I wasn’t brave enough to try grease that would have been last resort 😂. I’m not using the stock ecu so didn’t really consider a rfe. I haven’t heard much good about them anyways kinda like the 46re I did get 😅. The best option I think would have been a nag1. With my rear gear ratio the 8 speeds would be crazy in 1st/2nd. Sound German performance has stand alone kits to get the newer trans working and I did contact them about options. A custom driveshaft would be needed with the nag1 or 8 speed as well which I may end up doing later.

 

While this whole transmission debacle was going on I figured I’d mock up the engine and see if the mounts worked and what kinda room I was looking at.


Pulled the intake.

DIYHEMI thermostat adapter.
purchased this adapter piece from Sublime technologies so I can run the mechanical temp gauge already in the cab. Pulled the intake so not to damage the valve covers and to get a good 4 point rig. It looks like with the insulation padding removed I’ll be able to run some wiring under the intake as well to make a cleaner looking install.



went into position without too much fuss. This also helped me gauge where to put the hole in the firewall for the harness as I wanted to keep the terminator ecu inside the cab.

Good clearance from the brake booster.

This could look better.
The brakes really stand out to me now as looking pretty rough. I’ll order some new parts to make it look as good as the motor. There is plenty of room and I found the spot where I will drill out the 2” hole for the harness to pass through. The one larger hole in the pic above was for oil/temp gauges and the smaller one on the right is the modified lokar throttle cable covered in the first thread. I have a plan on reusing that cable/hole for the trans kickdown but I haven’t seen anyone else try it for a DBW setup with the older trans so we shall see.

 

Looks like your master cylinder is puking fluid out the back.

 

You planning on running headers or stock manifolds? They should have been on the motor for potential clearance issues.

 

You can see I tried to zip tie down the master cylinder caps to prevent leaks. I think I had just overfilled them and they leaked out the caps running down on the booster peeling the paint. They have been dry and working right for a long time but just look bad. I do have headers - black heart holley headers specifically for the swap. I probably should have mocked them up during this test fit but that wasn’t the purpose here as I pulled the motor shortly after.

 

So motors back out. Got some cheap 2” grommets from Amazon and drilled a hole where the harness will pass through.


At this point I need an ac compressor and power steering pump. The AC comp was from a 2012 truck as the newer (2014~ up) ones have the new refrigerant and work a little different (PWM ?) than what the terminator/my OE can work with as well. The 2016 truck the motor came out of had electric power steering so an older 2012 pump was ordered off eBay. Now I got these but they don’t have any hardware- the local ram dealer hooked me up with some bolt sizes so I could just get some generic matches.

Power steering was m8 1,25 as well so I just cut down some bolts ordered from Amazon. Both bolted up fine and pulley alignment looked great. I’m ready now to connect the trans and prep for final install.


Mark your flexplate and TC before attaching the trans.
Leant this trick from the last motor swap. Since the TC has an off set screw hole the flexplate can only bolt on one way and it’s way easier to mark it than find out after you have 2 or 3 bolts in that it’s not set right.

Together with the lokar cable installed.
Another lesson learnt. Way easier to put it on now than when it’s in the truck.

Holley trans adapter for the 46re installed per instructions.
That is a new poly mount (#71223029HKR) with the adapter bracket (#WB130015)above bolting it to the trans. Some of these holley parts you can get called white box - my trans cross member adapter for example. This can save you money, $20 in this case and it is just an equivalent unpainted part and pretty easy to rattle can. The actual cross member (#BHS525) now I opted for the powered coated version for the extra $30 the finish was worth it.The instructions say for my trans to put the aluminum spacer in the rear most position for correct driveline angle. The mount is just loose as I’m not sure what set of holes everything will line up too.

Will still have to remove the pan and clean/fix/paint it up. Install new filter and replace the gasket. Also discovered the trans lines are larger than the 904’s so will have to pick some up at the junk yard as well as a dipstick. Might as well order the holley harness (#558-473) for the trans too while the checkbook is out.

 

With the motor and trans together I can check some more things. Headers on and they are super close to the starter. Hopefully won’t be an issue if I wrap the starter again.


Starter clearance.

