Can anyone point me to a "how to" remove/install a 4.7 mine has 4wd if that changes anything? I have a head gasket that has gone south and am trying to evaluate my options. I have only ever pulled/installed engines on cars with manual gearboxes. Thanks

 

automatic is pretty similar except you have transmission cooler lines to worry about and you have a torque converter instead of clutch and pressure plate

 

Is there anything procedure wise specific to the torque converter? I plan to remove only the motor, do the tranny lines still come in to play?

 

You have to unbolt the converter from the flywheel otherwise you will damage the seal on the pump of the transmission.

Let's back the train up a minute....

You say it has a blown head gasket, have you took the motor apart to see what damage there is?

The 4.7 is a pretty tough engine and i would be willing to bet unless you extremely overheated it several times the motor would be fine with just a head gasket put on (unless there are other issues you didnt mention) would save you a lot of work and money.

 

I got the "Check Gauges" light once and it was running really hot so i turned the heat on quickly and the temp came down quickly. I then had the cooling system flushed to see if it was clogged. the guy said it was a little low when they started. I then took it to a buddy (bmw tech) and he removed the cap and put a pressure gauge on it. when it was running, the cooling system was gaining pressure indicating that the exhaust gases were getting into the coolant. i ran it without the cap and i didn't see bubbles but the coolant level rises steadily. I have 217k on the motor and wonder if it is worth repairing.

 

After much consideration about buying another vehicle or fixing this one, we decided to replace the motor in the Durango. The D just does everything we need it to as a family hauler. So, we bought a remanufactured engine from CMengines.com. I had a shop do the install and we replaced a few other things while we were at it (all cooling parts including radiator, tranny lines, harmonic balancer, and plugs). i drove it for a week and then took it to the mountains for a family get-away and it did just fine. I wish it felt different as if it had gobs more power or something, but it doesn't. it feels like it used to, which is what we hoped for. CMEngines was easy to work with and their prices are reasonable and shipping was really fast (I am only 115 miles away).

 

I would have pumped up the volume in the new motor. Why go through all that trouble and expense to end up with the same thing you had. I had the trans rebuilt better than stock. I replaced the exhaust with an $800 Magnaflow front to back rather than half that for stock.

My Durango attitude is, if $100 gets it fixed, spending $150 to make you really glad you fixed it is a no-brainer.