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weston19
Dodge Dakota
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10/04/2009
19:31:37
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 Subject: 3.9 Refresher
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Ive had a 92 dakota for a while now, decided to employ its use as winter beater. I want to go over the motor and fix the little issues such as the ticking and poor performance and it has issues warming up any time quickly. I have alot of automotive exp. but ive never gone through a pushrod dodge motor. Im going all the standards, Plugs/Cap/Rotor/wires, replacing the exhaust manifold and intake gaskets, checking the tps and iac and egr, running seafoam through it (oil and intake) and a couple personal tweaks i would like to do. Now ive heard the timing chains on these go quite often. The truck has 220+ kms on it. I figure it would be a good idea to change this so i dont get stranded this winter. Ive also heard that the tick is usually associated with the timing chain. Can Anybody confirm this? I just really wanna do enough to get it by for this winter, next year i have a 350tpi and 700 r4 going into it to make it a more suitable tow vehicle for my fun car.
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TICK
Dodge Dakota
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10/04/2009
21:07:38
| RE: 3.9 Refresher
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LIFTERS ...GO WITH NEW COYLES TIMING CHAIN ,,FEDERAL MOGLE LIFTERS AND H R ROLLER ROCKERS
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me
Dodge Dakota
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10/05/2009
08:58:40
| RE: 3.9 Refresher
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weston19 ignore the above post.
First you need to nail that noise down with a mechanics stethoscope or even a piece of hose.
Is this noise there when at idle but not when the rpm's are up?
Chances are with the year and mileage it's the timing chain. If or when you do replace it be sure to ad the tensioner.
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weston19
Dodge Dakota
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10/05/2009
13:40:57
| RE: 3.9 Refresher
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It gets louder with rpms but more so with load, Ive listened to it before when my friend owned it it almost sounds like its a leak out of the exhaust manifold but its too metallic to be a gas leak. Its most audible in the front drivers head, i dont think its a rocker as they would make more noise at idle and go away with rpms as the oil pressure rises. The more load the louder it is, which led me to believe it was the timing chain. As for the tensioner, i was reading up on that. You mean to say my 92 does NOT have a tensioner? And if it doesnt, what year 3.9 started getting the tensioner, or what year tensioner would i use? Thank you, Steve
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weston19
Dodge Dakota
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11/17/2009
23:39:27
| RE: 3.9 Refresher
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So update to the previous posts. I ended up doing what i believe to be a full tune-up but there is still much to address. Ive changed the plugs (Champ rc12yc's) Wires (champ's) Cap+Rotor (BWD Brass) both exhaust mani gaskets (fel-pro) both valve cover gaskets (felpro) Pvc, both valvecover grommets, belt+a/c removal, thermostat (195) re-worked the retarded heater hose routing and of coarse as a final step i went to set the timing. Before i even read the book i loosened up the dizzy. After this mistake, i put the motor back at tdc and manually set the dizzy back to what i believe to be correct, however i also noticed an excessive amount of slop in the dist. shaft. So Drive gears shot. w/e. I just set the backlash to what it would be driven and set it up that way. Anyways, when i fired it back up it was stumbling at idle and popping out the intake when i gave the throttle a quick snap. Im leaning towards the belly pan on this one....however the gas is very old and the sender is no longer working so im going to re-fill it and see if that helps at all.
Side note. The clicking is gone. I believe it was the lifters from lack of a good beating. I dumped some atf in the motor and let it run for a while. It would only do it under load, the truck isnt plated, and is getting new tires, so to get the oil pumping once warmed up i proceeded to light them up. Or the pass wheel to be exact. Regardless, im going to run some seafoam in conjunction with 15w40 diesel through it and get the rest of it. Im getting a friend that works at the ford dealer to look into the tools to sync it back perfectly, but if all else fails ill hook it up to an ocsilliscope and do it the old fashioned way. Will update when the stupid thing runs well lol
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weston19
Dodge Dakota
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11/23/2009
11:26:04
| RE: 3.9 Refresher
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Got this thing running like a champ now. Ended up being a dead coil. I could balence a hot coffee on the aircleaner now. Lots of torque and power, is very peppy, and is very healthy in general. Dropped the oil out just flushing it with the seafoam for now. I also tried reverse flushing the heater, and i now have excellent heat. It still take a bit to warm up as to why im not sure why. But its just my winter vehicle so i may install a second block heater in addition to replacing the oem one that no longer works, should keep it nice and warm for the frigid canadian temps. Otherwise this site has been great for info. Now im onto replacing some of the suspension components as everything is pretty much oem.
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Bucket
GenII
11/24/2009
14:12:40
| RE: 3.9 Refresher
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Good for you weston, i enjoyed reading your posts along with the updates !!!
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weston19
Dodge Dakota
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11/30/2009
12:29:02
| RE: 3.9 Refresher
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Bucket! lol from the first time i came on this site i noticed your rig, its definatly one of the most unique dakotas ive seen. I replaced the front sway bar bushings as they were gone, i have to replace the UCA bushings however winter is fast approaching and cutting my time to work on it short, so it may just end up getting some brakes all around and some rear shocks before she hits the road. For a very long time i considered selling it and putting the money towards a 1/2 chev, but this truck has grown on me. It will do pretty much what i need it to do, which is winter duty and in the summer hauling my racer to and from the track. We'll see how the 3.9 stands up, but i ve been swapping motors my whole life and doing things out of the ordinary so spring i will start with an onslaught of posts about the upcomming project to make this dak the ultimate towing/fun rig :)
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fotodak
Dodge Dakota
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12/01/2009
22:28:38
| RE: 3.9 Refresher
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Instead of ruining your truck with a Chebby drivetrain why not drop in a Mopar 360/A518?
use a 318 wire harness and fan shroud. get a 360 ECU and it's pretty much plug and play.
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weston19
Dodge Dakota
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12/02/2009
02:00:35
| RE: 3.9 Refresher
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lol because my other car is a chev. Ive been tuning them for a few years now, ive gotten pretty in depth with the gm ecm. Realistically i can make more power and use less gas with the chev motor ontop of the fact that i have all neccesary equipment to literally re-write gm's factory setting...Anything from Accel Enrich to Decel fuel cutout torque converter lock for multiple situations...the dodge ecm just doesnt have the immense support the obd1 gm ecm has. Before stand alones, people were putting obd1 computers in there hotrods to gain efi. It takes time, but results to me make more sense. I can even use different paremeters to lean the fuel out for better fuel economy. I have no doubt ill be getting 30 mpgs highway/city, with the correct gear. All this coding is built into the dodge computer as well, however the data that holds these core values are built into the ecm, making them as far as i know inaccesable without expensive flashing hardware..Im sorry i know im putting a chevy in a dodge lol just trust me for the purposes of this truck and my given knowledge, its going to be easier. I already have the harness made, posibly purchusing an lt1, other wise an l98 in the next few weeks.
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Bucket
GenII
12/02/2009
13:51:17
| RE: 3.9 Refresher
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Thanks Weston, out of the 5 dakotas i got, the Bucket-Mobile is the most unique, not to mention the other 4 are just plain white, no sense in using those for a photo. I look forward to your future posts.
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