Switching out 318's
 

To Whom It May Concern,
I have a '84 Dodge Ram Van 250, 3/4 ton, with a 318 cu. in. engine in it, that was made in Canada. It has some leakage of oil into the cylinders that results in backfiring oil foul damage to the pluggs and some other problems. I recently found another 318 that was in a 1995 Dodge 1/2 ton pickup. My quetsion is would the 95' 318' fit and be compatible with the 84' van?
Thanks for your help,

ps If anyone can find diagrams or engine dimension specs on both engines/vehicles please let me know. Thanks

RE: Switching out 318's
 

The bigest hassel is that you are going to need the full wiring harnes inside and out and probably most of the dash and all of the other under hood electronics to make that work.

The engines are similar and the newer one is an evolved version of the old one. I'm not sure if after the swap you will have to meet the emissions for the newer engine, if so you will probably need some exaust upgrades as well.

The backfiring is probably related more to timing than to oil getting into the cylinders since oil is harder to ignite than gasoline.hense the excessive carbon deposits.

Though I've found that in the summer if I run HD40 in the engine I get blacking less since the thicker oil doenst blow by the rings as much. I change it out for thinner oil in the winter to ease starting in 15F weather.

HTH, good luck

RE: Switching out 318's
 

In the absents of a full description of both engines, I'm assuming that the 95 has fuel injection while the 84 is carbureted. That being the case, the blocks are identical, but you will have to swap the intake from the 84 onto the 95 to make it work. That is if you want to do the swapwithout having to modify anything in your van, such as, wiring harness, computers, and the like.

RE: Switching out 318's
 

look up on www.allpar.com the information regarding the 5.2L/318cid engine. Some years are a better swap than others. In your 84, you should be able to get up to a 1990 or so engine without much hassel as the 1995 would be. I think the 1995 enven bolted up to a differnt type of tranny too. The older engines bolted to a 727 and the newer ones to a Dana 60 or Dana 70 Chyrsler version.

Yes, the 5.2L/318cid has evolved a good deal over the years. Once you cross over the 1993 to 1994-1/2 model years, things change majorly.

RE: Switching out 318's
 

The bolt pattern is the same on the back of the block for the bell housing. It's only the bellhousing itself that would be different for the different tranny.

RE: Switching out 318's
 

For your notes the swap over to FI happened in 88 for the 318, and in 89 for the 360. This information is from the allpar page.