Anyone swap a 4.7L into an A-Body

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challengergary

challengergary

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Was talking with a buddy the other day (in between paint coats on my car) and he mentioned maybe swapping a 4.7L V8 into the Beater. He had some pretty good points - it's a reasonably well powered motor, should be plentiful in low mileage wrecks, is fuel injected for reliability/mileage, and should cost a lot less than a 5.7 Hemi. I had one I an '02 Ram 1500 QC that I racked up over 120K trouble free miles on within 3 years...

Anybody do this swap yet? If so, how bad was it? How much fabricating was required? I know I'll get a lot of the don't bother replies but figured I'd post this anyways.
 
I have never seen this done before, I'd say mostly because it doesn't really offer a performance advantage over a 5.2/5.9, which are almost a 100% straight bolt in to the A-body chassis.

I guess my concerns would be as follows:
1) center sump oil pan, dakota/ram pans are rear sump and wont clear the steering
2) engine mounts, it won't have the front type mounting ears like a standard small block so you'd be on your own.
 
The 4.7 is also a very wide engine. I have one in my 02 Dak and was looking it over and noticed that first. I believe it's due to the overhead cam head design that makes the heads wide. I bet due to this you'd run into problems with steering box interference unless you have means to make custom headers. Also there's the oil pan problem goldduster mentioned. Since LA's and Magnums oil pans interchange it's easy to put a LA pan on a Magnum. The 4.7 has never been used in anything but a truck with rear sump and is a different design than the LA pan.

I think it is a great engine but IMHO not suited well for an A body.
 
Good points - that's why I posted this. I needed someone to let me know these little things I was not even considering. Oh well, maybe I will go the 5.9 magnum route when the time comes...
 
Compare the power figures of the 4.7 vs. the 5.9 !

The 5.9 wins out everytime. Torque monster plus basic plug and play.
 
yellowdartdave said:
Compare the power figures of the 4.7 vs. the 5.9 !

The 5.9 wins out everytime. Torque monster plus basic plug and play.
Click to expand...


I don't know about that!!

The current 4.7 is rated at 302HP and 329 FT-lbs of torque. The 5.9 was rated at 230 HP and 330 ft-lbs of torque (those are 94 numbers I believe the HP went to 245 at some point but I don't know the torque). So the 5.9 has no real torque advantage and makes significantly less HP.
 
I remember when the 4.7 came out in the Dakota there was a 4.7 vs Dakota rt test in mopar muscle and the 4.7 won out over the 5.9 r/t
 
I thought I read somewhere that 4.7 had longevity issues?
If I recall, the engine was kind of a "throw away" setup that was not good for rebuilding, and not the longest running engine? I could be mistaken, I am running off memory.

Mopar techs around here?
 
The older 4.7's like my 02 are only rated at 230 hp. Not sure on the torque. It wasn't until 05 or 06 when they got the good perf. boost to 300 hp if I remember right.
 
dgc333 said:
I don't know about that!!

The current 4.7 is rated at 302HP and 329 FT-lbs of torque. The 5.9 was rated at 230 HP and 330 ft-lbs of torque (those are 94 numbers I believe the HP went to 245 at some point but I don't know the torque). So the 5.9 has no real torque advantage and makes significantly less HP.
Click to expand...

Wow, did not realize they beefed up the 4.7 that much. That's only 40hp less than the Hemi was rated in '05...
 
I must say as a owner of a 2000 dakota with a 4.7 so far longevity has not been an issue. I haven't had any issues with it at all, she's got 72k on it now and still runs strong. As for power I know there is more that can be done with a 360 but I have yet to see a 5.9 R/T come close to me at the track that has same mods. just my 2 cents
 
I would go for the hemi,they are cheap,lots of them out there.
You can look on det. craigslist you will find 5.7 hemi for $400.00 to $700.00
pretty cheap.I got one for my truck from Penatar Auto Parts for $500.00
complete with 74K miles on it.Not sure what a 4.7 will go for.My guess would be the same price as the hemi.
 
71produster said:
I would go for the hemi,they are cheap,lots of them out there.
You can look on det. craigslist you will find 5.7 hemi for $400.00 to $700.00
pretty cheap.I got one for my truck from Penatar Auto Parts for $500.00
complete with 74K miles on it.Not sure what a 4.7 will go for.My guess would be the same price as the hemi.
Click to expand...

