1993 dodge grand caravan 3.0L, could this be head gasket problem again?

Question

The head gasket on the left of motor blew 2 weeks ago. it was running terrible, and belowing out white clouds smoke everywhere, and using water like mad. I replaced it myself, and torqued all bolts down to the book for that motor in sequence etc. all vaccum lines pretty much self explain themselves, its basic and simple hookup sizes only fit pretty much one way, one place and all wires are the same as hooking up they fit only one place anyway, or can only reach to one certain spot, so ints hard to s***w anything up really. Anyway, after everything was put back together again, I started it and it still runs like c**p, almost sounds like timing is off a tooth, but its not, me and 3 other mechanics all checked it out, and its set right on time. Its lacking an o2 sensor but they told me it would not make it run that rough, shake, and lack power, it wont go over 30 uphill floored. Sputters badly, and has no power, and everything shakes like crazy. Never had any of this before this happened to me. It was all running smooth, quiet, and loads of power, with very little vibration, because of the motor mounts needing replacement I presume. Anybody have any Idea's please, I think it could be the other head gasket blew as well, but its not using any water, and no smoke at all, its smooth at idle only, but in drive and giving it gas, sputters, looses power, and shaked like crazy. Whjat could cause all these symptoms all of a sudden? when all was running Great Before head gasket blew...

Answer 1

Take a compression test on all 6 cylinders first to verify that its not a mechanical problem. From there you need to isolate which cyl. is misfiring if it happens to be more than one on the bank that you replaced the head gasket well then you can probably guess from there that something went wrong with the repairs. Another thing to consider is that if you only replaced one head gasket on an older van and the gasket was blown out imagine what the condition of the other side was like. Good Luck!

Answer 2

happens to me too i start by checking my firing order i usually find it in the firing order off the intake not from the book,pull plugs see if any cylinder has water or oil,check connections,at the distributor,coil,check the fuel pressure,check for pending codes,water could have ruined the converter,back pressure test with a vacuum gage hang in yyou'llfind it.