Plymouth Repair: 1970 Dodge D500 318 water in oil, intake manifold gasket, crank shaft


Question
1970 Dodge D500 318 water in oil

I have a 5 ton D500 with a 318 engine. The engine was rebuilt in 1993. The truck was put in storage in 1994 then run again for another year and stored again pretty much till now. I think the rebuild has about 5000 miles on it. I recently fired it up and it ran great. Real smooth, no vibration, good as new. But I noticed the temp start to climb so I shut down and checked the radiator. It was low. But there were no stains or leaks on the ground. I put a gallon of premix in and went for a little warm up drive. Everything seemed OK until I pulled the dipstick. Yikes! - Grayish white, and four times over the full line. I kind of doubt I have an intake manifold gasket leak or a head leak because the engine starts easily and runs smooth. Would you agree with this or should I throw a vacuum gauge on it? How about compressions check even though it runs great?

My suspicion is the timing cover that routes water from the water pump to the block. It may be made of aluminum and may have corroded due to little or no antifreeze during storage. The intake manifold radiator hose connector is aluminum and that rotted out around the gasket seat about 2 years ago and was replaced.

What recommendations would you have to best target the problem prior to committing to any one area of disassembly?

If it is the timing cover and I can get it welded or resealed depending on the condition, would it be safe to use the same timing cover crank shaft seal if it’s undamaged?

Kinds Regards
David


Answer
Hello Daivd
Sorry to here this sounds like a nice truck  
I would check the head gaskets first t=i have sean them run smooth with a bad head gasket.
do the vac test alos u could be right on the timeing cover and i would change the crank seal to

pete