So friday, truck is running great, no problems, oil level and pressure is fine and full, all gauges are fine. I park at my work, 7 hours later I leave that night and my truck sounds like ****, like, beyond it. First I hear what sounded like a pouring or dripping, but it had no scent at all, sounded like it was in the front right by the passenger floorboard. I pulled out my obdII reader and it says I have a misfiring cylinder(P0306-cylinder 6 misfire) in one of the cylinders I just replaced, must be a coil pack now(last week i put all new plugs in). I backed out of the spot and could feel the truck jumping slightly,puttering backwards, I knew it was a plug since it happened recently. I put the truck in drive and started going and when I hit about 3K RPM's before the shift it starts to sound weird as hell, like not right at all something I can't even describe. I didn't know what the problem was so I continued to drive, but like an old lady not even going over 30 worried something might happen. My friend was even like uh what the hell?

The next day I have my father listen, at first he asked if the sound usually clears up, I didn't know what he meant because I didn't hear any puttering but since he has the ear for it noticed it, he leans in on the engine and pulls the throttle body to give the truck some gas while in park (running obviously) and when it hit a certain RPM he heard the noise I heard the previous night. He instantly has an "oh ****" look and tone of voice, while I'm standing there like what what what what?! He says the engine is wrapping, meaning its on its way out...So of course the both of us are like, what the **** now I may have to get a new engine.

We looked online and saw tons of reviews for the 02 4.7L saying that there are rocker problems, they just pop off and this could be the sound. Also the 4.7 apparently has sludge build up problems EVEN WITH SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE! One guy's review said he got oil changes every 1500 miles and had the receipts from Chrysler and everything and this still happened to his truck, the sludge built up and something happened with the rocker and the engine just went. (i think the site was like "auto beef" or something like that, people report problems and reviews on their vehicles, seemed like they were ****ting on the 4.7 also)

I'm hoping this can be just a rocker fix, but if I have to get a new engine I will not be happy...I'm just glad he's knows people and we may be able to pull a 4.7 out of a totaled durango from a body shop by his work for cheap. But if it's gonna be a lot and I can't do anything then my Ram may have to go bye-bye

Does anybody know if this is tough fix or will I have to buy a whole new engine? My dad took it to his work today to pull the valves off (think thats what it was i forgot, im not awake right now) and take a look and see what he can do. He's hoping he can just fix the rocker but worst case scenario is I need a new 4.7L engine.

Now don't get me wrong I'd love to put a hemi in but then I gotta change the mounts and computer and w/e and thats just too much money for my high mileage truck although it'd be better on gas, have more and power and sound much meaner. Does anybody know any websites that has cheap rebuilt/newer 4.7L engines? He know's people around his work who may be able to find one but I figured it wouldn't hurt to look online

Like I said I'm hoping we can just fix the rocker and it'll run fine again, but if not I'm hoping that durango at the autobody shop (its been there for 2 years) has a 4.7 we can take or even a hemi (then i can take the computer too) that i'll be able to do a swap with

 

I have had my 4.7L since 2002 and I have put over 120,000 Wide Open throttle miles on the that engine. That engine has scene 6000RPMs + 15-20 times a day for months on end... I mean I beat the snot out of it.

I have NEVER had a sluge issue. I have never had an related engine issue. Sludge is caused but DIRTY OIL! Its crap oil that get go freakin dirty it forms globs. Sludge just does not happen when you honestly take care of an engine. My engine has NEVER seen sludge... nor is it possible. I change my oil regularly and I use full Synthetic oil. Anyone who tells you they found sludge in their engine while they kept the oil changed on time regularly... is not sharing the full story... and in most cases they are not telling the truth.

Without being at your truck being able to listen to it, there is no way we can even speculate whats wrong...

Keep us posted on what you find... and if you have pictures post them.

SPEED SAFE, AIR RAM

 

There are certain oils like Pennzoil that create much more sludge than other oils due to the wax in the oil. Once it get's really dirty and breaks down, the wax becomes a build up and gets caked all over everything.
If you really wanna clean sludge out of an engine, pour either 1 cup of kerosene or 1 can of Seafoam in the crankcase and let the engine run for about 10 minutes. Drain the oil and repeat once more if necessary.
As for the engine issue, I would either start tearing down or bring it to your local shop.

