So heres the story... Thought my dakota was bigger than it was and thought the puddle was shallower than it was.... long story short the motor ingested a couple gallons of water and siezed... no... not just hydro locked, thinking it bent a rod or something.



With the plugs out I cant even wiggle the crank (via pipe wrench on the harmonic balancer). Its locked up bigger than hockey.

I asked my neighbor (who is a mechanic) and he said that rebuilding motors is a thing of the past and I should just look to replace the whole motor... yeah... $1500 later. So I'm thinking about trying to fix it my self, as the rod didnt go through the block or anything.

Anyone got any tips or advice before I go hogwild un-pluggin and un-screwin!?

Depending on what I run into to fix it... this may be the begining of the "Budger Minded Bullet Proof Dakota" build.

 

It took me a while to talk my self into fixing it, so I thought degreasing the motor may help.
It didnt, so I though washing it might help.
Nope still nothing, so I vacumed and cleaned the inside, stood back and realized it MAY be worth fixing.


I dropped the oil (3 days old) and was very much full of water. Drained the coolant (3 months old!) and that was still good (to be expected). Soaked each cylinder with fogging oil in hopes of rust prevention and then began twisting bolts.

I swear I took out 30-40 bolts and all I got out were the damn valve covers! Gonna wait till its light out (doing it in my driveway cuz my shop is full of jetskis and snowmobiles right now) and see what the hang up is. My knowledge of vehicle motors is mostly "thoeretical" and has very little expirence to back it up, so this is a learn as we go expirence! Haha... we'll hope for the best!

 

You can pick up a junkyard motor for $250(here anyways), I definitely wouldn't bother redoing a water logged motor. That's just me.



If and when you do start taking things apart, have a spare table and some labels. Label EVERYTHING you remove, where it goes and what bolts come with it. Trust me, if you don't they disappear. DAMHIK.

 

Havent found a local motor yet. going to try to look around a little further out, but I have yet to find anything for under $600 with less than 150,000 on it and would need to be shipped as well.

Does anyone know if it is the same 318 that was in the rams? would one of those fit?
I found a TBI 318 out of a 90 ram... something tells me no, but anyone?
Anyone got a swapable motor chart?

Maybe I just find a 360...

 

Any 5.2 from '92 on will work in your truck (from the dakota, ram, even ram van, etc). Any 5.9 from '93 on will also work. The 5.9 block is externally identical to the 5.2, so it would be a dircet "plug and play" swap. You don't want to swap in a motor prior to the years I listed because they were the old LA blocks and the TBI only had 1 injector, so your computer wont run them... and they were less efficient and had less power.

 

Don't waste your time with an LA block (pre '92) it's more money to swap in.


Going with a 360 you'll need to swap other things then just dropping the motor right in.

 

Any 5.2 (318) or 5.9 (360) Magnum from 92-up will work, from Rams, Dakotas, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Vans, Durangos.

No the 90 Ram you found wont work, not without modifying everything.

Yes you can do a 5.9/360 swap. Very easy.

 

LOL, all 3 of us posted the same thing at the same time!

Crazy, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the 5.9 magnum from '93 up?

 

IIRC 92 was the cross-over period, so you really could say they're all '93 +

 

Ah, I found the answer from allpar, yeah I was right...