Yippee, Yahoo, found a good deal on a 5.9

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MileHighDart

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Been shopping for a while for a good low mileage 5.9 for my Dart.

All I've been finding till now is engines with 160k miles for anywhere from $600 - $900 .

Guy listed one on craigslist about an hour ago. 1999 5.9 with 74,000 miles complete pan to throttle body, and all the front end accessories still on it. $600 bucks, AND he's going to deliver it to me ! For free ! Exactly what I needed, told him I didn't have a pickup anymore and would have to rent a uhaul trailer or something, and he just offers to bring it too me since I met his asking price. Unbelievable. Good deal for him too, 45 minutes on craigslist, and its sold.

Told him I cant get my cash till Tuesday because of the holiday on Monday. He's bringing it up Tuesday or Wednesday morning ( I work afternoons). Offered to give him a deposit via paypal or some other way, but he said he'd hold it for me cause I was the first to call.

Now I can finally give up the old 318 for something with a little more power. I'll post some pics next week after I have it in my hot little hands !
 
They didn't bring that around here. I had a 98 360 complete throttle body to pan along with the ecu and all the wiring from under the hood. Truck had rotted away but motor clean with I think 80ish k. Couldn't get offers more then a few hundred for it. Finally sold it to a buddy for 100 bucks and 100 for a 727 with a stall convertor/shift kit from a project car. I guess its all about location and who needs the stuff.

Should be a big upgrade over the 318.. Getting roller cam off the start.
 
moparlvr166 said:
Are you going to keep FI or switch to Carb
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I'm torn on that, probably go with the Eddy manifold and my current carb, unless I can sell off a few more parts and come up with the money for a harness and tanksinc tank and pump. The money situation is pretty tight right now so I think it will be cheaper to go carb for now. I can always start with a carb and buy the tank/pump, harness, fuel lines and stuff for the injection as I get the money and then switch it over later.
 
I'm jealous, just bought a 5.2l but it turned out to be junk, now I'm gonna hold out for a 5.9.
Are you gonna run it as is, or do a refresh with new bearings and what not?
 
macdrew77 said:
I'm jealous, just bought a 5.2l but it turned out to be junk, now I'm gonna hold out for a 5.9.
Are you gonna run it as is, or do a refresh with new bearings and what not?
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I may go as far as to pull the heads to look at the cylinders, and since i'll have the pan off I might pull a couple rod caps to inspect the bearings. But if it all looks good I'm going to run it as is.
 
I got my '00/5.9 w/80K in it. Went the carb route. Excellent power plant.
 
Mine is a 96 that had 90k on it, came out of a front end crashed truck and looked REALLY nice inside.
Went the EQ heads route with the LA drilled intake pattern.
Aftermarket Magnum pattern intakes are either kind of expensive, or cast cheap as hell and the LA pattern gives a TON more possible intakes that can be used.
Changing the cam can be a bit of a can of worms because the stock Mag doesn't have much lift since they are truck motors and designed for torque.
You might want to talk to Evan (magnummopar) on here about those EQ heads when you can since they open up so many possibilities over stock Magnum stuff.
I realize you said you are on a tight budget right now, but those heads may save you a lot of headaches and expense down the road.

When you pull the stock heads look right between the two valves on all four corner cylinders as this is where the stock heads typically crack.
Cracks don't necessarily mean they are dead though, as a lot of Magnums have cracks but show no signs of a problem.
Would also be nice if the flywheel/flexplate comes with it, as they are balanced for that motor, and by elongating one of the converter bolt holes about 1/8 inch bolts right up to the 904 or 727 converters.

This just some stuff I learned along the way when I swapped mine.
Hope it helps.
 
TrailBeast said:
Mine is a 96 that had 90k on it, came out of a front end crashed truck and looked REALLY nice inside.
Went the EQ heads route with the LA drilled intake pattern.
Aftermarket Magnum pattern intakes are either kind of expensive, or cast cheap as hell and the LA pattern gives a TON more possible intakes that can be used.
Changing the cam can be a bit of a can of worms because the stock Mag doesn't have much lift since they are truck motors and designed for torque.
You might want to talk to Evan (magnummopar) on here about those EQ heads when you can since they open up so many possibilities over stock Magnum stuff.
I realize you said you are on a tight budget right now, but those heads may save you a lot of headaches and expense down the road.

When you pull the stock heads look right between the two valves on all four corner cylinders as this is where the stock heads typically crack.
Cracks don't necessarily mean they are dead though, as a lot of Magnums have cracks but show no signs of a problem.
Would also be nice if the flywheel/flexplate comes with it, as they are balanced for that motor, and by elongating one of the converter bolt holes about 1/8 inch bolts right up to the 904 or 727 converters.

