Questions on the Magnum V8 swap

are there any year limits with the bell housing? Found a local Dakota with a manual and v6 that is being parted out. It is a 2002.

My understanding is that it's the 94-99 bellhousing but I've seen people use older ones like form 92 or 93 but I don't know about the newer ones. Do you know what transmission it has?
 
are there any year limits with the bell housing? Found a local Dakota with a manual and v6 that is being parted out. It is a 2002.

If it's got a NV3500 behind it then it should work. According to the info I can find they used the 3.9 V-6 until 2003 and the NV3500 also.
 
@Wildman, I went with larger tires that are rubbing in the wheel wells. I need a little more height. I have read in a couple places that a body lift makes the v8 swap eaiser. Do you agree with this? should I do an inche body lift in prep for the v8 and fix my clearance issue? My local jeep club seems to think a body lift is a bad idea because they say there are linkages and such that must be modified... but if I need a body lift anyway, maybe that is what i do.
 
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@Wildman, I went with larger tires that are rubbing in the wheel wells. I need a little more height. I have read in a couple places that a body lift makes the v8 swap eaiser. Do you agree with this? should I do an inche body lift in prep for the v8 and fix my clearance issue? My local jeep club seems to think a body lift is a bad idea because they say there are linkages and such that must be modified... but if I need a body lift anyway, maybe that is what i do.

Yes it for sure helps for clearance around the transmission. As you noted they can cause linkage issues with the transfer case shifter but the easy fix for this is to use a Savvy cable shifter. And you know hove two options for a 1.25" body lift. Both Savvy & BMB (Black Magic Brakes) sells them. It will also help you to clear your exhaust if you are going to use the factory manifolds.
If I remember the AA instructions they also recommend a body lift when doing the swap.
Now this isn't to say that some people haven't done it without a body lift but it does make it easier.
 
WOW Prices have really gotten stupid now.

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While a clean example this is just crazy. Asking Price $350 for Just the bellhousing.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/cra...84978901812214/?sale_post_id=3384978901812214
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Wildman, I'm back. Wedding is over and it is starting to cool down here in phoenix. I found a 700 dollor doner ram 1500 but it is a 1997. In other places I saw that the ecm needed to be from a later model ram. Can i use the motor and wireing harnes from this ram and then locate a newer computer? My jeep is a 1999, but in my notes I said i needed an 02 or later ecm. But i didn't document why. Just wondering if it is worth picking up a cheap donor vehicle. It has nearly 200K miles but I don't think I am going to find a 5.9 that is low miles at this point so I plan to do a rebuild before putting it in. That makes this look appealing. What are your thoughts?
 
Wildman, I'm back. Wedding is over and it is starting to cool down here in phoenix. I found a 700 dollor doner ram 1500 but it is a 1997. In other places I saw that the ecm needed to be from a later model ram. Can i use the motor and wireing harnes from this ram and then locate a newer computer? My jeep is a 1999, but in my notes I said i needed an 02 or later ecm. But i didn't document why. Just wondering if it is worth picking up a cheap donor vehicle. It has nearly 200K miles but I don't think I am going to find a 5.9 that is low miles at this point so I plan to do a rebuild before putting it in. That makes this look appealing. What are your thoughts?

You're fine picking up the 97 truck as your donner & yes you can use the motor & wiring from it. You are also correct that the 97 PCM won't work. Since you have a 99 you'll need to find a 98-01 PCM. You can use either a 5.2 or 5.9 MT PCM if you're planning on putting a tune on it. You don't want a PCM from an 02 or newer as they changed the way they talk to the dash from CCD to PCI in 02.

My truck has 270K miles on the stock motor.
 
Wildman, I'm back. Wedding is over and it is starting to cool down here in phoenix. I found a 700 dollor doner ram 1500 but it is a 1997. In other places I saw that the ecm needed to be from a later model ram. Can i use the motor and wireing harnes from this ram and then locate a newer computer? My jeep is a 1999, but in my notes I said i needed an 02 or later ecm. But i didn't document why. Just wondering if it is worth picking up a cheap donor vehicle. It has nearly 200K miles but I don't think I am going to find a 5.9 that is low miles at this point so I plan to do a rebuild before putting it in. That makes this look appealing. What are your thoughts?

Do you have to pass emissions where you live?
 
yes I have to pass emissions. I suspect you are referring to the motor being older than the vehicle, which is a no, no. But I believe it is the computer that tells the gov what year the motor is, so as long as that is correct I believe I should pass.
 
yes I have to pass emissions. I suspect you are referring to the motor being older than the vehicle, which is a no, no. But I believe it is the computer that tells the gov what year the motor is, so as long as that is correct I believe I should pass.

It's the emissions of the year that matters IMO. So in other words, since your TJ is a 99 you need to find out what emissions equipment was used on a 99 Ram 5.9 & have that. IT may be what is on your TJ but I'd check.

This has been talked about before where there are some places that DO look at the date stamp on the block and you can't have a engine built older than your model year. But that is very rare and I think it was other countries.
 
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I bought the donor vehicle today. You mentioned a tune. I saw you mention "flying ryan" earlier in this thread. Is that still who you would recommend?


