Recently ive purchased this old mopar truck and I still cant wait to drive it cuz im a MOPAR MAN at heart. However i just rebuilt the topend and found out that this whole time the BLOCK WAS CRACKED!!!! WTF?!?! Anyway local MOPAR guys have 3.9's for around 300 bucks i was just wondering if any of you have done a 318 swap and if so how much more does it cost cuz i have all the tools and cherrypicker an all but when it comes to brackets and tranny and all how much are we lookin at or is it just suggested that i swap another 3.9 into the truck?

 

Technically, it is a bolt on swap (brackets fit, tannny bolts up ect.), but the exhaust y pipe will not fit, and you will run into a cooling issue, just like the original Shelby Dakota's. It would be more economical to just buy the 3.9l shortblock if your just trying to keep it running.

 

yea pullapart charges even less for the 3.9 so ima just try to do that its like 150 with the warrenty.. Ima call tomorrow to see if its in stock..

 

you could do what i do and just go on the weekends and pull cars apart...its how i got some cheap parts, if you catch my drift...lol

 

So im planning on going to pull a part in a few days and i wanna test the engine i pull before i go thru the headache... i kno 20oz bottle of gas and a good battery to test the engine but once i have all that hooked up, how do i go about starting the engine without the key, i dont wanna pop out the ignition and hot wire it but do i have to bypass it to use the starter clynoid? hot to ground should start right?

 

You can bypass the ignition circuit on the firewall.

 

yea thats the ignition coil or as i call it a starter sylonoid. thats what im talkin about. on my ol' 73 valiant id just have to hit the hot to engine block and it'd crank right up..

 

your 87 is carbed. so changing over from a carb to a multi-port injected 318 probably isn't worth all the wiring headaches. i have read that there are companies that will bore out carbs, throttlebodies and spacers. only takes 30 minutes and and gives you 5 -10 extra horses ( the map senser picks up the extra air flow and automatically increases fuel flow ). there are companies that sell carbs with larger bores, pretty sure i saw one for the 87 Dak somewhere on the net.

throw on a low restriction exhaust and you might get another 5 - 10.

you have to use your center dome and carb on the new 3.9. it will bolt right up to the heads on the new one. if you got enough time and just a few bucks, remove the heads and have the dome and heads ported and a shop ( the ports slightly enlarged ) i've done it on a slant 6, it's simple and adds a few extra horses cheap (free if you do it yourself).

 

well if i had the surfacing tools, id just get an old block and build my own engine.. Id like to... but idk about how much itd cost and since i havent done it before idk what all it would entail but i did the topend in 2 days and now im still throwing water out the side... but its a better option than throwing a used engine in here..