The parts store I work for hired me to work on a Durango. It's a 99 with a 5.2, auto. We sold him a salvage motor and it was knocking badly, so they gathered a replacement (salvage) engine for me to swap. I grumbled to myself about the shoddy way the mechanic had replaced the engine. It had obviously NOT been done with love as a few sensors were broken and bolts were missing. The thermostat was MIA, and the heater outlet tube was missing the o-ring; they just Permatex-ed it in. The highlight was that the motor-trans was held together by three bolts. I pulled the engine and I was about to install the new(ish) one when I analyzed the bolt pattern. Turns out, it's different. Only three bolts will line up! All I can think of is that they replaced the trans with one from a 2000+ 4.7. The 5.2 had one bolt high-center, the trans has them at about 11 and 1 o'clock. Any thoughts?

 

Are you asking about the flex plate that the torque converter bolts up too?

 

No, the motors are identical. The flexplate swapped right out. The transmission doesn't have matching holes for the engine to transmission bolts. The only ones that fit are the two main bottom ones that thread from the engine into the transmission and the first, lowest one on the passenger side.

The customer said to put the new engine in anyway. I don't like this.....

 

Could it be a motor from a Ram, maybe????

Taking a guess on this one!!!!