I have a 93 Dakota 4x4 witch had the v6 5 speed manual in it I had bin wanting to do a 318 swap into for a few years the information I found online was helpful but the biggest problems I had were the ones that no one had mentioned so here is my two cents about it: I got a 318 out of a Jeep Grand Cherokee from a local pick a part compression tested good had 120,000 miles on it the jeep was a auto so formy crank sensor witch reads notches on the pulse ring of the fly wheel I took a wrench and poped off the v6 pulse ring and use the v8 jeep flex plate under my fly wheel and got different bolts for it from ace hardware torked it with lock tight then used a jeep grand auto v8 crank sensor and just shaved down the side of the plug to plug it into my v6 harness and had to plug it in backwards I had 2 different sensors to use the v6 one was too short due to the thicker pulse ring if you run a v6 pulse ring for a v8 the computer will only see 6 windows turning your v8 back to a v6 so I did all this after not getting spark and I new it was the sensor being too far to read the flex plate windows quick tip leav the sensor on a table when installing the v8 it's easy to crush a new sensor when you are working in a ruff *** driveway and the engine swings like crazy ok so that was all taken care of now if you get a auto v8 to swap into a manual you will need to have a place to put a pilot bearing in the crank if you look at your v6 there is a sleeve witch is hammerd into your crank witch the pilot bearing is pressed into I had a hell of a time finding this sleeve I could not get it out of the v6 so I searched online and found a guy who took are dakota tran and swapped it into his jeep so he would have a manual and he had to bye the part too here is his build can find the part number from here http://thespeedfreaks.net/showthread.php?12418-My-Euro-5-2L-ZJ-AX-15-5-speed-swap I got the part off eBay so the other problem I had was that since the v8 was from a jeep the starters are on different spots and the headers are not lining up with my y pipe so I got a seat of shortys and slapped them on there I ended up doubling up on gaskets to push each side out to line up with the y pipe better use good gaskets or you will do it twice the oil pans are different if yours is a 4x4 you will need a dodge dakota 5.2 4x4 oil pan and pick up tube to clear the front axel I used the v6 harness and just pulled two injector plugs from the v8 harness you will need to take apart the plug on the harness were the pins al plug into the pcm only way you can get a connection to the pcm for cylinder 7 I plugged into pin 17 on the v6 harness plug and the other side to a posative it doesn't matter witch side is posative you can not wire them backwards don't break the red part on the plug to the pcm do the same for the cylinder 8 injector it fired right up I changed the oil twice and drove the **** out of it still going strong the easiest swap would be to get a 318 out of a Dakota would be cheaper because of the headers and pan I spent 400 for engine 250 headers and 300 for mopar preformance pcm to run the v8 and plus some gaskets I checked if I was getting oil to the valve cover cuz I had 90 days to take the engine back if it was shot water pump and new rubber is a good idea too wal it's out

 

wow. sentences? hard to read and understand that post

as for the starter, the engines between Dodge and Jeep are the same, the starter actually bolts into the bellhousing

 

[QUOTE=volaredon;3329074]wow. sentences? hard to read and understand that post

as for the starter, the engines between Dodge and Jeep are the same, the starter actually bolts into the bellhousing[/QUOTE I said the starters are in different spots I never said on the engine is were it is mounted 318 came from a jeep the manifold on the jeep was pointed straight at the starter so I had to get headers

 

I am dislexic always had a hard time if there is something that your not shure about I can go into more detail. I blew my rear end now I have posi it's a amazing little truck my plan is to go get a d44 TTB from a bronco and get king coil overs for the front I'm having a hard time finding deaver springs for the rear so might end up doing 4 link. I want to jump my Dakota

 

So if I understand correctly, you "sandwiched" the jeep V8 flexplate between the engine and the orig. V6 flywheel? Was there any adjustments you had to make for the clutch clearance? At any rate, glad to see another post for a V8 conversion.

 

Nope just sandwiched it in purchased new bolts at ace. if you do it that way you will need the automatic transmission crank sensor I used a jeep crank sensor shaved down the rib on it and plugged it into the v6 harness I tried to use the v6 sensor witch is a bit shorter and when I cranked the engine for the first time it didn't start and figured out no spark and crank sensor wasint reading from the dash codes so put the automatic flex plate reading sensor in and clung clug vrOOM!! Was amazing the clutch feels the same as it did before. Now I'm getting a Dana 44 front end Twintraction beam to swap into the front with king coil overs bump stops and the hole nine yards to make it a pree runner just got 33" x10.5 x R15 km2s on it blew the front end (witch I knew was going to happen&#128541 and all I have is the torsion bars cranked only rubs when you stuff it hard and are cranked to left or right a lot it's awesome

 

What it looks like at the moment