Morning Experts and Enthusiasts, I have a 99 Durango, 183K and she's showing her age, but she's been a work horse. I have the 5.2L, and religiously changed the oil every 3,000K. Recently tried Synthetic just to see if there was any difference, and can't say I noticed much. I know that it's just a matter of time before the engine decides it's time for a break (hopefully not a thrown rod ). Anyway, just curious to see the various opinions from the Forum, would you pull and rebuild (which I would imagine could be cheaper), or would you go with a Crate Engine?

 

Personally I'd get a crate engine, saves time and usually is cheaper in the end too.

 

183k and your worried it will break soon??

At 183k these motors are just starting to get broken in.. i know many people with 5.2's and over 300,000 miles on them, some closer to 400,000.

But, to answer your question it really depends on what you wanna do.. If you just wanna throw a motor at it then a crate engine would save you alot of hassle. If your looking for more of a custom build then rebuilding would leave it open to many more options.

 

i have a 99 with a 5.2 with 167k. just purchased it made it legal and it blew up. turns out radiator had leak that didnt know about and ole lady was driving it when check gauge light came on temp rose oil pressure dropped and boom. it busted the connecting rod from the crank on the no 1 cylinder. this would not have happened if it wasnt overheated or if i spent more time on it before letting it be driven. so now i had to put an engine in it. (and yes i take full blame for the destruction of the other one). sorry for rambling trying to give a little history.
so what i did was purchased a reman from of all places advanced auto. came in with tax at about $1700. i then bought a new rad and cap, waterpump, belt, hoses, cap and rotor, wires, plugs, thermostat and ,some other misc. items to the tune of about $600. i then replaced all fluids front to back i.e trans and filter, transfer case, both diffs to the tune of about $150. so now i am pushing the $2500 mark. i have a good friend that i built his garage and he allowed me to use one of the lifts he has set up in it to do the engine swap. this expedited the process as well as made it a lot easier to do the job by myself.
i know long post (shut up and get to the point) my point is this i spent $2500 on the D plus $2500 on new motor to have a like new 14 year old vehicle. the economics dont really make sense when you factor in my labor. so if you think your D is tired you should run it till it breaks then evaluate your options. i would not throw an unnecessary engine at it just because.
this is just my opinion on the matter due to the fact i just replaced the engine and it is all fresh in my head. so if you are going to change the engine and do it yourself this is what you will be up against.
and to answer the question would you pull and rebuild...as already stated if you were to do a custom build that's one thing but, to pull the engine purchase all the components tear it down take it to a machine shop and pay them to clean and reassemble with your components (or theirs) then reinstall i am not sure how much cheaper it would be. just like it makes no sense to buy a short block and have to pay for heads to be done when you could get the long block for less than the cost of the head job + short block