just bought a 2004 ram 1500 4 door short bed 4x4 5.7 hemi. previous owner said it had a colapsed lifter. drove it 65 miles home with the problem and it is way worse then just a lifter from my experience. had to use gas and break at the same time, real pain in the butt. going to do a compression test and im sure a full rebuild will be in the near future. i will update the thread with progress and what i find. not sure if i will sell this one
on a side note just sold 2 days ago my 03 ram 1500 4x4 4.7 so on to the next flip

 

just finished the compression test. all cylinders except 7 had 150. cylinder 7 had the misfire code when i scanned it, also a bank 1 and bank2 rich code. cylinder 7 had 0 so its completely dead.
pulling valve cover next and most likely the head. wish it was the passenger side instead of driver side, but atleast its only one side for now.

 

You might get lucky, I got the same kind of high reading on a Magnum I bought cheap as a project. Turns out on the high reading cylinder the intake pushrod had popped out of the cup in the rocker arm.

 

got the valve cover off and it has a broken intake valve spring. now i just hope the 60 ish miles i drove it that way didnt end up bending the valve. just pushing on the top of the spring/keeper the valve seams to move freely.

 

Congrats on your purchase. Share some pics when you can.

 

As long as it held it high enough so it didn't contact the piston you should be good. Find out when you replace it lol. Let us know. I bought another Magnum I'm fixing up for the old lady, I was actually hoping for the same problem I had with mine or a busted spring. Now I have to pull the intake manifold.

 

replaced the intake valve spring on cylinder 7. did the compression test on that cylinder and it read 150 like the other cylinders. motor runs good and is quiet, no tapping or rattle. the old spring came out in 3 pieces. now just need to replace the muffler, power steering cooler and fix the tilt wheel. only 2k in the truck so far, not bad for a 4wd hemi.
might try to get some photos up in the next couple days.

 

Score!

 

some pictures of the trucks
redish truck is the 2004 i just got
blue truck is the 2003 i just sold
white truck is the 2006 that i drive currently

 

I sold the 04 hemi. Wishing i kept it since its the nicest truck ive owned but theres plenty more trucks out there. Bought an 02 ram to fill the void. Been working on my friends chevy and his dads chevy, what a pain in the butt. I will never buy a chevy. Ram for life.