What is involved with this swap? Is it simple or extremely hard as far as engine swaps go?

 

haven't done it, but from what i've heard (well, read in a magazine) the best bet is to find a wrecked viper or SRT ramand strip the entire driveline and computer out of it and put it into your truck.

if you do manage to get around to it, you'll have to post pics so the rest of us can see what insane HP looks like.

might wanna watch the frame, though... the new rams have a much stiffer and stronger frame than the second gen trucks do... and that motor puts out a ridiculous amount of torque, not to mention it weighs a LOT more than the 360 mag in your truck now. so will the tranny. that'll all be additional wear and tear on your suspension etc.

the wheelbase is different from gen 2 to gen 3 also, which means you'll likely need a custom driveshaft made. another consideration is rear track width... don't know if the axle would even match up width-wise, so you might have to re-use your stock 9 1/4, but i'd highly recommend seriously beefed-up internals on that one.

only reason i have any input on this is i considered the swap myself after the article... way too much involved for a shade-tree mechanic like myself.

hope this helps!
-mike

PS- another consideration is the extremely limited production of your vehicle. there was one of these on ebay the other day going for more than i paid for my 97 SS/T when i bought it in 2001! some numbers i've seen indicate there were only between 2,000 and 2,800 of those indy trucks made. just some food for thought...

 

Yeah I know but the previous owner beat this one so bad that it wouldn't fetch much cash, also I wasn't going to put the v10 from those in it I was going to put the v10 from the ram 2500's in it.

 

even still it's an 8 liter motor... going to weigh a lot more than your motor does. it'll squat your suspension just like any other big block swap into a small block frame. i can also all but guarantee that the v10 will grenade your tranny. those used a 48RE tranny... whereas the 360 used a 46RE as far as my research has led me to believe on this.

and again you run into the frame concern... the 3/4 ton truck has a much heavier duty frame, designed to hold that huge motor and get the power to the ground without pretzeling. also, the tires on the 1500 aren't designed to hold up that much weight, and the back tires aren't designed to haul as much as that big block can pull. if you recall the old pony cars... they went like bloody blue blazes on the straights with the big blocks, but they didn't last really long, or corner for poo.

if the thing's beaten into the ground, then go for it. it might end up being really stinkin' cool. hell, even if it didn't run... just seeing that monster under the hood would be impressive. i'd imagine that if you could get hold of an entire drive line with computer, tranny, and rear end it wouldn't be that big a deal. seeing as there's gen 2 trucks with the v10, i'd say you'd have a decent chance of finding one with a little digging on ebay or something to play driveline donor. you might even be able to use the springs off the 2500 and cut them to fit so you'll still have a similar spring rate to what you'd need and retain the ride height you're looking for.

have a good one and happy modding!
-mike

 

I have a V10 in my 2500, and unless I'm mistaken the 2500 and viper V10's are the same, but the ones in the truckas are made out of cast iron, where the viper motors are made out of something much lighter (I wanna say aluminum?). So a V10 out of the trucks is going to be even heavier than the engines in the viper. Somebody correct me if that's not right.

 

far as i know they're the same motor, but tuned differently... similarly to when motorcycle manufacturers put sportbike engines in naked bikes... "tuned for torque" is the term they use in that segment. i could be wrong, but typically it involves different cam profiles and fuel/ ignition mapping.

 

the viper srt engine is a aluminum block, has differerent pistons, cam..... one, your swap will make your truck squat in the front. id try to get some heavyier springs. may help hnadling as well. as far as i know. your going to need a different trans. they wont bolt up to each other. the 5.2 and 5.9 had one trans. and the 5.9 (cummins) and the 8.0 have they other. you may also have to do some driveshaft mods to make it work. to be honest i think you would be better off building your engine to a 408 stroker then swapping that in. you make about double the power