1986 Dodge Ram 50 360 swap

[Uncle Spence]

She's alive, things are about to get rowdy!!!

That's great travhous! Exciting feelings starting a new motor for the first time. It's a great feeling to know that you actually do know what you're doing and put it all together right.
I'm digging the exhaust.... where you going to put your license plate though?

[xboxrox]

The snake n' cat n' fawn got me

[travhous]

where you going to put your license plate though?

Between the two tail pipes. Kind of a bummer though, I like the look of the pipes twisting around. I have to modify the plate bracket and move it back an inch or so.

[travhous]

Ah niiiice. Audible and visual art combined - geezer approves So, how does it roll?

Don't know yet, maybe tomorrow. Have a few things to button up.

[ricerEK]

Looks amazing. What did you do for the oil pan? I was doing a magnum swap but got stuck on the oil pan and then moved on to other projects. Its making me want to pick it up again.

[travhous]

Looks amazing. What did you do for the oil pan? I was doing a magnum swap but got stuck on the oil pan and then moved on to other projects. Its making me want to pick it up again.

I had to build a custom pan, with the sump between tie rod and cross member. Use a full size truck oil pick up tube worked out perfectly.IMG_20181025_105007.jpg

[travhous]

Trying my best not to chop up the truck and retain as much of the OEM look as possible.

I found an instrument panel out of a 4x4 with the tachometer and was able to swap it in. Had to swap a couple of wires around in the harness but was really pretty simple. I removed the check egr light for an oil pressure light. I used a tachometer signal convertor from Dakota Digit to make the V8 play nice with the 4 cylinder tach.
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I also have the factory oil pressure gauge and ampmeter that go below the center vents but, haven't decided if I'm going to use them. I have kind of taking a liking to having the 1 1/2" gauges in the stock radio location.
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[geezer101]

The gauges look decent and they cover the vital stuff.

[MrPaco]

I also have the factory oil pressure gauge and ampmeter that go below the center vents but, haven't decided if I'm going to use them. I have kind of taking a liking to having the 1 1/2" gauges in the stock radio location.
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What is the second temp gauge with the switch labeled TC for?

[travhous]

What is the second temp gauge with the switch labeled TC for?

T- Transmission
C- Coolant

The first temp gauge is oil, the second I can toggle between transmission temp or engine coolant temp. I want a second coolant gauge to compare with the factory one.

[travhous]

That's great travhous! Exciting feelings starting a new motor for the first time. It's a great feeling to know that you actually do know what you're doing and put it all together right.
I'm digging the exhaust.... where you going to put your license plate though?

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[bigz1969]

that is exactly what I want to do. Amazing

[trillzqrillz]

I'm looking to do a 318 swap on an 86 starting this year. I'm still looking to see if I can just use an NV3500 with it because I really don't want an auto.

[travhous]

It's been a while since I have posted and figure I would give some updates.
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Swapped out the master and booster from a Stealth/3000gt. The original master cylinder had a 7/8" bore compared to the 3000gt's 1" bore. I was a bit concerned that the brake pedal would become to stiff with the larger bore, but it acually feels really good and not nearly as spongy as the original. The power booster from the 3000gt has more capacity and surely helps with the larger cylinder bore of the master. I have a large cam and very little vacuum at idle so, I also added a vacuum pump from a late model Chrysler hybrid mini van. Also, swapped spindles, rotors and calipers from a 2nd gen.

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Found that the air dam from the early S10 is almost a perfect fit under our gen 1 air dam, just had to trim down the ends a couple of inches. My hope was the extra air dam would create more negative pressure under the truck and help pull more air through the radiator. What I found is the truck feels much better at highway speeds and above. And I just think it looks cool.

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Added line lock for the brakes.

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I couldn't find wheels in the width and offset I needed, so I decided to build my own from the original d50 steel wheels. The original center section is spot weld the outer hoop. If I remember correctly I used a 1" hole saw anf drilled out the 8 spot welds then was able to press them apart. Original wheels were 14"x5", the fronts are now 14"x7" wrapped in 205/70s. The rears are now 15"x8" wrapped in 275/50s. Not really any reason why I used 14s in front and 15s in the rear other than that's what I had on hand. I just wanted to see how it would work out and what they would look like. They have been growing on me and they might just stay. Center caps came from a GM truck.

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Fabricated some traction bars based off Caltracs.

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Relocated the battery behind the right rear tire. After moving the battery and putting the rear bumper back on I took the truck back to the scale and I now have 56% front and 44% rear weight distribution, I'm very pleased with that.