I have read in several places that the 5.9 has "a small cam." I'm not looking for a race motor or anything but if a cam swap will get me more low and mid range I would do that before dropping it in the jeep. The intake seems to get a lot of attention as well but with low end a priority, I think I am fine with stock, but if there is something good out there for this application I would consider it.

or maybe I should just ask, do you have any good upgrades that I should consider? I would spend up to 3K on building the motor, but I don't think I need that much. it is a jeep after all, not a race car.

What are you running in the way of gearing and tire size? I have ended up with two jeeps. both 99s, 1st one with 4.56 gears and 33s. The 2nd has 5.13 gears and 37s. I am wondering if the 5.13 will be too much gear with a more powerful engine. Oh, both have AX15s. I am trying to decide what jeep gets a 5.9 first. 2nd has more aggressive suspension and an atlas 4.3 and is where I want the 5.9, but I may be sorry given the gearing. Though with the bigger tires final drive ratio is very similar.

The second jeep seems to have the motor raised and the transfer case lowered... Kinda like they pivoted everything around the front of the transmission. motor mounts are different, the belly plate that mounts the trans is lowered by about 1.5 inches with bushings. I suspect this is because the transfer case is bigger and needs the room. I was thinking that a body lift would allow me to correct this geometry. Have you or anyone you know done this swap with an atlas?
 
I bought the donor vehicle today. You mentioned a tune. I saw you mention "flying ryan" earlier in this thread. Is that still who you would recommend?


I have read in several places that the 5.9 has "a small cam." I'm not looking for a race motor or anything but if a cam swap will get me more low and mid range I would do that before dropping it in the jeep. The intake seems to get a lot of attention as well but with low end a priority, I think I am fine with stock, but if there is something good out there for this application I would consider it.

or maybe I should just ask, do you have any good upgrades that I should consider? I would spend up to 3K on building the motor, but I don't think I need that much. it is a jeep after all, not a race car.

What are you running in the way of gearing and tire size? I have ended up with two jeeps. both 99s, 1st one with 4.56 gears and 33s. The 2nd has 5.13 gears and 37s. I am wondering if the 5.13 will be too much gear with a more powerful engine. Oh, both have AX15s. I am trying to decide what jeep gets a 5.9 first. 2nd has more aggressive suspension and an atlas 4.3 and is where I want the 5.9, but I may be sorry given the gearing. Though with the bigger tires final drive ratio is very similar.

The second jeep seems to have the motor raised and the transfer case lowered... Kinda like they pivoted everything around the front of the transmission. motor mounts are different, the belly plate that mounts the trans is lowered by about 1.5 inches with bushings. I suspect this is because the transfer case is bigger and needs the room. I was thinking that a body lift would allow me to correct this geometry. Have you or anyone you know done this swap with an atlas?

You have 2 or 3 options with cams. The easiest thing to do is swap in 1.7:1 roller rockers from Harland Sharp. The next is to only do a cam swap & the third is to do a cam swap & roller rockers. And Yes keep the Kegger intake for low end torque. There are some mods you can do to it also. But you do want to replace the plenum on the bottom of the Kegger.

For the plenum kit you want to got to Hughes Engines. For a good cam & Kegger mods you want to go to HiPoTek. Make sure you talk to him and find out what cams he has in stock. I guess Comp Cams hasn't been grinding cams & there wasn't any new date in sight. So you may have to find someone selling a cam or just get roller rockers. The other thing you'll want is a larger throttle body.

I have 5.13 gears in my axles but I have a 46RE auto. I wish at times I had lower gearing in my axles but I want to crawl...
So if I had both Jeeps it would depend on what axles you have. I have a CRD60 rear & Ford HP44 front & I'm running 38" tires. I have a transfer case that is larger than the Atlas in mine. I have a 3 speed STaK's Monster Box.

Also replace things like your water pump & timing chain while you have it out.
 
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UTA used to have cams for sale but since COVID he hasn't. But he has some good tech and has done a lot of testing on the magnum engines.

http://utawesomeperformance.com/index.html

Sorry I forgot to answer your question about tuning. Yes FRP is the guy to go to for tuning, Ryan is highly recommended by a lot of guys that I know.
Even on a stock engine it's worth having him do his magic.

Keep the donor rig until you are completely done with the swap. You never know what you might need at any point along the way.
 
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Ryan definitely knows his stuff - he solved several problems on my Hemi and it now runs like a top. Highly recommended.

He also utilizes an innovative delivery method for his products. Ryan is a commercial airline pilot, and he drops your stuff out the window as he flys over your house…

🙂
 
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Ditch the Kegger.....do not follow ancient Magnum based conventional wisdom.... We have dyno'd this stuff and even on a torque based application , WITH PROPER TUNING you can keep your tq and pick up power everywhere else....

What throttle body do you recommend to go with the Air Gap?
 
Ditch the Kegger.....do not follow ancient Magnum based conventional wisdom.... We have dyno'd this stuff and even on a torque based application , WITH PROPER TUNING you can keep your tq and pick up power everywhere else....

I was always under the impression that the Kegger was good up to around 5k RPM's?

But you've got a lot more experience with them. The only options are the Air Gap or if you can find one the M1 manifold? Or are there other options now that I've not heard about?