Since you guys know everything... 1997 Dodge Dakota Exhaust Questions

I have a 1997 Dodge Dakota 2WD extend cab with the 3.9L V6. Lately, it's been a complete PITA. I fired it up for the first time in about a month yesterday to move it to fix the lower ball joints that made it fail state inspection, and it ran like crap and the muffler sounded like it developed a leak.

I started looking for cat-back exhausts for it, and I found a nice (and cheap) Dynomax system... with a catch. It says it's for 4WD models, and they don't list a 2WD variant. Anyone know the difference? I'm guessing it will probably fit anyway...

Used it on 2 separate Dakota s if its the single 3 inch setup.

It hangs too low on a 2wd. If yiu shorten the hangers it fits great and sounds good. The tip is brushed. Expect to cut the midpipe to length.

Gained no power on my 3.9 and very slight gains on my 5.2. Both were five speed extended cabs.

Damn. That was a really good post, Duster!

I put a Borla on mine - it even made the 3.9 sound good. Ripped out the air box and put in a nice cold-air intake and a polished throttle body to help it breathe better too.

Vigo wrote: Damn. That was a really good post, Duster!

Damn, better post from Lesley. Tough act to follow.

yup. a slightly ported throttle body, in addition to deleting the stock air box and replacing it with a chunk of the cut off 3 inch exhaust tubing and a conical air filter behind the headlight was the biggest bang for the buck i got with a dakota. either the 3.9 or 5.2.

also, the hotchkis springs, with stock front and rear sway bars, kyb monomax shocks, poly bushings, a home fabbed x-brace, and cragar soft 8's in 17x9 with 255/55/17 tires made for a DAMN nice truck. i miss by black one.....

reason i never tried the borla was price.

the stock throttle body can be ported with a 3 inch flap wheel in a drill. theyre stepped for some god awful reason. also, smooth and radius the top plate. most of the benefit of the aftermarket TB's with very little of the cost.

michael

It's just so weird to get a 100% relevant and helpful response as the first reply to a question you posted on the internet, that when it happens it's shocking.

TRoglodyte wrote:

Vigo wrote: Damn. That was a really good post, Duster!

Damn, better post from Lesley. Tough act to follow.

Don't listen to me. Next, I ripped out the engine, replaced it with a 5.9, headers, one-piece aluminum intake manifold, bumpy cam, 1.6 roller rockers and a high stall torque converter. Which of course entailed that I upgrade the transmission: all kevlar bands and clutches, transgo shift kit and a high stall torque converter. Oh, and a locking rear end. :-P It's a sickness I tell ya!

In reply to Dusterbd13: I ported my throttle body to 53 mm. Got the kyob shocks, drop kit and groovy stillen front bumper, rear roll pan, custom flashed computer with no rev limiter or speed governor. My air intake was exactly like yours - a length of polished steel attached to the air hat using a rubber coupler from Home Depot and a K&N filter. Truck is bloody fast - had it up to 240 kms/hr one night, buried the needle.

Can you guys give me a better description of the porting work? In the process of helping my brother put a 5.2 magnum into an '89 Convertible.

Here you go:

http://www.customdakotas.com/forums/v8-performance/16083-throttle-body-porting.html

Dusterbd13 wrote: Used it on 2 separate Dakota s if its the single 3 inch setup. It hangs too low on a 2wd. If yiu shorten the hangers it fits great and sounds good. The tip is brushed. Expect to cut the midpipe to length. Gained no power on my 3.9 and very slight gains on my 5.2. Both were five speed extended cabs.

After looking into it more, it appears that Dynomax once offered a 2WD kit that consisted of a mid pipe, muffler, and tail pipe. They discontinued it and only offer a 4WD kit that just has a muffler and different tail pipe.

I think I may just get a stock replacement mid pipe, a muffler of some sort (most likely a cheapo turbo muffler), and a new tail pipe or even a side exit dump if I can get away with it. I'm going for cheap, not power. The truck has 167k miles on it and is used for weekend dump runs and trips to home improvement stores, and with the 3.9L V6, it's hopeless to make any sort of power. Also, I'm going for anything that doesn't sound like a misfiring biplane.