Dakota R/T owners

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Mopar-Man

Mopar-Man

Big Block Better Burnout
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Anyone here drive one? Time to do the intake on mine. I have all the parts and a new upper rad hose and valve cover gaskets. Any tips other than degreasing this thing first? 184,000 miles on it and it has never been opened up. All I have changed is a water pump and a tensioner and belt and lower hose.
 
Mine has 169,000 and is doing fine.

Sorry, no help on intake.

Are you replacing it or just resealing?

Are you installing a "turtle"?

I've also had H2O pump issues - fifth one, plus idler pulley- sixth one, and on my second radiator.

Does your heater core still work?

Do yourself a favor if you haven't already, and install a metal filler cap "T".

images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS107kChi5qBowpF1hsiRT-WIyIIwFvZeBU75rbpJCQ11z_eGad0w.jpg


One of the plastic ones that comes semi-permanently attached in an upper hose assy cracked on me and scalded the hell out of my arm.

If you do this, the individual upper hose segments are cheaper to replace.
(around $12 ea vs $50 for the assy)

Check your overflow reservoir. Mine recently cracked just above the inlet/outlet.
This caused there to be no water available to go back into the rad when it needed it.
 
...and inspect the freeze plugs in the heads.

The pass side on mine went last year, and the driver's side went early this year.
 
My heater takes forever to warm up and does not cook me like it used too. Probably clogging up. I am resealing the intake because the truck is pinging and it has visible oil in it.
 
Mopar-Man said:
Anyone here drive one? Time to do the intake on mine. I have all the parts and a new upper rad hose and valve cover gaskets. Any tips other than degreasing this thing first? 184,000 miles on it and it has never been opened up. All I have changed is a water pump and a tensioner and belt and lower hose.
Click to expand...
This series of videos helped me a ton.


There is more useful information on the Hughes website.
 
My heater never worked "right".

Took forever to get warm and then only slightly warm.

Heater core replacement instructions begin with "...after removing dash assembly..."

Fortunately mine has not had any of the other "common" issues I hear about with this generation Dakotas.

It is in fact, the most dependable vehicle I have ever owned, or have ever known anyone else to have ever owned.
 
I would replace the by pass hose between intake and water pump...just replaced timing chain and gears in my ram 1500 pickup off road package. I changed all hoses. Had anti freeze leak between timing cover and block. So did the chain also. No more ping or leaks... chain had a lot of slack. Runs great now..171,000
 
Mopar-Man said:
My heater takes forever to warm up and does not cook me like it used too. Probably clogging up. I am resealing the intake because the truck is pinging and it has visible oil in it.
Click to expand...

This might be easy to fix. My "mini white whale" project was mostly clogged, here's how:

Either drain some out or be quick. Get a long length of scrap heater hose, and some way to clamp the hoses. I used 2 vise grips and 4 small scraps of strap steel. You could also make wood ones out of 6" or so long 1X wood and long bolts. Clamp off the driver side hose in a convenient spot say, up near the throttle body. Clamp off the pass. side FORWARD of the splice fitting IE between the splice fitting and the intake

Unhook the heater hose from the long steel fitting down on the driver's side front, and hook your scrap hose to the pump fitting. "tied up" to the hood latch, etc to keep the system from draining further

So now you have the driver's side disconnected, clamped, and the water pump has a long vertical hose to keep the coolant from falling out

Now on pass side, unhook the splice, leave the splice in the firewall side of the hose if you can. So now that hos is clamped on the forwardmost half, and the firewall half is open

Now rig a garden hose fitting into the hose on the driver's side. This is opposite normal flow which is what you want, as you are "backflushing" it

Now hook a piece of scrap hose to the firewall hose on the pass. side.

Now just flush the thing. Easy.

IF YOU GUYS HAVE SOME IDEAS on a good, cheap, compact filter screen for these heaters, I'd be all ears. Some folks rigg them up with dishwasher/ clothes washer strainers and fittings. You can buy them for like ??60 bucks??
 
I had to use a pressure washer to unclog mine the last time.

Just so happens my PW wand is a perfect fit for the 5/8 heater hose.

