My cousin left me 2002 2.3l with 225000 miles. The engine makes a loud knocking noise after it's warmed up. I thought it was a rod, but now I find that the knock was diagnosed by the dealership as coming from the head. I have a newer used head from an '09 and am about to put it in, but... I am told that you can't just swap duratec heads unless they were milled in the same batch.

Do any of you know if that is true? I want to get this job done but don't want to pull the head and find it doesn't match the one I'm putting on.

 

Maybe the better way to approach this question is Has anyone here ever replaced the head on their duratec 2.3l, and did it run ok after the swap?