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Hemi Swap in Pre 1980?

4K views 7 replies 5 participants last post by  85 Royal SE Prospector 
#1 ·
Hey everyone, I've just started looking and searching around on this forum for the last couple weeks, and figured this might be a good topic for my first post. I am hoping to buy a pop top here in the next month for a winter vehicle (only on really bad days, have a small car for the 40mi commute otherwise), tow rig for my quad trailer and chase vehicle for my sand rail at the sand dunes. I'd also use it for occasional mild offroading with some jeep buddies, and probably take it to the dunes from time to time with my family.

This year it will likely remain mostly as purchased, but eventually I'd like to have an injected 5.7L Hemi. Does anyone know of a successful 5.7L Hemi swap into a pre 1981 4x4 RC? I searched all over the place for an example, and all I can seem to find are 2wd conversions in early 90s rigs. What would be the best as far as transmission and TC? I would like an OD if at all possible. I thought that I read that the 5.7L rams have the t case drop on the wrong side, so I'm guessing that I'd have to go with a A518.

Any thoughts, suggestions, links, info is appreciated... Thanks!
 
#3 ·
MidnightExpress78 said:
Shouldn't this be moved to this board, cause Lanty and Superburban are the Pro's when it comes to building the custom rig.... {cool}

( http://ramchargercentral.com/parts-compatibility-and-interchange-discussion/ )

But off hand you will need:
- ALL of the wiring
- To drill/tap holes in exhaust for O2 sensor's
There are "Retrofit" Harnesses available from what i've heard to run the stock MPFI setup in an older vehicle, or you can do what my dad and i are doing with our '71 Duster (it's twin, the '71 Demon is getting a 426 Hemi) We're going to use a Dual Quad 4BBL Intake Manifold on the 5.7L Hemi and run an MSD "Hemi" Ignition Box to control the coil packs.

Behind that we're going with a Manual Transmission (most likely an A833) since the 5.7L shares the same Bellhousing as an LA series Small Block.

Pretty much everything to do such a swap is available "off the shelf", check out Summit Racing. They've got pretty much every key component required to do the swap, Intake Manifolds, Ignition Modules, ect.
 
G
#4 ·
ChrisKD said:
There are "Retrofit" Harnesses available from what i've heard to run the stock MPFI setup in an older vehicle, or you can do what my dad and i are doing with our '71 Duster (it's twin, the '71 Demon is getting a 426 Hemi) We're going to use a Dual Quad 4BBL Intake Manifold on the 5.7L Hemi and run an MSD "Hemi" Ignition Box to control the coil packs.

Behind that we're going with a Manual Transmission (most likely an A833) since the 5.7L shares the same Bellhousing as an LA series Small Block.

Pretty much everything to do such a swap is available "off the shelf", check out Summit Racing. They've got pretty much every key component required to do the swap, Intake Manifolds, Ignition Modules, ect.
Chris i was liking your post up in'till you said you putting a 5.7 in an old school mopar... :p

wish Chrysler kept the 360's....
 
#5 ·
The 5.7 is a superior engine to the old 360.  The Magnum 360 is much better than the LA series but it's still just a few steps away from an almost 60 year old design.

As for the Hemi swap, it's been done in older vehicles, Jeeps, street rods, etc.  Mopar Performance makes some swap computers and harnesses or if you wanted to keep the stock transmission you could use all the stock wiring and adapt it to the older truck. You may find with the stock setup that you will have to retain the stock instrument cluster, but you will have to do some research to be sure.  As far as the transfer case drop, you should be able to use a '88-'93 NP241 transfer case with the later transmission to keep the passenger side drop.
 
#6 ·
Elwenil said:
The 5.7 is a superior engine to the old 360. The Magnum 360 is much better than the LA series but it's still just a few steps away from an almost 60 year old design.

As for the Hemi swap, it's been done in older vehicles, Jeeps, street rods, etc. Mopar Performance makes some swap computers and harnesses or if you wanted to keep the stock transmission you could use all the stock wiring and adapt it to the older truck. You may find with the stock setup that you will have to retain the stock instrument cluster, but you will have to do some research to be sure. As far as the transfer case drop, you should be able to use a '88-'93 NP241 transfer case with the later transmission to keep the passenger side drop.
Debatable. It's completely different and it gets rid of much of what is good about the 360 while keeping much of the bad. It's not a good performance platform. Decent if you want a 350-400 horse driver but after that, not so great. Problem is, if you want a 350-400 horse driver you could use a 318 or whatever you pleased basically. The 6.1 is a much better engine and it's not good enough to replace every single 360, 440, 318, or 340.

The Mag was a few steps away and that's why all though it does have some downfalls, it was still better.

To be honest mounts might be the hardest parts. Might be some clearance problems with exhaust but might not be.
 
#7 ·
On the 360 vs. Hemi debate...check out BES Racing Engine's hemi that won the 2010 Engine Masters Challenge. They build all my motors (as they are only 4 miles away from me) and it is a NEAT piece. I'm not going to get in on the debate, just thought ya'll might want to see this. The only website that i could find at the moment is....

http://www.yellowbullet.com/forum/showthread.php?t=290301

And by the way....they told me it's for sale :)
 
#8 ·
Brian421 said:
On the 360 vs. Hemi debate...check out BES Racing Engine's hemi that won the 2010 Engine Masters Challenge. They build all my motors (as they are only 4 miles away from me) and it is a NEAT piece. I'm not going to get in on the debate, just thought ya'll might want to see this. The only website that i could find at the moment is....

http://www.yellowbullet.com/forum/showthread.php?t=290301

And by the way....they told me it's for sale :)
Yes, stroked apparently the 5.7s aren't bad. But it's still quite a bit to buy anything for them, where your HP will be less for the money than even a 318. I'd guess it was an $8k or 9k motor there. Would be a great bullet in an LX car.
 
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