My 4.7 Magnum is getting tired, what now?

[jonnyrocket]

Hello all, new here.

I have a 2002 ram 1500 2WD SLT with the Magnum 4.7. I'm the original owner and I've baby'd it for years, and it's had issues along the way. (Dropped valve seat, overheated and warped the heads, the timing chain rattles like a diesel on a cold start, rear diff chewed itself up, sludge galore, and of course...a crumbled dash) All which have been fixed. So besides that, I do love it still and I keep it real clean.

I am looking to drop a reman 4.7 (hopefully with these defects fixed) into it soon. I've found Fraiser and Jasper so far. Does anyone have any experience with these 4.7's that may have some insight on this with what I'd like to do. Thanks a lot!

Miles - 230K

 

[Sherman Bird]

Hello all, new here.

I have a 2002 ram 1500 2WD SLT with the Magnum 4.7. I'm the original owner and I've baby'd it for years, and it's had issues along the way. (Dropped valve seat, overheated and warped the heads, the timing chain rattles like a diesel on a cold start, rear diff chewed itself up, sludge galore, and of course...a crumbled dash) All which have been fixed. So besides that, I do love it still and I keep it real clean.

I am looking to drop a reman 4.7 (hopefully with these defects fixed) into it soon. I've found Fraiser and Jasper so far. Does anyone have any experience with these 4.7's that may have some insight on this with what I'd like to do. Thanks a lot!

Miles - 230K

Power Torque remans them for O'Reilly's. I have used 6 of them over the past 6 years for various customers, the last, ironically, is a 4.7 in a 2002 RAM 1500 2WD, and the price was very reasonable. The warranty is really great, too. 4 years/ unlimited mileage... AND IF the engine develops any problem covered under warranty, they simply ship you another reman engine. They do not fuss with "tear it down and we'll send an inspector, and screw around for a month" thing. I have seen NO problems with ANY of these engines, either. One caveat is that they require you to replace the oil pump pickup tube as a requirement for their warranty. No big deal, but they don't disclose it (At least they didn't last year), but there is a neon colored cardboard insert in the paperwork packet which states this BOLDLY! Also, you must pre pressurize the oil passages in the engine before you start it up initially (this is something I do ANYWAY, and have for decades).

I accomplish this while the new/reman engine is fully assembled on the engine stand by using a cheap electric fuel pump and dip a hose connected to the suction side of the pump into about 2 qts of fresh oil, and install the pressure side onto a fitting placed where the oil pressure switch goes. This prefills the filter and all the passages in the engine to prevent a cavitated initial start up, thus you don't wipe oun cam lobes, or rod or main bearings.

Also, when the engine has been installed completely with everything all attached, you really should use an airlift tool to prefill the cooling system. This is a tool which has an adapter that installs onto the Degas tank's pressure cap location and you hook up compressed air onto it, and it pulls a suction on the cooling system (the hoses collapse flat, too!). Then you turn a valve to preserve the vacuum, change the hose at the adapter that goes into a bucket filled with proper 50-50 coolant/distilled water mix. Opening the vale then sucks the coolant into the cooling system, eliminating the vast majority of air pockets. This alone can save that engine from destructive overheating during initial warm up.

 

[jonnyrocket]

Sherman,

This is great information. I know when I start this there will be gotcha's that I don't know about and your soil experience with these is very helpful, so thank you on that! I will take a look at O'Reilly's set up for sure. Do you know if the O'Reilly 4.7 Reman's have the upgrades / fixes, it's kinda a lot of things. ALSO I read that the air intake module must be thoroughly cleaned or replaced because metal flakes can collect in them and later get lodged back into the new engine. Do you use the old intake or buy new? If new from where. Thank you all!

 

[Sherman Bird]

Sherman,

This is great information. I know when I start this there will be gotcha's that I don't know about and your soil experience with these is very helpful, so thank you on that! I will take a look at O'Reilly's set up for sure. Do you know if the O'Reilly 4.7 Reman's have the upgrades / fixes, it's kinda a lot of things. ALSO I read that the air intake module must be thoroughly cleaned or replaced because metal flakes can collect in them and later get lodged back into the new engine. Do you use the old intake or buy new? If new from where. Thank you all!

The Power Torque kit comes with a special intake gasket set with a screen mesh to catch debris. I was able to determine that there was no debris in the intake, but the note said that these were required, so I used them on the 2002 RAM. That was a year ago, and it still runs very well.

 

[Sherman Bird]

The head gaskets were the biggest weak point in the early years of 4.7L production. 2002 year models were right in the midst of that trouble. Ironically, Chrysler, then owned by Mercedes, turned to Fel-Pro to engineer a fix. From what I was told, Fel -Pro got it right on about the 3rd try. As of about 2005-2006, the problen was fixed. The result of that overheating was the dropping of one of the valve seats, most frequently, #2 intake, for some reason.
Yes, the Power Torque brand installs updates on all their reman engines, so I was told. For me, the proof has been in the pudding, so to speak.

 

[EdGs]

I did head gaskets on an '02 1500 4.7 we had. It was an earlier JTEC engine.

I used Fel-Pro head gaskets. Great quality, no issues.