I've either been lucky or good.....My 2007 Ram 1500 has 394,500 miles on it and it is still running.
It has thrown some codes lately. Cylinder 5 misfire, cylinder 6 misfire....Plus I'm smelling the sweet smell of coolant in the exhaust. Sometimes it has steam in the exhaust in warm weather. It is time to make some changes.
In 2009 with about 59,000 miles, 2 of the MDS lifters on the right bank conked out. They had to pull the head to hone 2 cylinders that had carbon buildup. I'm wondering of they actually pulled both heads and staked the intake seats because I haven't heard of anyone else with this many miles on a 5.7 engine. I've never overheated it so maybe if the valve seats weren't staked, I avoided the dreaded "dropped seat" issue just by being responsible.
I don't like the new trucks. I don't like the styling, the busy interiors, the lack of a CD player, the knob for a shifter....or the exorbitant prices for even a 3 year old low mile used one.
I'm keeping THIS one.

It has some small scratches and dents but is still pretty clean overall.
On Thursday I put $500 down on a $2250 1007 5.7 at a wrecking yard. I got to see and hear it run. The truck was hit hard in the rear, hence the reason for it being totaled. It looked a little rough, as if it were owned by a guy on a dirt road. The miles were supposed to be 83,000 but the odometer wasn't showing when we looked.
No ticks once it ran for a few minutes....it was smooth and quiet. No smoke but the MIL/Check Engine light was on. I didn't try to read the code.
My plan is to pick it up on Wednesday. I'll pull the heads and send them to my guy for a rebuild and to have the intake seats staked. If there isn't any ridge in the cylinders, I'll just replace the gaskets, oil pump, timing set and screw it all back together. If all goes well, I'll at least have rolled back the clock a bit. If I can get another 200,000 out of this replacement engine, that would be fine. The 5.7 cores are abundant for now.
I'm curious about any performance difference that I might see. As an engine wears, you lose a little performance over time. With an engine swap back to something like this, I just don't know what to expect. It isn't like the truck is a slug as it is but a power increase would be nice.

Stick a 392 cam in it while it's apart!

It is tempting to make upgrades but I have to keep the truck emission legal. The 392 cam is VVT, my truck is not.
One guy suggested the Eagle heads but that would bump my compression up too high.

I think the Apache head would yield a lower compression ratio.

Apache heads won't work without some block mods. Eagle's will bolt right on but to get compression down you need different head gaskets that are ~$250 ish and probably new pushrods. The Eagle's won't do much for you without a cam. I think your original plan is sound. Good luck.

Thank you.
From what I have read, the dropped seats often occurs after the engine is run hot, shut down then restarted.
I've never gotten close to overheating. Once the radiator showed signs of leaking, I replaced it. Same with the water pump.
I'll save this original engine and decide what to do with it. I may build a wilder version with a long stroke crank, better heads and cam but still with streetable compression. I've considered the 5.7 Hemi and a 500 or 518 OD
for this car....

Why would he have to mod the block for 6.4 heads? I haven't had to for any of the swaps I done...

Oh and my 2007 5.7 I bought from the auction with 2 dropped valve seats and rusty crusty antifreeze blown all over the engine compartment, I have seen tons of dropped seats in 5.7s and EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. had signs of over heating. I proceded to put on a pair of eagle heads I had laying around with stock head gaskets again no issues except it now needs 91 octane to keep the knock sensors from showing activity, has significantly more power and it gets much better MPG than my 06 with a bone stock 5.7 with less miles (also an auction pickup with dropped seat and lots of signs of overheating).

They are not big blocks designed in the 1950s, 12 to 1 is fine on pump premium, thats what mine came out to CCing everything when I put them on my early 5.7.

Dave won't he start throwing codes with the Eagle Heads?

Not unless he screws something else up! Ive been running this one for several months now and it runs awesome. Not even a tune though I am sure a quality tune would make it better.

I have since eliminated my makeshift EGR tube with no codes either.

https://board.moparts.org/ubbthread...eagle-swap-on-early-5-7.html#Post3106431

Great write up

If this truck were just a toy, that would be tempting.
I'm going to drive this truck like I always have. All weather, all conditions. Empty, loaded, towing or not. I can't risk building it where I'm always obligated to running the most expensive fuel. Right now, I can used 87 octane with no noticeable drop off in mileage or performance.
If I have to bore this block and replace the pistons, the Eagle heads may make sense. I could get dished pistons and keep the compression in the mid 10s to allow me to get by on 89 octane.

I get significantly better MPG with the high compression engine (and tight double quench pads and more airflow) than the stock one, it costs about the same per mile and is more fun to drive, quite a bit further range, more power everywhere in the RPM range, a lot less downshifting to maintain speed up hills, very snappy reving.... I have not found a downside since I had the heads laying around and the engine apart anyhow. If your really concerned about the compression ratio you could run a 6.1 cam to bleed a little cylinder pressure or you can run the thick head gaskets like everyone else does but the reduced quench is gonna make it even more detonation prone.

HRDave what kind of fuel mileage improvement are you seeing. How many mpgs did you avg before v/s after the swap?

Can you not just put a complete OEM eagle 2009+ hemi in it?

I bought both of my current chargers (06 and 07) from auction with dropped seats so I don't have any before and after comparisons but they are both same gears, tires, trans... so they should be reasonably comparable to each other now and I usually get about 20% more mpg under similar driving conditions with the one I put the eagle heads on (07).

I do understand the relationship between compression and efficiency. The same issues were in play in the early 70s when ratios dropped from the 9.5 to 10.5 range down to the low 8s. Less squeeze, worse power and mileage.
I've never heard my engine detonate using 87 octane. Not once. I have noticed better mileage when using 89.
I'm keeping the MDS so any non stock cam is out.
It would be great to just swap in a later model 6.4 but with any 2009+ engine I'd expect there to be differences in wiring, fuel flow rates, computer, etc.
If there was a published example of this being done without major fabrication, I'd love to know about it.
Regardless.....
If I do need to bore this block, this would be a great excuse to use the better heads.

I'd check the LX car forums, must be a slew of 04-10 charger/300 that have been through the swap. check ram forums too - its probably easier than you'd think