Hello, I just bought a 78 W200 last night, it's my first Dodge truck. I've been reading a lot of posts here trying to learn about common problems and fixes but there's a lot to read!
The truck has the 360 with a holley 2 barrel. 4 speed tranny with granny low. All time 4wd of course. 4:10 gears with an lsd in the rear. It's a strong truck for sure, I wanted it to tow or haul not to offroad, unless it's getting firewood or something. I plan on putting on or building a dump bed kit for it too. Has anyone done this? DIY or did you buy a kit?
One of the first things I need to fix is to replace the oil pan gasket. Can I get the oil pan off without lifting the engine?
Then it's getting it to run right. It has a "reman" carb on it. A previous owners ebay score so I don't know if it's set up right or if it was messed with. It runs crazy rich, stumbles when I try to accelerate, a lot of pinging too. I can see a lot of gray smoke from the exhaust when I floor it while it's pinging and trying to accelerate. What are my carb options for the stock manifold? What will bolt up? I have no problem with using an adapter to mount a different carb. I'm not sure if I want to swap the manifold for a 4 barrel or not. I'm not after as much poer as possible, I just want it to run right. With the low gears, I don't need a lot of power to do what I want, so a carb that provides good fuel economy would be nice.
What's the timing supposed to be, the info I found says 0 degrees...
One more thing, this truck has no catalytic converters on it. It's just straight pipes from the manifold to two mufflers exiting before the rear wheel wells. Is it supossed to have cats or not for a 78? i ran the vin and it weight class is 6001 to 10000 lbs, and the title says the gross weight is 8000lbs so maybe the weight class makes it exempt??
Thanks for your help.
The truck has the 360 with a holley 2 barrel. 4 speed tranny with granny low. All time 4wd of course. 4:10 gears with an lsd in the rear. It's a strong truck for sure, I wanted it to tow or haul not to offroad, unless it's getting firewood or something. I plan on putting on or building a dump bed kit for it too. Has anyone done this? DIY or did you buy a kit?
One of the first things I need to fix is to replace the oil pan gasket. Can I get the oil pan off without lifting the engine?
Then it's getting it to run right. It has a "reman" carb on it. A previous owners ebay score so I don't know if it's set up right or if it was messed with. It runs crazy rich, stumbles when I try to accelerate, a lot of pinging too. I can see a lot of gray smoke from the exhaust when I floor it while it's pinging and trying to accelerate. What are my carb options for the stock manifold? What will bolt up? I have no problem with using an adapter to mount a different carb. I'm not sure if I want to swap the manifold for a 4 barrel or not. I'm not after as much poer as possible, I just want it to run right. With the low gears, I don't need a lot of power to do what I want, so a carb that provides good fuel economy would be nice.
What's the timing supposed to be, the info I found says 0 degrees...
One more thing, this truck has no catalytic converters on it. It's just straight pipes from the manifold to two mufflers exiting before the rear wheel wells. Is it supossed to have cats or not for a 78? i ran the vin and it weight class is 6001 to 10000 lbs, and the title says the gross weight is 8000lbs so maybe the weight class makes it exempt??
Thanks for your help.