Minimal Hemi rebuild
Thread Starter
|
Registered User
Joined: Jul 2018
Posts: 1
Likes: 0
Minimal Hemi rebuild
I just bought a 2004 1500 4x4 with the 5.7 liter hemi from a neighbor. I have no real history of the truck. The truck is in great shape, no rust, everything works etc with 210,000 miles on her. The engine burns no oil and runs well. It does have a tick which I thought was an exhaust manifold leak at first.
I'd like to think I'm a pretty good mechanic but definitely not a professional.
I pulled the driver's side manifold and found two broken studs. I replaced all the studs with new and still had the tick. I tried flushing the engine as well as using sea foam with no luck. The tick was always there and coming from directly behind my exhaust manifold on the driver's side. I decided to pull the engine and see what the problem was. I found three dry push rods on the drivers side and one on the passenger side. The lifters seemed to look ok but think one or more might be gummed up. The valve covers had tons of carbonized crap in them. There's absolutely no ridge on any of the cylinder tops implying the bottom's been gone through as I'd expect some kind of ridge after 200K miles...
Now that you have the history, here's my question... I need to do as little as I can to the engine to save money. I do need the truck to run well, something which it already did, minus the tick. I cannot afford a machine shop quality rebuild or a crate rebuilt engine for $3k. At minimum I want to replace the lifters and push rods. Optionally I'd like to replace the rocker arms and piston rings and have someone look at the heads. (I've found that "looking" is almost as expensive as remanufactured heads... thoughts on this?) There's one valve that had a tiny wiggle in it, implying a worn guide. I looked at the cam through the lifter holes and didn't see any abnormal wear marks. The bottom end seems solid but will pull the oil pan and check the bearings for wear.
I'm looking for informed opinions as to what to do with give my engine another 100K of life without breaking the bank. I'd also welcome suggestions on rebuild kits that are quality American made and not cheap eBay stuff.
Thanks
I'd like to think I'm a pretty good mechanic but definitely not a professional.
I pulled the driver's side manifold and found two broken studs. I replaced all the studs with new and still had the tick. I tried flushing the engine as well as using sea foam with no luck. The tick was always there and coming from directly behind my exhaust manifold on the driver's side. I decided to pull the engine and see what the problem was. I found three dry push rods on the drivers side and one on the passenger side. The lifters seemed to look ok but think one or more might be gummed up. The valve covers had tons of carbonized crap in them. There's absolutely no ridge on any of the cylinder tops implying the bottom's been gone through as I'd expect some kind of ridge after 200K miles...
Now that you have the history, here's my question... I need to do as little as I can to the engine to save money. I do need the truck to run well, something which it already did, minus the tick. I cannot afford a machine shop quality rebuild or a crate rebuilt engine for $3k. At minimum I want to replace the lifters and push rods. Optionally I'd like to replace the rocker arms and piston rings and have someone look at the heads. (I've found that "looking" is almost as expensive as remanufactured heads... thoughts on this?) There's one valve that had a tiny wiggle in it, implying a worn guide. I looked at the cam through the lifter holes and didn't see any abnormal wear marks. The bottom end seems solid but will pull the oil pan and check the bearings for wear.
I'm looking for informed opinions as to what to do with give my engine another 100K of life without breaking the bank. I'd also welcome suggestions on rebuild kits that are quality American made and not cheap eBay stuff.
Thanks
