Well just a heads up to a recent post I did on engine light on..........
So be it, the compression in the #6 cylinder was low, causing a misfire. So then I found out the cylinder heads in the 5.9l engines suck. Something dodge forgets to mention when you buy these trucks, then when you get out of warranty the thing takes a crap on you and you are stuck having the dealerships screw you with outragueos prices. Here is a heads up for you. If you have a 5.9l engine 01-03 1500 trucks, get rid of them!!!!! Or get ready to pay out the rear for new heads due to poor casting design from Dodge. Now let me post the price quotes from the dealership...... $1500-$1800 for a valve job.....$3000 to replace cylinder heads that might just crack again........$5200 for a stock 5.9l engine.... Well the good thing on all of this is I found a company...Ideal cylinder heads in Hayward CA, who has new cast cylinder heads for this engine....great price/military discount (a plus) now I am getting the heads put on atalocal shop.

 

Sorry to hear that, and yea, even though the "LA" series (318 & 360) engines have been one of the most successful and long lived series of engines, many lasting for a few hundred thousand miles without major work needed, something happened when they modified the engine slightly in 1989 and subsequently introduced the "Magnum" series of these venerable old die-hards.
Most notable of the changes between the old "LA's" and the newer "Magnum LA's" were made to the block and head castings. TheMagnum engines promised similar power to the older design with considerably less weight. As a result, the Magnums use less fuel and have less emissions than the designs it replaced, but sadly the newer castings have less "beef" and are not nearly as "bullet proof".
That said, I personally know many with 2nd gen trucks with either the 318 or 360 engines who have very high miles on them with no issues. But the percentages of people who've had head/casting issues with the Magnum series of engines is without a doubt, higher than the average of all engines manufactured during the same period.
Good luck with the rebuild...

 

Yikes...pretty expensive[:'(]It might be cheaper and you'll get better gains with aftermarket heads...if you do the work yourself you'll save a lot of money.

 

Ouch! a lot of loot!!!

 

A friend has a 95 1500 with the 5.9 and 360,000 miles on it. Never had the engine or trans apart. I have a 92 Dakota with a 5.2. It has 165,000 on it with no major problems.

Rick

 

Go aftermarket.

 

Aftermarket for sure, same price as it seems you are about to pay and much better performance. Check out www.krcperformance.com

 

Are you 100% sure its the heads that are causing the loss of compression. If so then I would get a machine shop to do the work on them and put it together yourself.