I admittedly drive my Dakota with a heavy foot, but, never literally foot to the floor screaming high RPM's....

In a moment of frustration/panic, I wound the engine pretty tight last week.

Now it smokes every time I start it.

Too little time and too hot outside to dig in and diagnose it right now. Aside from the smoky starts, truck feels no different. But, it is using oil now.

I'm thinking of buying a long block for it, but, with 166K on everything else, what kind of can of worms would I be opening?

Truck is rust free (not dent free though) and aside from the AC not working, has been a good little truck in the year and a half I've owned it.

Truck has the V6 and I would probably keep it.

Just thinking out loud here.

What would you do?

Lower pan on intake been done on it yet?

I would keep it and build a fresh V6 for it. The truck does not owe you anything and whatever you get to replace it will have its own host of gremlins to be sorted.

I have thought several times that I should be selling my '87 and get a newer truck. I have seen a lot of appealing Dodges on CL and they would be perfect for towing a car trailer with the Ramcharger. But I don't need it yet and I also don't have payments either. The '87 runs very well, gas is cheap now, I have a new canopy on it and my dogs are comfortable and secure in it.

BTW 166K is not a lot of miles for a truck.

Texas without AC? You are tougher than I am .....LOL

One of the first things I did. I used the Hughes kit.

No A/C in this hasn't been too bad. My wagon has no A/C and that was BRUTAL!

Time to swap in a 318 or 360. More power and no worse on fuel. Go to to the salvage yard and find a low mile motor and stick it in there.

If I go with the V8, do I need to swap the trans too?

Then there's the matter of wiring and computer.

I looked underhood one day and thought "Hmmmm... a modern Hemi would fit".....but reality is that would be WAY beyond my budget.

Or would it?

Depends mostly on wether its new enough to have electronic governor. that showed up in 96 or 97 I believe.

The trans will bolt right up to a v-8. The motor mounts, accessories and exhaust bolt on. You will need a v-8 PCM and possibly a harness. I was cheap and used the existing
V-6 harness when I did mine. Just had to add 2 injector driver wires to make it work.

let it go---buy another with a v8......

I'd drive it til it drops, if it all of a sudden started smoking I'd guess it's probably the plenum gasket, it's worth a check. The chance of the engine being hurt would be pretty minimal I'd guess

I guess I'd be disappointed if it was the plenum gasket since I replaced it with the kit from Hughes.

When I did the gasket swap, I was to find that the manifold was basically just resting on the engine. NONE of the intake manifold bolts required a wrench to remove, ALL were loose and removed by hand. Once all the bolts were removed, the manifold simply lifted off. There was no work required to break a seal. Aside from a slightly high idle (and evap controls that didn't work) the truck seemed to run fine.

He's right.

There's lots around, they are dirt cheap and the miles are low. Not only that, but I think you will get your money back at re-sale time: you'll have the only 360 Dakota in the classifieds and people will want it!

Oh, and of course I never forgot: you shoulda dumped it and bought that white truck.................like I told ya to.

Hee hee, just kidding! Shaddup right?

But, seriously, earlier when I asked about if I need to swap the transmission, I meant would it handle the added power of a V8?

I think you're okay. If the weakest one you have is the 904 based one (42 or 44RH/RE) it should'nt be an issue. Actually, better than the 727 based power-sucking turds (46RE/RH).

Around here those trucks probably sell for less then $2,000. I would just find another truck with a V8 this time. I wouldn`t dump any money into it if it were me.

You can buy a LOT of oil for that same money. Drive it until it's dead (and that that won't be for a LONG time!)

I guess the question is, how much oil is it going through?
That would be the deciding factor. Might be a good time to run a compression test to see if you broke rings or piston ring lands. If the compression test shows OK, you probably blew out the valve seals or the bottom intake gasket.

I over revved the 3.9 in my coupe when I was out playing one day. Even after that, it ran nearly a full year before I grew concerned enough I replaced it. That motor had a pretty sorted history to begin with, and 149K miles on it. I replaced it with another 3.9 (I bought a wrecked truck with a good motor for cheap). That replacement used motor uses a quart of oil about every 1,000 miles when driving around town (even nearly dead, the original motor didn't use oil).
The "new" motor has 118K miles and has had a timing belt replaced.

The truck I bought (for then scrap price, $275) has nearly paid for itself from parts I've sold off, I'm keeping it around in case I need something else, too bad the frame was bent so badly.

Even with a nearly free replacement motor, I have $300-$400 in stuff I've replaced with the motor (the while I'm here syndrome).

I'd run your current motor until it shows signs that concern you. That may be a very long time. A running driving Dakota (of that era) that moves down the road (even with a smoking motor) will bring $1,000 here, parts trucks still bring $500. Run it until it dies, then sell it to someone building an old car or truck. Gene

I don't see a lot of smoke, but,admittedly its hard to watch the tailpipe all the time.

Usually it uses about half a quart between oil changes (3500-4000 miles), its gone down half a quart in about 200 miles since this happened.

And today I (briefly) heard what sounded like piston slap? Not 100% sure, but, it was definitely a sound I haven't heard before.

Prices on Dakotas around here vary widely (by huge margins), no rhyme or reason. It's VERY rare to see one below $800 no matter how trashed it is.

I almost scored another '93 for cheap last year, but the owner wouldn't budge on the price. The truck ran good but had a blown trans, they were asking $650, I had $500 cash and honestly couldn't go higher at the time. They junked the truck instead. I guess Pick-A-Part gave them more than I could.