[im4gzs]

Triplejack,

We've had a '91 Spirit R/T with the TIII engine since 1995. And yes, we've had our share of cracked heads (due to threaded steel casting core plugs in the aluminum head).

The bother about it all is it is very difficult to get a new head (these were very special Lotus-built heads and not many are left that aren't cracked), and we paid ~$2200 for a BARE HEAD several years ago to replace our cracked one. Dodge replaced our original cracked head under an extended warranty we bought, but it cracked, too, so we bought the $2200 one (it's also cracked, but we still drive it).

If the IROC you're looking at has 50k miles on it, I'd say the head is already cracked or getting ready to (ours had 39k and ~50k, respectively). You can take the cover off over the spark plug valley and if there's oil apparent between the spark plugs at the casting core plugs, or has seeped into the spark plug holes, then the head is probably cracked. If it's not apparent in the spark plug valley, check the back side of the head on the passenger's side at the head gasket/block mating surface and look for oil leaks. (The cracks can be bad enough to warp the head and cause head gasket leaks).

You can also get the VIN of the car and take it to a friendly Dodge dealer and ask them to see if the head has recently been replaced (by another friendly dealer, of course)!

Also, there used to be a problem with US-made timing belts (not sure if that's still a problem or not). General thought was that a Gates belt made in Italy was much better quality. I'm pretty sure the TIII is not an interference engine, so if your t-belt goes, you won't bend valves or anything, but you could still be stranded by a bad t-belt.

That being said, our R/T runs like a scalded dog! It puts Zippy (my '03 PT Turbo) to shame. At 224 stock horsepower (we've modified it quite a bit, too) it's cool for a grocery-getter~

More here on the R/T head problems:
http://www.mooresmopars.com/spiritrthead.html