Hey everyone, I just got myself a 99 dodge dakota a few weeks back. I had a 1988 Toyota pickup, that I'd rebuilt after it had a low speed collision with a tree, but some crack head decided to steal it while I was sleeping.



Anyways, I just got the beast, and after some basic repairs and maintenance work, the truck's pretty much running as clean as can be. I'm interested in some information on the following though:

-Cold air intake kits. What would you advise, what does it cost, and what were your results with them? Is it really worth switching?

-Is there any information or kits out there for converting my rear brakes to disc brakes?

-I noticed some one mentioned the need to take the 99 dakota's in to the manufacturer for a software upgraded for the transmission. I'm pretty happy with how mine is functioning, but I'm curious what people have to say about this.

-My passenger side seat is broken. It won't recline, and the only place it will lock in is all the way back. Anyone got any information about how to repair this, or where to get new seats?

 

What engine and tranny?

 

Yeah Engine size would help. I see no V8, nor V6 badges for that matter, so 2.5L maybe?

Depending on the motor, the K&N FIPK kit's work great and come with a nice heat shield to keep underhood temps at bay for the most part. Don't buy any cheap ebay "Cold-air" intakes. Especially ones with no heat shield. The hot air they suck from the engine bay will HURT the performance, not help it. The best intake is one with a filter completely outside of the engine bay. My filter is located right behind my driver's side foglight.

There are kits for converting the rear brakes to Discs, but they are getting fewer and fewer. GSMotorsports made a kit for converting all 4 brakes to Viper rotors and calipers, but it was a very pricey kits and they ran into a few problems with the kit and I believe they stopped selling it. Somone else makes/made a kit as well, but the name doesn't come to mind right now. I'll find out and get back to you. With the right pads and calipers in the front, and properly adjusted rear brakes you shouldn't have any problems with stopping.

If your transmission is acting fine, don't bring it in. They may also do what they call the "Death Flash" to your PCM which is a joke and will actually hurt performance. There is probably threads on here about it, but it's a load of crap and a cover up solutionfor a larger problem with the Magnum motors (Plenum gasket leak)

 

SSBC makes the rear disc conversion. It's about $920

http://www.ssbrakes.com/products/det...&year=1999

That would be for my truck, just start at the homepage and select your truck from the drop-down menu to make sure they make one for yours.

 

Whoops my bad. 3.9l V6. I imagine the stock transmission that goes with it, not positive though.

 

The K&N kit should fit on your 3.9L. There's quite a few mods for your truck, all the way up toturboing, so don't get discouraged with the power of the smaller engine. There's still quite a bit that can be done to them. On the other hand, a 5.2L or 5.9L is a fairly straight-foreward swap. Heard of a guy doing his in a weekend. Things to think about.

I know you're probably not looking to do any major mods as of now, but once the "newness" wears off, if you're like most of us, you will.

 

Welcome to the site. That picture is a little outrageous.

 

Another thing you might want to check is the Plenum gasket like I mentioned earlier. All you gotta do is pull off the intake hat on the throttlebody, open the throttle (With it not running of course) and peek down in there with a flashlight. If you see oil, you might want to think about having it checked/replaced.

Also check to see if the ball joints have been changed. It's another very common thing for them to go bad on our trucks and if they havnt been changed you may want to think about them. All you have to do is look where they bolt to the A-arms, if there is actual bolts, they've been changed. If they are riveted, they're still stock and should be checked out.

 

Thanks for the information. I doubt I'm going to be doing too much in the way of modifications to my truck. I'm mostly interested in reliability and maintenance stuff, although a few things would be nice. I went and priced some air intake system stuff today, and it was sitting around $275 or so, which really doesn't seem worthwhile to me. Is there that much of a performance boost from an aftermarket cold air intake system?

I was going to ask where / what the heck the Plenum gasket was, espescially sinceI noticed another forum member in here had an aftermarket plenum gasket listed in their signature. I'll go check that out sometime over the next few days, and I'll also investigate the ball joints. I did have to replace the rear shocks when I got the truck, as the bushing in one of them was completely gone, resulting in massive klunking over bumps. Other then that though, it's just been simple stuff like the air filter.


Oh yeah, and I know my picture is ridiculous, hehe. Check this picture out:



That's my old Toyota pickup. You can see just how big of a piece of junk it was. Not only had it been driven into a tree before I got it, but while I was still in the midst of piecing it back together, some *** hole took a rock and wrote that **** on my hood! Then they slashed all four of my tires, and keyed the entire car. That kid has since left the state and no one has heard from him since. Wise choice on his part.

I do the "gangster" pose as a joke, and that's a great example.

 

The plenum gasket is this... On the bottom of the intake manifold, there is a "cover" bolted to the bottom of it. There is a gasket that goes between that cover and the manifold. When the gasket goes bad, oil gets sucked into the intake manifold resulting in spark knock, oil consumption, bad gas mileage, ect.




If you aren't going to be doing any other aftermarket upgrades anytime soon, I wouldn't get a CAI. By itself it isn't going to do a whole lot. It's a building block for other mods. Just get a simple K&N drop-in filter for your factory airbox.