Just bought 99 Durango with bad 5.2? Wonder why?

I just bought a 99 Durango from a lady who bought it from an elderly guy in N.C. it only had 58,000 miles! EXTREAMLY CLEAN! NO rust! always maintained by the dealer with all the paper work back to day one. She flew down south to buy it, drove it to Chicago had new tires & brakes installed the Air Conditioning charged and figured it'd be good for a 100,000 more miles. She drove it up to northern michigan and the engine (5.2) LOCKED up right here in my town! It wont budge at all!

She's gonna fly back to Chicago but I made a killer deal on this thing but I wonder why this happend. Is there something common that happen's to these engine's in this era??? I know the 4.7's are bad but 318's run forver........you cant kill them it seems......Guess I'll find out more when I pick it up today.

Other than the sticker's...........NO RUST! Every durango up here has a rotted out tail gate! This one's mint! ( I know you guy's from the southern state's are like..ya big deal but im used to everything being rusty up here)

It may have sucked the oil through the sheet metal pan on the bottom of the intake causing it to sieze. Look through the throttle body, with a light, and see if there is any oil sitting in the bottom of the intake. If so, this might have been the culprit. The gasket on that pan has been an issue on the magnums either getting sucked in or blown out. Hughes has a good fix for that.

I agree if the intake sucked in or out they use a ton of oil.Mine was done at 20 K when I bought it.Just redid it a few weeks ago.It wasnt out much but was using a lot of oil.Rocky

Probably was one of those 2 ways of starving it of oil. Lower intake pan gasket failure allowing oil to get burned quickly through the failed gasket, or the oil pickup screen may have plugged with crud to keep oil from getting to oil pump. I have an 03 durango currently for winter and towing duties, and I actually like the 4.7 which seem to be good engines when cared for.

Yank the plugs and try to crank. Might be hydro-locked.

Well, today I pulled the plugs and all of them looked fine....just a light tan color.

I tried to crank the engine before and after the plugs were pulled and it'll just move an inch or so each time I bump the key. Im guessing the engine was starved for oil thru the pick-up or a bad oil pump. Engine oil is full but sorta dirty looking.
Tomorrow I'll investagate it more but Im still happy with it. I found a motor today ($400.00) from a close friend with 60,000 miles and he just replaced the upper intake gasket as he was putting it in a 2000 dodge truck but decided the truck wasnt worth it.

Thanks for the input guys!!

Good truck and good engines, I had one our daughter totaled at 220k, ran like a champ, currently have 2 Dakotas with well over 200k on them 260 on one 280 on the other, all have been 4WDs. The trans seem to be the weak link on them, the Durango was done at 215k and the truck with 280 has a bad one now. The 260 Dakota had some solinoid work done before I bought it at 135k. The Durango had the intake gasket done under warranty about 20k or so and that was the only warranty repair it ever had. I have not replaced either of the other 2. Generally speaking, if you change the oil regularly with good oil the magnums will go forever like most cast iron engines.

Low miles is bad for a rig, it usually means lots of short trips, not getting heated up good for a long time to evaporate combustion by products, cold engines have more friction and so they are the worst about sludging up. "Low Miles" is one of the biggest scams going in the used car world give me a well cared for 300,000 miler over an old lady 50K car any day

I picked up a late 90's 318 a few years back. When I pulled the valve covers off, it almost looked like another set underneath. It was from a city service Ram that had been wrecked... Worst sludge I've ever seen.

EDIT: I actually found a picture...


Surprisingly, I traded that engine for an almost new set of five 33x12.5x15 BFG All Terrains. I was completely honest with the guy. Sold it with the valve covers and intake off, so he could see.

Pull off the serpentine belt and try to turn it over again. I worked on a Ford Excursion once that the owner thought the motor seized up. It would turn just the slightest bit with a breaker bar on the harmonic balancer bolt. It ended up being a locked up a/c compressor. Boy was that person happy! It's a long shot, but worth a try.