Found a new project. Ram D250

[threewood]

I lucked into this truck, my wife was the middleman. My wife put out feelers for a project truck that I was interested in finding. Our neighbors son runs a tow truck and mentioned to her a Dodge truck that was abandoned by the owner. Literally. This thing was dead on the road, tow company got called by sheriff to tow it, owner wouldn't pay the impound fee and signed over title and keys to them.

Bought it for $300, no rust. 1992 Dodge Ram D250 with a 318 Magnum, o.d. automatic and Dana 70 rear with 4.10:1 gears. Turns over doesn't run. Has multi port fuel injection (would have loved a carburetor). I'll figure out the issues after I get my GTX engine back together.

 

[junior340]

Looks fun to me. Keep us updated!!

 

[Budnicks]

Be a good project, get more learning in too...

good luck

 

[Richard Cranium]

Yup, that’s a project alright!

 

[69 Sleeper Bee]

That's cool !!!

 

[threewood]

I need to hose out the engine compartment and the passenger compartment. It's a bit dirty.

 

[Detective D]

I like it.
On that era of cab, the drip rails plug up, and water likes to come down inside the door seal and sit right by the front of the door frame on the floor. Hard to see, but might be the dark area in the pictures there is wet.
What happens then is the floor rots away. The rocker might even survive, but the floor will start at that corner and move in towards the center hump. Carpet or mats will prevent the moisture from drying up in time to prevent rust.

As for not running, hard to say. I would make sure you have fuel going first, Chrysler made pretty mediocre fuel pumps in the 1990's for their trucks. Don't let the tank go under half and they last longer. They tend to cavitate air and burn up if you let the tank get too low.

Have fun! It looks like a useful truck once you get the bugs out.

 

[Ron_M]

For no start, could be the SMEC or whatever it was called back then. My Dakota has a tendency to not fire even so often. I swapped in the spare SMEC that I carry and she fires right up. Swap back and all is good until the next episode. (Yes I know about the Dakota harness issue.)

 

[threewood]

When I get to it, I'll check for fuel and spark. Nothing stands out as bad, except the muffler looked all bloated. I'll cut it off. I'm also going to run a compression check. I haven't even checked the oil.

 

[Jerry Hall]

I think we would all rather have mechanical problems than rust.

 

[moparker]

Yes. The computer. Sounds like the issue. You can get them at Autozone.

 

[threewood]

Treasures!!!

 

[threewood]

I ordered some tune up parts. Truck has 215k on the odometer so at minimum it will get oil change, plugs, distributor cap, rotor, pickup, I'll see if the fuel tank needs dumped or cleaned, I'll slap a fuel pressure gauge on the injector rails to see what pressure it has, check for spark and go from there.

If it needs a rebuild, I'll break it down and see what it looks like. Rings, bearings, seals, etc. Same with transmission.

I'm considering changing the intake over to carburetor and removing all the underhood emissions crap.

 

[chargervert]

Can't go wrong for the $300.00 buy in price!

 

[threewood]

Put a battery in it and no crank. Good draw on the dash gauge. Got under it and couldn't turn the motor over with a ratchet. So I pulled the plugs. No water gushing out lol. There may be some oil consumption however lol. All the plugs are wet. Dipstick showed oil in the pan but what looked like mud on the end of the dipstick. I squirted some Kroil in the cylinders. I'll check again tomorrow to see if it will budge.
1 3 5 7

2 4 6 8

Replaced the headlight surrounds and turn indicators. It's pretty much rebuilt

 

[33 IMP]

Smog checks where you live?
Where I'm at in AZ, throw a carb on it, and have at it!

 

[threewood]

Smog checks where you live?
Where I'm at in AZ, throw a carb on it, and have at it!

No smog checks. I may need to pull it apart, so for now staying with the mpfi.

 

[Detective D]

With how oiled up those plugs are, you might find out the plenum gasket on the intake failed. If you do get it to spin, you can look down through the throttle body into the intake wit a light. If the bottom of the inside of the intake is oily, then the bottom gasket went out. This will create a monster vacuum leak but the magnum engines will run anyway, just really rich and sucking oil. You can also check if you have vacuum on both the PCV side and the driver side valve cover hoses, you should not get vacuum on both sides going into the valve cover.
It is not a hard repair just time consuming. I had to replace the gasket on my 98 yard sale Dakota. Running rich also ruined the cat converter, but I do not have emissions checks where I live so I cut it off and tied the O2 to the frame rail(the back one, you need the front one) and run it.
Just a few things to look for as you dig in

 

[Don Frelier]

I would keep the fuel injection if you plan on driving it much.
Way better.

I have a good 5.2 sitting in my barn.
But it would be a long long trip...

 

[threewood]

I haven't seen any usable motors listed in my area. I'm going to pull the intake and heads and see how the pistons look and how bad everything is stuck. If I can get it apart and it has no cracked bores or roached crank I'll rebuild it. Otherwise I'll be looking for a core.