on my 97 V6 Dakota? She warms up slowly (in my opinion, anyway), and I doubt it's been changed recently, so I ordered a new thermostat and gasket figuring it's no different than any other SB Mopar V8.

Wrong!

There is the whole aluminum mess up front of pulleys and accessories and what-nots that are in the way! Do I REALLY have to R&R the whole front of the engine JUST for a thermostat? The last one of these engines I've had was between 1990 and 1993, and that truck was new, so I never had top mess with it.

IIRC you can remove the 7 bolts/#7 behind idler pully and move the complete alum bracket with a/c comp/alt still bolted to it.

moves forward or you can swing it over to the inner fender when doing the intake or WP.

while you are there check the heater hose nipple/hose and the temp sender.
it is not to bad once you have pulled those 7 bolts and moved the chunk all together a couple times R7R t-stats/WP/intakes

IMHO, I try to do the intake plenum gasket/t-chain/wp/tstat all together so I don't have to open it up for a long while after that.

Dunno. Wish I could remember. I changed it on my 2000 Dak but don't recall it being difficult. I just remember it didn't help. It had the split upper hose with the cap and when the stat would open you could stick your finger in the stream of coolant and not get burnt.

might as well change the bypass hose while your there if it hasn't been messed with since the truck was new.

I don't know the truck's history much past it was a one-owner truck, and the garage I bought it from did a bunch of routine maintenance before putting it up for sale (for charity). I got it last month.

I also found a video on YouTube on this subject, and it looks like I can simply remove the belt and alternator to get the access I need, not the whole shebang.

Thanks guys!

Rino, if you really don't know the truck's history, I'd pull the 7 bolts and replace the bypass hose along with the thermostat. The whole mess really swings out of the way and it will remind you of the good old days with the unencumbered small block Darts.
You can replace the thermostat without pulling the aluminum piece, but that thermostat is way down in a hole, and there isn't a chance to check the condition of the bypass hose.

The bypass hose on my 93 was original to the truck, and rock hard, it came off in pieces. I was happy I pulled the aluminum piece off and checked it. Gene

A friend's Shelby Dakota went through 3 bypass hoses in the first 75K miles.
You can get the Blue silicone (cop-issue) bypass and do it once or go in again after the thermostat is done down in the hole...

79powerwagon:

It's not as big of a job as it looks.

I did it on my 360 Magnum and had the same initial reaction as you. Turned out, it wasn't so bad.

You can change it with a long needle nose pliers and some patience without pulling anything else cept maybe the little flat steel bracket.

If you want to put a screw type hose clamp on pull the alt out of the way.

I have worked on hundreds of the magnum motors and never seen a bypass hose leaking timing covers, yes, t-stat housing yes, intake yes, bypass hose never. Seems they used a lot better rubber than the 92 back 360 91 back 318

If you think thats bad you better not buy any much newer.Just did the 99 360 and its about the same thing.Did the wp and by pass also when we did the intake.Not a bad job and looks worse than it is.I do have tools though as I was a tech for 30 years.Rocky