The stock size was some bastard P245 dimension or something like that I think. I have 265-70-16 street tires on my 2WD race truck, Should be able to get another inch out of the torsion bars and 1" spacers under the back and run a 275-60-16 or similar.

I don't know a whole lot on the 4.7, there are a couple 4.7 guru's in here. You could probably run the sealed power, I'm not sure if there'd be a major difference or not.

 

Cleaning out the oiling system before the new lifters is a priority or the new lifters will get mucked up.

 

Ok. What should be done besides some seafoam? Do I need to drop the pan or anything?

 

While dropping the pan sounds awesome, it's not easily done in the truck. Best thing you can do is pull the valve covers and clean up anything you can that's visual, run the truck and let it get warm, then add seafoam to knock all the crud loose, and keep it running so it all gets nice and hot and thins out the sludge, then drain it. Then put new oil in, repeat the process, drain it, then put lifter in.

I think 5W20 is the new spec? They moved it down 5 numbers from what's in the manual.

 

Poking around on YouTube and saw this.


I think this might be my actual problem. The lifter didn't seem to be collapsed. We couldn't compress it, and the rocker arm slid into its spot easily.

 

Did a leak down test and definitely have 2 cylinders with valves stuck open. You can tell by looking at the top of the springs that they are retracted into the head enough.

We're going to pull the engine and see how the heads look. If the valves seats came out what's the likelihood the head can be repaired?

 

Depends on how bad it is, and how much you wanna spend on 'em. Generally, new seats can be installed, without breaking the bank.... Depends on if the heads are damaged or not.

 

I guess I'll have to see how bad they are. And then what am I better off with. Having these heads fixed, buying some already rebuilt,or a junkyard head that of unknown history. Or if I can score some junkyard heads with no visible damage, I'm assuming a head job on those would be cheaper?

I'm also going to want to rebuild the engine while it's out. Wheres the best place to get parts for that and what all would y'all replace while you're in there?

 

Rebuilding what ya got will likely turn out to be the least expensive option.

As for the rest of the engine.... See what cylinder bores look like, and if they are still within spec. If they are, just hone them out a bit, new rings, bearings, timing set, oil pump, water pump, thermostat, and anything that you just don't like the looks of. (and gaskets.... of course.)

 

Reading up on this I've seen a few places say you should do all valve seats while the heads are out. Which makes sense to me and appeals to my ultimate goal for this rebuild.

IE dont skimp, put it back together better than you found it so that the truck is ready to go a other 100k easily. I dont want to spend money for no reason, but I dont want concur corners or end up regretting i didn't do something when the engine was out.

So I called a couple shops around here and they're both around $300 for a basic head jobs and machining the heads for flatness. New seats gets pretty pricey though, at $35+ each.

The first shop seems to have a better reputation and would be about $930 total. To which I have to wonder if I'm better off trying to find already rebuilt heads? If so would those have new seats?

The other shop says he recommends just replacing the ones that have dropped and he just "reinforces" the others by pounding them into the head, and claims he's never had a head come back with more dropped seats. Does that sound right? Seems a little like cutting corners.