My buddy's '98 Dakota Sport extended cab recently blew up (ran the motor out of oil). The truck's in pretty good shape overall - only a little over 100,000 miles with a really clean interior. The clear coat is cooked off (same as every other Dodge in Arizona, BTW) but it's got a new radiator, A/C compressor, condenser, new bumpers, etc. It's a manual, so got great mileage, and ran OK for such a small mouse motor.

My dilemma is to tell him what to do with his truck. He already bought another vehicle for his handyman business, so he's going to sell this one, whether fixed or in pieces. I've been looking for a replacement 4 cylinder motor (2.5 liter) but am having no luck, other than rolling the dice with a $1000 Ebay motor delivered from who knows where. I figure he could sell a few hundred bucks worth of parts off the truck and then sell it to a local parts yard, but I hate to see a nice vehicle scrapped because of a motor.

Anyone have a line on a good used 2.5l motor, or maybe know someone who might be interested in a project / parts truck?

 

What a joke just looked on carpart.com in AZ. for a used 2.5 all run $900 but you can get a 5.2 for $600 and their are more 5.2 available. But you will need to get other parts to swap in a 5.2. You will need to change out the front springs to support the heaver engine best would be to scavenge all you can at a junk yard you get the 5.2 from to go with it PCM and wire harness A/C compressor so on.

Probably cost just as much as a replacement 2.5 engine but not as easy but would be a fun part time project.

 

Yeah, it's a little frustrating looking for a 2.5. If it was my truck, I might be interested in finding the right V8 and making a monster out of it... but right now all I want to do is to get it back to running status so my buddy can sell it (and pay me back for the van I helped him buy). ;-)

I understand that some of the Jeep 4 cylinder motors will work, too (out of a Cherokee or CJ) so I'm turning over those rocks, too... there just aren't many 4 cylinder motors out there, in either Jeeps or Dakotas. Too bad the Durango didn't come with a 4 cylinder - there would be a lot more to choose from!

 

The 2.5 also came in Jeeps as I'm aware of (Dakaz knows more on that platform). Maybe peek over there?

 

carparts.com will show a jeep for a Dodge they know and I looked.

 

changing one out myself, but have some questions for you if you have some ideas that would help. does the manual transmission have to be pulled too when changing the motor, and will I need a special tool to align the existing manual transmission to the engine spline when reconnecting?