And it begins...

I have a 1995 Dodge Dakota 4x4 3.9L that i purchased in July. Its a very clean truck with a new transmission, transfer case, and front & rear differentials, which i have receipts for all. As of late, the 3.9 has been acting up, and coincidentally enough I happened to come across a pretty good deal.

I have a buddy with a 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.2L that was rear ended while parked, the insurance company totaled it out but for some reason he bought the jeep back. Well this was a year ago, and I remembered that it had been just sitting in his driveway ever since. My first offer to him was 200$ for the engine with 103k miles on it, which he accepted. I got to thinking about it, and I didnt really want to pull the motor out in his driveway, in Iowa, in December. So, I came up with a new offer... I bought the whole jeep for $300, if i come and pick it up.

I work maintenance at a manufacturing plant, and we have a very nice a mechanic shop with a car lift, air tools, and an electric Cherry Picker. So i picked the Jeep up and took it to work, and had the motor out in under 3 hours! (Its alot easier, when you can just hack thing out of your way, and stand under it under a lift, and clip wires and break things off haha) I even had the jeep to the junkyard by 11:55am, and they closed at noon. I scraped the remainder of the Jeep for $243. So in essence, I bought this motor for $57! Nice...

Here is a build thread I did in my 2000 Dakota 5 years ago, Im not goin as deep into this new one, but i am gonna polish it up a bit.
https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...ome-today.html





Here it is with a few coats of Red, before I pulled it all apart.




Here is all the components i ripped off. remember my fabrication shop? Well, I also have a glass bead blast booth and 2 powdercoat lines.


The keg add timing cover bead blasted




We also have high tech lasers for cutting metal. Instead of paying $120 for the Hughes plenum repair, i made one myself by using our electronic laser tracer. For free. 1/4in Aluminum.

 

The waterneck powdercoated orange


Harmonic balancer and Pully


Exhaust manifolds powder coated High-temp black


Valve covers, accessory bracket, oil pan, hoseclamps, and fan powdercoated "Chrome" Its not really chrome its just super shiny silver powder.






More to come? I plan on starting reassembly this Sunday. Thanks for looking!

 

Awesome Project!!! SO cool to have access to all those tools/equipment. Looked briefly at your previous project Dakota, you did a great job on that one too.

I have a 5.2 sitting in my garage right now (where it's been for a year...), waiting to be refreshed and dropped into my Dak which has required a lot of work that kept me away from the motor. This is certainly inspirational and I look forward to the progress.

 

I'm envious already, I would love to have access to equipment like that. That powder coat chrome was a great choice for the valve covers, etc. Can't wait to see how this goes.

 

Thanks guys. I got side tracked this weekend, but I plan to work on it on Thursday so ill check back in then with some progress.

 

Looking good. I really like the chrome colour too. Threads like this are really inspiring for me. I want to do the same someday.

What did you do for paint prep on those parts and the engine block?

Keep up the good work and the photos!

 

We have a burnoff oven at work that reaches 800 degrees. I baked the parts you see on the pallet for 2 hours, and that will burn off any paint, grease, oil, etc on the parts. After that they go to the sandblast booth for final prep before powder coat.

As for the engine block, thats good ol' brakeclean, a wire wheel, some rags, and compressed air. I rattle canned it high temperature Chrysler Imdustrial Red

 

Okay here we go! Got a little bit done today...

First I stripped off the old oil pan.


Then I installed the new timing set, and re-installed the timing cover.



The oil pickup tube from the Jeep was different, so I installed one for a Dakota, and placed the oil pan gasket.



With that, I was able to mount the new oil pan.



Next I moved to the top end, installing the intake.


Harmonic balancer and pully installed.

 

New Water pump



Valve covers installed


I dont have the right bolt for my exhaust manifolds, but I mocked them up.



And just for kicks I spun the fan on.




So, the way it goes now. Im looking to actully do the swap into my truck in about 2 weeks, like the 17-18th of this month. I still have to pick up an ECU, and a throttle cable. Other than that, I should have everything I need. Stay tuned!

 

Still looking great! Very clean looking motor.