Transmission with correct hard lines.
Electrical pigtails removed

Shift linkage location.
Linkage is obviously going to be a problem but I’ll sort that after the install. Not only are the headers are in the way but the trans is now positioned forward more so things won’t line up like originally.
Before the magnum starter could even be bolted on there was some interference with the block.


Had to grind this protrusion down for the starter to fit.
I ground this down a bit more than what is pictured almost to be flush with the edge of the block. Yes, I covered up the the opening into the trans to block and prevent any particles from entering. Cleaned up the bare metal and rattle canned it - then I noticed the big mistake I had made.

 

If you can tell from previous pictures I’ve been pretty good about keeping the motor sealed up with at least painters tape. I removed the oil dipstick when the manifolds came off and forgot to plug it. You can see in the above pic the hole and some of the metal dust that no doubt made its way in. Oh well, I hit it with a vac and I’ll have to run some cheap oil and drain it pretty quick just in case.
The trans crossmember didn’t come with much for instructions so I watched the clip on YouTube with the holley truck to get the correct placement of the frame brackets. Good thing is these look super adjustable so just snugging everything down right now.


Holley YouTube clip.

Frame rail bracket for crossmember.

Passenger side location.
I had to drill one hole in the rail to get the correct even matched location on the passenger side. The clip shows the brackets being above the lower lip of the rail and offset to the back. I ended up setting mine to the front as my gas tank would have interfered, fingers crossed this will work as I don’t want to have to get a new tank. These universal crossmembers are meant to work with the reg sized tanks but not with the larger 30~35 gals which mine is not. With the brackets in place the crossmember lines up with a couple different locations 🤞🏻.

 

So while the motor was out figured it would be easy to swap out the brakes booster. Initially was just going to do the booster but as things go the master ended up changing too. Most would wait till the motor was in but I felt like doing it and I have plenty of clearance. I ordered the booster for a 91 D350, that is a more compact booster that will bolt right up and has been done before with hemi swaps. What I didn’t know was that I was going to have to get a matching master cylinder too as the D100 masters have a different plunger length that doesn’t work with the D350 booster. Shame too as I preferred the new aluminum piece you can get for the D100 than the heavy cast one I ended up with. Now I will also have to get new fluid and bleed the brakes. Hopefully with the different single cap style top it won’t leak (yeah right). But won’t worry about that till the truck gets closer to moving.


Took these pics after the motor was in

Stock brake lines bolted right up.
I debated on painting them but decided to leave them with the coating the manufacturer puts on them. The booster was a reman from oreilly auto #54-73360. The master was from advanced #10-1775.
So now I’m ready to get this motor in and off the garage floor.


With the hoist still attached get the headers on.

And of course the headers don’t want to fit.

 

So pretty much like last time( mag swap) headers don’t won’t to fit.



This is about as close as I can get them and it’s hitting the motor mount bracket. Passenger side looks fine. Had to remove the motor and trans again to make more room.


Original bracket with rub marks where the header hit.

Bracket removed and frame Modified.

Bracket in place and motor mount installed.
Grinder and cut off wheel got a work out. Yeah I lost a bolt on the bracket but there is one going in on the front side as well for a total of 2. Bare metal got painted and bolts reinstalled. Went to putting headers back on but didn’t have much luck. This is where things got ugly. The BFH came out and what started as a few dings here and there ended up in me about destroying the drivers header. The motor trans went in and out multiple times and I made marks where to ding the headers each time. Every time I got a little closer a new spot would hit till I just gave up.


Smashed header.

Still hitting !
at this point I was tired of messing with them and not only did it still look like they weren’t going to fit I had warped the flange where it would seal to the heads. I did a bunch of research on these and found a guy who had modified his headers to work (welding in a new pipe piece) he had mounted the engine similar to mine and claimed it was correct. From what I have gathered the older trucks don’t have this clearance issue and possibly have different frame setups. This was also when I discovered that the motor could possibly have been set too far forward. I’m not entirely sure about that still tho as the instructions are not clear about modifying for mounting positions and or what years need to do so. Looking back at it if the motor was set back an inch or 2 it may have given me the space to get the headers to work with the frame clearance modifications. Not going to lie the headers were not cheap and I was fairly mad at them and myself but shout out to summit and holley (black heart) for covering a new set of manifolds that should hopefully be the ticket.