I recently bought a 1999 Dodge Ram 1500 Pickup Truck. The guy who sold it to me said that he replaced the engine with a 2000 Ram Van engine. The problem is that the PCM unit is for the 1999 Truck with Federal Emmisions and can't communicate properly with the 2000 Ram Van Engine with California Emmissions. Most of the dash lights are on, the truck won't shift gears properly and the speedometer won't work right until about 60 mph. My question is can a 2000 Ram Van PCM unit be compatible with the 1999 Truck wireing? I'd prefer to find that out before I throw down a ton of cash one one and have it blow up on me. If anyone can help me, I'd be especially grateful. I gotta get this thing working, its about my last vehicle at the moment.

Thanks.

 

(opens up can of worms)
The engine shouldn't be that much different if you swap over the intake and exhaust system it shouldn't effect things too much. See if you can find out where the original engine went and see if you can swap over some parts. Judging by the electrical problems I would be concerned about the install. the speedometer has nothing to do with the engine and the only warning light that wold make sense might be the check engine light. Look under the hood and see if there are any disconnected or loose ground wires.

 

The Ram Van that the engine came from was sent to the junkyard and crushed by this idiot who replaced the engine, so I won't be able to get any parts from the Van. The local Dodge house said that we need a new PCM/TCM computer and that they would reprogram it to work with the truck's current sensors. So is the Dodge place wrong? I'm willing to try just swapping out the PCM/TCM with a 2000 Van version, but I'm needing to know if the wireing is the same.

 

What you want is the parts off the original engine that was in your truck.

I would keep you original PCM. I'm not aware of some of the differences between federal and California emissions but you should be able to make you engine work your Computer.

I definitely wouldn't put a computer for a California emission van in the truck. I can't see how that would work. The wiring is different.

What the mechanic SHOULD have done was put the engines side by side and transfer over things like the intake manifold, injectors, sensor that might be different.

What other lights are on on the dash?