they do make 2nd gen 2500 with the 318 my neighbor has a 97 he bought brand new with a 318 in it an for the swap its cake i did it to my 97 ram 1500 u just need to either get ur pcm flashed thats in the truck or gotta find one at a jy for 318 manual trans cant use the one outa the 94 cuz 94 was ob1 an 2000 is ob2 an ull have to snip the plug off the manual trans for the revears light an swap it out on the wirin harness on the 2000 but other then that it will bolt right up trans mout is the same o yea an ull have to get a crank posision sensor for a manual trans cuz the auto an man r diff an on the man sensor ur gonna need a dremel or a file an take the lip off the plug an it will plug right into ur wire harness an ull be good to go.

 

Sorry I take that back completely. Guess 94-98 ram 2500s could have a 5.2l
I was always under the impression that all 2500s had either 5.9 gas/diesel, or v10.

 

yea they mainly came either 360 v10 diesel but u had the option of orderin a 318

 

Only in the light duty 2500's though, right?

 

Light duty is 94-95 I think... I'm seeing 318s in 94-98 2500s light duty and hd. Searching rockauto, they list items for ram 2500s w/ 318 from 94 thru 98 then stop at 99.

 

Interesting...

 

Why not swap engine and wiring harness while your at it? no flashing, plug and play, more power. Ive heard about flashing the comp. but is it really that easy to manipulate the computer settings. and reliable enough to know that no issues will arrise? I only ask because I'm doing the same thing. only I'm stayin with the 5.9. and where I live there is noone who can flash the pcm. so im taking all running gear from a 98 2500 tranny to axles plus the wiring harness, to put in my 01 1500. while the dash is out to change the harness i'm gonna change the heater core as well.

 

Swapping his engine in fine running condition for an engine in unknown condition? That doesn't make too much sense. And why would he get more power, they're both the same engine...

The dealer flashes the PCM to make sure it knows that there's no auto trans. That way it doesn't throw codes. I believe HemiFever can fix something up in his SCT tuners to help out the PCM too ...And yes it's reliable.

 

You'll have to replace the Transfer case and both shafts as auto cases have different spline counts than the manual.

 

I chimed in about the shafts, I figured the spline counts might be different but do you think the length will too? I'm thinking yes, but not sure tho...and what about the exhaust re-route?