[hatchetmobile]

Said I was unhappy with the motor mounts. Seeing this monster in the bay just makes the decision that much more concrete. I'm getting the steel and making mounts that are more worthy of the motor.

 

[hatchetmobile]

Life stalled me for a couple days. Working on the oil pan today. Have the 4.7 pan cut at the bolt flange. And measuring up how much of the hemi pan I have to cut. Should have it tacked together tonight unless I have to do a large amount of hammering on the 4.7 pan to mate up nice to the hemi. And it definitely looks like there will be a bit...

 

[hatchetmobile]

Everything is measured, wanted to tack them together but I'm going to do some bodywork on the 4.7 pan to make it look right first. Also a lot easier to weld when it all lines up nice. Lol. Guess I will try and knock that out tomorrow afternoon and tack it then. Took a lot longer than I thought it would but still chugging along. Found a source for the steel for my v2 engine mounts. 1/4" everywhere lol. Picking that up soon. Then if anyone needs a set of engine mounts just let me know. I will have the first set here to measure off of to make a new set. Probably going to roll the block outside very soon while the weather is nice. Need to soda blast it and scrub it down. Get it ready to paint. Yes. Hemi orange lol.also going to blast the timing cover and a few other parts as well. Clean them up and give them a coat of clear. Will probably paint a lot while the heads and block are off to the machine shop.

 

[hatchetmobile]

Also. So I'm replacing the rubber engine/diff mounts. I wanted polyurethane but can't find any. So time to make my own. Ordering the poly tonight or tomorrow. Clean, measure, make a template. Then pour my own. Stuff I found is a hardness between the factory rubber and solid polyurethane. So will be more stiff than the factory, but shouldn't rattle the truck apart lol.

 

[hatchetmobile]

Ordered the poly tonight. Also needed rack and sway bat bushings so those were ordered tonight. Pan work has had to take a back seat until I get my anvil from the other house. My body tools are there too. Getting them tomorrow. So in the meantime been cleaning all the leftover ps leak that plagued the truck in the past. Getting seals for the 242hd transfer case tomorrow. As well as paint, fluids, and f diff seals. Found the steel for the motor mounts to make an upgraded version of the mounts. Lot going on. Just not a lot to post about.

 

[hatchetmobile]

Not much to write about at the moment. Still cleaning up things from oil and ps leaks the last owner left me. Have the steel to make the more durable engine mounts. My old Lincoln welder wasn't playing nice from setting at my dad's house for so long. Buddy is loaning me his good mig. Little Lincoln wire feed I have here is enough to weld 1/4". I guess it would if I beveled it enough lol. So get it in the next couple days while I finish cleaning up. Bushings should be in so I can roll the Kota out and clean up the engine bay a bit. Then it back to welding new mounts and the pan. Have a box of oil seals to replace damn near every one I come across. Hell or high water I'm not looking for leaks when this thing is done. So for now, cleaning, prepping, and about to sand or soda blast some stuff to paint. Add a drain plug in the trans pan. Just a ton of little crap to get done. Then back to the main event.

 

[hatchetmobile]

I'm still here. Just got parts in. Bushings, seals ect. House had som problems that I had to take care of. Always something lol. Anyway still moving with this. Just not a lot to report yet. But I'm sure by this next week things will be picking up again. So see ya soon.

 

[hatchetmobile]

Ok. So I have not hand much time to work on things. Life hit me hard for a while. But I'm back! After a lot of consideration on how to move forward here is the new plan. The engine I had was a take out with a broken rod, bent valves ect. I purchased a junkyard 5.7 from a second party. In all it looks good. I might rering it with a deglaze and hone. Not entirely sure yet. But it was an mds motor. So cam and lifters have to be changed. I'm looking for a 6.1 cam, push rods and springs right now. This new motor came out of an 05 300. So I now have all the car acc ect. Seeing if the car stuff will fit. If so I will have access to a lot of better performance intake manifolds for the future. So I'm trying to go that route. But no matter what I am putting the 6.1 valves in these heads. All new gaskets. Cutting the steel for the new heavy motor mounts this week. And the welding on those mounts will be done in the next 2 weeks. Looks like I have enough steel to make 4 sets of mounts right now. So 3 sets will be for sale very soon. Parts in hand. Not looking forward to the wiring but have most of the dakota's engine bay harness separated and ready. Last but not least. Should be test fitting within the next week if I have to run the car acc ot truck acc. And checking the fitment if the car exhaust manifolds. Or the possibility of the now really cheap srt factory shorty headers. I have an extra block and set of heads to test fit everything now. So progress should start jumping forward. Until i get into the wiring lol. But that's it for now. Will be back soon.

 

[hatchetmobile]

Working late tonight. Damn near have the spare block and original trans in the trunk. This was all going to happen tomorrow, but it's not bad weather wise. And I'm up anyway, might as well try to get ahead of schedule.

 

[hatchetmobile]

So test block is back in. Trans connected. About to put the trans crossmember back in. Then it's all sitting on the mounts. Again.... but now put test heads on. 05 and up plastic valve covers, front cover, and find out if I can use the car style acc setup. Fingers crossed!

 

[hatchetmobile]

So with my mounts it appears that all the car acc fit just fine. The plastic valve covers give a lot of extra room in just the right place around the brake booster. I highly recommend it for any swap in a dakota. And the additional bonus that the car setup has these heater hose tubes that run under the intake manifold that make hooking that up so much easier! Downside to this is that the rad hoses will be a bit more complicated. But from everything I can currently see, I would rather run the car setup over the truck.

 

[hatchetmobile]

 

[hatchetmobile]

Started cutting my heavy mounts. Big bandsaw I was using had an unbelievably dull blade. So I ended up with one blank mount cut. Getting a new blade or 2 today and cutting them later. After templates were made, I will have 2 sets and my prototype mounts. So in the coming weeks if anyone wants a set, I now have templates and am going to have an extra set on the shelf. Just let me know.