I bought my wife an 04 Dakota 4 door truck a while back, with a locked up 4.7 motor. It's a nice little truck, and I got it dirt cheap. I bought a remanned 4.7 from Powertrain to put back in it. They do a lot of upgrades to their motors that other remanufacturers don't. They use better pistons with coated skirts, and they have drilled out and polished the oil return holes for better flow. They install new valve seats in the heads, and pin them in so they won't drop out. They also use a multi layer steel head gasket to help prevent the head gasket issue. I'm a few days away from starting it up, as I just got it dropped in the truck with a low mile 545 RFE transmission, right before we left for the beach. I'll be honest, and say I was gonna drop a low mile 5.3 LS motor in it with a 4L80E transmission, but we live in a smog inspection county and the GM ECM to run the engine/trans would not pass. You can about stand back and throw an LS in a Dakota if you were strong enough! I think the new 4.7 and 545 will last as long as she wants/needs the truck. I change oil every 3K miles, and stay after maintenance...so I ain't skeered of no 4.7!