The overland beater: Dodge 1500

[kraven]

The truck:


The challenge: minimal budget, maximum fun.

Criteria: Reliable, able to tow, goes in the snow, and does road trips.

Why? I made several mistakes.
1. I attended the Overland Expo last year. Big mistake on my part. Now I want to do some overlanding.
2. I know how to work on stuff
3. I bought a house, finally settling down after being a rolling stone for my whole life, and I need to maintain it. That means I need a 4wd pickup.
4. I read a bunch of threads on here, and Zach Bowman's (leftoflucky on here) series of stories on The Drive about selling his house and living on the road.
5. Everyone needs a good 4wd and I didn't have one.

I did the only thing I could do when a man is looking to blunder into a huge mistake like buying a piece of crap vehicle or pet sitting for a swinger party. I put an ad on Craigslist. Project 4wd truck wanted. Ford/Chevy/Toyota.

Guy with a Dodge calls. It's a few miles from a Chevy I'm going to look at, so why not?
It has rusty wheel arches, solid frame, "blown head gasket" (2nd gen Ram gasser for "cracked head"), and the wheel/tire combo is the product of a couple of "oh ****!" moments that surely bent at least two rims. Nothing is tweaked, the axles are solid and not bleeding, the wiring isn't hacked too badly. Typical Southern Appalachian poverty indicators of cheap speaker wire run willy nilly to door speakers, body dents, dings, clamp on battery cable ends, interior that smells like a Ronco smokeless ashtray in constant use since your Aunt Mildred bought off a tv commercial in the 70's, etc. Good bones, crappy upkeep. Just what I wanted. Except its a Dodge. I'm a Ford guy. Really, I'm a Toyota guy. But I have more experience working on Ford because my Toyota stuff is so reliable.

The good: I got it cheap, less than a grand. So, it's practically a winner already. It's a pretty well equipped truck and it's solid. The window sticker came with the paperwork and owner's manual. It was optioned with the tow package and anti-slip diff, so heavy duty cooling, whatever that is, and maybe a clutch diff to rebuild instead of buying an LSD. It was ordered with the 5.9, so plenty of beans for towing. High amp alternator option was added, so plenty of juice for stuff. The A/C and heat work, miracle of miracles. The tailgate shuts, which means the bed isn't tweaked, which means the frame isn't tweaked. 4 actually good tires with nearly new tread depth.
The Bad: engine is shot, trans probably is on its way out, and I haven't really looked at the t-case aside from using 4 low to move it around. Not that bad, it's what I expected. Rear bumper is rotten. Wiring needs a good unforking. Cab corner rust I can't live with because it looks awful. I'm probably going to find pebbles of meth as I take the interior apart to gut it and clean the nicotine out of it.
Not looking forward to that. Front axle ends make noise in 4wd.
The plan: Get it running, driving, stopping, steering, and articulating. Do the standard stuff: sleeping setup, bed topper, and skid plates. Stay on budget (no, srsly).

Maybe:
4bt swap
Air bags for the rear
LED's
Roof rack

Sun is rising and I'm going to start a compression test to see if it's a rebuild or a head gasket. I wanted to write all this down before the blue morning light of day 2 with this pile damps my enthusiasm and will to live.

 

[35xj]

Looks like a lot of work to come!

 

[kraven]

It's not so bad. I'm already elbow deep in a car restoration and do a lot of bikes.
It's a lot of points on the punch list, but overall it's not too shabby. Went out this morning and didn't lose motivation. So, that's nice.

It didn't have a battery in it since PO kept his battery, so I ordered an Optima for it. Gotta pick up or make some battery cables for it.

Probably going to pull the engine this weekend and get the block/crank to the machine shop and have the heads magnafluxed. It's leaking from every gasket and is the antithesis of reliable. Also looking at 408 kits just for the fun of it. But even if the compression was good, it needs new seals and gaskets. I expect I'll find some black bearings and worn oil pump teeth.

 

[borison]

This appears to be a noble undertaking. Good luck and I look foreword to your progress. Godsspeed.

 

[kraven]

Thanks man.

Found out there's an upgraded aftermarket iron head for the magnum engines. It's a performance part called Engine Quest. Engineered in Oz, cast and machined in China by people who care. Naturally it's roughly double the cost of a set of factory heads. But it flows more and has a better water management in the notoriously crack prone area in the chamber. If I can find a set at a swap meet or on racing junk, I might give them a try. But 500 bare is a little spendy for a frugal project like this. The flip side of that is that they add an extra layer of reliability. The flip side of that is I've had previously very bad experience with Chinese castings and machined parts. So, I have to decide what I want to do with that.

