Not that I plan to do this anytime in the near future, but something I wondered about for a while now was the notion of putting a 'modern' five speed behind a 318 in a rod project. I seem to recall that 5.2 V8 Dakotas weren't available with the five speed, but 3.9 V6 Dakotas were. Being that the 3.9 is just a 318 with two cylinders lopped off, couldn't one of these 2wd Dakota V6 five speeds slip behind a mild 318 in a lightweight car? Do they use cable, mechanical or hydraulic clutch actuation? Is there a better way...T5 maybe?? What about balance issues...would a flywheel from an old four speed 340 work behind a garden variety smog era 318? Inquiring minds wanna know! (I know full sized 2wd Dodge pickups were available with a five speed in the 90s behind 5.2 V8s, but that tranny is probably big and bulky, and not suited well for 'street rod' duty).
Dude try www.keislerauo.com. They have the complete Tremec 5 speed kits to go behind small block MoPars. From what I hear they have good stuff too. Theyd be the ones to contact re this... Rat
you could get a 5 speed behind a 318 dakota in 4x4 i looked at 6 of them before i got one with an automatic
Unless you want a truck trans (granny gear first) forget about the dakota or ram five speed.The reason the dakota r/t wasn't avalible with a manual trans is mopar simply didn't build a performance five spead. The keisler TKO setup is the hot ticket for sure.
The 94-99 Dak 3.9 V6 bellhousing bolts to any of the 273/318/340/360/, 5.2/5.9 Mopar V8's, and the 5.7L Hemi V8. That bellhousing accepts a variety of 5 speed transmissions to include the following: AX15 - 3.83 2.33 1.44 1.00 0.79 Jeep AR5 - 3.753 2.26 1.37 1.00 0.729 Jeep MA5 - 3.753 2.26 1.37 1.00 0.729 Colorado/Canyon R150 - 3.83 2.062 1.436 1.00 0.838 Toyota R151 - 4.31 3.32 1.52 1.00 0.83 Toyota R154 - 3.25 1.95 1.30 1.00 0.75 Supra 86.5-92 (best close ratio gear set) NV1500- 3.85 2.25 1.48 1.00 0.80 Chevy NV3550 - 4.01 2.32 1.40 1.00 0.78 Chevy The S-10 T-5 has a different case bolt pattern so you would probably need to go to Kiesler for their expensive kit. If you have a stick shift now, my suggestion would be a hydralic T/O bearing.
A friend just put a Keisler 5 spd in a 'cuda. The only glitch was the Lakewood bellhousing was not machined big enough for the transmission. Luckily they called and warned him to check the dimension before we started the installation. They sent a new bellhousing. Other than that everything went together as advertised. It's a very well engineered package.
Hack, I'd have to double check but most if not all of the smog era MOPARs were externaly balanced. You know how I feel about it, if your gonna drive it hard have it balanced, factory balance is nominal at best. if you have it balanced you can use the old flywheel. I'm going to make an ass out of you & me here. you have an old flywheel laying in the garage and you;re going to save a couple of bucks by using it. Right? You spent more than you saved by haveing the mill balanced, but you have the benifit of haveing one that will hold together at speed for a very long time. So you gotta put your blindfold on and throw it on the scale. You other option is to go to the wrecking yard and get a smogger flywheel, they are cheap as dirt and should be tons of 'em left out there. Then sell your 340 flywheel for double the cost of the smogger flywheel.
I don't know the bellhousing business, but just talking about durability, the 3500 that was put behind the 4.7L Dakota 2WD trucks will take a serious pounding. They use a different tooth pattern than the Chevies and I have flailed those things and never broke one. A 2WD regular cab Dakota with 3.73 gears and slapper bars will get up and GO with a 4.7L (which is more a HP motor than a torque motor so the gearing really helps it) and a 3500. I've blown u-joints, driveshafts, and spring perches all to bits with those doing full-throttle no-lift redline upshifts and didn't hurt a trans once. We added the slapper bars and welded braces on the spring perches just so we could keep things together long enough to test the transmissions. A guy I worked with used to run Super-stock in the '60's and we took one of those trucks out one day, and he powershifted that thing (with a truck-length shifter) like I'd never seen before. It's a miracle I didn't put teeth marks the dashpad. If I was putting a 5-speed in a Mopar, that's the first box I'd look for in a wrecked Dakota (maybe 1999 or 2000- don't remember exactly what year they first came out), and figure a way to make the bellhousings work.
Did a search and found this old post. Has anyone done one of these? Any new info available? I've got a couple T5's laying around the garage and was thinking about picking up an old A body.
Supra Turbo R154 swap 5-speed swap: http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=3168502&page=0&fpart=all&vc=1 Greg
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