OK so I have a 2005 Dakota 3.7 L club cab 4 x 4 etc. i’m driving the other day in town nothing special nothing fun just driving when I roll up to a light and my truck starts sputtering and farting and stumbling and then finally stalls out. I get restarted and slowly drive through the intersection there’s a horrible noise coming from what sounds like a cylinder head and the truck is running very very rough and then the check engine light starts flashing which I know means pull over stop driving shut your truck off so I did and I called for a tow. Check the oil which looked great because I changed it not that long ago but wasn’t thin it didn’t smell like gas and there was nothing weird about the oil I started the truck again and it was running rough but still making a pretty loud sound like a valve or a lifter or something like that. The truck gets towed to a reputable local shop and after doing a compression test they tell me that cylinders one and three are testing good cylinder four is showing no compression whatsoever and the other three cylinders are testing about 30% of what they should be. They said they recommend a motor swap and they’ll give me prices on a recycled motor or a remanufactured motor either way it’s gonna cost me 6 1/2 thousand dollars. I’m not a mechanic I don’t know everything but that didn’t sit well with me so I did some digging and I’m of the opinion that at most the truck needs a valve job may be lifters and the timing belt . What do you guys think? Should I pay them their 115 bucks for diagnostic and take it somewhere else? I think it needs head work not a whole new motor. What are you guys think?

 

$6,500.00 for a used motor? I'd get my truck out of there as soon as I can and take it somewhere else.

 

Yeah for the engine swap, just shy of $6500. I did some other digging and found that most compression issues are valve issues and not cylinder issues. So I checked out another shop and told them my story, what happened, how the truck behaved etc., before I was done she said “Ok, so we do a leak down test, then test the cylinders to see what’s going on in there and maybe we’ll scope it and get a visual if needs be.” I thought done. I’m taking my truck from where it is over to here. I go to the original shop and ask to talk to someone there about my truck and the diags they’ve done so far. Dude pulls my intake sheet with the tech notes on the back and I can see there is only pressures for cyls 1-4. They did compression tests (no leak down) on cylinders 1-4, and stopped when they got to one with no compression and said the motor is bad. Cheaper to replace than rebuild. When they called me the dud I spoke to gave me some total BS about cyls they didn’t even test. Needless to say I WAS PISSED. I told them they are pretty far from earning $6500 worth of confidence in their business. I have had 3 other vehicles with this business. They won’t see another penny of mine. ( No I didn’t pay for their very incomplete diagnostic)

 

These engines are known to burn exhaust valves. Dodge saved 50 cents a cylinder by using sintered metal valve seats. I had my heads rebuilt at 130k due to low compression and misfire codes, and I've got 210k on it now. That said, with the noises you heard, you may have had one or more rockers bounce off their pivots. If that's the case it will be obvious when the valve covers are removed. I think I paid $600 to rebuild both heads, including machined valve seats, so it's worth running a scope down the spark plug holes before giving up on the whole engine. If you don't see obvious damage with a scope, it's worth pulling the heads before giving up.