I found a 2001 dodge dakota 4 door with the 4.7 for $700. I don't know anything about the truck at all. The owner said that the engine is bad. Is it worth $700 and is there anything I can check before buying it? I am taking a battery with me to see what it does. I am going to look at on the Monday the 22nd

 

It would be worth that in scrap, or donate and get a tax deduction for more than you paid for it. I'd buy it.

 

I found a 2000 dodge durango with a 125000 miles on it. Is this a 5.9 and will it fit in my 2001 dakota? It does not look like my 4.7

 

It will fit. Need the transmission, wiring harness and computer as well probably.

 

You'll need the wiring harness out of an '01, along with an '01 PCM. Dodge changed the bus communications between '00 and '01.

Swapping the 4.7 for any other engine in a Gen 2 Dakota is a lot of work.

 

I had a chance to mess with it today. I can manually turn it about 6 inches either way and then it stops. Does anyone have any ideas why this is happening?

Can it be rebuilt? It has 123000 miles.

 

I assume you mean the engine. How are you "turning" it? By hand? Battery? Does it have oil in it? Many things ciould be causing this. Did you remove the plugs? You're probably bumping up against compression if you did not remove the plugs and you are trying to turn the engine over by hand.

Anythign can be rebuilt.

 

I am trying it with a breaker bar with the bottom pulley and I tried starting it. I did not remove the spark plugs. I will try that when I get off work.