The 2006 Dodge Charger Hemi I have has a bad engine and is in need of replacement. After pulling the head due to low compression on cylinder 1, it appears the exhaust valve seat dropped and did major damage to the cylinder/destroyed the piston and spanked the head. I am trying to keep my options open on a replacement option:

Rebuild what I have, I found a used head I can have redone. I was also considering having the 1 cylinder sleeved if necessary

Installing a used salvage yard engine, they seem VERY pricey ($2000-2500)

Install a reman Dodge shortblock and have a used head redone

OR INSTALL a USED Hemi ENGINE from a 2006 Durango, Found one locally for $1900 with 20K.

Question is this, Will the Durango engine Work or can I make it work. I understand the Durango engine comes with EGR and a different front cover. Can I just swap parts out to make it work, or is this a deal breaker? I also read a coolant temp sensor is in a different spot? Any help would be much appreciated, I am looking for the easiest/most cost effective way of getting this car back on the road.

 

Picked up a used 5.7l out of a Ram pickup. Hopefully it will work

 

I think the intake You should contact Hemi31 on lxforums.

 

Mine did exactly the same thing. Which head got damaged? This is a big problem with these engines. Mine dropped at 158k miles never overheated. My buddies dropped his at a babied 55k miles....

 

It was a police car, under 100k. I purchased it with a "dead cylinder", figured it could be something simple. Did a compression check and got no compression on the Drivers front Cylinder (is that cylinder 1 or 2?). Pulled the valve cover to check for A broken spring, NOPE. Pulled the head and found the damage. Head looks like it got hit 1 million times by a hammer and the piston is broken in multiple places.

I have read the interference with the valve seat to head is to loose on these engines. Thus they drop seats.

 

Wow... Fortunately i could salvage my damage head because it didn't hardly run. How everything coming along??

 

Pulled the engine today, I would have gotten it done this evening but I ran into a couple issues. First off, everything so far has swapped perfectly between the two engines. At this point I would say the Ram/Charger Short block/heads are the same.

Issues I ran into, the Charger had an oil cooler on it. When I was pulling the lower radiator hose I cracked the plastic piece that supplies coolant to the oil cooler. Upon checking the price for a new hose, I was quoted $300. Deleted the oil cooler and have a $20 lower radiator hose on order
(non oil cooler).

I picked up the intake manifold and gave it a shake. The thing is full of tiny pieces of metal from the engine failure. I attempted to shake out any remaining metal but dont feel comfortable reusing it. Currently looking for a used one.

Overall the engine pull/parts change over was straightforward. I cannot believe how tight of a squeeze the engine was going back into the car. I did leave the heads in place, had the exhaust manifolds on it, and the passenger side engine mount on. Once the engine was low enough into the bay I replaced the drivers side mount. Getting the engine/trans lined up was a complete bare, but finally got it done.

 

I wouldn't use the intake manifold either. It's not worth it to "Hope" you got all the shrapnel out. Look on lxforums parts for sale you might find one. Lately I've bought and sold everything thru forums. If you're looking performance, now might be a good time to grab an eagle intake or 6.1 with adapters to raise your effective Rpm range...

 

Job is done, Had trouble finding a suitable intake (original was full of metal particles). The Hemi engine is the same between the Ram/Durango/Charger (at least for the 2006-2007), just have to strip it down to the heads/short block to swap between them.

 

Nice little project there mph. Glad things went well. Thinking now I should have asked you to get some pics and help post up a DYI for the section. Oh well, to late now. I have to remember for the next one that comes around.