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Installed the MSD ignition box on the right kick panel, below that is the radiator fan controller.
Had a gen 2 fuse box I mounted under the glove box for all the electrical stuff.
Trying to clean up the engine compartment, I was able to reroute the wiring for the right side lights, horn, windshield wiper fluid pump down the left side and up and under the radiator support without cutting any wires. Really gives it a cleaner look.

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I believe I mentioned earlier I swapped in a instrument cluster from a 4wd so I could have a factory tach. Im now using the check egr light for oil pressure warning and the green 4wd indicator is now lit when I activate the line lock.

Will do my best to keep updating the progress, just been busy building and taking the old d50 for some really fun cruising.

Next up is reinforcing the stock rear axle hosing with a truss. I had a spare rear end I disassembled and was impressed with the 1 1/4" axles and beefy bearings, looks like the housing may be the weak link. I'm hopeful it'll hold together for a while.

[travhous]

.....

[Uncle Spence]

Great update! Cool to see things getting dialed in.
Air dam is a nice touch and I'm impressed with the weight distribution. Wouldn't have guessed that, but I guess your traction bars did add some additional lbs in the back.

[geezer101]

You've done such a great job of tying it all together. You're using the same type of relay and fuse block I bought for my truck too - it's almost in the identical location as well. The battery in RHD trucks is in that corner of the engine bay but I'm really considering moving it for both esthetic and weight reasons.

[claych]

travhous,
The remote jump terminal fab is just excellent !
Looking at Your battery 'box ' photos -- loosening the 'hold down(s)'
allows the battery & tray to rotate away from the vertical centerline of the truck ?
(& extra holes just in case ).
With further respects, is that a Lokar trans dipstick Asy ??
Thank You.
P.s
56%/44% daily driver/ race on sunday -- well done Sir.

[travhous]

travhous,
The remote jump terminal fab is just excellent !
Looking at Your battery 'box ' photos -- loosening the 'hold down(s)'
allows the battery & tray to rotate away from the vertical centerline of the truck ?
(& extra holes just in case ).
With further respects, is that a Lokar trans dipstick Asy ??
Thank You.
P.s
56%/44% daily driver/ race on sunday -- well done Sir.

I bought the battery box from Summit, I'm thinking for around $15, well worth money over fabricating on. The silver rods running up are the battery tie downs. It does pivot by removing the angle from the base of the box up to the frame. Set up works really well.

Trans dipstick is pretty much the same as Lokar, I believe I got it from Classic Industries.

Thanks for the nice words.

[travhous]

All bushing, joints and tie rods are being replaced with Moog components, always had good luck with them. I wanted to stay with rubber bushings up front to keep decent ride quality, the rear will be energy suspension in hopes of controlling wheel hop amongst other things.

I am replacing the stock coil springs with Moog's heavy duty 2278s they have one more additional coil and the coil diameter is around 1/16 larger. Spring height and diameter look to be the exact same. My stock coils have had a 1/2 coil removed but, here's a picture for comparison, they arrived black and I added some blue paint.
Attachment 21560

Update:
After running the Moog springs for six months they compressed down way more than I liked. I was doing the 2nd gen brake swap and decided to put stock springs back in it, so far they seam to be much better than the Moog.

I was getting some weird front tire wear, so at the same time I did swap out LCA and strut rod bushings with polyurethane. Very happy with the results.

[travhous]

I ordered a rear end truss for a Ford 9", looks like I can fab it up to fit the Mitsubishi axle housing. Going to put the O.E. diff to the real test. I will try to take time for pictures and details on how I fabricated the CalTrac clones while I have the rear out of the truck. My employment slows down in the winter, so I will be able to spend some more time in the garage.

[claych]

^^
Thx for taking time to reply !!

[Chargerx3]

Excellent work. Really like that front air dam. Have a picture further back?

[B-Line]

I like what you did with the Master Cylinder. The larger bore helps with pedal pressure and feel.

Are you running a custom brake line front or rear?

[travhous]

I like what you did with the Master Cylinder. The larger bore helps with pedal pressure and feel.

Are you running a custom brake line front or rear?

Original brake lines, only thing I added was one short section of steel line to the line lock and everything is uncut and oem.

To mount the Stealth's brake booster I had to drill two holes in the firewall for the lower studs. Used the Stealth's aluminum spacer between the booster and firewall and the brake pedal line up perfectly.