SO I have a 2001 Durango SLT+ 4X4 with the 4.7L V8. A month or so ago it dropped the seat on the cyl. 1 exhaust valve. The truck has 203K miles on it, and its the original engine. A couple years ago I had to put a transmission in it, originally going to be a rebuilt one, but the shop couldn't get one rebuilt right so I got a brand new one at the rebuilt cost (my loss is your gain, as the guy said...), and its got at most 20K miles on it. It needs some other things as well, such as the heater core, shocks, brake master cylinder, and some other small things that shouldn't cost a ton to fix. Also needs some body and paint work, the worst of which is the rotting out tailgate.

I was originally planning on selling this and buying a 2007-9, but for a variety of reasons this option isn't looking like it will happen, at least not in the near future, so I'm now leaning towards just replacing the engine in mine. I notice that these engines are quite expensive, I've managed to find a few claiming to be reman. engines, but I also see plain old used ones, one with 156K miles going for $1400, which to me is more than a little excessive! I don't think I can justify spending $4000 on an engine for this truck, I'd rather keep it at or under $2000, does this seem possible?

 

I forgot from the other thread. Did the seat issue effect the piston? If the bottom is fine, just fix it. I never did head work before, until a year ago when I also buggered a valve (piston bent it, piston was fine). It's not rocket science, just be slow and methodical, no cut corners.

 

I haven't torn into the engine very far, just enough to determine it is not an injector, or spark coil. I've heard since that it could also be a broken valve spring, or I've heard from a couple people who have had the rocker fall off, causing something similar. Our garage, usually with room for cars, got filled with junk after we had to clean out Grandma's house when she moved into a nursing home after a stroke, we are cleaning it out so we can have room to work on, or at least look closer at this issue on my truck. Dad is still really on the aide of wanting me to buy something newer, (he's reaching a point where he's tired of constantly having to fix things on all of your cars) but it doesn't look like that will be happening and I really dislike having to share a vehicle wit everyone else, especially when they're not the cleanest, I'm the only one who keeps mine clean inside...

If the damage is limited to the head, and I do replace the even-side head, should I seriously consider replacing the other side as well? My concern is that if this was caused by overheating, both heads should have been exposed to that, and I don't want to have this issue again soon.

 

You haven't even taken the valve cover off? ... and you're asking questions here? You can guess forever. Get your hands dirty and get some facts.

 

Well, one thing I totally and completely managed to not know or add here is that Dad did in fact test for compression, and there is none, combines with the loud noise in the exhaust, you can hear the compression blowing into the manifold, the reason why when the issues started I thought it sounded like the manifold had a hole in it or something. After talking to Dad this weekend, really the question isn't what happened, its whether or not the piston hit it and cracked. So Dad said that if the piston is OK, we'll put a head(S) on it, as well as a timing kit, as I see no sense in leaving the old chains, guides and tensioners in there if we're doing heads, but it there's any damage to the piston, we aren't going to bother trying to rebuild the whole engine, too much time and effort. I'll just buy a good reman. engine at that point. I just can't believe how much these damn 4.7s go for!

 

I personally would not give a nickel for a 4.7 powered anything. but that is me.

I prefer the old school tried and true 318 and 360. I bought my particular '01 Durango via CL from over an hour away vs an '03 for sale 2 miles away, for that reason. Similar price, the one close by had 80K less miles but it had a 4.7. Mine had just come up from Louisana (this is now 3+ years ago) had never seen snow or salt to that point, had 214K miles on it (vs 131K for the 4.7 powered one near home) but because it has the 360 I bought it in spite of the higher mileage.

Mine now has 258K on it and now has a fresh engine with brand spanking new EQ heads, and a fresh tranny. It helps to have buddies in the business to swap favors with, I bought the parts and he and I went through my original trans, just because of the high miles even though it appeared to be just fine. Once inside it wasn't terrible but I did find a couple of issues that weren't immediate concerns but it would not have been long before they would have been, enough to make me glad I went thru it.

I plan to keep my Durango til it rusts away to nothing, it currently has 2 blisters, both up high that were probably started from a rock chip, the underneath is very clean.
Mine was $38K when it was new, ("SLT Plus") I have zero payment, and want to keep it that way. I bought another engine from CL that I did the rebuild on, I still have my original.
once I get past the holidays I may start looking at some of these 4.7 powered ones with "issues" that seem cheap and plentiful on CL at the moment and rebuild this original engine from my 01 to drop in. I also have a spare, seemingly freshly rebuilt 46RE out of an 01 R/T that I found in the U pull, at a price I could not refuse... the 01+ tranny has different electronics than the older ones, probably not to be found at the time in the event I wind up needing one so I got, while the gettin was good. The U pull had a 40% off sale over Black Friday weekend. I was in there for something else but when I fell upon this I could not pass it up.
Though I am a mechanic by trade, which helps keep the costs down. If I had to pay to have everything done for me it would have been prohibitive.
As long as the body and frame are good anything else from that point can be fixed.
to go from 4.7 to 360, ("5.9") you would need the tranny, the complete wiring harness and computer and the mounts to be able to do it right. the 4.7 has 2 seperate computers, one for the engine and one for the trans, while the 360 powered ones don't. The 4.7 is coil on plug so there are 8 coils. the 360 has 1 coil and still runs a distributor. so there are differences.

 

sorry for the novel guys. I split it into 2 to keep ya from falling asleep....
"worth it" means something different to everyone. How much you can do yourself, access to a donor vehicle or a good relationship with the guys at the local boneyard are a must and help determine worth. If you are doing this for personal use to run the wheels off of is one thing, doing all of this for a flip certainly would definitely not be worth it.
The "nicer" "cleaner" Durango's within +/- a year of mine are selling for about what I spent on mine. but you go buy another and you gotta start over. Brakes. Suspension. Tires. Battery. Tune up. Belts and hoses. Exhaust. License and title fees. and then possibly have something major go out that you weren't told about or did not "catch" when you checked it out.
Over the last 3+ years I have done all of that so I am ahead of the game. Nicer ones (and some taht really aren't that nice) are still commanding as much or more than I paid 3+ years ago. I got my money's worth to this point. So I put that amount into it "again" and should get another 150K or more out of it if it don't get wrecked or rust away.... if it does, this motor and trans will be yanked and dropped into something else.

When I did mine, I;
had the block bored 0.030" over and bought pistons and rings to match
had the crank polished standard (all it needed) also had it hot tanked.
I did my own cam bearings and freeze plugs since I have the tools here to do it.
bought brand new Enginequest (EQ) heads complete with valves springs and such
replaced all the pumps; oil, water and fuel
replaced the muffler and cat
replaced the O2's, cap, rotor, wires and plugs and the crank and cam sensors.
sent the starter and alternator into the local rebuilder, had them gone through too.
replaced timing chain, freeze plugs (brass), lifters but reused the original cam.
but mine has no rust. a few spots of surface rust on a couple of seams on the floorpan is about the extent of it. that right there, makes a huge difference in determining "worth it or not". replacing a hatch or a door or fender is one thing but welding in quarters or rockers or a rusty frame is quite another issue, making it not-so worth it. Only you can decide.

 

oh yeah; if you use a 5.9, you can't use a 4.7 trans. or vise versa.