Hey David:
Those Gen III/IV guys may want to put a Hemi in one of theirs!!!! Can't be
that much different! I have gotten side-tracked on the project, so I'm not
as far as I wanted to be. I decided to do a full frame off on the truck so
it's taking much longer.
For reference, I have a 3" drop in the front with 1" coils and 2" spindles.
IN the rear, I have a 5" drop using only spring hangers. This might have
some effect on the location of things.
I used the stock V6 motor mounts using a homemade adapter plate on both
sides. This matched the bolt patterns AND shifted the engine to the drv side
just a tad. I believe we used a 3/4" plate on the pax side and a 3/8" plate
on the drv side. Be glad to give you the exact dimensions when you need
them. These two plates gave me the correct left/right location AND the
correct heighth for the way I wanted to mount the Hemi.
AS FOR SPACE:
I'm quite pleased with the way I think it's going to fit. I located the Hemi
intake close to the firewall but with enough clearance that one can remove
the tranny bolts from the top if desired. I used a dead blow hammer to
flatten the firewall in the middle and gained 3/8" max clearance there with
enough room for the wire loom to go past. Locating the engine back this far
meant that I had to flatten the pinch weld joining the firewall and the
floor pan to get the clearance I wanted. That's pretty simple though.
Locating the engine to the rear as I have, gives more radiator clearance,
but still allows the tranny cross member to fall onto the crossmember
mounting flats on the frame (just barely). The old A-500 tranny mount and
crossmember fit and seem to be ok so I'll use them. BTW, I am using the
545-RFE 5 speed tranny from the '03 Ram. It is longer and bigger around than
the A-500. Drive shaft will have to be shortened by a couple of inches.
That'll be the last drivetrain measurement.
The exhaust manifolds clear on both sides. I did relieve the flange on the
pax side upper control arm about 1/4" to give extra clearance to the exhaust
manifold on that side. I plan to use the '03 Ram Y-pipe and converter. TO do
so, I will have to shorten the Y-pipe about 1/2" and rotate the pax side
exhaust pipe back to it and re-weld it. I'd like to have duals all the way
but I think I'll settle for a cat-back system for now to limit engine
management issues in the beginning. I'm also not sure that I can find
headers that will fit in this configuration.
Pan clearance:
I had to notch the rear side of the front crossmember by about 2 1/2 " deep
and 9 " wide to fit the pan. I then reinforced it internally with a piece of
12" long 2" x 1/4" channel, and then plated the notch with 3/16" flat plate.
Should be plenty strong enough!.
ELECTRICAL:
Actually, I haven't done much with this yet, other than mock up the RAM
underhood harness around the Hemi. I plan to use the RAM harness under the
hood and mate it through the firewall to the rest of the body. The RAM
harness has all the relays and fuses, etc, under the hood in a pod, whereas
the Dakota has most under the dash with some under the hood. "I think" that
I'm going to remove the fuse box from the Dakota and use mostly RAM wiring.
The thing that I haven't worked out yet is that the RAM computer feeds the
instruments and the Dakota is analog. May have to run parallel sensors or
use Dakota Digital or some other interface. Not insurmountable. Also, the
RAM harness takes up a lot more room under the hood so I think the battery
will end up in the bed.
Concluding:
Just got word from the powder coater that the rear end housing and backing
plates are finished, so I should be moving forward fairly rapidly.
Hope this answers your questions. If not, ask some more. Will send a few pix
to your email address, so you can better understand. Also, you can bug me
every few days and I'll keep you up dated. If nobody bugs me, I forget.
Ron
'89 Dakota Convertible aka "Ruby", 5.7L Hemi and lots more!
*-----Original Message-----
*From: owner-dakota-truck@bent.twistedbits.net
*[mailto:owner-dakota-truck@bent.twistedbits.net] On Behalf Of
*David Medeiros
*Sent: Saturday, April 16, 2005 9:05 AM
*To: dakota-truck@dakota-truck.net
*Subject: DML: ATTN: Ron Deaton
*
*
*Hi Ron, I recall that you were doing a 5.7L Hemi swap into an
*89 Dakota convertible. I was planning on doing the same swap
*in my convertible and was wondering how it was going for you.
*Are/were there any major issues or difficulties? How does the
*engine/trans. fit? I've heard that it does and doesn't fit
*and my preliminary measurements show that it would be a very
*tight fit if it does. Obviously, the electrical is extremely
*different than the old pre-mags, how extreme did that get?
*Also, what did you do for exhaust? You can e-mail me direct
*at orange383@comcast.net if you don't want to post on the DML.
* I don't know if all the Gen III/IV guys want to hear about
*our old clunkers, LOL. Thanks Ron.
*
*David
*
*
*
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