The engine is panning out to be a few options.
Crate engine, long block, short block, low mile used swap, and diy build.

Lots of variables, but right now I'm leaning toward doing the used takeout engine so I can take the original out and rebuild it, stick it in the corner, and have it if I need it. The originals seem to be good for 200k+ miles, so a low miles takeout should be alright for 100k+ miles in my truck.

The 408 stroker seems to be a waste of money, unless you want to invest in a set of expensive heads and intake to help it breathe properly. That's off the table for this project.

Looks like a trans is 1000 bucks to my door, and I can get one in 2 days. So that's good to know. The trans is good in this truck, but these Chrysler overdrives aren't particularly long lived the way the engines are.

Gonna wait on pulling the engine til I get the new one here. Taking something apart, then waiting a couple of weeks to reassemble it is a good way to lose very important bits and waste a lot of time looking for them or chasing them in junkyards. And I'm over 40, so I don't remember things the way I used to when I was 20 and knew everything.

 

[jaxyaks]

whats your budget

 

[kraven]

I'm trying to see if I can do the whole enchilada for 4k.
Right now I'm at 800, including buying the truck and an Optima for it. Not counting title work.

Seat was disgusting, so I pulled the whole thing out and dragged it down to the barn. I hit it with the hose and oxy clean. The combination of mud, farts, and nicotine was too much for febreeze. We're having some really nice warm weather right now (60F) for February, so I'm taking advantage of the opportunity to do wet work. I'll pull the back seat too and clean it with oxy. It's not dirty. Just smells like an ashtray.

Carpet is pretty disgusting too. Gonna get a real carpet cleaner after it and see what it does. It looks like a goner though. Might tear it out and lay a rubber mat down. I'm not a fan of carpet in trucks anyway.

PO left me a bunch of garbage and wood pulp in the bed, but I do have an original MoPar bed liner. That and 2.47 will get me a Venti Pike Place at Starbucks.

Found the detritus of "do I fix my truck or do I eat?" Blue Devil, head gasket in a can and an empty quart can of brake fluid. Looks like I got brakes to do too. I mean, really, you don't buy a truck like this and not do brakes.

 

[kraven]

Had a few minutes today after lunch to get into the engine and start readying the engine for extraction. Manifold removal makes it easy to get to bellhousing bolts.
Thanks for the crappy heads, Lee Iacocca.
White stuff = steam deposits. The only nut/bolt I had trouble extracting was the one by this port. Had to take a cold chisel and slice it in half. Sucker was steam rusted on there.


Looked at a replacement engine at lunch and emailed some with the machine shop. Got a spreadsheet going for the various scenarios. Time to pick a horse and get on with it.

 

[kraven]

Well, there's your problem.

Ordered a set of new EQ heads, new valves, gaskets, head bolts, etc. Bout another 750 bucks to my door after price shopping while the wife was sick in bed.
The short block is in pretty good shape. The bores are barely worn and concentric, held compression in the 120's. Hopefully it only needs a hone. But I'm not holding my breath.

Bought the rebuild manual for the engine and it should be here any day. Yes, I can find all the specs on the intertubes, but it's nice to have a real live book on the shelf, in my hands, and readable even if the power goes out. And people should be paid for their work, if they sit down and write something enjoyable, useful, or both.

 

[Buddha.]

Good work, I need a project like this.

 

[drewactual]

Don't forget to seal that plenum plate to the intake!!!! That's likely the biggest issue with those engines.. and it cascades from there.

 

[kraven]

Yeah, don't let me find a deal on a cheap Mopar MPI intake or an M1. I'll turn that keg intake into a doorstop.

 

[drewactual]

Ha!!! I chunked an airgap not a year ago... Had a 52mm TB from fastman on it... Couldn't find anyone who wanted it....

 

[kraven]

Haha! See!? I'll find someone who wants to part with one. I also read that the intake is okay if you get shorter bolts that don't bottom and can be torqued appropriately.

Parking this here so I don't lose it: http://www.trademotion.com/partlocator/index.cfm?siteid=213764 discounted online mopar performance parts and oe parts catalog. A lot of the aftermarket stuff is pretty low quality, so Mopar is turning into a very fairly priced alternative with reasonably reliable quality.

 

[kraven]

In case you think I'm just buying fancy heads for the fun of it. The stockers habitually live in a state of crackalackin'. The opposite of my goal of reliability.

We also have some evidence of the gasket blowing at the narrow point between middle cylinders.