Took nearly an hour going back and forth from the hose on one side to the other 2 minutes at a time before I got a clear and consistent stream !!!

I'd drive to Detroit and personally smack the fella who designed that system, if I thought I could find him. Worst part of the whole truck.
 
YY1 said:
I'd drive to Detroit and personally smack the fella who designed that system, if I thought I could find him. Worst part of the whole truck.
Click to expand...

X10. The heater core is a tiny POS with tiny passages. I had to replace a leaker it was no fun........

Hard to see here, but the original was VERY thin, only about 5/8--3/4" thick on the core. NAPA listed two, and I ended up sticking the larger one available in there. You can easily trim some projections out of the enclosure, and the "heavy duty" one fits right in. This was a previous Dakota I had for a short while, a 2x4 V6. If I'd kept it I might have saved myself some trouble LOL

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DODGE ALUMINUM PLENUM GASKET REPAIR PLATE 1992-2003 5.2L,5.9L | eBay

If you're changing the plenum gasket, get rid of the metal plenum plate and buy the aluminum ones from either Hughes or this guy on EBay. I have bought 4-5 from him already for every magnum I've done this repair on. Reusing the thin metal plenum plate rarely works, and is usually the reason the plenum gasket failed in the first place. Other than that, be prepared for the possibility of an intake bolt on one of the 4 corners breaking. I've had that happen multiple times.

If your truck is a '98-'99 then you won't need to worry about the filler neck T for the upper radiator hose, as that "genius" design didn't come in until 2000.
 
dragbaron said:
DODGE ALUMINUM PLENUM GASKET REPAIR PLATE 1992-2003 5.2L,5.9L | eBay

If you're changing the plenum gasket, get rid of the metal plenum plate and buy the aluminum ones from either Hughes or this guy on EBay. I have bought 4-5 from him already for every magnum I've done this repair on. Reusing the thin metal plenum plate rarely works, and is usually the reason the plenum gasket failed in the first place. Other than that, be prepared for the possibility of an intake bolt on one of the 4 corners breaking. I've had that happen multiple times.

If your truck is a '98-'99 then you won't need to worry about the filler neck T for the upper radiator hose, as that "genius" design didn't come in until 2000.
Click to expand...

Since the bolts break easily, should I use an impact to remove them and hope I get lucky? I bought the Dorman kit that reuses that stock pan and has all new gaskets and bolts. Are you saying that won't work?
 
Mopar-Man said:
Since the bolts break easily, should I use an impact to remove them and hope I get lucky? I bought the Dorman kit that reuses that stock pan and has all new gaskets and bolts. Are you saying that won't work?
Click to expand...

The Dorman kit will work, you just need to substitute your thin metal pan with the thicker aluminum one that's available these days.

Since you already have a kit with gaskets, just buy the aluminum plenum plate from the EBay link I sent. If that link shows to now be sold out, he will usually have a new listing immediately. He has 2 available on each listing and sells out pretty quick.

The bolt problem is kinda 2 problems possibly caused by there location next to the water port and the aluminum intake. The threads get corroded and the bolts themselves corrode, so the bolts are harder to get out and are actually thinner in one spot. Makes them real easy to break, so not sure if an impact will help. Every one that has broke on me has been long enough to grab with vise grips and then use a little MAP gas torch to heat them up and work them out.

Your's may not break bolts, I just think your chances increase with higher mileage. I had no broken bolts on my 60k mile '99 R/T and the 30k mile 5.9 that's in my Scamp, but also on a 130k 5.9 and an unknown mileage 5.2 I just did a few weeks ago.

You never know if they are going to break until you try and take them out.
 
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I had a 1995 Dakota .... in MINT condition when i sold it with 100000 KMS..... i undercoated it NEW .... ONLY Issue was trans rebuilt at low mileage for a erratic 1-2 shift ....short box 318 vehicle . should of never sold it ...... My brother had the next gen.... i did not like it .... to many issues ... the yellow paint was falling off ????
 
If you reuse the factory plenum plate grind about 1/16" off the plenum bolts, they are too long and bottom out decreasing the clamping force. And use locktite.
 
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