My Son's roommate called the other day and said his 05 Dodge truck was making a noise and missing when he started it up to come home from work. So he limped it back home. That, he should not have done, but it was only about a mile away from my Son's house. I started it and heard the noise. After talking to several repair shops and my machine shop, we have come to the conclusion that a powdered metal valve seat has fallen out of the head. The fix was going to be cost prohibited to the family for an 05 truck so they asked me to call some wrecking yards to get a value on the truck as is. The short story is I bought the truck for $650.
My machines shop is not only an AERA shop is but is a high dollar race engine builder so he is very capable of replacing all the seats. I can get it done cheap and I can do the work. I plan on replacing all the seats and surfacing the heads if they need it. I just had a friends truck with a 4.3 that had the water pump impeller spin on the shaft, got hot and blew the head gaskets. So I know to replace the water pump as well. My question is there any other problems with this motor I should look at? I'm not real happy with Mopar right now and this family of motors. Should I just fix it on the cheap and flip it to avoid future problems? My Son has an 07 just like this truck with 50K on it and my daughter just traded her 07 with 105K on it and they had no problems from them. This truck is real clean with 80K on it. It would make a good driver for my wife.
How hard is it to get the timing chain lined up and what else should I replace while I'm in there? Thanks

I work at the dodge dealer. we have very little problems with this motor. Have you had the valve covers off. Might have kick a rocker off.

Get a price on the lowest mile 3.7 from an autowrecker that you can find.

I just spent a bunch of money on re-doing 3 burnt valves on a Neon, only to find out later I could have got an entire engine from the local wreckers with 30,000 miles on it for $500

Might sound extreme, but it takes the same amount of time and I would have had a "do-over" for the car.

Hmmm. There are no TSB's on the rockers falling off. All three shops have had numerous failures of this family of motors with valve seats. I have not tried to get the valve cover off. I will defiantly look at that first. I will feel bad if if is something simple. It really rattles like a lot of clearance in the rocker to valve stem.

The 05 3.7 is a one year only interchange so the cheapest I could find was1700 plus freight from 200 miles away. I would hate to get a lemon and have to go through this again.

A Hemi swap would be a nice upgrade......could use all factory parts as well

As far as the eng noise it may be a rocker arm but usually they pop out due to a lifter issue.Check all the lifter bores for cracking if you have a bad lifter.This eng and the 4.7L are very sensitive to dirty oil.I only run a full syn oil in them.




Eng swaps? I have seen one with a 4.7L. Hemi won't fit and even the new 3.6L won't fit.

Well, I can tell you this, I don't like wrenching on these newer cars. I don't see how a fat guy can work on this stuff! Laying on he rad support to work on the back of the engine is a pain. What size is the tool that pops off the fuel rail connection. All I have is a 3/8 and it does not seem to work. I got all the elec connections off the drivers side so Im ready to pull that cover. I think that is the side it is making the noise.

Is this a Dakota or a Ram?

It's a ram 1500 short box single cab.

I don't think there is a tsb on the 4.7 rockers either,but it happens all the time. The easiest way to check for rocker issue is scan the computer ,find out which cyl has the misfire? pull the spark plug, using a cylinder balance gauge or something else to mildly pressurize that cylinder.20-30 psi. rotate engine and when the valves open you will hear the air escape. if you don't hear the air through the exhaust and the intake ( at separate times) then a rocker fell off.also a cylinder balance test will let you know if the valves are bad. Bad valve=low compression, and it won't hold pressure. A compression test will NOT tell you if the rocker is off. With the valve closed (rocker off) it will build compression. all this can be done by just removing 1 spark plug.If you pull it apart replace timing chain guides,tensioners,chains if you have it apart.lining up the chains is time consuming and a pain for a first timer, you will also need special tool to hold cam sprockets.

The reason the cam follower comes off is usually due to the valve seat coming loose in the head, not the lifter. I cant say that I have ever seen a bad lifter in one. Have also seen a couple of broken valve springs, worn cam lobes and follower rollers. You are just gonna have to take the valve cover off and take a peek.

I must have lucked out with the 2003 durango(4.7) I picked up in mid 2012, that I drove 15 miles home with 3 followers off. Gave it a few quick oil-filter changes in a months time combined with simply putting followers back in place, it runs strong and smooth still with 40k miles since. It was sludgy. Also that thing is quiet on cold startup.

There is a 4.6L ford rocker arm retainer clip that fits a 3.7/4.7. Worked on customers that leave them set for long periods of time.
I've got a picture and part number somewhere. Gonna have to some digging.

Well, I did get the driver side valve cover off and no signs of a problem. It must be on the other side. I was pretty stupid and never thought to scan the codes. Can you do it with the engine off? I did crank it up to see if I could hear which side the noise was coming from and it started making more bad noises so I turned it off. How do yo get the fuel line off right above the driver side cover. I have a 3/8 tool that I used on my 06 Cummings fuel line and it popped right off. This one does not seem to work. Do I have the wrong size or kind? Mine has a square shoulder and does not want to go very far inside the fitting. Seems like it needs to be more of a taper.

Well, I paid $650 for the truck for parts anyway. So if I can fix it cheap, I'm fine. If not, I can use it for parts for my Son's 07 or my 05 Cummings.

OK, I got the valve covers off and one of the rockers is off. It is hard to tell if the valve is hung open or not. After talking to several people and looking at y tube videos, it does seem like this is way too common of a problem. It can occur from infrequent oil changing and the engine gets gummy oil, cheap gas that causes the valve to stick, grade of oil to thick to flow in colder weather, restrictive oil filter or the seats getting loose and falling out. So, I'll change the lifters and while I'm at it, I'll do a leak down test and see it the valves are sealing.