I have a 93 dakota with a 318 v8 that is 3k from hitting 2ook miles. my transmission is on its last leg so i decided to swap it with a used one. I couldn't find another auto so i went with a manual. the good news is it came with everything except the yolk. i did a lot of research before i started this project and i got many different answers. my chrysler mechanic guys say that a v6 tranny will bolt up to a v8, 2 out of the 4 chrysler dealer body shop employees stated that they do also along with many others, all the junkyards and some other people say they dont... just to be on the safe side will a v6 tranny bolt up to a v8 block and for a manual transmission does the flywheel have to be balanced?

thanks for your time.
Alex

 

The v6 tranny will bolt up to the v8, but won't last long under the torque of the v8. There is a reason they use a different transmission for the v6 and v8.

The 3.9L v6 and 5.2L v8 are both internally balanced, so you need a neutral flywheel. Only the 5.9L v8 is externally balanced and requires a balanced flywheel.

You can NOT use a v6 flywheel on a v8. There are marks on the flywheel for the crankshaft position sensor and they differ between the two.

For any more swap information, check out my post linked in faq2. I did this swap about a year ago.

 

thanks for the fast reply, thats good to know on the flywheel...i'll be sure to check it out. since this is my first time doing a tranny swap. the tranny i have came out of a v6 ram so i'm pretty sure the pedal setup is going to need some modifying since the gas pedal is separate.

 

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/1st-gen...-5-2l-4x4.html

This will answer almost all your questions so you wont have to be "pretty sure"!!

Lol, that would have been good to know from the beginning! The v6 Ram has the nv3500 (same one used in the v8 Rams and v8 Dakotas), so you are good to go, forget what I said before. The v6 Dakota has the AX-15, which is a weaker transmission.

 

i would still need a different flywheel even though i got the sensor from the donor truck?

 

Yes!! Here is the quick rundown of what the crankshaft position sensor does...

The auto-shutdown relay provides the ignition coil with a 12 volt input from the power distribution center. The computer grounds the ignition coil until the crankshaft position sensor reads a mark on the flywheel. When the CPS reads the mark, the computer ungrounds the coil so it can be grounded through the distributor at a spark plug... thus firing the ignition. If the flywheel you are using is not specific to the engine, the computer will be way off on when to fire the engine and it won't run right if at all. When you start the swap, look at the holes around the rim of your v8's flexplate and the holes around the rim of the v6's flywheel... you will see how far off they are!!!!

As for the sensor itself... all it does is send a signal to the computer when it passes over a mark. Because of it's simple job, the v6 and v8 use the same sensor. However, the automatics and manuals use a different sensor, because the automatics use a flexplate and the manuals use a flywheel... the flexplate and flywheel are different diameters so you need a different length sensor. So my point is, get a v8 flywheel but you can use the v6 manual's sensor.

I hope all that made sense.

 

thanks for clearing that up..the nice thing is i have my hands on a lot of resources for parts. the bad news is i have no garage to work in so im pretty much laying in the snow to do this...lol thanks for the link i'm usingthat aas my reference now

 

No problem!! I can answer any question about this swap that you may have cause I already did it!! But read through that thread and take notes and you shouldn't have too many questions left. It's pretty straight forward, but the little details can turn a weekend job into a week long job!!

 

now its just the pilot bushing info. is this the one i should be looking for?

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/cat...&parentId=12-0

 

I don't know if thats it or not. I think someone else asked about that once. The picture shown is just the bearing itself, but it also says "representative image", so you'd have to see what the actual part looks like as it comes in the box.

But this is what you will be looking for...

The red arrow points to the sleeve, the blue arrow points to the bearing. The part from mopar comes with the bearing already pressed into the sleeve.
PilotBearingandSleeve.jpg?t=1266988979


Seriously though (and you won't hardly ever hear me say this), go the your local Dodge dealership and buy it because the dealership price was actually cheaper than that autozone part you linked.

When you go to the dealership, ask for this part number:

5300 9180

Crankshaftparts.jpg?t=1266989530