This just some stuff I learned along the way when I swapped mine.
Hope it helps.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, I've been reading a lot of magnum swap threads, but more info is always good. I've thought about the EQ heads but just don't think I can swing an extra $1000 right now. If I go carb I will pony up the cash for the Edelbrock magnum specific airgap. I want to use the serpentine belt setup, and I hear that manifold works best as far as the bypass hose fitting like it should, and the quality of the casting is better than the knockoff's.
 
I'll do that rumblefish360.

The guy sent me some pics of the engine. Pretty complete, except the harness has been chopped off as you can see in one of the pics. But all front end stuff is there, a/c, alt, pwr steering pump, fan. even still has the belt on it. Also I noticed that the flexplate is still on there too.

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59-2.jpg


59-3.jpg


59-4.jpg
 
MileHighDart said:
I may go as far as to pull the heads to look at the cylinders, and since i'll have the pan off I might pull a couple rod caps to inspect the bearings. But if it all looks good I'm going to run it as is.
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When (and if) you pull a rod cap, be sure to push the piston down some and look at that half of the bearing also. All the Magnums I have checked have had upper rod bearing wear. Not like about to make noise wear, just the outer, thin grey coating was gone some and you could see the copper color coming through. Even the 35k mile one in my Scamp had very early stages of this. It wasn't showing copper color or anything, but you could see that the process had started. I threw new rod bearings in it since I was there.

I looked into what causes upper rod bearing wear and come to find out it's from high engine load at low RPMs. Sounds exactly like what a motor in a truck would experience, if it was worked. Now maybe a magnum from a Durango wouldn't see the same use as one from a Ram, so maybe it wouldn't have the same wear. All my magnums came from trucks.
 
dragbaron said:
When (and if) you pull a rod cap, be sure to push the piston down some and look at that half of the bearing also. All the Magnums I have checked have had upper rod bearing wear. Not like about to make noise wear, just the outer, thin grey coating was gone some and you could see the copper color coming through. Even the 35k mile one in my Scamp had very early stages of this. It wasn't showing copper color or anything, but you could see that the process had started. I threw new rod bearings in it since I was there.

I looked into what causes upper rod bearing wear and come to find out it's from high engine load at low RPMs. Sounds exactly like what a motor in a truck would experience, if it was worked. Now maybe a magnum from a Durango wouldn't see the same use as one from a Ram, so maybe it wouldn't have the same wear. All my magnums came from trucks.
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I'll be sure to look for that. This one is from a Ram 2500 so it could have that kind of wear.
 
congrats on the great engine find. well I hope I found a good deal too. I just bought a 2000 dodge Durango with the 5.9 for $600 complete. the Durango has 140,000 miles on it. it was in a mild wreck. the owner died while it was at the frame shop and for some reason they could never get a title for it. I bought the Durango for the engine trans to put in my 72 dodge dart or a duster if I can ever find one.lol
 
Which intake manifold gaskets should I use when installing an Edelbrock airgap. LA360 gaskets, or 5.9 Magnum gaskets? OR doesn't matter?
 
MileHighDart said:
Which intake manifold gaskets should I use when installing an Edelbrock airgap. LA360 gaskets, or 5.9 Magnum gaskets? OR doesn't matter?
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if you are using the factory magnum heads you will have to use the magnum intake gaskets. the magnum and LA intake bolt angles are different
.
 
Running long tube headers? Mock it all up ,on the engine stand.Some aftermarket long tube headers,hit the truck engine mount bosses on the engine block......
 
Abodybomber said:
Running long tube headers? Mock it all up ,on the engine stand.Some aftermarket long tube headers,hit the truck engine mount bosses on the engine block......
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Yes, I've got a fresh set of Doug's D453's ready to go on it. I'll definitely check the fit before it goes into the car.
 
MileHighDart said:
Yes, I've got a fresh set of Doug's D453's ready to go on it. I'll definitely check the fit before it goes into the car.[/QUOTE
Checkmate.... Lots of whizzed off hours" avoided... Good Luck... thw model on your photo shoot...(sighhhhhhh, lol...)
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Dang man i'd have sold you my backup 5.9 for $600:). '01 durango, 87k was an insurance total from rear damage, got all new clevite bearings, (ford lol)rings, timing chain etc. They are only $240 at littleton u-pull, tons there last time i was nosing around.
 
skizzo said:
Dang man i'd have sold you my backup 5.9 for $600:). '01 durango, 87k was an insurance total from rear damage, got all new clevite bearings, (ford lol)rings, timing chain etc. They are only $240 at littleton u-pull, tons there last time i was nosing around.
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I know, I could have gotten one from Littleton u pull. But just didn't have time to go pull one, and would have had to rent a U-Haul or something cause I don't have a pickup anymore. This one was low miles, 74k, very complete, and the guy delivered it to me for free, to Lyons from Aurora.
The ones in the u pull, you have no idea of the milage, or if those trucks are there because of blown engines, or what.
I'm OK with what I paid and what I got
 
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