Head Gasket Question

Viperrick said:

I would say why would you want to mess around with the car when its fine? The head gasket will simply start weeping leaving a spot on your garage floor. Once you see that happening start by getting it up in the air. With a good flashlight you should see a tiny stream down the side of the block and pan. When the gasket fails it is not a catastrophic failure with white smoke billowing out of the exhaust. My 93 started to dribble back in the day with maybe 15K on the clock. I had an extended warranty and Roanoke pulled it and Dodge sent a crate for the dealer to send it to Arrow for a rebuild. Now I have 40K and never noticed an issue since.

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Crozet Steve said:

Hello from Virginia. I’m a longtime owner of a 1994 RT/10 which is approaching 20k miles. I keep reading about 1st Gen head gasket/cylinder sleeve design problems with failure occurring in for cars with over 20k plus mileage. My car is fine and has never had work done on it except for expected maintenance items. Is it the general consensus that the head gasket WILL go soon? As a preemptive maintenance precaution, should I get it replaced now? Am I fine to keep driving my car 1000 miles a year?

Secondly, my local Dodge dealer had a trained Viper mechanic on staff. When the dealership changed ownership 8 years ago, the maintenance staff was let go. Any known Viper mechanics near Central Virginia?

Thanks in advance for sharing your wisdom!

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9Viper4 said:

Steve, I have a 94' with 44k miles and my head gaskets went out last yr. I live in Richmond and trailered it to Havik for repair. They are the closest (5 hrs) and have the experience. My local dodge dealer wouldn't do the work because OEM gaskets weren't available anymore. I couldn't find any shop in Va that would do the work, several were willing to replace the engine but not do head gaskets.

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Robert1994 said:

Is the issue with the head gaskets? As I recall the problem that I was expecting was the cylinder liners slipping. The local dealer (Hilo, HI) diagnosed the problem. Chrysler had the engine sent (AIR FREIGHT!)
to Arrow for a complete repair/rebuild. I had that done just prior to my extended warranty expiring.
Arrow called me when the engine was finished. They dyno tested it before they sent it back and said it was pushing about 425 HP.
That was 1999, and the car is still an absolute joy to drive. About 49k now.

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Viper Specialty said:

Liner movement or dropping is something that usually occurs *after* the head gaskets have been removed, while the engine is apart, and rotated when it should not be with no heads on [Gen-1 only]. There were also a few incorrectly manufactured liners back then, factory defects. Those are long remedied decades ago.

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