Good evening folks, sad I have to introduce myself in this way.

I had a beater Ranger that recently died, so I took to Craigslist to find a replacement truck, crew cab so I could take my kids around with me when I'm doing truck stuff. I found a 2000 Dakota for $2600. Guy claimed to have done an engine & tranny swap very recently with a 2001 with 90k miles. I went to check it out tonight and acted like a total dumbass.

The body was pretty rusty, not surprising though. The engine started right up and purred pretty nicely. The interior was in good shape. I checked out the engine as well as I could, being a dumbass. It looked good. There was some white smoke out of the exhaust that went away once it warmed up. Oh, there's a check engine light on, but I forgot my code reader and, well, he's such a nice guy.

I took it for a test drive. I didn't take in on the freeway (read: dumbass), but just around town. I smelled a little exhaust in the cab, but that went away after a while.

I went back, kicked the tires (which are in great shape, btw), and we agreed to $2450.

Driving it home I really started getting a sinking feeling about this truck. The exhaust smell came back, in force. I actually started getting sick from it, a headache, on the 30 minute drive home. And I noticed that it seemed very reluctant to go fast - like I had to force the gas pedal down to get it to go fast, and it was REALLY loud, like those obnoxious guys that try to make their truck loud. And another thing - the steering is really loose - I can swing the wheel about 15-20 degrees before it starts turning.

I got home, pulled codes, and got 10(!!!!!). They are:

Then I peeked at the exhaust, to see what is up. The horrors:

NPnS2Irl.jpg Here's a nice connection. Who needs a cat anyway

TvbTNjEl.jpg WTF! is this conduit??

R5P3NVOl.jpg This doesn't look right

To recap:

• Exhaust smell in cab
• very loud
• low power/no "zip"
• wobbly steering

Gentle readers, how screwed am I? I'm down with doing a lot of work myself, but I feel like I allowed myself to get ripped off.

 

Obviously I need to replace the exhaust completely - any suggested mods to do while I'm replacing everything? Or just go back to stock as much as I can? I think I'll do that, and see what codes that fixes.

 

Fix the exhaust first. Makes it much less likely to kill you by simply driving it......

Really need a scan tool that can read data. See what some of the sensors are telling the PCM.

Think I would also run the VIN, and see what the truck came with from the factory.... and compare that to what's actually in it.

You can get a build sheet here. Just click on 'equipment listing', and in the follow page, enter the VIN. Lots of useful information there.

 

good news: exhaust is easy.

Bad news: All the issues are simple electrical. Electrical sucks.

As far as the driveline swap. Use the VIN to find out what it came with. Position 8, per http://www.dakota-truck.net/vin/vin.html

Look between the starter and the driver side motor mount. The block will be stamped 5.2 or 5.9. They are visually identical. The stamp is only way to tell them apart easily. The other telltale is the 5.2 has a solid balancer (internally balanced), the 5.9 has a massive chunk missing from the balancer (externally balanced).

Possible choices are: (97-04 engine options in bold)

C = 2.2L (134ci) Carb I4 (The last assembly date is 6/15/88)
K = 2.5L (153ci) EFI
G = 2.5L (153ci) TBI I4
M = 3.9L (238ci) Carb V6
N = 4.7L (287ci) EFI SOHC V8
P = 2.5L (153ci) I4
T = 5.2L (318ci) CNG (compressed natural gas) V8
X = 3.9L (238ci) EFI V6
Y = 5.2L (318ci) EFI V8
Z = 5.9L (360ci) EFI V8
5 = 5.9L (360ci) EFI (HDC) V8
8 = 5.9L (360ci) Turbo Diesel V8

 

Thank you. That sheet doesn't list any exhaust parts that I can tell, but it will be handy when I'm looking for other original parts.

The VIN says N, so it should be the 4.7L. It's definitely a V8, but since the seller claimed to swap from a 2001 (and there was a truck next to it without an engine) I'm not 100% sure it's the same engine. I looked for the stamp but I couldn't find it readily.

I am going to get an exhaust in there from the headers all the way back. Any suggestions for the cheapest approach to this? I am assuming the next place I live (Virginia or Maryland) will require emissions checking so I'll definitely need a catalytic converter.

Edit: I can get a complete Walker exhaust from the manifolds back (excluding the manifolds) for $360 shipped, which is not bad at all. I'm considering it.

Edit 2: The seller got back to me and said the other truck doesn't have a cat, but does have a muffler. I think it will be more trouble than it's worth to get that pulled off (cut off probably?) and welded back onto the Walker parts - especially since a new (cheap) Walker muffler is $35 shipped.

 

Here's something else that's new (and alarming): Running cold has a concerning clicking/knocking sound, demonstrated in this video: https://photos.app.goo.gl/OugckxzmIW2rWkT12 - I'm not sure where it's coming from though, it could be the belt, fan, or worse, inside the engine somewhere.

After a while, the sound goes away, but there's a hissing/sucking sound, is this normal? https://photos.app.goo.gl/AWF5SX1l3l8zside2

Edit: How long do I have to have my posts mod approved? My response to @magnethead below has been in limbo for over a day.

 

The bad news, you my friend have a cluster. Looks like it's supposed to have the 4.7 and instead has either he 5.2 or 5.9. They probably gave up on the swap to get rid of that poor POS engine and tried to sell it to some poor sap like you.

Good news is that it's very easily fixable. Depending on how hacked up the harness is (probably alot), you can get a 2000 5.9 computer and plug it in and perhaps be happy.

Look on the PCM on the passenger side fender. It should have several barcodes on it and a P series number. Try to get a photo of that if you can.

Next, we need to know which trans the poor fool tried to retain. If it is the 45RFE that belonged to the 4.7, it's barcode ID label and stamping is on the driver side of the transmission case behind the dimple for the starter. If it's the 44/46RE that belongs to the 5.2 or 5.9, there will be no barcode label, just a series of stamped alphanumerics just above the driver side oil pan rail.

 

What clues are you seeing that lead you to believe there's a 5.2 or 5.9 in it? I can't get a good reading on any stamp, but it's so damn tight in there. I've been trying to get a reading from below for the various stamps. The transmission is tough, I think I found the spot where the label should be? It looks like there's some remaining adhesive. I can't find a good stamp for the engine size, but I have no confidence I'm looking where I should. I did find the PCM barcode which was really easy to find.

Is this the stamp? It starts 52, but that's not what I was expecting.

DdrtzQbm.jpg PCM barcode

INCNli8m.jpg Possible tranny sticker location?

I've started making my way down the codes and seeing what I can do to fix them.

Edit: It looks like I need to wait to ID the engine before I order the new exhaust - since the 5.9 and 4.7 exhaust parts have different part numbers.

 

Also, the third image in the OP shows a number starting in 47 - is that significant?

 

The video you posted shows the AC and alternator on top, which is 5.2/5.9 orientation. 4.7 has them off the sides rather than on top. Also, 5.2/5.9 are conventional intake (2 barrel), 4.7 is a single throttle body facing due forward (hence why no accessories on top).

I'm not actually sure what the (5)45RFE looks like without crawling under the ram, I know they take similar cable inputs, but I'm not actually sure what the linkages look like. The 46RE will look very similar to the one I pulled from my dakota.

Also, I thought the block was marked in metric, it's actually cubic inches. Notice mine says 360, other option would be 318.