I am thinking about picking up this drivetrain from a 2000 Ram 1500 2wd with 100K on it.Have a video of it running before it was pulled and it sounds real good.The price is right and it's not too far...thoughts?
1993 was when the cracked heads went on, along with the not great AMC valvetrain (fine for stock use). The beer barrel intake most likely will not fit under a c body hood but I do not know that for sure. If you change the intake to a more convention layout they are more geared toward higher RPM, but the cam is not, not to mention the intake that fits it is more than my suggested pricing for the entire combo. A 5.9 is a better combo hands down, bigger bore, longer stroke, 42 cubic inches all lend themselves toward a big car. You can get a regular manifold and redrill the bolt holes, but most people do not want to do this. Block wear wise, I have never seen one with a ridge at the top or the crosshatch even worn off so material is excellent.For general information, when were those things "fixed"/upgraded? Just curious.
Just because it sounds good when pulled doesn't mean it's pristine/unworn internally. Buy it as "a rebuildable core" and NO MORE. Not to mention the issues of getting the PCM reprogrammed to fit your application, IF the Chrysler units will allow that without having to purchase some aftermarket gizmo for that purpose.
Enjoy!
CBODY67
original 318 LA. Good advice all...I think I'll pass on it.It is in Derry, NH on FaceBook if anyone else closer is interested. He is asking $400What’s in the Fury now?
How do you know all this ****??1993 was when the cracked heads went on, along with the not great AMC valvetrain (fine for stock use). The beer barrel intake most likely will not fit under a c body hood but I do not know that for sure. If you change the intake to a more convention layout they are more geared toward higher RPM, but the cam is not, not to mention the intake that fits it is more than my suggested pricing for the entire combo. A 5.9 is a better combo hands down, bigger bore, longer stroke, 42 cubic inches all lend themselves toward a big car. You can get a regular manifold and redrill the bolt holes, but most people do not want to do this. Block wear wise, I have never seen one with a ridge at the top or the crosshatch even worn off so material is excellent.
It will be cool and fine just as long as it is cheap. The POS trucks those came in were a dime a dozen, so engine should be appropriately priced, nickel a dozen. Around here the asking price of a 4wd 5.9 gas truck is around $800 running and driving. Cash price after a few weeks on marketplace 4-500 will get it so engine is really not worth much.
Google babyHow do you know all this ****??
Wow.*this rant is not directed at anyone in particular. It's just a rant.
As some of you may recall, I owned a survivor '70 fury with 4drhtp with a 318-2. I drove that car cross-country, through mountains and then as more/less as a summertime daily for a few years... Oh yeah, it still had points. Was it the fastest car I owned? No, but I have other toys for that urge, just as I don't use a ball peen hammer to frame a wall. Was it entirely suited for modern traffic, could cruise easily at modern expressway speeds (I think it's embarrassing to drive an old car in the right lane) and was it terribly reliable? Yes.
I guess that I do not for a moment understand the urge to tear up a mechanically simple car, which still has good mechanical parts availability, for an unimaginative engine swap (that includes Gen III hemi swaps). This isn't a '41 Studebaker with a 75 HP flathead and a cotton wad oil filter. For cripes sakes, adjusted for inflation, gas is cheaper now than it was in 1970, and it would still be @ over $3 a gallon. I use the term unimaginative because these swaps are just FI/OD V8s put into cars that had pretty decent drivetrains to begin with. If it was a smog-choked '81 Cordoba swapped to a 3 liter VM turbo diesel, I would at least be impressed that someone thought outside the box.
Yes, I know... "Do what you want with your car man" and all that other happy new-age BS. But I've ridden in these swapped cars...
"What's that toggle switch for?"
"That starts a 5 minute timer."
"What for?"
"It reminds me to turn this knob for open loop mode."
"huh?"
"It blows the cooling module fuse when I have the 02 sensor heaters wired up and then throws a P0021 fault code which triggers limp-in mode. So this is just an easy work-around."
As will be repeated several times after my comment, "Build it your way". But do realize that your way means any rational buyer will have no interest in troubleshooting the remaining faults from one of these swaps. Is it wrong for me to have some smug satisfaction watching a couple of known and heavily modified Mopars sitting on Ebay/Craigs/BAT for months with no interest? Who wants to pop the hood of an old car and see a mess of plastic tubes, sensors, relays and wiring? And for a net gain of what? A few MPG and 3 seconds knocked off a Wide Open Throttle run to 60?
At least for me, part of the joy of owning virtually any type of old device is the time-travel aspect. Take that effort made to fool the PCM into thinking there is a yaw sensor under the dash and put it towards learning about the Venturi effect. Learn WHY you have to turn an ignition coil on/off to induce high voltage. If you do that, you'll graduate from parts-swapper to an actual problem solver. Then you can "science out" whatever problems your car has. In 1970, it was built so that a 75 year old woman could drive it across the Mohave desert in air conditioned comfort. As middle-aged men, we should all be able to drive it to the weekly cruise night at Uncle Johnny's Burger Hut.
I have 2 of them in my yard, no the HOA does not care, she can only see one. Have seen a number of Magnum engines apart for various reasons. All the heads are cracked which becomes, through the ball back at the customer you have a cracked head. Like I said they never leak water, but?How do you know all this ****??
if you can't get your junk to run right with the stock engine, a factory PCM is not going to make your life easier.