Hey all, have another question lol My '83 D250 is havin major issues and im no longer able to drive it (safely). Its a single cab long box with 318 engine. Iv found an '86 D150 single cab short box with the slant 6 and no rust on the body (my '83 is pretty ruff and rusty). My idea was, if i buy the '86 next spring (the guy has it put away for the winter) id rebuild my 318, swap that in place of the slant 6, and then swap the 3/4 ton suspension onto the 1/2 ton (im a fan of 3/4 tons ). So, onto my questions. Is it possible to do the suspension swap from a long box to short box and what all would be involved? I think the rear axle/spring would be easy enough (though iv heard the 1/2 ton springs were 2 inches and the 3/4 3 inches??), but wouldnt the drive shaft be to long? Was there ever a single cab short box 3/4 ton that maybe i could get the drive shaft off of or maybe shorten mine? What all would be involved with the front end? And lastly, what can i expect in the lift and stiffer ride department? If it rides like my current 3/4 ton id be happy,but if its gonna rattle the teeth out of my head id rather not lol. Thanks in advance for all the help
p.s. It would be a daily driver.

 

I vote body swap. Its possible, but you are in for a lot of grinding off broken bolts, and fabricating little pieces. Bring a big hammer.

 

what exactly is wrong with your 250? just because you can put 250 springs under a 150 does not make it able to be a 250. legally the 150 will never be able to haul as much as the 250. if you plan on using it as a daily driver you might be better of to leave the slant 6 in it.

 

My d250's heater wont hardly defrost anything, and where i live if you cant defrost your windshield you cant drive (safely) :/ also cookin antifreeze somewhere on my engine,not sure where. Those are some of its many many problems. I wouldnt keep the slant 6 in it because i love my v8s too much,and i have the 318 already. I want to switch the suspension over to beef up the 1/2 ton, i wouldnt be hauling much very often but when i need to id like to be able to.

 

does your temp gauge move much? cooks anti freeze? do you mean you have a leak? i was told by my dad that i should fill the hole inside the heater box with an old t-shirt or something so that the truck would blow hotter air. do you know what thermostat you have? i have a 195*f and my air still never comes out hot.i also ditched the mechanical fan in favor of a electric fan and i think it might have helped it reach operating temperature quicker but it still takes about 5 minutes to have the front window defrosted and temp gauge to start registering.

 

Yes,its leaking antifreeze. The temp gauge used to move 1 mark above cold, i changed the thermostat (195 F) and now it goes to about 3-4 marks above cold (about 1/3 of the way to hot). It will blow warm air but only after going down the highway at 110km/h for 5-10 min, and not near enough to defrost the windshield on a fairly cold day.
Also if i switched the suspension id switch the whole rear axle, not just the springs.

 

where is it leaking. i don't see a point in doing the swap. dodge trucks just did not have great heating system and you will most likely have the same problems with the next truck. my truck never seems to blow hot air even after about an hour of driving at 110km/h with no mechanical or electric fans on at all.

 

My heater will run you out of the cab. I have to plow with the windows down to keep the windshield thawed. Have you checked the heater valve in the heater hose? Sometimes the don't open all the way.

 

how do you tell if the hose has a heater valve in it? to me all i see under my hood is just standard heater hoses. i almost thought about installing a coolant flush kit just to make sure it was getting coolant and that there was no air in it.

 

I don't know where it's leaking at. I want to do the swap because mine is just a money pit, it was an old farm truck that hasn't been maintained/fixed the best,especially the last 4-5 years. So I'd rather swap my engine and suspension into a truck that's in pretty good shape rather than attempt to fix up mine.