Hey I have just got my first dodge. Its a 97 Dakota and i would like to put the r/t motor in it. Is this a hard swap to do?

 

couple of six packs should do it..give or take

 

its a fairly simple swap. the only trouble is getting the wiring harness to match up. its not like the old days were there were no computers. make sure you grab the harness from the truck you pulled motor from and also the pcm.

 

it seems as if this question comes up almost every week. or maybe its just me. anyway, the long and short of the project is that you will need the wire harness/ecu from the new motor. you will need to check to see if the tranny will bolt up correctly, and if it does, will it be able to handle to extra power? furthermore, which rear end do you have? you might be able to get away with your stock rear end from the 3.9, but i dont know how long it will last. does anyone know for sure if the motor mounts line up? i assume they dont, but if that is the case, you can always buy an aftermarket setup. i know i am missing some stuff, but who cares, no one ever does this project anyway. i would really like someone to finally do this project once and for all with pics and descriptions for all necessary modifications.

just my $.02

 

Yeah, this question gets asked at least once a week. Do a search, the info is all repeated a billion times. It's not a simple weekend swap. things you may have to swap - fuel pump, radiator, tranny cooler, ecu, wiring harness, tranny, driveshaft, rear axle, motor mounts, etc. Sell your truck and buy a V8 truck. It's cheaper and easier.

 

horatio, does it seem that we end up saying this exact sentence at least 1-2 times a week?

 

Thanks for the input guys... i have a wrecked r/t i just got it today so im gonna go to parts swapping...

 

Sounds good! Take some pictures and let us know any and all modifications/swaps needed to be done to complete the swap. Good luck!

 

Oh, well if you've already got a donor truck that's a completely different ball game. You're going to ruin the resale value of your truck, unless you find a buyer who doesn't care about the fact that the vast majority of the running gear came out of a different truck. If the good truck is a 4wd you may need to get axle shims to rotate it to the proper pinion angle. You may also need to swap the master cyl/brake booster from the R/T if the brakes are bigger.

Have fun, it'll take some garage time to get it done.

 

I will let ya'll know how it goes... im not going to get started until about january or febuary, so there will prolly be a dely on any pics.