Anything special about a 91 318?
Well it's home.
A little fanfare in getting it here.
I ended up getting a dolly from u haul
Now I remember why I haven't dealt with that company in so long. Story for later, Im in a pretty good mood right now so I don't want to get all pissed again. This is probably my last encounter I will have with that company. Never again.
I see what everyone complains about with the 91 serpentine setup.
I've had a 92, a 93, and 96, 318 club cab Dakota before, and a 99 3.9. all but the 96 had 2 pc driveshafts. And the 96 would have I think of it wasn't a 4wd. This 91 is 2wd and had a 1 pc drive shaft. Weird. Yes it is a club cab.
I went to pull the shaft for the tow home and dumped more fluid on the guys driveway, than I've ever seen come out the tailshaft of a Mopar trans before. At least the fluid is clean. Very clean.
It was sold because the PO didn't want to pay my buddy what he wanted to put in a new fuel pump.
PO is in mid 80s and recently quit hauling mowers around town and mowing everyone's grass. Truck is quite crusty.
Was told it may fire right up unassisted or might need a bonk with a hammer to the tank to jar the pump and get it going. I get there and hit the key, it starts right away and quits. (Was hoping to drive it on the dolly)
At this point the battery is too weak to try another crank, and I didn't have jumper cables with me. So me, the PO and his son pushed it onto the dolly.
I got it home, put the battery charger on it for less than 30 seconds and it fired right up, sounds strong and runs great.
PO complained it smoked, but it's got a good 1" thick coating of oil on the whole engine.
I didn't see any smoke but it looks like his "smoke" was probably "burn off". Though he and his son claim it had had another engine put in, about 12-15 years ago and smoked from the get go upon picking it up from having had it done. I guess that was the reason they supposedly changed the original engine in the 1st place. It runs too good, sounds too strong, for there to be much wrong with it.
Other than the trans, the tailgate, the heater controls and the radiator I'm not sure what I'm gonna do with the rest. Other than the hood and tailgate not a single body panel worth saving.
It's got a 3.55 geared 8-1/4 n it, debating whether that might be worth keeping. I know they put the 8-1/4 in those trucks in 87-90 that were 5 lug so a 5 lug conversion would be easy. Just wondering if it might be worth keeping for a future swap?
I know that I will be pulling the valve covers and looking for head casting numbers, if they are 302s or 714s those are staying here. Not sure if I will just save the whole engine or not yet. I will have everything off of it that I'm keeping, (whatever that will entail) by end of next weekend and ready to drop off at the scrap yard by early next week one day after work.