I have a 1990 Dodge Dakota with a 3.9l v6 and i really wanna give it some more get up and go. I was thinking put in 8 mm spark plug wires platnium spark plugs k and n air filter but idk what else i could do? also should i put a cold air intake even though my truck already has a factory setup air intake? any input would be appreciated. thanks!

 

best way to make your dakota faster = swap a v8 into it.

 

don't get spark plugs and wires until you actually need new ones. the performance increase isn't noticable. get a k&n filter that drops into your stock intake and remove the piece of plastic on the grille that covers the intake pipe. Buy a glasspack and replace your muffler keeping the rest of the stock exhaust. after that, you may as well get a v8. a 318 magnum in good condition can be found for $300. you would be spending that much on plugs, wires, filter, and exhaust kit, so why not add 2 cylinders instead. For well under $1000 including the engine, you could have 350 hp vs spending $1000 on the v6 being lucky to reach 250 hp

 

yea, its almost too easy to swap a v6 for a v8 lol. even easier if you have the whole underhood part of the v8 harness.

 

how hard is it to drop in a 318? and wouldn't i need to get a new tranny too?

 

to my knowledge, the magnum 3.9 is very similar to the mgnum 5.2. just 2 cylinders short. pretty sure the bell bolt pattern is the same as well. do you have a stick or auto trans? my stick bolted right up. all you have to do if your going to reuse the v6 harness is run the extra injector wires for the 2 extra cyllinders and get a v8 pcm. motor mounts are the same.

 

if its a 90 model it has the old 125hp LA engine block..........might as well yank it and switch to the Magnum engine..but that involves a crap load of work haha........oh and the tranny should last a little while...........no need to change right away

 

all you would need is the engine wiring harness, which if your lucky is still on the motor, the pcm, radiator, and maybe the engine mounts. I wouldn't really consider that a crapload of work.

 

Here is a pretty good article on a 400hp build. http://www.popularhotrodding.com/tec...e/viewall.html

 

so its pretty much cheaper and less hassle to get a newer truck?lol
because i've never switched engines out before and itd seem like i could esily screw something up lol