Anyone ever swap in a V6 into their Abody?

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Mopar87

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Just like the title says, has anyone ever swapped a v6 into an a body?The 3.9 magnum v6 made more horsepower and torque from the factory than the aftermarket has managed to squeeze out from slant sixes other than all out racing builds.The 3.7 makes even power still, then the new pentastars are making close to 300 hp. So has anyone swapped in a v6 into their A body?I'm thinking a 10:1 compression 3.9 with a hot cam and some head porting would be kinda fun because it would make decent power while keeping roughly 100 lbs off the front end so it should handle fairly well.Throw in some 3.90 or 4.10 rear gears and it should get out of the hole alot better.The 3.9 v6 in my 1996 dodge ram 1500 2wd seems to do just fine all things considered: its running 285/75/16 tires with a 3.21 rear end, and its hooked up to a slushpumper that just lost 2nd gear... Before it lost second gear it felt about as fast as my 93 dakota with a 5.2L V8 with sloppy automatic and 4wd.So if it can do that I would imagine that it could be fun in a car application.By "fun" I mean that you can stand on it and not immediately go to jail like if you had 4-500 hp.
 
I'm sure. The 3.9 is pretty old. Search the forum for Pentastar swap. There's a guy that's done it. Real nice too. He's probably close to finished by now. Last I saw it was running and driving. He's done a real nice job.
 
An A Body with a modern, reliable, fuel injected V6. That is an interesting idea I had not thought of. Descent gas mileage and excellent reliability.
 
The intrepid i had with the 3.3 was a strong runner. I had thought about something like that for the barracuda. Would still be fun, and get respectable fuel mileage.
 
If you want to keep 100 lbs off the front end use an LA V8 with aluminum heads, aluminum intake, and aluminum radiator. Why reinvent the wheel.
 
Dart64gt swapped a 3.9 into his 66 Dart wagon. See my post #13 here. 3.9 V6

dart64gt2.jpg
 
I have a 92 Dakota with a strong running 3.9 Magnum/A500 that I was thinking using the complete powertrain including the fuel injection, wiring, AC, etc in my 47 Dodge project.
 
65 Dartman said:
I have a 92 Dakota with a strong running 3.9 Magnum/A500 that I was thinking using the complete powertrain including the fuel injection, wiring, AC, etc in my 47 Dodge project.
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They run pretty well. Mini Magnum!
 
Not a V6 but someone here a few years ago put an srt4 neon motor with the turbo in front of a 904 in an altered wheelbase dodge lancer. I thought that was a pretty sweet project.
 
I just don’t understand why you would. If you’re doing the swap anyway a V-8 is a must. It just makes no sense to swap a 6 for a 6. You won’t feel the extra 100 lbs on the front end vs the 6 cylinder. No offence intend to those who have or who are contemplating it.

Seems to me that most of those 3 litre ish 6 bangers don’t really get good economy either. With efi available nowadays and things like gear vendors or AOD trani’s you can get both exception mileage out of a v-8 and still have 400 horsepower with basically a camshaft and heads...

Another big reason for using a v8 swap is also residual value and recouping some of or all of your money when done. Put an340 in a car and now you’ve hit a Car! Put a 6 into a car and now you have a car competing with millions of other cars for sale...

My 2 cents....
 
Swap the V6 then drive a V8 car and you'll return to your V6 disappointed. A mild 250-300hp 318 would be fun, get decent mileage, be cheaper to swap in, as reliable and have more torque, which is what makes them "funner". Find a 5.2 mag, swap the pan, pickup and intake and enjoy. Newer engine swaps become far more complicated and most loose interest before its completed as they're pioneering new ground on how to retrofit all the systems required to run it and the transmission.
 
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4mulas said:
I just don’t understand why you would. If you’re doing the swap anyway a V-8 is a must. It just makes no sense to swap a 6 for a 6. You won’t feel the extra 100 lbs on the front end vs the 6 cylinder. No offence intend to those who have or who are contemplating it.
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Of course some of us are poor and gotta use what’s on hand and that might be a V6 out of a Dakota!

