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Story time!
A good friend of mine just kicked her husband out, and she's cleaning out her house to get rid of the stuff he left behind. I went over to help her out, and there's this 2wd short box 5spd 96 Dakota, in remarkably good condition for a Wisconsin vehicle, sitting next to her garage. So I asked what her plans were for it, and she said "want it? It's yours." So my immediate thought is to make it a race truck. The unfortunate part is that it's a 2.5L 4cyl engine, but that's not a problem that can't be solved, since they made lots of these with V6 and V8 engines. Through my research, I've discovered it seems that even the 4cyl Dakotas used the same reasonably strong AX-15 transmission that the V6 (and V8?) models used. So that was a couple weeks ago, and I've been thinking about it a lot since then. A couple days ago, I was poking around Craigslist for my local area, and I found a 5.7L Hemi from a 2004 1500, for only $200. It says it was losing oil pressure, but still ran great, so I'm thinking an oil pump, and a set of bearings would probably solve that problem. I know that an LA bellhousing will bolt up to a modern Hemi, so the only part I'm really unsure about is the clutch, and specifically the flywheel. I did some looking around, and it looks like both the 4.7L and Hemi use an 8-bolt crank flange, and as far as I can tell, they're both internally balanced engines. Also, the 4.7L was available in stick shift Dakotas in the mid-2000's.
So long story short, my question(s) is/are: will a 4.7 flywheel bolt onto a Hemi crank flange, and fit inside an AX-15 V8/V6 bellhousing? I'm not opposed to getting a custom flywheel made, if necessary, but I'd like to do as much of this as possible with junkyard parts.
The AX-15 never came behind a V8 in stock configuration. While there is some debate on whether it can hold up to the 318 V8 which was the biggest engine available in the Dakota, in my opinion it is strong enough as long as you're not dropping the clutch and doing burnouts all the time. But it is basically universally acknowledged that the AX-15 is totally inadequate for the 360 V8 that is the other common Dakota swap. So given that the 5.7 Hemi has like 100 more horsepower than the 360 Magnum, I think you should put the idea of using the AX-15 out of your mind. I believe the transmission you'd be looking for is an NV4500. The NV4500 has been swapped into these trucks before, I think it requires a bit of a body lift and rework of the tranny tunnel. Basically your whole drivetrain needs to be upgraded. You might have either a 7.25 or an 8.25" rear end. Doesn't really matter which because neither can handle the power of the Hemi if you really use it.
Unfortunately, the NV4500 ticks off two boxes that I absolutely don't want in my race truck: a heavy cast iron case, and an unusably low first gear ratio.
Ultimately, I would like to have a T56 or T6060, but the stock AX-15 will have to suffice until I can find one that's affordable. I'm also not opposed to having the AX-15 rebuilt with stronger components. In any case, the 300 lb-ft rating of the transmission should be adequate in my application, for a vehicle that is lighter than that rating applies to, since torque ratings are highly dependent on vehicle weight, and I intend to substantially lighten the Dakota.
I've seen that number come up on a lot of jeep forum posts about that transmission. It's a ballpark, obviously, because, as you say, the manufacturer doesn't seem to have published an actual rating.
Gotcha. I got an AX behind my 318 and it's good but my 318 is tired lol. Definitely keep updated on your project, Hemi swaps aren't too common on 1st gens.
They aren't done often but I'm sure it's doable. I haven't looked at the size of a hemi vs 318 but I think they are fairly close to one another.
The biggest hurdles Imo are going to be the motor mounts, probably need to fabricate something. And the engine controller, you're probably best off going custom with something like a megasquirt. I think that would be alot easier than trying to scab in a harness from a 1500. Unless you just went carbureted, but why would you want to do that.
Definately going to want to upgrade to a 8 3/4 or 9 1/4 rear end. I know the 9 1/4 has been done easy enough, not sure on 8 3/4.
One thing to watch out with your manual transmissions is shifter location. Ram manual transmissions typical end up with the shifter under the dash when put into Dakota's. I imagine if you steal one from say a challenger 6 speed you'll end up with it behind you but I don't honestly know, just throwing things out there to watch for.
Make sure you don't ignore things like suspension (gotta get that power down) and brakes (with a 9 1/4 swap should be able to get some nice beefy disc brakes back there, front will be more difficult).
Well looking on rockauto a 3.9l v6 flywheel is about 14.3inches OD, and a 5.7 ram 1500 is about 14.6. My guess is the larger flywheel will fit, but unfortunately you're mostly in uncharted territory, so you may need to do some experimentation.
I recommend looking up and comparing clutches and flywheel on rockauto as it lists all the dimensions on their site and you can get a good idea of what may or may not work. I've done alot of that for my own projects trying to figure out what may interchange.
You could also talk to a place like Novak adapters, they may have experience with bolting an ax15 to a hemi, of course they'll probably want to sell you something as well.
96 Dakota 2wd 5spd Project
