Blown 2.7, rebuild advice.

My truck quit on me last week. The only code showed a cylinder two misfire. After diving into it a little bit I found that cylinder two had absolutely zero compression. Won't even move the gauge. Can't really afford not to make an effort on it so I'm gonna pull the engine and if I don't find anything totally catastrophic I debating rebuilding this thing.

Has anyone done a 2.7 rebuild and what advice would you give? I can afford to rebuild it right, just can't afford to give up on the truck yet. But also, with 250k miles on it do I gamble on rebuilding this engine, or do I gamble on a complete engine that I know nothing about except what somebody has told me about it?

I'm really torn on this situation and am suffering a bad case of decision paralysis. Any advice helps.

 

Hard to say.
Knowing why it has no compression would be nice.
I’d start by pulling a valve cover and hoping it’s head related.
Much cheaper…..

Of course, a leak down test would point you more in the “right” direction.

 

Should have mentioned... I did open the valve cover and have a look. Everything seemed to move as it should. I stuck a bore scope into that #2 cylinder and found an odd looking spot on top of the piston but could not say for sure what it was. Gonna start pulling the motor out monday and figure out exactly what has failed.

Considering the great condition inside and out of the rest of the truck I think it would be worth it to me to purchase an assembled head, throw in new pistons, a water pump and timing chain and get another couple hundred thousand out of it.

 

I would do a leakdown test before pulling the engine to see where it's going so you have an idea what to look for.

 

If you need pistons, rings, etc….I would not bother rebuilding the engine. I would just toss in a low mileage used engine and drive it. A used 2.7 can’t be terribly expensive compared to rebuilding one. Just my 2cents.