Engine overhaul? I think you guys are jumping the gun a bit here!

It does sound like lifter/top end noise to me too. Use a mechanics stethescope to pin down whether it is the front or back valve cover. Hopefully it's the front. Remove the valve cover and check the free play in the rockers. If it is the rear valve cover you should remove the wiper tray to gain additional access.

Valve cover gaskets are cheap, investigate the problem before deciding to junk the engine or the van.

I have heard of cases where the pushrods wore/punched through the rocker arms and it just requires a rocker arm replacement. It could be a broken valve spring which can also be changed in place.

On the other hand it is also entirely possible you have had a lifter go bad and those require removing the cylinder head to replace. If they have gone bad you might have camshaft damage as well which requires removing the engine from the van to repair and a lot of times it is cheaper just to replace the engine with a lower mileage one in this case. You can't know without a bit more investigation.

What's the oil change history like on this van?

 

The oil change history on this van is 3500 miles and have always used 5-30 weight. The van only have 175,000 miles.

 

You're right, sorry for the doom and gloom by spouting overhaul so fast. I agree with zero10, pop off those valve covers and take a look and see. Broken/bent parts are usually not too hard to spot.

 

Thnka for the advice. Will check on this. I will post the results.

 

I believe there is a procedure for checking pushrod clearance against the rockers in the FSM. I haven't read it in a long time but I thought I remembered seeing a section for that.

If you don't have a copy of that send me a PM and I should be able to provide what you need from it.

 

Everybody just ignoring the catalytic converter code?

 

Converter code is after the fact to me, I would expect that there was a slight misfire for awhile accompanied by a problem in one cylinder causing unburned fuel to enter the converter causing it's failure.

Real issue is getting compression testing done and seeing if we really are dealing with a mechanical issue.

 

I did heads on a car recently had a bad converter that tore up the valves. They had bottomed the car out and busted the cat material which clogged up and basically cut off the exhaust flow. The heat and back pressure burned up all the exhaust valves. Machine shop said the valve guides showed signs of overheating and the valve seals had actually started melting.

But yes I agree that more diagnostics are needed. Compression check, pull valve covers etc.. I have come across broken valve springs on these engines.

 

Problem found. I had to take it in for the technician to find the reason of the knocking. The technician diagnosed that the roller on the bottom of the lifter under cylinder 3 show metal fatigue and the bottom of this lifter is damaged. He said is possible the oil I used created the damaged but have this have to be proved further. I told him to stop the disassemble process before creating a big bill. My options are to remove the camshaft, installed a new timing chain and other parts and flush the engine to clean the metal particles or obtain a remanufactured engine from Mopar and dealer installed.

 

Make sure you address that converter as well if you do install a new/different engine. If it is failed and clogged it could have hastened the demise of the last engine.