I bought a new 92 L'il Red Dakota. It was quick, quick, I didn't know much about it until I began to hear that they were rare, I have only seen ONE, since I bought mine in 92 , it was at a car show., I put 250K miles on the original Magnum engine, the engine began to smoke a little., so I put in a new 360 Magnum, and it has not run since., the electronics , I have been told were different. So I opted for an 4 bbl intake and 750 cfm Edelbrock set up, changed the ignition to a vacuum advance unit., and it would run, but not like I thought it should. I would like to know more about this lil truck, how many were made? how much is it worth, does it have a production number on it somewhere., It has been sitting in my garage for 5 years., I would really like to put it back on EFI and the original electronics, but I don't know what components I need, The original "under the hood" wiring harness is in shambles after all this changing and stuff. If any one has some good info, I would really appreciate any data you can furnish me., pdosburn@yahoo.com

 

I don't know anything about a li'l red dakota. but there's this http://www.oocities.org/tomcat98.geo/

First thing to get it to efi is to get the harness back in shape or replace it. You need to restore all the little sensors and stuff to working order. Then find a 5.9 ecm. I read something somewhere that the 5.9 requires a different fuel pressure regulator, too.

There are guys on this forum that have gotten 5.9 liter engines to work in Dakotas, you're gonna need to find them, ask questions, and do the research.

 

First off, you MUST get all parts for a 1992 or 1993 Dakota!!! There are some differences between them and 94/95 and the Ram parts.

Go to the junkyard and study the engine really well in a 92/93 dakota. Then pull the engine wiring harness, PCM (5.2 PCM will run a 5.9 just fine), intake/throttle body, injectors and fuel rails off of a 92/93 dakota with a V8. Get the efi distributor. Get the EGR stuff from that truck as well if you don't already have it. If you don't want EGR, (assuming you have headers with no port) then just plug the solenoid into the harness and tuck it away and plug the port on the intake. '97+ trucks have the non egr intakes but be careful if you go that route as some also have fewer vacuum ports. If memory serves me, 92/93 trucks use all six vacuum ports. It will occasionally give a brief check engine light that will go away. Put a new gasket in the intake pan. Either replace the pan with the hughes kit which will come with everything needed for the install, or re-use the old pan and put a small bead of rtv on both sides of the gasket. If you use the old pan, torque it down, let the rtv cure 24 hours, loosen all bolts and re-torque before you put the intake on. Remove your original harness and install the new one, change intakes out, you can leave the whole junk yard intake together as an assembly with the throttle body, injectors and fuel rail already installed. Hook up all electrical connections.

Things you may need; throttle cable (make sure it's 92/93), vacuum ball (map sensor is happiest with a little vacuum reserve for cold starts), factory air cleaner assembly or a 1" spacer to clear the throttle cable bracket with aftermarket assembly, O2 sensor and weld in bung if you don't have it or a new y-pipe (better off grabbing the y-pipe from the junk yard truck in this situation, 92/93 had a larger diameter y-pipe that your 360 will be much happier with and replacements are the newer, smaller diameter), fuel lines if yours were molested to run a carb motor (these again must be from a 92/93 truck as it is a return style fuel system and 94/95 are returnless), vacuum lines if those were also molested and any other sensors you find are missing. Some intakes have two coolant temp sensors, some have only one. Yours should have two. One sends a signal to the computer, the other to the guage in the dash. Replace both of these sensors as well as the intake air temp sensor which is right above the coolant temp sensors.

If you have any questions, feel free to PM me and I will be happy to answer them.