but if you don't have a fair bit of money to put into the 440 it is not worth the swap. a 318 or 360 magnum that is fuel injected would put out a fair bit of power and are still easy enough to find parts for. i know it is getting harder and hard to find the parts you need to put a 440 in a truck. a car 440 will not drop into a truck without some of these parts. plus you would be going fuel injected. no having to wait for the carb to warm up and run right. you can pretty much just jump in and go.

 

I dont disagree much with what you say. I have been (and will continue for as long as it takes) looking for a 1st Gen 440 truck and would love to have one but dont think I would want to go to the trouble of re-powering an existing non-440 truck.

I have a carbuerated 1986 short bed with a mildly warmed over 318 and a 1990 long bed with a stock TBI 318 and I much prefer the TBI. I have had various 318 powered vehicles since the mid 70s and though I like the engine, they just are not hot rod material and you can dump a lot of money and time into them trying to eke out a bit more HP for little gain.

I have reached the age/stage of life where I am pretty satisfied with driving a slower and reliable piece of automotive history.

 

Mostly I want to do this for the uniqeness of it, but it would be very helpful to see someone else who had done the same. I haven't looked but Painless may make an ECM for this, but I don't know about the TCM. To be honest I'm fairly new to the dodge side of things.

What about a 383? I also have a Chrysler New Yorker with a 440.

The truck isnt going to be a street rod, but I do like power and efficiency. I'm just not seeing much in the way of swaps for these trucks.

Maybe I should just leave the 318 and leave it alone, but what a shame. The 5.7 has been around for over 10 years, can't believe no one has been doing swaps.

Guess there is always the 5.3 but it has its own challenges with he reluctor ring and such.

Also, these seem to have some drive line issues (tranny, rear dif) what is the best dilution to this? I considered getting one built from TCI or the like, depending on what I decide to do with it. I don't see many swb dodges around.

Ultimate goal is to get a decent amount of power without getting 10mpg... I have two other trucks for that.

Thank you all for any help and information, as there appears to be a lack of it for the old dodges.

 

They have been done...Putting a 5.7 hemi in place of your 318\360 is not a big deal at all. The only real issue is the factory drive-by-wire throttle.

It will bolt right up to your 727 or A518 trans, several companies manufacture aftermarket harnesses and processors if you wanted to go that route.

There are no "kits" per-say but if you check with HotRodLane they can help.

Here is an install in a RamCharger:
http://www.hotrodlane.cc/PDFFILES/93...%20Charger.pdf

More Info: http://www.hotrodlane.cc/New%20HEMI%....html#installs

Also if you search over on RamchargerCentral

http://ramchargercentral.com/project...i-rc-complete/
http://ramchargercentral.com/project...ting-5-7l-hemi

 

i think i have seen companies that sell wiring harnesses and ecm's for a new hemi swap into whatever you want but i think they cost about $2500.
http://nutterracingengines.com/hemit...ackground.html

to stick any big block out of a car into a truck you will need to change the oil pan and the rear sump pickup which has been discontinued so you will most likely need to get a custom one made or find one used out of a big block truck.

people have put hemi's into older trucks that they did not come in and it come out great and then there is other people who have tried the swap and pretty much failed.

tranny's are pretty good as long as they are taken care of. they are also fairly cheap to get rebuilt.

 

More than likely what I'll do for now is get the transmission fixed and drive it for a while, then decide what I want to do with it, May even just sell it :P

 

I just did an EFI Magnum swap into my '78. My thread starts with just the idea of it, and "ends" with a video of me driving it. https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...a-1st-gen.html

 

Yea but freakin LS motors come from the factory with 6 bolt mains... meaning the stock bottom end is good for like 20+psi and the motor is super easy to build. It's just not fair

 

And the ls is easier to tune. I put down 650 whp on my procharged lq4 with 11 psi. Went through a built 4l80e and a awd tcase. 4.56 gears and 33" tires. Went 11.8@113 in the 1/4 mile