I have a 91 Dakota I just bought with the 5.2 V8 and the truck has a lot of miles on it 240k, at first I was thinking about doing the Magnum on LA block swap with the redrilling but with the miles now I am thinking it makes a lot more sense to just buy a complete used Magnum 5.2, put seals and maybe rings in it and drop it in there instead. Plus I read that if you don't have the magnum piston with the magnum on LA head swap that you don't really get the true magnum performance anyway.

Can anyone tell me if there is a limit on the years of Magnum 5.2's that are going to be a drop strait in swap for this application?

I don't want to convert to a carb, it does not have to be that fast, it's just going to be a nice lowered flat black shop truck but the Magnum makes a good bit more HP than the LA 318.

Or I'm open to other cost effective options for this. I've done lots of engine swaps, supercharger, and turbo stuff before but I don't want this to be a very complicated (or expensive) mission, but I can spend a few bucks on the truck.

Also, does anyone know which Trans this truck has, is it a 42RE or something else? Can a 727 torqueflight drop into this application?