Hi, my name is Sean and this morning I bought an 03 Durango with the 4.7 and a bad miss and tapping noise while running. I thought it was odd that the water was drained from the engine and the radiator cap was missing but the price was right. When I got it home i put water in the radiator and started it up. It shot water high enoupg to hit the bottom of the hood. So now I know the head gasket and or cylinder head is bad. Tonight I began pulling the moter apart preparing to pull the heads. As I pulled the plugs I found water on the #5 and #7 plugs. When I lifted The intake I found water droplets in the same ports. When I look down the into the valves i see water standing on top of the valves. So now I am 99.9% sure the head is cracked on those two cylinders. I also found pieces of a shredded belt under the intake so I am also sure the engine was overheated. The truck only has 83,000 on the clock. Another interesting thing I found was all the pugs looked fairly new and in good shape except #8 which was highly oil fouled and extremely worn way past the .040 it is supposed to be. Plus it was completely rusted around the outside. I'm guessing some one forgot to change it. I did run a scanner on the computer for possible engine codes. It had nothing. When I began looking for a Durango with a bad motor my early intentions were to swap in a 5.9 I had sitting in my garage. Since it is the 4.7 I now know that is damn near impossible and have scratched that idea. However I still want to make this beast run competitively with my 93 vette. The vette is 3400 lbs and 300 hp and 330 ft lbs of torque. I figure 350 hp out this 4.7 would be a good start. So my question is should I find a good set of heads and port and polish them or is there an aftermarket company making them for the 4.7? And, also, where can I find aftermarket cams? Am I wasting my time with the 4.7? As with most men the wife has me on a tight budget Any help would be appreciated.

 

Why not find late model hemi and swap it in there?

 

They do make an HO cam set.

Don't know on 4.7L performance heads? People usually just P&P.


Most likely I would bet the serpentine belt broke, the truck overheated, then the head cracked or block. The issue that I'm thinking of is the head is Aluminum (which is softer) and the block is steel. Usually they warp, not crack.

Anyway I would pull the motor and have it checked out while you are working on it. Send the heads out or replace, then have the block checked. With oil foul I would assume they drove it hard or it shot in there when the heat warped. The #8 plug is a bi#ch to get to so I would concur that they didn't replace it as well.

There is no aftermarket Intake manifold, however there is a bored Throttle Body from Dan at www.thefastman.com

 

swapping a hemi in would require ALOT of work including new motor mounts and wire harness and computer it is alot better, and easier to keep the engine that you already have in there.

Higher output cams ARE available for these trucks, and i would just port and polish the heads bc i have not seen anything available for the 4.7, another thing to look at would be fastman throttle body

 

Thanks guys. I thought I was a little computer illiterate cause I couldnt find much of anything performance wise for the 4.7. Theres a billion of these engines out there. I would have thought there would be more for it.Has any one port and polished a set of these heads. Can anyone give me any suggestions on thin spots in the cast to avoid with the dremmel. Also, where can I get a good deal on The HO cams. Preferably better (aka CHEAPER) than SUMMIT. The last few things I bought from the were wrong.

 

It is easier but if his goal is to run with his vette he is going to need more than the 4.7 will be good for with the lack of support out there.

My first thought was swap an LS into it but this is a dodge forum so I didn't think that would go over very well.

 

Well I just got the drivers side head off tonight and its much worse than I had first thought. It definately got too hot. It destroyed the #7 piston, cylinder wall and head. Basically I have to change yhe whole motor.