You say scheduled mainenace....Is that every 3kmi or 5kmi?
You can buy used super low mileage 4.7L's off Ebay or internet Salvage yards for under $2k shipped to your door all day long
'06 w/65kmi $1300
Rebuilt 3yr warranty $2400
02 w/56kmi $1400

If you get a Dakota/Durango engine, you will have to strip down the engine and replace it with your intake along with a few minor other things for it to work with your Ram.

 

So so my dad took it to work the past few days to see what was wrong, ripped the engine apart.

before that though he changed the oil (I do every 3k miles) and ran some "engine flush" through it (its a product that helps dissolve any sludge (if any) and cleans up a bit.

It's back and running now, I guess a rocker came off of the camshaft, dunno how the hell that happened. He said I need new cams so he's going to order some performance ones (they're only like $110 which isnt bad) so it'll fix the problem from happening again and gimme a power boost. I'm just hoping it doesnt happen again,

I'm not 100% sure if it was from any build up, or if my truck hates me haha, but I've been using high mileage synthetic oil ever since i bought it, between valvoline and something else (it had slick 50 in it, might've been penzoil) I haven't had trouble with the engine itself until now

 

You are thinking of Quaker State, years ago it contained a parifin base (wax) but no oil has had that ingrediene for a couple of decades. Most sludging problems come from old oil, like Air Ram said. They get full of hydrocarbons after a while and tend to get thicker. The molecules start to bond togeather when this happens, then you get the sludge.

 

God to know. i haven't researched that info at all, but it's something that always stuck with me.
i understand all oils get thicker over time, but geez, that takes some serious neglect to get that bad.

 

yeah quaker state is what it was not that I think of it, haha you nailed that one. I put valvoline in it recently, i'm just hoping everything turns out normal again soon

 

welcome to the "dropped a rocker" club
I had the same problem 2 weeks ago. My 02 1500 quad has 160,000 miles on her. Was running like a champ, parked it for 7 hours and started her up. Sounded and felt like a plug fouled (which it did-#4 cylinder P0304). chugged and stuttered bad sometimes around 40-45 mph. Low speed was crap. I bought myself an OBDII scanner to troubleshoot myself. #4 would foul so bad that I'd start getting P0300 (random misfire)code and P0308 (#8 misfire) I did all the usual stuff-replaced the plugs,coil packs on #4 and #8, fuel injector on #4 and it would run fine for about 15 miles. Then I'd get the P0304 again and again.
Long story short-finally took her to the stealership.
Rocker for #4 fell off and sat in the oil drain. As I don't have the tools to compress the valves, I had them fix it. $272 bucks including $100 buck to run the analyzer. I faired pretty cheap. No sludge-I religiously change my oil every 4000 miles with Castrol Synthetic ever since I bought it. Rockers falling off is a design issue and Chysler has no solution to fix. Hoping for the best, but from what I've been told, it will happen again.

 

Only a couple of things can cause the "FOLLOWER" to fall off. We can narrow it down to one reason. The reason is somehow it lost tension between the LASH ADJUSTER & the VALVE SPRING.

One thing that can cause this is a bad lash adjuster that leaked down. This would allow the tension to be lost and when the base of the cam comes around if it losses contact with the follower then it could fall off.

Or your Valve Springs are bad. A Bad Valve Spring would cause pore tension and allow the followers to come off as well.

Or lost oil pressure. Your Lash Adjusters rely on constant oil pressure. Should your oil passages become clogged with gum or crap build up then that could cause poor oil flow to the lash adjusters and that could allow the tension to be lost in the valve train.

Not a bad design... its a SUPERIOR design to the old push rod engine. Less valve-train weight means less spring tension needed which means HIGHER RPM capability's.

Pound for pound a 4.7L stroked out to a SOHC 5.7L MAGNUM would whooop 5.7L HEMI's all day long and be able to rev well past 7500RPMS cams permitting.

HEMI's have had their share of valve-train issues... so like any engine, knowing what your looking at will only help you fix & improve it.


SPEED SAFE, AIR RAM

 

i had the same exact problem happen with my 4.7 from my 02 ram about 3 or 4 weeks ago, i was on the way to work and the temp gauge was buried in the red, but the coolant and rad was cold, so i thought it might be a bad sensor or gauge, big mistake, cuz i was about a mile from work and tried to make it and the motor did the same exact thing as yours did, and it did in fact throw a rocker off each side of the engine, and destroyed a head on the passenger side too, so im just swapping in a 5.7L hemi to replace the weaker 4.7, so that is an option for ya, its alot of work, but i put a post up of my swap, so others who want to can see whats involved and what and how to modify everything, just a little food for thought!