He didn't mean it in the case of replacing a valve spring as he said that would be the least of your worries. Maybe it broke a valve and went through the piston, who knows yet..? Your worst case would be pulling the motor for an overhaul. And yes, you can replace a head with the engine in the truck.

Ok. I understand. I'm not sure what's going on yet but I'm hoping the piston isn't ruined. If the piston had a hole knocked in it would it smoke or at least the spark plug be oily?

How many miles are on that engine? if its not a broken spring you really at that point need to start asking yourself if its worth trying to contine to patch up a 16 year old engine with x amount of miles.. pulling the heads is only a little less intensive as pulling the engine.. 16 year old engine.

Hey Jet. I have 188,000 miles on the truck. I have a receipt that came with the truck from the dealer who sold it new that the engine was replaced at 60,000 miles. The original owner took it in for warranty work and said the engine was ticking and the technician said it was knocking so they replaced it. I don't know if the original heads were used or if they were new also. So the engine has about 128,000 miles on it. The truck has been very good to me and still looks great. Everything works like it's supposed to. This is the only real issue I've had with it.

Now I'm thinking about finding a complete engine from a salvage yard with less miles on it and just yank out the old and drop the working engine in there. Does it have to be the same year? Can I put a newer 3 valve engine in there? Also, when I swap them is it a plug and play deal? Will the pcm know it's a different engine and keep it from running?

You can't use a 3 valve because the PCM program is completley different in version and valve train control along with the hardware and harness.
Good luck.

Ok, that settles that. Do you happen to know what years I can use? And will I have to get the dealer to reprogram anything to get it to run?

1st part: should be able to use 99-03. you may or may not have to swap some accessories over from your current engine to the replacement

2nd part. You shouldnt need to have the dealer do anything. Its just a bunch of bolts to swap engines :rolleyes: :roflol:

Did you ever figure out if you have a broken spring/valve, etc. on cyl. 3? I would hold off on doing anything until you figure out what happened to the current one so you have a cost to repair vs engine replacement figures and time factors

Thanks for the reply. That's the answer I was hoping for. I haven't taken the valve cover off yet to look. I'm hoping to get a chance to look at it this weekend. I don't know much about these engines. Frankly the whole overhead cam scares me as far as getting it timed right if you have to remove the cam/head to repair a valve or spring. I miss the small block Chevy days with the old push rod engines. That was something I could work on.

.....

Me and my buddy are gonna try to get the valve cover off tomorrow and see if we can figure out what happened. It sucks just seeing my truck sit in the driveway.

Ok guys I need some advice. I took the valve cover off and couldn't see anything wrong with the cam, rocker, or valve spring. So I made sure both valves for #3 were in the closed position and hooked some air pressure up to the spark plug hole. The air just rushed out of the pcv hose that was now hanging from the intake. If I put my finger over that it sounded like it then came out the air filter. I'm guessing the intake valve is shot. I'm not going to attempt to pull the head off with the engine in the truck. I will pull it all and take the head off to see what is wrong. My question is, if the pistons and everything look good in the bottom end do I just replace the head or since I have it out should I go through the whole motor or buy a re-manufactured motor. I am trying to build a house so money is an issue but I don't want to do this again in the near future.
Thanks for any advice/opinions.

If anyone is still reading this thread I got the head off today. What a pain in the a$$! I'm not sure how I'm going to get it back on. The bolts on the back of the RH head that hold the metal coolant line that runs under the intake from the back of the water pump were almost impossible. Anyway I found that the block is in excellent shape. You can still see the hone marks on the cylinder walls. The problem is the intake valve on #3 never closes. After we got it off, we rotated the cam and watched all the valves open and close but that one never seals up. I cant tell what is holding it open. There is about 1/8 inch of daylight all the way around it when it should be closed. I will have the head rebuilt or replaced. Does anyone know where a guy can get a good quality rebuilt head or where to send it out to have it repaired? Also, there is a wire in the valley that hooks to something bolted into the block. Anyone know what that is? It looks like it has been leaking oil. I would GREATLY appreciate anybody's help, suggestions. I'm kind of in uncharted waters here for me.

Ya these motors are complex to work on so you need to be sure you know how to put the timing chain on correctly when the time comes.
The wire goes to a sensor in the valley area.
There is no oil in that area but oil can leak down from above and lay their.
Inspect the coolant line or replace it..
With the cam off the head; if the valve is stuck open very carefully see if carbon or some material is holding it open or the lifter assembly has some- thing wrong.
If you find something was holding it off seat and nothing else is seen to be a problem the head may be able to be put back on as is but do find out what the original issue is first before makeing that judgement.
If not, the valve stem is frozen in it's guide for some reason. If a tap with a hammer seats the valve then the guide area is the problem.
This is a rare occurance for an intake valve to stick like that.
Usually an exhaust valve will be more prone to stick from heat.
Note in my first reply #2 that I mentioned a possible valve issue right away.
The way to tell this was to bring that cylinder up on compression stroke then apply air through the plug hole and see where the air was escaping.
You would have heard it in the intake through the throttle body.
Good luck.

Now that your there if it were me I'd go ahead and pull the other head and take them to a machine shop and have them reconditioned.. Head gaskets on both sides. Reconditioning head isnt that much You should be able to do both for around 400. and pulling the engine isnt much harder then taking the heads off but you are that far so finishing it is good.. Sounds like that would fix it and really your engine isnt that high miles. Get some good literature to help.