2.5 cyl to 5.2 318 Pre Magnum Conversion
1997: Originally
purchased, the only thing I did to the truck from 1997-1999 was a paint
job. When I got the Dak it was silver in color and the paint was flaking
off due to a Factory primer defect. I sanded and prepped and painted the
entire truck intense blue pearl, with paint supplied in rattle cans from
the local Hi-Lo Orelly's. Honestly for a rattle can job the truck came
out pretty well, and with that confidence I went ahead an masked out two
white racing stripes which also came out pretty good. After a year the
Paint went to crap, and it still now sits in primer waiting for sassy
grass green paint.
EST 1/4 Mile 19.00
@ 70MPH
Money Invested : $80
Motor - 318 Pre Magnum
Edelbrock Performer Intake
Comp High Energy Camshaft 268/454
Thermoquad Carbuator
Electronic Distributor and Orange Box
Trans - 727 from 1987 Ramcharger, rebuilt and upgraded
The motor came from a friends 1974 Dodge D100, I purchased the entire truck for $150 bucks, and sold the reminder of the body to a junkyard for $75. Luckily the motor only needed a going through, and it already had some decent parts to get me started. I did happen to do a few minor upgrades though including: Holley Street Dominator Intake, Holley 650 DP, Summit racing truck headers and a set of Mickey Thompson Valve covers. I always had a small problem with low rpm hesiation. I know now that It was a small problem with the carburator and nothing that a 2600 converter wouldn't have fixed. I never had full throttle off the line until well passed .60 ft and that problem caused me at least a second off 1/4 mile times that the motor was capable of. It ran the best so far of a 14.92 @ 90MPH but hopefully that time will be broken this summer (2005) by a good margin. Over all I estimated that the motor had about 290-320 Horse at the flywheel. The new motor going in after the summer is a 360 and should put about 400-420 horse at the flywheel on motor. Check the motor page for more info.
For Motor Mounts I managed to manipulate some Grand Cherokee V8 motor mounts to fit in the stock 4 cyl frame perches. I have since changed that design, it was not the safest and began to crack. Now I still have Grand Cherokee Motor mounts but I have custom perches welded to the frame (click the pics to the right to see close ups). Now before you e-mail me with questions if someone makes motor mounts, yes someone does and if you check the F.A.Q. page more info is available.
For the Trans Mount , I took the bracket for my 4cyl trans and had 2 holes machined so that I could bolt it to my 727. With that done the trans bolted directly to the factory crossmember, but I did have to drill new holes in the frame for the crossmember due to the location being further back then the original. I do not have any pictures at the moment but I will get some soon.
The Driveshaft had to be custom made because the stock one would no longer work. I needed to measure for a new one. First the truck had to on the ground and then I measured from the rear trans seal to the very end of where the cap of the u-joint rest's in the yoke of the differential. I took that measurement down to Northwest Drivetrain along with the driveshaft from my truck and one from my dodge ramcharger. They did a exellent job and it fit the very first time. Any local drivetrain shop that deals with driveshafts should be able to do this for you and it only put about $140 bucks out of my pocket.
Stay Tuned More to come!!!
Left Mount
Right Mount
