2012 4.7 V8 Engine Locked

I purchased a 2012 Ram 1500 4.7 V8 with 90K miles on it for cheap due to the engine being locked. A very very clean truck. I bought it off my friend's mother and her story is that one day she drove it home after work with zero issues. Next morning she went out to start it and it would not start. Someone put a breaker bar on the crank and tried to turn it over and it would not budge. It sat for almost a year then I offered her $500 for it and she took it and gave me the title. I removed the starter and tried to turn it over and had no luck. I have not been messing with it a whole bunch due to being busy but I did some research and from my understanding valve drop is common in the 4.7 V8 engines. The engine will spin backwards no issue and once I move it back forwards and comes to a stopping point and I swear I hear something in the head. This coming weekend I am going to remove the spark plugs (had to order the socket for it) and try to spin it forward and see if anything happens. My plan is to remove the heads and hopefully find a issue within the head and have them cleaned, resurfaced, and rebuilt then slap it back together. I guess that would be between best and worst case scenario. What are some of yalls suggestions that are familiar with the 4.7 V8?

Valve seat drop is common in 99-07 4.7s. Not all that common in 08-13 4.7s due to chrysler changing the valve seat design and head design with the 08+ “Corsair” refresh.

If it is completely locked up i would pull the intake plugs on ALL cylinders and look inside of them with a camera. I would also pull both valve covers and check condition of the timing chain/guides. On the 4th gen trucks, it is VERY hard to pull the passenger side cover. I would recommend just unscrewing it and lifting up on the front of it towards the radiator and peering in with a flashlight to see what you see.

People often don’t tell the truth either. Wouldn’t shock me if it was ran without oil and that’s why it locked up. Drain the oil and evaluate for metal shavings. Also make sure the engine is in time.

like mentioned above its not common on the newer 4.7s However if engine is overheated it will still drop a seat another common issue is timing chains and guides hopefully you can save the engine since its a newer 4.7 they are way more expensive the older older 4.7s are cheap you can still find the newer ones on facebook in a wreck sometimes tho.