Hi folks!

I live in a high road salt area and have a very rusty 2002 Dakota quad cab SLT with the 4.7. Found an '01 a couple hours from me with much better body and blown 4.7 engine. Not sure it makes any sense, but I'm tempted to haul it home and swap my engine over. Would be able to get it in my yard for about $900 and then still need to do the swap. Figuring that would give me a better ride for another 3 years, or so. Should I just get by with what I have?

My current truck has a bad check valve in the fuel pump. I get around that by turning key on and off a couple times (to prime the injectors) before starting the engine. Works for now, but will need a new pump soon. Other truck might need one too, so no guarantees. Guy says it worked fine at time of engine failure.

If I am going to do this, would it be easier to just swap the engines or swap engine with trans together? I've read it can be a bugger getting them back together in the truck. My running train works great.

Thanks in advance for your input. Paul

 

If both are 4x4 or 4x2, you will probably have a best chance of:

1) Pull the engine and trans, together, from the good chassis.
2) Remove the transmission from the engine, and have a reputable shop go through it. Better to do it now while it is loose and easy to service without impeding vehicle service, and will buy you time and money.
3) Remove the engine and trans from the bad chassis
4) Remove the transmission from the good motor, attach the now-rebuilt transmission
5) Stab engine and transmission into the good chassis
6a) Keep the old ("known good") transmission as a spare,
6b) or see if the trans shop will buy it for a core (Can probably get 500-1000 for it), or see item #7
6c) or buy a dakota or ram with the 4.7 or 5.7 with a bad transmission, stab your ("known good") transmission in it, and flip it (profit would depend on buy and sell price)
7) Part out your old truck's good parts, can EASILY make 1000-1500 plus anything you can make from items 6b or 6c above. Always people looking for hoods, engine harnesses, interior parts, wheels, among other things. Just a matter of listing in the right places. Facebook Marketplace and the various dodge FB groups have completely made this easier.

 

Good reply, thanks!

Both are 4x4's. Have you pulled engine with trans out of one? Hoping that is easier than removing/reinstalling engine alone.

I'd planned on doing a fluid/filter change on my known good trans. Will look into getting the other one serviced by a shop. Paul

 

4x4's, ick. I sure hope you have a good cherry picker. That's a loooong assembly to get out of the truck, and the bracket from the front differential to the engine and transmission can be an absolute PITA to beat back in place.

You'll need to pull the radiator and the upper core support crossmember for sure, if it wasn't such a PITA I would say to take the whole GD core support out.

If you have a way to drop the trans and TC out the bottom then pull the motor out the front, I would damn near suggest that. It takes 3 times as long but you won't be cussing yourself for 3 days straight.

 

More food for thought. Thanks again. Now it is sounding like I might be better off just swapping engines? He claims his trans, and everything else, was working fine when engine blew... Paul

 

Yea, you may well be better off just doing that. It's not too much of a PITA to line the dowels up, just takes a critical angle of precision.

You still have the other options as outlined above. You'll just have your old trans instead of a nice rebuilt one good for another 100-200,000 miles.