Head gasket removal and installation on 98 dodge Ram 1500 4X4?

Answer 1

• White smoke and water coming from the tail pipe.
• Dipstick or oil cap has milking color.
• Outer leakage on either head.

These are the key indicators. I am tearing my ram down this weekend. I do not have the milky oil but have slight white smoke/ water dripping from tail pipe and loss of power. You do not want to wait until it blows! If you are doing it yourself I recommend doing both head gaskets and buying a head gasket kit so you can replace all other gaskets getting to the actual heads. There is a lot to it like stretching the new head bolts, taking heads to a machine shop and having them machined to assure they are not warped, etc. You should do or have a compression and or leak down test to pinpoint where the leakage is coming from ie

head gasket, exhaust/intake valve etc. If you have to have a shop do it, your looking at $1000 dollars labor per side. You do it, less than $150 for both sides (gasket kit). Hope this helps.