i own a 97 dakota 318 with the 5 speed and its a blast unless its snowing or raining even ar 45 50 you can smoke the tires right off it. and if your gonna play and have a lot of fun the single cab is great for donuts but if you wanna be able to control your power slids i strongly suggest installing the rear sway bar and face the mounts angled to the rear bumper. it causes a slight down pressure under WOT. it will also help with the side to side sway in corners. even as small as it is i noticed a differance. i deffently will suggest starting in second gear dont waste your time with first it hits the rev limiter too fast. and you really dont need it a 2500 rpm dump of the clutch gives you time to get to the brake and you can smoke the tires right up to fifty. NOTE: donuts at high rpm for some reason like to eat the power steering pumps off the 5.2L i have put 3 or 4 on in the years iv owned mine. BTW the 3.9L will also do burn outs and donuts just as well as the 5.2 but its faster on the top end some how!!!

 

wow man , makes me want the truck even more ! ! lol how much does the rear sway bar run and does it help with the snow ?

how many miles do you have on your dakota ? do you thin 4000 is a good to buy with 74xxx on the clock. i just dunno if iwant to give up my 4x4 ram . i just want the dakota as a toy too save for a new 4x4 wih a quad cab down the road. im dont with single cabs unless i get the dakota as a toy

 

i have 136k on mine and i paid 4g for mine about 5 years ago and it had 86k on it. i had to change the rear end because the housing tube on the passangers side cracked (probably due to over loading and towing.) when i replaced the rear end the one i bought was for a 1998 SLT so it came with the rear sway bar, and as far as the snow goes. i live in upstate New York. so the snow is like a 8 month thing here. I found that about 300# in the bed and good snow tires (winterforce or blizzaks) not the cheap *** one you get a walmart or sams club there too hard and dont allow for traction in the snow. with my 4x4 i can just about go anywhere i want even in the deep snow.( providing its not over the bumper) i have a buddy that has the same truck your looking at thats lowered 2 inches and he went just fine with a set of winter force snows all the way around that were studded. i get about 18 over the road but mine is also 4x4 so you should be better for sure. i know mine is about 5400# and the 2x4 is around 4600# (if i remember correctly) also Im running over sized injectors and 3.55 gears. the 2x4 normally comes with the 3.20 or even the 2.90. depends on how they were ordered. it was a custom thing to get the 2. gears tho so probably only has the 3.20s as far as dumbing the ram i wouldnt if you wanna have a toy keep the ram buy the kota and run it. they really dont need any add ons to have fun. get a set of 225 65 15s (smaller then stock but really wides for better cornering) and drive it as a summer truck. or set it on the pavement and build a show truck the 5.9 in your ram will go in the dakota and the 5.2 can go in the ram so you have you 4x4 as a work truck and the dakota as a toy. both are just as close in power. the only differance is the 5.9 has 320 tc and 220hp where the 5.2 is only 300tc and 210hp you lose the power to the auto then the manual so there about the same. besides the exhaust (the 5.9 sounds 10x better then the 5.2)

 

ya the dakota is a 4x2 if it was a 4x4 i would have bought it already . if i dont get the dakota ill prob just buy gears for the ram. because i already have alot of goodies on my 5.9. i just was hoping to get a 5 speed just toohave fun with lol

 

I couldn't give up my heavy duty 4x4.My vote is to replace your heads with some good ones if they are bad or you can thhink of the slightest excuse. You sound like you need a muscle car. There are plenty of Fox and F Bodies on craigslist around here waiting for some properly mulleted buyer to come along and show it some love. It's fun to search the CL used parts section for 5.0 stuff and find dream builds for under 10k. You might try it sometime. A couple turbos off turbo coupe t=birds from the junkyard probably almost free. I could take one of the several built alum head CL 347's combine with T-5, combine with aftermarket tubular suspension and you could practicaly hang in le mans. For some low budget grins, I'm just sayin...Keep your truck for when it snows and when you need to haul a boat or something.

 

well if iwant a 4x4 i want it too be a 2500 ext cab. so i was thinking of making money while i can on my 4x4, and buy the dakota for 4 k and make profit off my ram and use the dakota as my DD and save up for a decent low milage 4x4. and then when i get the new ram, use the dakota as my project truck ... i dunno i got alot of thinking too do. right now i need my trcuk inspected and depeding on how much its inspection is and what it needs .it is will depend on getting the new truck or not .

 

swapping the 5 speed in to the ram is a pain in the *** unlike the dakota the computer for the 5 speed in the ram is different. but they are nasty with the 5 speed.

 

No they aren't. PCM has the exact same pinouts for auto, as it does for manual trans. The Programming is the only difference.

 

most definitely!!! Make your own cloud cover

 

I probably do that and I'm not a new comer lol. I just like reeving up my car when i take off ha ha

Stick is easy dude. I'd say watch somebody then go out on your own and learn yourself. When I was just messing around getting to learn stick my dad took me out. If I messed up he would bitch and it got annoying. I eventually said "screw you I ain't driving the damn thing" I went out when he wasn't around lol. I found it much easier to learn when I wasn't getting yelled at. Before that it was just driving around in circles so I couldn't really "learn"