i am new to the forum and need to know the cost of the swap roughly the truck is a 2000 4x4 i am wondering what kind of trans i would need and bell housing and such if anyone has done this that would be willing to help me with gathering some info and where would be an easy place to find a 4bt and the price of a complete conversion i would greatly appreciate it.

 

Am finishing up now, in fact. One more fuel pump issue to sort out and it's on the road. I've done a test drive or two and love it so far!
Swapped it into a '99 4x4 but ended up making it 4x2 for now because the front diff wanted to go where the oil pan is and I welded up a modified pan but it warped on me and rather than fight with it I decided to do a solid axle swap next, but it's going to be 2wd for a year or two.
As to costs... A motor will probably be a minimum of $1500 today - the price on those things has doubled in the past 3 years with all the swapping going on! I paid 900 for an NV4500 and swapped the input shaft on my stock transfer case so I could keep it. Welded up new motor mounts, moved the transmission mount aft a bit, lifted the body 2 inches to have more room to work under the hood... All in all if you have the welder and a torch and a good set of tools I'd say you're looking at between 4 and 5,000 for the swap. I found I needed lots of miscellaneous parts - a bellhousing($375), a starter($100), a power-steering/vacuum pump combo($200), stock breadtruck motor mount isolators($75), exhaust parts, relays, hoses, wire, filters, a serp belt, a lift kit, and lots of patience!
It's been a fun project and I have a thread on here that I promise to add pics to when I get the time one of these days.
Hope this helps - fire away with any specific questions you might have or visit www.4btswaps.com
Patrick

 

I swapped for a cummins too. Traded my truck for one that is lol. It really all depends of your fab skills and if you have a nice roomy garage to work with.

 

what type of axles did you swap the stock with? and thanks for all the information it helped a lot and how long have you been working on your truck for im expecting it will take about a year or so.

 

Not knocking your decision (even sounds like a cool project) but why would you do this? There are plenty of nice Ram trucks with Cummins diesels already in them.

Just wondering...

 

because a 4x4 Cummins that needs work in my area is like 9000. Also to save on insurance seeing how i am 16 and don't want to be paying like 7000 on insurance. Because I'm paying for all this my self. is the reason why

 

Thats about the right price for a 24v cummins. Something 4x4,ext cab needs some body work. All stock about 8k. Also check with insurance I know I have full coverage on my truck and it only went up 2.00 for my dakota. Im only 19 so still as expensive as being 16

 

I pulled my motor in Oct and have it basically complete now but had a nice winter to work on it in an unheated garage, most days by myself. Having extra hands would have been nice many days but a hoist and some floor jacks can move lots of stuff into position. I have stock axles all around but am leaning toward a Dana44 for the front when I do it. My reasoning was fuel mileage, and I like my Dakota. Shooting for 30mpg and my v-6 was down around 17 or 18.
Hope this helps.
Patrick

 

i already got a quote for insurance thats how i know the price. but the main reason is for the mileage and to have something different than what you see on the road everyday and so i dont have to worry about making the payments because im just going to by parts as i get the money

 

Not to be bagging you but if your 16 I'm pretty sure that you don't have the skills to do a motor conversion. Its not just pulling out one motor and putting a different one in and having it work properly. It will run you at least $3-4k just in parts, not to mention the hundreds of hours that you would have to log in order to have it be reliable. I was looking a 4BT swap as well but it just wasn't worth it in a DD. Ended up swapping in a 4.7L H.O engine which still took a bit of time even though it is a direct swap. If your looking for better mileage the best thing you can do is sell the Dakota and buy a car.