I have a '94 Dakota with a 318. It will not hold water at all. When you put water in the radiator it pours out the back of the motor. I cannot see where it is coming out of the top end at all. Hoses all seem fine. Holds oil, no water in the oil as far as I can tell. Before I tear into this thing I was hoping to figure out where the water may be coming out. Pours out the back of the motor between the engine and trans.

Any ideas?

 

that sounds like a bad freeze plug, there is one between the engine and trans, have to pull the engine or trany to get to it, if you pull the tranny, use a trolly/floor jack on the oil pan near the rear of the engine, with a piece of wood protecting the oil pan, lower the rear of the engine so you can reach the plug easier,

 

Thanks! I could not find a good 318 'service manual' thank has a good diagram/picture of the engine. A Haynes manual is generic to V6/V8 and not specific to the 318 Dakota.

Steve

 

guess it's time to pull the trans

 

Wish there was better news, sorry. Just changed the oil pan in my Cirrus. Manual forgot to mention "remove front engine mount"!
"Engine removal procedure: disconnect negative battery cable, remove anything else in the way, raise engine" HaHa!

 

I hope it is as simple as a freeze plug.

 

you will have 2 freeze plugs in the back of the motor but you also have 1 on each of the heads on the back but i would jack the car and pull the trany cover on bottom front and poor water in it (radiator) and see if it comes out the cover hole first before pulling any trans just to be sure

 

Water coming from the back of the engine can come from only 3 things, a freeze plug being the most likely (if you're lucky). The other two are a blown head gasket or (heaven forbid) a cracked engine block. Is there water in your oil? When you start the engine do you have steam in the exhaust?