at the original photos and you can see what I am trying to illustrate here in this description.

 

[Wrenchturner44]

I don't think you could pour cold enough water fast enough into an overheated engine to damage it.

Sorry, but I beg to differ. Maybe not damage the block or head, but my belief is you can make a thin surface gasket pop it's seal.

 

[brianl703]

Sorry, but I beg to differ. Maybe not damage the block or head, but my belief is you can make a thin surface gasket pop it's seal.

The overheat condition won't cause that?

Every engine that has overheated and had cold water poured into it and has been damaged--how can you know which of those two events caused it?

 

[Wrenchturner44]

Hi Brian, I suspected that what happened is the engine got hot sometime in it's prior life.....maybe it was low on coolant, maybe the electric fan failed, or some other issue happened. Then cold coolant or water was added to the cooling system, via the reservoir bottle which has a direct feed to the hose that routes to the thermostat via "T" connection. The thermostat housing on this engine is at the end of the head on the #4 cylinder and the inlet below the thermostat disc is just above that cylinder's cylinder barrel lip and where the head gasket meet.

The cold coolant hit the hot head gasket and the gasket sheet metal (at least the top layer) had a flash contraction from the sudden cooling and unseated the gasket off of the thin cylinder bore top surface area. The head gasket had shrinkage wrinkles also in that area which is what really confirmed my suspicion. My lesson learned and moral to the story is that anyone replacing a blown head gasket on any engine, needs to look for a cause and affect on why the gasket failed. Some heads warp, blocks can warp too, coolant passages can plug and cause pressures to build, etc. If you don't find the cause you ultimately risk putting the engine back together and having it fail again sometime in the near future if the problem goes uncorrected.