It's timing chains, it has 3. Since you'd be pulling the front cover swap out the front seal while you're there, it's cheap.

 

I did find one 4.7 for sale locally. It's out of an 04 Dakota. The engine code is N just like my truck but it isn't listed as a direct swap. I'm guessing that the only difference is that mine has the 16 tooth tone ring? Is that easy to swap over?

Again, I'm still just looking at all of my options until I can get the heads taken off, and I really appreciate all of the help you guys are giving. This forum is awesome!

 

The tone rings are the difference. Define "easy."

Seriously, you would need to pull the crank to swap it. There is also the tone ring on the camshaft.

 

Yeah, probably not looking to pull the crank just to be able to use a 90,000 mile motor for $1000 less than a reman then. Thanks for the info.

 

Anyone have any opinions a Marshall remanufactured motor?

 

Well I rented a compression gauge from the auto parts store last night and tried to get some readings for myself (didn't trust the dealership mechanic who did the first readings) but the gauge was broken. It wouldn't hold any pressure. It just bounced up and down between about 90 and 0 on all cylinders except for the #2 with the valve problem. I'll get another one from another store in a couple days, but I'm kind of optimistic that I was getting about the same pressure in each cylinder. I was worried about the 12 pounds that the mechanic found in cyl #7, but I'm guessing that he either didn't have the gauge all the way screwed into the hole or he was lying to try and make the PO buy a whole new engine when it just needed some head work.

But with that being said, I'm still on the fence about just getting a remanufactured motor since this one does have 160K on it.