blue the radiator hose and drove this 2002 dakota till it died fixed hose now wont start

It could be a few different things... First, Does it fire at all? If not, did water get back to the distributor cap area? If so, see if you can remove the cap and dry it out inside. Second, check the oil and see if there is any tanish yellow discolored muck on the dipstick. If so, this is water that got into your engine, likely from a blow head gasket, or even worse, a warped head. If so, cost of repair could be upwards of $1500 or more. Probably wiser to junk it, or depending on the miles and condition, replace the engine.

1. The 2002 Dakota does not have a distributor as we used to know it, it has individual magnetos for each cylinder and sparkplug. 2. Check the compression and then go with jili and check the oil to see if it is a cream color. If so, you have water in the oil. 3. In order to fix it, you will have to drain the oil, pull the engine, drop the oil pan and clean it out completely. Remove the heads, the crankshaft, and all of the internals, then take the block down to an engine shop to have it tanked to make certain that the block is not cracked. The heads need to be inspected to make certain that they're not cracked or warped. 4. If the heads aren't warped or the block cracked, you'll have to replace the oil pump, possibly the mains, and start to put it all back together. 5. By this time, you may decide that you'll either replace the engine with the same type from a wrecking yard or replacement shop (you can find these on lines) or, you may decide to use a larger engine in which case you'll need the wiring harness and all the stuff that goes with a modern engine switch. OR, you might luck out and find that everything is ok (lots of luck). Either way, you'll have to go through the entire process which takes time and is a royal pain. Hope this info helped. Good luck with your decision.