Okay, first off I know that there are alot of pages dealing with this already. However I havent really found the answer i am looking for yet. I am wondering.... I have an 88 Dakota 4wd 3.9 reg cab truck, what I want to know about the 318 swap is will any 318 work or do i need to find one outta another dakota or other truck from the mid 90s. i am having trouble finding a motor right now and it seems that the only ones available are outta the older dodge/chrysler cars. Also it seems that all of the forums I have found are dealing with fuel injected 318s. i am looking to make mine carbureted even if I find a fuel injected motor. I know that this entails swapping the manifold out But what I dont know is if there is nething else involved that i am overlooking. I currently have the stock V6 trans also and I am wondsering if I should consider replacing or just rebuilding to handle the V8. I have all of the other forums that I could find saved to my comp so please feel free to point out that i'm an idiot and have missed what I am looking for, thanks for any help you can give me in advance.-NB

 

Ya the FAQ2 has lots of info if you havnt looked there yet. Any 318 will work but it depends on what your going to do with it. If your going fuel injected or carbed. It is so much easyer to go fuel injected. If you are going with FI then you would want a 5.2 magnum from any dodge truck 92-up. If you want carbed any pre 91 318 will work. You can find some on crigslist or ebay. You dont need to swap the manifold. You just need to keep the one for the engine you putting in. The tranny can be rebuilt to handle the v8 if you wanted. For more details on all enigines that would work or the tranny issues check out the FAQ2 in this section. ALL of the answers to the questions you asked are there.

 

x2 on faq 2. if i had an 88 i would get carb 318 and probably a 727 torque flight to go with it, you can build the v6 tranny too, thats what i did. go to www.allpar.com , it has alot of info on what generations of engine are the best and alot of other good info.

 

I will guess that you are new to the dakota and maybe mopars in general .If so ,welcome to mopars .I will also guess you are just looking for some economical power.
I would spend your money and time on getting a 92 and new engine to keep your options open for later. You can get a carberated manifold right from dodge. If you get a brand new carb you can get the same MPG as the factory fuel injection .Rebuild the 904 with a shift kit and a cooler mounted out of harms way and its good to go .Here is the manifold you need and why I say buy a new carb that is not full of varnish. This was on my truck for 8 years