“4mulas said:
Seems to me that most of those 3 litre ish 6 bangers don’t really get good economy either. With efi available nowadays and things like gear vendors or AOD trani’s you can get both exception mileage out of a v-8 and still have 400 horsepower with basically a camshaft and heads...
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Mostly agree - the 3.9 Magnum in our 93 Dakota gets 21 on the highway less around town but then again it’s a 4WD. Where I disagree: the 3.6 that was in our 2013 got 30MPG with its 300 HP.

“4mulas said:
Another big reason for using a v8 swap is also residual value and recouping some of or all of your money when done. Put an340 in a car and now you’ve hit a Car! Put a 6 into a car and now you have a car competing with millions of other cars for sale...

My 2 cents....
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True but then again some of us gotta work with what we got!

dano said:
Swap the V6 then drive a V8 car and you'll return to your V6 disappointed. A mild 250-300hp 318 would be fun, get decent mileage, be cheaper to swap in, as reliable and have more torque, which is what makes them "funner". Find a 5.2 mag, swap the pan, pickup and intake and enjoy. Newer engine swaps become far more complicated and most loose interest before its completed as they're pioneering new ground on how to retrofit all the systems required to run it and the transmission.
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Again, some of us have to work with what we have in hand.
 
I like the idea for sure. Slap a turbo on it, and bam. Economy car when you want, badboy when you need to be.
 
4mulas said:
I just don’t understand why you would. If you’re doing the swap anyway a V-8 is a must. It just makes no sense to swap a 6 for a 6. You won’t feel the extra 100 lbs on the front end vs the 6 cylinder. No offence intend to those who have or who are contemplating it.

Seems to me that most of those 3 litre ish 6 bangers don’t really get good economy either. With efi available nowadays and things like gear vendors or AOD trani’s you can get both exception mileage out of a v-8 and still have 400 horsepower with basically a camshaft and heads...

Another big reason for using a v8 swap is also residual value and recouping some of or all of your money when done. Put an340 in a car and now you’ve hit a Car! Put a 6 into a car and now you have a car competing with millions of other cars for sale...

My 2 cents....
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I have a 5.2 in my 1993 dakota.Other than the sound it makes nothing about it is special.It moves the truck fine, but unless you manually shift the automatic its a dog, it gets 10 MPG in town and 14 mpg on the highway.The v6 in my 2wd 96 ram gets 16 MPG with me flogging the S$%t out of it, and before its automatic lost second gear it moved pretty good just in Drive.Granted the talk about automatics is a moot point because I have a manual transmission for my ram,and whatever engine goes in my scamp will be backed by a manual transmission.Automatic issues aside my dakota with the v8 has 33x11.5x15 mud tires with 3.55 gears while the ram with the v6 has 285/75/16 all terrains with 3.21 gears.By all accounts the dakota should destroy the ram in acceleration but it doesn't.As far as the weight savings goes, aluminum heads for the Magnum small blocks are $1000 plus change which doesnt seem worth it when the stock cast iron heads can be made to flow better and promote better combustion by keeping most of the heat in the chamber.I want handling and quick steering more than I want or need outright speed. All my life I have driven 4 cylinders, then moved up to sixes, the first v8 I've owned is in the dakota and its a bit lackluster all that power and grunt and it cant even tow with its 3.55 gears.

*EDIT* ok the v8 does accelerate much better than the V6 but only if you manually shift the automatic and turn off the overdrive.It sounds fantastic at 4000+ rpm but that doesnt help MPG.
 
