I have a 'revolving credit' account at my Credit Union. I can walk in, ask for money, (up to about 6K) and they will just hand it to me. No questions asked. It's an unsecured loan, so, interest rate is around 14%..... but, it's damn convenient when it comes time for vehicle replacement. Fortunately, at this point in time in my life, I have enough in savings to just pay cash for whatever I actually need. So far, my 98 is still runnin' good though, so, not in any hurry to replace it. Need to replace the headers though, one of the tubes is broken, and it's starting to get loud. Wanna fix it before I burn a valve.

 

I wouldn't doubt the 4.7 for a second. I had one in an 07 dakota, loved it for that little truck. Just like any engine keep your maintenance regular and if something goes wrong fix it. Im sure people had their lemon situations but who hasn't. Its just like the 53 block Cummins. A few complainers got on the internet and it spreads like wild fire.

Im with the rest of the group here though. Unless its plan is to be a large car id go for a 5.7

 

well, since one of the requirements I set for the purpose of buying a newer truck, was that I DID NOT want a 4 door anything, (another one was "not another white truck," but that's exactly what I ended up with--- again because it seems like regular cabs hardly ever come in any other color any more) and another requirement I decided on was "not another 6 banger"
and regular cab, long bed newer Dodges don't come up very often, I went ahead and took the chance on this one even with the 4.7. again I wish it was a 318 or a 360. but this 4.7 supposedly has 310HP and 335-ish lbs of torque. More HP than the 440s of the 1970s had (if the specs on the later 4.7s can be believed) and just me and the truck, so far this thing has more ballz than I expected it to.... and so far in the 1st tank and 1/2 of gas, on winter blend, back n forth to work, which is ~80% highway with ~5 stop signs in a 35 mile ride each way, I'm within 1 MPG of what my 99 club cab Dakota with a 3.9 v6 gets.... with definitely alot more ballz than the 3.9 ever had.... so we'll see how it goes, I guess. got no choice now unless i want to take a huge bath.... you know what they say about how much value is lost as soon as the paperwork is signed.....
he11, I paid more in TAXES on this thing than I did to completely BUY my 96 4wd Dakota 5 years ago.... a truck I still drive 70k miles after I got it,, and will keep for my winter beater/ to take the salt abuse, for this "new" one.

 

Hah funny how everything gets shifted on the internet, I thought that we are talking about using the 4.7L engine as a swapper engine into the 2nd gen truck. It can be done and the 4.7L engine is good engine, just isn't worth the time to swap an engine that is marginally more power than the 5.2/5.9 magnum engine. The only real benefit to swapping the 4.7L into a 2nd is that it would be cheap to purchase unlike the 5.7/6.4 hemi engine. But I still can't get my mind around paying the kinda of dough for a used hemi engine (similar amount that I purchased my 2nd gen truck for). Explains things some as I posted this on the 4th gen forum.