3.9 into K-frme

[lewisevery]

I just Purchased a 2001 Dakota for the driveline. I want to drop it into my 74 dart sport but the oil pan looks like it is going to hit the factory K-frame. I want to upgrade to the QA1 anyway so does anyone know if the oil pan will fit into the tubular K-frame. the truck isn't moving anytime soon with all the snow around it and more to come, but the dart is in the garage and I can do the swap now if I can be assured it would fit. I wanted fuel injection and good gas mileage and the v6 fits the bill. I just can't find a pan that fits cars.

 

[72bluNblu]

Not sure if the truck pan will clear the QA1 K frame, I would say probably not. My guess would be that you'd need to do something like a HemiDenny K frame with a conversion to a steering rack if you wanted to use that truck pan, the stock steering will still be in the way with a QA1 K. You'd probably be better off making up a custom pan, as I'm not aware of any mid-sump pans for the 3.9, and aftermarket offerings are pretty much nil.

As far as the 3.9 goes, I hope it works out for you. My own personal experience with the 3.9 in a 2002 Dakota was that despite having significantly less power than a 5.2, the gas mileage wasn't significantly better. Not enough to make it worthwhile. They were only EPA rated at 14/20 mpg for city/highway, and I found that I pretty much never got to that 20 mpg number. I've gotten 17 mpg out of the carbureted 318 in my Challenger. I would hope the 3.9 would do a little better in a lighter vehicle like your Dart Sport, but keep in mind the Dak had a 5 speed overdrive manual to get to those numbers. So, maybe not.

 

[lewisevery]

I am hoping that with the driveline losing 1100 LBS to pull and having steeper gears gas mileage would improve. I am using 2.73's instead of the 3.55's from the Dakota. I will look into the other K-frames but I was hoping to retain the existing steering as it is all new.

 

[72bluNblu]

Yeah if you're going to stay with a rear steer system you're going to need a different pan. Are you using the transmission out of the Dak too? That's going to take some cutting. Manual or auto?