WOW! All of the 5.7 Hemi's down here are priced well over a grand most are closer to 2 grand. That's one reason I was thinking about the 4.7 since those can be had in the 400-700 dollar range and my build is meant to be on a shoestring budget but I kind of want a modern pwerplant.
 
The 4.7 is a much more modern design (dual overhead cams 4 valves per cylinder) than the hemi which is still a 2 valve push rod motor. I believe chrysler developed the 5.7 just so they could market off the HEMI name and it certainly was an outstanding decision. But could you imagine what a 4.7 could do if it was bumped to 5.7 or 6.1 liters.
 
Regarding the 5.9 vs 4.7....
Yes, they have kicked up the power on the 4.7 in the past 2 years but remember 3 things.
The 5.9 made 345#s of torque at 3200 rpm vs the 4.7s 302 @ 4000 rpm.
Also it makes over 320 #s from 1000rpm to 4800 rpm.
Sorta like towing my motorcycles with a Honda S 2000 rather than my Mustang.
Remember that when you are going down the road with a car on the trailer behind you and you need to go up a hill or pass somebody.

A 408 stroker is so easy.
If you are going to try to shoe horn a 4.7 into and A-Body, you might as well try a 510 Hemi.
These are just my thoughts on it. I never was a fan of the 4.7 when it came out. One off the members of the local club had a 4.7 5-speed quad cab and I showed him my tail lights once or twice.
 
dgc333 said:
The 4.7 is a much more modern design (dual overhead cams 4 valves per cylinder) than the hemi which is still a 2 valve push rod motor.
Click to expand...

The 4.7 is an sohc design with 4 valves and two spark plugs per cylinder. The deck height is greater than the LA and the bore spacing is closer. The aftermarket hasn't embraced this engine the way it has the 3rd gen HEMI, so IMO the potential for more power is going to be less than either the LA or HEMI.
 
Opps on the SOHC / DHOC thing. I will not argue the aftermarket support is there for the HEMI and not for the 4.7, I am suprised that they have kept the motor in the line up at all.

But, if the aftermarket had supported the 4.7 the way they do the Ford 4.6 & 5.4 this discussion would be completely different right now. If your Ford mod moter isn't making 600 HP on the street you aren't even in the game these days.
 
:-D
yellowdartdave said:
Regarding the 5.9 vs 4.7....
Yes, they have kicked up the power on the 4.7 in the past 2 years but remember 3 things.
The 5.9 made 345#s of torque at 3200 rpm vs the 4.7s 302 @ 4000 rpm.
Also it makes over 320 #s from 1000rpm to 4800 rpm.
Sorta like towing my motorcycles with a Honda S 2000 rather than my Mustang.
Remember that when you are going down the road with a car on the trailer behind you and you need to go up a hill or pass somebody.

A 408 stroker is so easy.
If you are going to try to shoe horn a 4.7 into and A-Body, you might as well try a 510 Hemi.
These are just my thoughts on it. I never was a fan of the 4.7 when it came out. One off the members of the local club had a 4.7 5-speed quad cab and I showed him my tail lights once or twice.
Click to expand...

Davie I agree with you on the differnce in the torque between the 2 and I still stand by my original statement that it's not suited well to the A-body. I also respect that your not a fan of it just like I'm not a fan of the Ford 4.6 but your comparison of showing your tail lights to a quad cab truck with an engine of the same cubic inch and in a car with much better aerodynamics and weighs several hundred lbs. less is like comparing apples to oranges. They don't taste anything alike. I have an older lower powered 02 Dakota reg cab with a short bed and it weighs 4015 with me in it and a half tank of gas. Even with it's peg leg rearend and auto trans. it stood up pretty good against a new mustang GT recently at the stoplights. By 90 mph my front bumper was only a couple feet behind his back bumper (in the opposite lane of course). So in essance he did show me his tail lights but considering the huge diff. between the 2 vehicles one didn't represent itself nearly very well.

I know this is off topic and as stated above the aftermarket does not support the 4.7 well but I just thought I'd point out your comparison is flawed.:poke:
 
The old MP crate motors are just OEM 360 magnums with a dual pane intake and a conventional ignition. Those crank 300hp/375 lb-ft with the stock magnum truck cam and compression. They'll make even more with an upgraded intake and cam (CHEAP). The real problem with the magnum 5.2/5.9 in stock form is the Barrel Ram FI intake, valvesprings, and cam. Upgrade these, and you'll be over 400hp in a hurry with a carb setup.
 
Fishy,
I failed to mention that I was driving my R/T when I showed my tail lights to the 4.7 Dakota.
 
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