The poor old 4.7 in my '03 Dak decided to eat itself after >180K miles. The oil pressure dropped to nothing, and the dipstick looked like I had a visit from the glitter fairy (but no bottom-end noise). I'm an OG hot-rodder, and normally I would just rebuild what I had, but with this engine, I don't have the familiarity and confidence I would with an old LA or big block Mopar. I looked high and low for a used engine with reasonable miles, but the couple I found were priced stupidly high, so I decided to get a reman long block for not much more $$$.

There are several suppliers, but I was wondering if anyone here has had experience with any of them- good or bad.

Sure appreciate any feedback from the forum members.

 

Have you had a chat with any of your local parts stores? Sourcing one locally might cost a bit more initially, but, if there are any warranty issues, you will quickly recoup that extra money.

 

/\ This.

While unlikely, make sure that you have the correct tone rings too.
3 connector PCM is JTEC, 16 tooth
4 connector PCM is NGC, 32 tooth

2003 should be NGC but make sure.

 

8th digit on VIN is 8, so 32 tooth. Sadly, none of our local stores can order them in. Living in a podunk mountain town in northern Wyoming has some downsides...

 

How far to the nearest reasonable size city?? Shipping on a motor is gonna be killer.... and they will probably want a loading dock, or forklift present when they deliver it.

 

The problem is how bastardly the 4.7 is. You need an engineering degree to do the cam timing, compared to old school engines, because there's 3 timing chains and they are prone to so many various failures, plus the mid-year changes between 16 and 32 tooth tone rings, and 8 and 16 sparkplug setups.

 

I'd found this one that had the oil drain back holes enlarged.

Updated Dodge 4.7 Engine (powertrainproducts.net)

 

They have some rather intriguing reviews on the BBB website. They offer a 'no fault' warranty, but, several of the reviews I read pretty much put the lie to that.... They also claim that 'varnished fuel' destroyed an engine.... (and that's FROM the company.....) which is so much BS.

Of course, I would expect you could find reviews of that nature on ANY company...... The warranty part concerns me a bit though....

 

So my friend has a 2010 Ram 1500 with the 4.7

How to put this nicely... He bought the bumper to bumper lifetime powertrain warranty when it was new...and oh has he used it to the tune of about $12,000 with only $2000 in deductible paid for it.
Luckily he bought a cummins 2500 in 2020, so while the 1500 was down, he still had something to drive. This entire saga was 1.5 YEARS that the 1500 lived at the local dealership on the warranty's dime.

ticking = 5 new lifters/followers on driver side head
then, a few weeks later
ticking = 7 new lifters/followers on passenger head
then, a few weeks later
ticking = all the rest of the lifters/followers
then, 2 months later
ticking = timing chains sloppy loose
then, a week later
"Um...we went for a test drive and we aren't sure what happened but it got 2 miles from the dealership and died"
then a few days later
"So our lead engine guy was on vacation and we had one of the other guys do it and apparently he had never done a 4.7 before and did something wrong and it jumped timing, bent a few valves and damaged the cylinder head. We are trying to find a new cylinder head"
then...4 weeks later
"the cylinder head we got from Mopar was damaged in shipping. We are looking for another one"
then...10 weeks later
"There exist no 4.7 cylinder heads anywhere on a shelf anywhere in north america. We're still looking"
A few days later
"So we checked with Mopar. We pleaded at this point that it would be quicker and cheaper to order a 5.7 hemi, PCM, and engine harness, and just convert your truck over. But apparently we can't do that, legal issues and stuff. So we're looking still."
then..another 3 weeks
"Would you be okay with a used cylinder head that has been remanufactured?" -> sure
a week later
"So we had them ship the head, and it arrived intact..but it came bare and we didn't expect that. We'll get it assembled and on the engine"

Now, at this point, both heads were off and timing cover was off. He asked them to replace all the valve springs, the oil pump, an check any other vitals. They said they would for free, because of all the troubles and since there would be no overlapping labor.

8 weeks after the head arrived, he got the truck back and all was good.

1.5 months later, it loses oil pressure and he immediately got it shut off and towed to the dealer.

The oil pump gear had broken. So guess what....

The oil pump had never been replaced. So now they got to tear the engine most of the way back down, replace the cam bearings, replace the main bearings, replace the oil pump, and put it all back together again.

So for the grand total of $2,000 worth of deductible and a whole lot of a headache for the dealership, he now has a truck with a 175,000 mile chassis but a ~1,000 mile 4.7 engine at best....and still has that lifetime powertrain warranty plus pretty much anything he wants the dealership to do, ever.

 

One would think that after all that, the dealer would have just tossed another engine into it, and called it a day. Would have been cheaper all the way around.

GM offered their "lifetime" warranty back in the late 80's. It wasn't inexpensive, so, not a lot of folks bought it... but, we had one guy that did. Brand new Astro AWD. He was a traveling salesman, and would put a couple hundred thousand miles a YEAR on his van. Over the course of his ownership, he got three engines, four rear differentials, several transfer cases, and even more transmissions. He finally retired the van, with over 1 million miles on it...... because it rusted out so bad, things mounted to the frame, weren't.... any more. So far as I know, GM never offered that caliber of warranty again.

Buddy of mine bought the lifetime warranty on his Jeep Cherokee Overland. He is over 300,000 miles now, (don't recall what year it is....) and the Jeep still rides/drives/looks like it's new. Very little rust, considering he lives here in michigan.... He has no plans to replace it any time soon. (and he drives about 80 miles one way to work every day. Mostly freeway though.)