What do I need to know: I have a 1997 Dodge Dakota with a 2.5 L four cylinder in it knocking bad i want to put a v6 or v8 in it from Jegs.
What do I need to know do I need to rewire it does the bellhousing on the transmission line up?
Will the factory power steering line bolt in?
I am sure the ecu will have to be swatted.
Motor mounts will need swapped.
Any help would be sweet .

 

If you are going to go to all the trouble, go ahead and do the V-8 swap. (yep, I am indeed a bad influence, but, only because I get paid to do so. )

Trick would be to just buy a donor truck, and transfer the parts you want from that one, to yours. (get one that is wrecked, or rusted out.) Take the engine, trans, wiring harness, and computer, and make yours a V-8 truck. Might want front springs as well..... 4 cylinder might have had lighter weight fellers.

 

I just want a quick swap I need the truck in a few weeks I just want to know what is interchangeable so I can determine what engine to get .

 

If "quick" is a requirement, just find another 4 cylinder......

 

Ya i get that .
What parts would be interchangeable really only thing i need to know if the wiring and transmission bellhousing the same Its a 5 speed and powers steering lines .
Motor mounts i know i would have to change.
I just don't want to take apart the entire dash and change the wiring on it unless there is an faster way.

 

Shouldn't have to do anything inside the truck. May need to re-pin a connector or two though (under the hood).... That's tedious, but, doable.

 

So your saying just re-pin a few wires for the v6 and ecu and motor mounts ?
What about the 318 .

 

If you are going to go to the trouble of upgrading the engine, go for the V-8, it's essentially the same job, with better results.

I don't know if the cab/instrument harness is separate from the PCM/Engine harness. If they are separate, then its incredibly easy. If they aren't, you will have to graft the existing interior harness to the new engine harness. Quite tedious, and VERY picky, but definitely doable.

 

Nothing about a swap of that magnitude is easy or straight forward. You can plan plan plan and still run into a hick up that sets you out. Just doing my 5.9L Cummins to 6.7L swap I forgot two gaskets on my list what was a simple weekend job got extended because i couldn't find either of those gaskets in town.

I would highly doubt the trans will bolt up, even if it did probably isn't strong enough and remember you're dealing with a Dodge, the auto trans from behind a 5.2 and 5.9 don't exactly just swap...the auto trans from behind a another 5.2 or 5.9 don't just swap if you're more the a couple model years apart....

You didn't specify if it was a manual or not, i suppose with a 4 cylinder the odds likely it is one? The would make half the battle easier

Water you're looking to do is very doable, and in the end could end up being simple and straight forward but the unknowns of what can go wrong are endless

 

Just doing a little reseatch of my own im coming up with an AX-15 or NV1500 (MY99 though) both of which I wouldn't even consider sticking behind a V8. The NV3500 that was offered behind them I feel wasn't even suitable, however in the Dakota platform its probably decent enough. I doubt there would be room to stick an NV4500 behind it but if there was Id highly consider it.

As far as autos I'm seeing 42RE and 44RE not sure where your would be but again. The V8s could toast a 46RE with little effort and I doubt anyone looking to swap an I4 to a V8 looking to gently ease around lol

All around with that information I would highly suspect the bellhousings will be completely different, that V8 bellhousing is probably bigger then that I4 engine lol the parasitic horsepower loss turning those massive parts would be extreme