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Using what you got is or may be false economy. After you get it all plugged in and find out whatcher gonna find out, then yer gonna find out, you couldda had a V8 for less money in the long run.
5.2s and 318LAs especially are obtainable every where at very affordable prices. Sell the 5.2 wanna-be slug to someone with a burned up slug that needs a drop-in slug and you'll be way ahead of the game. Even a smogger-teen can be made to run reasonably well with just bolt-ons...... in an A-body, or say a 3200 pounder. The 5.2 Magnum is just icing on the cake.
If I had a 3.9;
I would build me a Trebuchet
and see how far I could fling it.
There is a house in my neighborhood that needs a new roof. Maybe he'll give me a couple of bucks for the lobbing.
Ok sorry, there's gotta be an application for a 3.9 somewhere, lessee ...........................
nope it ain't coming to me
 
moparmat2000 said:
If you want to keep 100 lbs off the front end use an LA V8 with aluminum heads, aluminum intake, and aluminum radiator. Why reinvent the wheel.
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Fuel economy... you also still get better weight distribution because the "missing" 2 cylinders are off the front of the engine so the center of gravity is still quite a bit farther rearward.

I myself like the 3.8L minivan engines, my parents had a 2003 Chrysler Town & Country with the 3.8 and it moved nicely for being almost 2 tons and only having a 4-speed auto trans. Lots of mid-range torque on those engines and they're still pushrod OHV so the heads are nice and skinny. My mom's car is a 2014 Chrysler 300C with the Pentastar and 8-speed and that thing is a rocket up to about 70 MPH (compared to the 5.7 Hemi which she had in an older 300C, that was a beast above 70 MPH) but that would be too much work for me to put one in an A-body. I know the member here who did the Pentastar swap had a lot of trouble with exhaust routing because the Pentastar has the exhaust manifolds cast as part of the head and they exit at bad angles for an A-body installation.
 
A typical SBM late A-body might be 3450# and 53% front bias. that reads 1840 front and 1610 rear.

>A 100 pounds off the front while simultaneously 100 off the car,( like swapping out the SBM for a V6) reads 1740/1610 or 50.5% front bias.
>Moving a 50# battery to the back, reads 1790/1660 or 51.9% front bias.
>100 pounds off the front and moving 50 to the rear, while simultaneously 100 off the car (like SBM aluminum top-end and battery to the back), reads 1690 front/1660 rear or 50.4%front

Yeah I suppose you could Swap the SBM out for a V6 and move the battery to the back but I'd rather have a basic 350 hp 360 street engine together with its potential to rev 7000 while simultaneously getting high teens to mid 20s mpg, over the slug of a 3.9
I gotta admit tho, no contest between the 3.9 and the slanty. And if I absolutely only had the choice between those two for an early-A, the 3.9 would win; but don't ask me to like it. I'd still sooner have a pig heavy all-iron 360 up front and ballast the back,lol.
As for Early-As,I know a couple of guys with 360 in 'em and neither complains about front heavy...... course they drive like lil old ladies....... And I'll admit the pic in post #7 is kindof sweet.
 
Then again, like he said before a few times, he is working with what he has. Of course, some here bantering for the V8 swap could always donate one V8 to him. Ship it to him with EVERYTHING needed for a complete job free of charge.

But, since NO ONE HERE would ever do that, instead of beating up the poor guy on his choice, do something else, like, HELP HIM OUT in his endeavors.
 
Is that a fair comparison; the 4wd system sucks a large amount of power, that IMO 3.55s over 3.21s will not cover. And the 4x4 extended cab regular box Dakotas, are a tad porky. And my 92 came with an A518, with a 2.45 low gear, and not much stall..
What about your 96 2wd Ram. What might the weight difference be? and what stall is it running, compared to your Dakota?
You gotta compare apples to apples. Why do you suppose the 70 Duster 340/ 4speed, was sometimes called a Giant Killer? The engine really didn't have a lot of power. What that combo had was TM; Torque Multiplication, and a lightweight foundation, that BB full-frame non-Mopar cars struggled to even keep up with..
Every 100pounds is worth about 10hp.
 
Screw it just put in a 2.4 turbo 4-banger, no issues with space and more MPG than any 6 or 8 cylinder. Could still make a reliable 350 HP as well.

It'll just sound like a Neon SRT-4 lol
 
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