Is what happens when you drop a valve seat:







4.7 engine with barely 100k miles on her...

 

Ouch!! My condolences man.

 

Time to trade her in!

 

Nay, it'll make a good project. Only problems are that its my daily driver and my *** is laid off. Time I got like crazy, funds on the other hand...

I got quoted $400 to completely rebuild the heads and found a kick *** deal on a full master rebuild kit for around $650 shipped to the door and that's with 8 new pistons, timing set and every gasket & seal. Above that it'll just be all the fluids, filters and plugs.

Seriously though stewie, I did think about selling it or parting it out. But it's only got 102k on it and really is in mint condition. Barely a scratch on the outside and the rear leather sits still look like they've never been sat on. Besides, who's going to pay anything for a vehicle with a non-working engine. As far as parting it out goes, yeah I've had inquiries on Jeep sites about my 3" OME lift coils and the much drooled over Dana axles with the lockers in both of them, but after that, the rest of the thing would be sitting here on blocks. Because it's the Overland even though it's an '02 it stickered for over $45k new, so hi-retail book on it is still $9200, so I decided to sink about $1500 in rebuilding the engine...

 

Now you have an excuse to make more modifications to it (subject to funding).

 

I'm not too familiar with this problem, so basically does the valve seat break off from fatigue failure and fall into the cylinder damaging the piston and cylinder?

 

I had never heard of it happening either until after it happened to me I did some digging and found it's fairly common. Quite a few posts on Jeep and Dak sites about it and I've found a few Ram owners but not many.

It seems that over time the aluminum heads expand and the pressed on steel valve seats obviously don't and when this happens the seat just falls out. Over-heating can also cause it but my Jeep (even when my radiator split) never got over 220* for the six years I've owned it.
I have found out from one of our moderators who is a Chrysler tech and another tech who is a friend that a lot of time when someone overheats the heads warp and the head gasket goes and they find dropped valve seats, but the owner never really knows about it as the heads are replaced anyway.

Now I personally know guys with 4.7s with well over 200k miles on them, so I wouldn't panic it if you own a 4.7, BUT the pressed on steel seats obviously can fall out. Most engines have a C-Clip holding the valve seat, Daimler when they owned Chrysler and designed the 3.7 V6 and 4.7 V8 deemed it only necessary to press fit the seats. Again this happens mostly when overheated, but not always.

It's about as common as failed valve springs on the Hemi, so it happens to people, but not so often that it'd be something to panic about...

I will say one thing though. It's the LAST OHC modular engine I will ever buy. Not that I've lost trust in the 4.7, but pulling the heads is an outright ordeal! EVERYTHING must come out to get to them. I've pulled the heads on a 4.0 I6 and it took two hours. This took TEN!!!

 

With a piston looking like that.... I would replace all of your crank and rod bearings! Atleast check them and plasti-guage them.

 

Full overhaul kit is on its way, 'dog. Includes everything for a total rebuild, even the other 7 new pistons, timing kit, etc., even water and oil pumps. Was actually cheaper for the full master kit than individually buying just the parts I needed. Only thing is with debris in the intake I am thinking of trying to find one but the '02 intake is a one of a kind and even the '03+ HO ones don't fit. Ain't been made since '08...

 

Rebuild kit on the way. So on the difficulty scale what y'all think? Probably more than a single wrencher, eh???