What vehicle and what year to find a 518 tranny??

Is one year better then the other?? What should I expect to pay? Do I need to rebuild?? What performace mods should be done for the tranny to be good to about 400hp?


thx diego

Somebody!! Anybody!!

518 trannys are very common in the Dodge Ram trucks.. The older ones used the 47RH (hydraulic) and the newer ones use the 47RE (electonic)...

Check out this place for all information on 518's

518 Trannys

i got my 518 NON lockup out of a 92 3500 van - it had a 360 in it and I believe it was a NON MAGNUM motor... they are out there...

Ted you know who to call, Steve Kary!!

I got mine thru www.car-part.com Its a great site and easy to use basically connects you with every junk yard in the country. depending on what you plan to use your car for, a non lockup unit may be better. you can use a 727 converter which are widely available. lockup converters (performance) are scarce and expensive.

IIRC, the '95 and earlier versions are the ones to look for because they are easy to wire.

The non-lockup units will have two pins (contacts) towards the back of the main case just ahead of the rear oil line port. It needs one fuse protected hot wire and one switch controlled ground wire to control OD. Mine came from a 91 Ram 5.9 Reading-bodied work truck.

The lockup units will have three pins towards the back of the main case just ahead of the rear oil line port. It needs one fuse protected hot wire, one switch controlled ground wire to control OD and one switch controlled ground wire for LU.

I think after '96, the 518s are controlled by electronics and would be hard to adapt to an older car.

on that note...APS, Martin Saine, (JPT) Jim's Performance Trans all make good trannies. i did a 518 swap into my 2000 Dak R/T. i'm gonna have JPT build it for race over this winter.

If the plan was to cut the bellhousing off and install a JW bellhousing, would it make sense to get a trans from a diesel ?

high stall torque converters are the issue with a diesel trans....IIRC a gas tc won't interchange with a diesel TC...


also, for a 518, '91-92 were non lockup, IIRC, 93-9? are the hydraulically controlled (the cutoff seems kinda unsure, could be as early as 96 (when OBDII came on the trucks) or as late as '98 (when the trucks were freshened)

Aside from the converter- I could have a custom one built- would the diesel trans be a better core ? More HD parts i would think ? Remember, I'll be changing the bellhousing no matter what, it's going on a big block.

The diesel transmissions have the same input shaft and drive hub as the gas versions so, once the bellhousing is hacked off for an Ultrabell, a diesel trans will work as well as any other.