I have honestly not seen this happen with the Ecotec engines. But I’ll tell you it’s a common thing on the Mopar 4.7 SOHC that comes in the Ram.
I’m more surprised the timing chain set has held up that long though, if it’s original. Maybe the car has lots of highway miles.
As far as if it’ll be an easy fix, that’s a toss up. Hopefully hasn’t damaged the valve seat or guide bore. You might as well consider rebuilding the entire engine with that kind of mileage, top to bottom. You’ll likely encounter other issues if you decide to just do the head repair and nothing else, like timing chain set, balance shaft chain, oil pump, etc. I’d kind of expect it to let go some time soon anyways. You’re really pushing it once you get these engines up to the 300,000 mile mark with all original internals.
Cheapest long term option is look for an engine to just swap in with lower mileage. The engines are still a dime a dozen. If you look around you can have one for probably equal or less than repairing the head, that is if it’s going to be done correctly with the other components I was talking about. Just a head and using the old stuff, it will likely last a very short while.
