I had plans to put my rebuilt 5.2 into my 97 Dakota but plans went south after figuring out the front end is tweaked just enough the engine wont go back in.

I have a 1995 1500 with a 5.9 that's not running the best like it use to and now i have this 5.2 just laying around is it possible to swap the 5.2 into the 1500?

The truck is obd1 but from what i understand is everything should just plug in. I also read somewhere that the 5.9 ecm would give it to much fuel but i put a low to mildish cam in the engine, put the hughs intake on it and is bored 30 over with slightly bigger injecters so would i benefit from the extra fuel or should i go the EFI route or pull a harness off a obd2 truck?

Also will i need to swap converters or just remove the weight off it and use the 5.9 flex plate?
Thanks for any help or input.

 

I would swap converters, and use the 5.2 flexplate.

How well will it run? Good question, only real way to find out, is try it, and see. So far as I know, the 5.2 should bolt right in there, and hook right up.

 

I finished the swap last weekend and it ran ok until my friend rechecked the wiring and I forgot to plug in my side of the injectors, after that it really woke up but it didn't sound bad running on 4 cylinders. Anyway we pulled the bed replaced shocks, fuel pump, and re did the exhaust and was running good until the next day. Apparently where i put the Intake temp sensor wasn't a good spot. It was put in one of the vacuum port holes that the Hughes intake has because it screwed in perfectly. Well it was to hot and was getting fuel on it due to cheap injectors flooding the engine some what and because of those conditions it was leaning out the fuel alot. I ended up moving the sensor to the hat of the intake that's above the throttle body. Looked it up and it was a mod people did because cooler air running across the sensor meant more fuel and to hot meant not enough fuel which is what i was experiencing. Also clean all the sensors on the throttle body. Yesterday i tweaked the distributor abit along with moving that sensor and today i changed the thermostat and speed sensors. Now i just have to do the break in and let the computer start the relearning process.

Removing the weight off the torque converter went pretty well to and so far no major vibrations. Also turned out the old engine was running lean because of the bad fuel pump. The valve rods where white along with the spark plugs

 

Did it register any codes when only running on 4 cylinders?