I see a lot of trucks & Durango SUV's for sale that need engine replacement.Mileage seems to be between 140-170K or so average.Some have a rod broke and through the pan,some knocking others no mention,just "needs engine replaced".Is there a common problem causing this like a coolant leak & hydro lock,oil pump issues or just lack of maintenance? Any clues? Thanks,RT

Must be specific to your region. I have yet to meet anyone around here that had an issue with a stock 5.7. Lot of people I know are now on their second and even third hemi and have not gone back for their Ecoboost or piston-slapping, antifreeze-drinking gm.

If you troll the 'net you will find plenty of Meatheads that ran hot air kits with junk aftermarket filters that let all the dirt in, waste an engine, or run tuners that raise the governor until they blow them up. They deserve it.

I see it quite a bit around here, mostly due to lack of maintenance.

Well,I'll let you know what I find on one soon with a 5.7 autopsy!I found a 2004 Durango with 130k on it and quite the knock from the bottom,(I only ran it for a second). It is a very clean SUV,I've looked at a few and this one is nice,worth the engine repair or replacement.
Rhino,same here,multiple 5.7 or 4.7 powered for sale needing engines.~RT

i picked up a low mileage 5.7 with a hole in the piston---seems valve springs are breaking and letting valves hit the pistons----most builders are going with aftermarket valve springs---the guy i got this off of said he was sitting at a red light and when the clatter started he immediately shut it off---

Didn't the durango's and aspens have an air intake problem that made them prone to sucking water in during rainstorms?

I have seen lots of 03 and 04 hemi rods break even in the best cared for engines. I have one under the shelf from an 04 Ram and the bearing looks brand new, piston and cylinder have almost no wear, ZERO sludge the rod just clean snapped off down by the big end and I have done quite a few of them like that. I have seen broken springs but mostly they just cause a missfire, not seen one hit a piston yet. I can see if they sucked up water bending a rod or breaking a piston but it is not just the Durangos and these broken rods look to break not bend, it also looks like they must have failed as the piston tried to pull the rod back down.


The one thing that seems to spell instant death that falls under lack of maintnance is if they overheat, even one overheat can let the valve seats fall out, holt the valve open smack pistons...

I have also heard that there were issues with the original 5.7 Hemi powdered metal rods.

Pounded my old 04 5.7 quad cab to death with a 150 shot for ages and never had a problem.....last I heard the truck is still running strong...??????

Rickster

this is my thought about them.. I bought an 04 Durango with #4 rod broke in the middle, no damage to either the piston or bearing..

Not a localized thing, as I see SO many as well! I suspect that like most other things, the users were simply mostly idiots. I see it everyday where some young cowboy with a hemi Ram is running around the hills out here towing something at the limits of the truck's capacity somewhere near WOT...

They also have a habit of dropping valve seats when overheated much.

The timing chain (contraption) set up is a nightmare and the motor failures we have seen through the dealership, has been because of it...."JUNK". No rhyme or reason as to when they will fail. We have seen low mile and high mile failures.....

Iirc there was a recall a year or so ago but it only covered cars with MDS. Yep they were breaking timing chains.

Did that ever get expanded to include trucks?

It's interesting to me that the engines break chains while in the MDS mode, not so in the 8 cylinder mode. It may be that the four separate power strokes are causing so much crankshaft twist that it's cycling the chains from load to no load.

The pistons are something like 415 grams, that's really light for a cast piston. The connecting rods are also very light, IIRC. While a stock 318 rod weighs something like 728 grams, and some pretty lightweight smallblock chevy rods clock in at 585 grams, IIRC the Hemi rods are in the very low 500s. No extra material in them at all.

They are powdered metal, which I didn't for a long time trust, but the LS motor rods are all powdered metal, as was the Generation 2 chevy LT1 smallblock. Howard's has been selling a powdered metal rod for racing for a few years now, and I don't see them selling junk.

I've seen quite a few advertised with bottom end noises or failure.

R.

I always heard the early 5.7 hemis had problems w/ valve seats dropping.

Right at launch in 2003 there were some engines built with suspect valve springs, it was said most were identified and replaced before shipping to customers. I have heard of fuel injectors sticking open and causing hydrolocking, but no concrete evidence.

We just sold my wife's 06 HEMI Durango with 207k on the clock. I changed the oil every 6-7k with Mobil 1 or other synthetic. It used about 1-2 quarts between changes after 150k, but still ran well and strong. Had the infamous HEMI tick since we bought it with 46K on the clock in 2007. Only issues with the engine were a EGR valve failed at 85k and both manifolds warped after 140k.

I have also owned a Charger R/T (68k miles driven), Magnum R/T (80k miles driven), and a 300C SRT8 (30k miles driven) with no engine troubles. These were all early engines with no VCT.

Well,I picked up my Durango today.There is a hole,about a 1/2" or so diameter in the right side of the block just above the starter.Must be a swinging connecting,or formerly connecting rod in there! I'll fill in the details as I pull it down as to any viable causes.

These pics made me question the new Hemi's rod strength.

My fuzzy memory seems to recall that the 2004-2006 "Hemi Tick" was an oversized valve guide hole but that Chrysler decided to fix with oversized valve stems instead.

I think Chrysler has admitted that all
2009 to 2014 5.7 Hemis with MDS
have a defective all-plastic shoe
in the timing chain tensioner
that seems to wear excessively the more MDS mode is used.

When the plastic shoes goes bad, it breaks the timing chain.
When the chain breaks apparently the pcm quickly stops the ignition which reduces damage.

However, the official Chrysler diagnostic instructions called for dealership mechanics to crank the suspect bad engine to diagnose it before checking for the broken chain,
a mistake that causes much further engine damage
until Chrysler corrected itself a couple weeks later.

There was a post here on moparts about a large number of Ohio 5.7 police vehicles being auctioned off with timing chain ruined engines.