Is this 2004 Dodge Ram a good Hemi donor?

hardtailpan

hardtailpan

TJ Enthusiast
Joined
Jul 15, 2020
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Location
Northeast USA
So, my best friend found a 2004 Dodge Ram Hemi truck which I can basically have for the cost of towing to my house, say $100. My Jeep is a 2004. This I believe means they are both PCI bus. The hemi in the truck doesn't run and has about 200k miles. It's not clear why it doesn't run. My reading tells me this is the perfect donor truck for a hemi conversion should I consider doing one. I have been thinking about it for a while, but hadn't started collecting parts. I'm in no hurry to do this as my jeep runs well. I guess my question is, is there any reason not to snag this? I have the room to store it. I would probably want to get the hemi running in the donor before a swap to the TJ, and i'll have the whole truck, including title. I would obviously completely rebuild the motor before putting it in the TJ. Also, my daily is a dodge of almost the same vintage which this could be a parts donor for.

What ya'll think?
 
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Here she is in all her glory

hemi1.jpg



hemi2.jpg
 
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Well, I think I'm gonna grab it. I can always part it and scrap it if I don't use it. I'm not sure what's wrong the motor, for all I know it spun a bearing or threw a rod or something. No matter what motor I would get for this project, it would almost certainly have over 100k and I would rebuild it, so that's not a deal breaker unless of course the damage is catastrophic, as in rod through block lol.

No matter what I'll grab the harness and computer. I don't know if there are tests I can do with a non-running motor to determine if the PCM is ok. the dash lights up correctly and it shows the mileage which is something.

The wife was just saying how nice it would be to have another vehicle sitting outside....
 
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If you are wanting to at some point have a Hemi in your TJ then YES I agree with everyone else that you should snag this truck up and then when you are ready go for it.

Here is Hotwire's web site with prices.
https://www.hotwireauto.com/tj-jeep-hemi-conversions
You were asking about which type of computer was in the truck and your TJ. Here is the chart from Hotwire.

Screenshot (51).png


Screenshot (50).png
 
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Wildman said:
If you are wanting to at some point have a Hemi in your TJ then YES I agree with everyone else that you should snag this truck up and then when you are ready go for it.

Here is Hotwire's web site with prices.
https://www.hotwireauto.com/tj-jeep-hemi-conversions
You were asking about which type of computer was in the truck and your TJ. Here is the chart from Hotwire.
...
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link, I've been looking at their website for a while now and have downloaded their TJ hemi conversion notes. This is one of the places that confirmed a 2003-2005 hemi would be the correct one. My jeep is technically a september 2003, so I *think* I could still swap in a 2003 hemi and be ok with states that required smog testing. In Massachusetts, anything over 15 years is exempt (for the time being lol).

I also *think* that the 2003 was a cable throttle and the 04 may be a fly by wire. I'd prefer the cable, but I'm not against using the RAM pedal.
 
Thanks for the links everyone, they really help. I've been searching for them on this forum and others for about a year now all the while keeping a casual eye for a hemi donor.
The motor mounts seem pretty easy to come by, but I'm still studying the NV3550 conversion to the hemi.
I'm considering making my own harness as well, though I'll eventually have to find a place to program the computer with the Jeep VIN, and whatever else I'll need.
Jeep currently has SKIM, I haven't seen the truck yet so I don't know if it does or not. Just another thing to keep in mind.
 
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Well, after all of my excitement it looks like I will not be getting my hands on this truck. Confusing long story but it still ends the same way, me without a hemi. Maybe it's a good thing, saved me a lot of work.
Still kinda sucks tho.....
 
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hardtailpan said:
Well, after all of my excitement it looks like I will not be getting my hands on this truck. Confusing long story but it still ends the same way, me without a hemi. Maybe it's a good thing, saved me a lot of work.
Still kinda sucks tho.....
Click to expand...

This whole thing turned around and the truck is now at my house! So, the problem with the truck is that the motor is locked solid. I haven't investigated why yet. Seems this era hemi likes to drop valves tho, so that's a possibility. I've decided to list it for sale. If it doesn't sell, I'm going to strip it. Another friend of mine wants the transmission, I'll take the motor, harness, computer, gas pedal, etc, and I'll list the rest for sale for a few weeks and scrap whatever doesn't sell. I'd rather start a hemi swap with a running motor, and who knows what damage there is internally on this motor, but since it was practically free I can afford to take a peek if it doesn't sell.

Since we all like pics....

2.jpg


1.jpg
 
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Well, the truck sold so my thoughts of a hemi conversion are currently on hold. The other part of this is I'm not sure I want to do this to my Sahara. Oh well, we will see what happens next!
 
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