I'm looking at buying a 84 powerwagon 4x4 3/4 ton. The seller says the engine a 318, is a rebiuld out of a barracuda(??? year) Does anybody know if Dodge put a 318 in a 3/4 ton 4x4? Also, the engine which has about 15k on it(so they say) has a loud lifter noise---could this be a problem?

 

Welcome to DF!

Dodge definitely put 318s in their 3/4 tons....they put 318s in pretty much everything for a while there [8D] It's a good motor!

Are you sure the noise is a lifter noise?

 

84 it'll be a power ram, not power wagon, fyi.

318 is a good motor, and you can still make plenty of power out of it.

You should be able to verify the manufacture date of the block and actual cid of it (originally) by looking at the sides of the block. Driver's side should have a 318 or 360 cast into it, towards the back. Passenger's side should have a date. The 360 in my power ram was originally cast in 1979, then obviously rebuilt at some time and put in my truck in 1997 iirc.

 

Thanks a lot! The reason I asked was that I had a 2000 Ram 1500 with a 4.7 (the replacement for the 318) and it was very under powered for towing. It seems that the 360 would have been the standard for 3/4 and 1 ton trucks---guess I was wrong. The noise is a clicking from the top of the engine--the owner says lifters--could be valves too I suppose? This truck is a long bed single cab, is raised with larger tires, ranchero shocks, new exaust--glass--loud!, and a new eldelbrock carb--he wants $1,200 for it which seems too low--like he wants to dump it before something goes wrong! hahaha What do you think? Buy or keep looking? (body straight--cream color)

 

How much towing are you going to do? What gearing and whiat size tires? There's only about 50 lb-ft difference between the 318 and 360, probably less difference back in the 80's, so depending on the load and terrain it could be fine. My Ram, which isn't stock, tows about 7000 lbs just fine, I can maintain 60mph on all but the steepest mountain passes (did the Grapevine down in Cali at 60 a couple of summers ago), it's a 727 auto, 4.10 gears, and 35" tires, but I've got an edelbrock cam, intake manifold, hooker headers and a single 3" flowmaster 30, no cats from the factory.

It sounds like the motor may need to have the lifters replaced, if that's really what the problem is. Hopefully it's not a blocked oil passage or anything. My friend's 318 is making lifter noises tooWe'll see how it goes, his motor was rebuilt two years ago or so.

 

Your motor must not have been original then, because they didn't start putting 4.7L V8s in Rams until 2002

The 2 barrel carburated 318 made 140 horse and 245lb-ft of torque. The 2 barrel 360 made 155 horse and 270lb-ft of torque, so there's not much of a difference They both peaked at the same point in the RPM band. The H.D. 360 had a little bit more horsepwer.

1200 doesn't seem too low. The truck is 22 years old after all [8D]...and is a regular cab, which isn't always as desireable as club/crew/extended cab trucks.

The clicking could just be regular valvetrain noise.

I'll ask the same question Horatio asked...how much towing are you going to do? Size of the tires? Gear ratio? Depending on how that's all setup, you might want to walk away from it.

 

Yeah mines a 4bbl HD 360.

I'm beginning to think that no matter how much the truck costs initially, you'll wind up with about 8-10k into it before everything is running right. :P

I know I've got more than that into my 86, and I'll keep dumping money into it as a trail rig. My buddy has about that, maybe more into his 73 Power Wagon, and my other friend has close to that into her B2600.