Okay, so heres the thing. I have an 89 ram50. Im planning on dropping a V8 into the truck. thing is i dont really know what engine size is best. im thinking a 350, or maybe a 360. i would like to stick with a chevy motor. perferably a 350, or a 454. im on this forum to get some help, answers or maybe some ideas as to what i can to.
i have all the tools, and all the proper machines to use. i just dont know how exactly i am supose to do it.
i know that i have to make new engine mounts.
have any of you guys done this to a ram50, and know exactly how the mountings and what kind of motor will be the best. but bring my times in the 12's or lower?
anything will help guys. thanks a lot.

 

You have a long, hard road ahead of yourself if your plan is to drop a chevy motor into a Dodge, with the expectations of eventually putting your truck into the 12's.

I think you ought to look into what your plan is (what plan you have so far) and think about it. Your going to have to not only purchase a nice engine (crate engine if 12's are your goal becasue junkyard engines are fuct up and wont be reliable at those levels), but also are going to have to build it from the ground up to perform at the levels you are seeking.

You really have a lot of reserch to look into. Which engine has proven itself to be capapble of 12 seconds cheapest? Will bigger displacement (454?) offer you a better starting ground for a super charger (forced induction will be a must for those ETs)? Are you going Nitrous too in which case your pistons are going to have to be ______ rather than _______ to allow for the change in compression while hitting the bottle?

Research your engines, then you cna know mroe about what your plan is. Personaly, it sounds like theres no foundation for your build.

Gotta run, work just called. Hope this helps.

 

While I cringe at the thought of putting a Chubby 350 into a Mopar, that would probably be the cheapest route since everybody and their brother has Chubby parts.

I personally would go with a Magnum 360, 4" stroker, raised compression, good heads, and a nice lopey cam. 500hp shouldn't be too terribly hard with a 400+ cid motor. It'll be a ton of work, but it's been done many times and there may actually be people selling 360 motor mounts for the ram50. Those trucks are pretty light so with a built up magnum your goal of 12's isn't unreasonable.

 

The money, and the motor isnt the problem. i can get my hands on motors of whatever short. And its not going to be from a junk yard. Just from the research ive done to only motors that ive seen droped into a 50 is the 360. is it the best choice to go with is what im asking.
and i also dont know anything about motor mounts, and how to mount all of this. i want to learn it all so that i can build my truck. i have all the tools and machines. my brother and my dad are both machaics. my dads got the shop, and my bro's helping me. except hes never made a domestic. hes into imports.
so hes not to sure, he told me to get some research together and see what is possible. im sure that i will be hooking up a bottle to it aswell. so i will change the pistons if needed to. i might just even buy the engine made completley. it totally depends. so heres my question, anyone know of a site or something that shows how to do this project? something to help me put whatever it is 350 360 366 454 whatever into it.
thanks for the help already guys

 

The stock 360 is a good motor, it'll take a lot of abuse. They're pretty low compression, of course depending on the year. My 86 Ram has about 8.1:1 CR, whereas the Magnums are in the 9:1 range iirc.

I'd build the motor. Get forged internals and bump the CR up and you'll be golden.

I've seen buildups before, but I don't recall where. Spend some time searching on Google.