Is this feasible or am I just wasting my time

 

If your ram originally had a 5.2 engine, it'll drop right in, and bolt right up. Hook up the electrical, drive it away.

 

Great. Friend has an 01 with a theoretical locked engine. This is the quickest route shy of buying a new vehicle

 

Think I would do a bit o' troubleshooting before throwing a motor at it.

 

If it were my own car I'd say yes, but I'm more afraid he ran the car out oil since apparently it made some horrible noises the same day he did an oil change. Plus I really don't want to get into a total teardown since the really need the truck asap

 

Just put a ratchet on the crank, and see if it'll turn.....

 

Made that attempt but he had already pulled the front of the engine off and when I tried to put crank.bolt back in, threads seemed munged. I entered this experiance after the fact

 

Can use a crescent wrench on the crank snout, to see if it will turn. (assuming the woodruf key is still there.....) I've used that method before. Should be able to turn the engine relatively easily by hand, if you can't, then, yeah, replace it.

 

^ with the plugs out...