At the moment, just kicking an idea and wondering what you're paying for a Gen III Hemi? I'm seeing prices all over the place and wondering if I should just buy a running donor vehicle vs an eBay or salvage yard engine or remanufactured engine? Now, the issue with the donor vehicle is mileage. Most donors I'm looking at is in the $2-3k with 200k-260k miles depending on what the vehicle is. Thank you in advance.

Prices seem to be all over the place. I look for the 2012 and later engines. Use this as a guide. As of April 2023 you can buy a new crate 5.7 for about $6000 and a new crate 6.4 for about $8600 from Bouchillion Performance. Probably find it cheaper or more expensive depending on where you shop. This motor only no trans no accessories. Now if you look at www.car-part.com its a salvage site. Plug in what your looking for and that same 5.7 or 6.4 motor and trans with some accessories is about $8000-$10,000. Plus a core! The 5.7's are cheaper than the 6.4's. I think they are way too high on that site. Especially comparing to the cost of a new crate. Perhaps there is room for negotiating. Seems like the engine/trans combos on FB marketplace go for $5000-$6000. But that could be a shady deal depending on the seller. You don't know if these used engines were stolen, in a flood, or have a rod knock, etc. Its a gamble even if you turn the engine over by hand. While I'm not looking for a warranty on a used engine, honesty of the seller is critical here.

I track ebay and local CL - you can buy a good running eagle pull out with accessories with a small warranty from a salvage outfit for $3-4k all day it seems. Down to $2500 sometimes with a little more mileage or 09-12 vintage. I'm personally going back and forth from the 5.7 turbo I started to do vs hellcat so I haven't bought but still watching.

I got lucky and picked up a 2010 Charger Police car for $1200 through www.iaai.com
I say lucky because they couldn't get the odometer to light up due to no battery, so there was no way to tell miles or even if it ran. Well, I get it home, throw a battery in it and it has 180K. And it runs like a top. I'll still go through the engine first, but I couldn't pass it up.

My experience with the local wrecking yards is in reference to the 2003-2008 5.7s since I'm looking for a direct replacement for my 2007 engine.
2006-2008 5.7s with MDS are in the $2200-2500 range, car or truck.
Oddly, I've read that the car engines made slightly less HP but about 15 lbs more torque. That surprised me. I would have expected the truck engines to be biased toward more torque than the cars.

The truck engines made more HP because they have better exhaust. The car engines make more TQ but at a higher RPM that would not be real useful in a truck unless you really like to wind it up, it comes from the intake being better. Either way it is very little difference.

The 6.4 BGE in my 2011 ram I bought a complete but burnt up 2014 truck for $300, hauled it 200 miles, sold the cats to pay for the truck and gas to go get it, re-gasketed the engine and put on eagle heads, cam and intake that I had slightly re-worked and it makes gobs of TQ down low and still pulls hard to about 5800 RPM. It is a much better truck engine than even a stock 6.4 BGE and gets much better MPG than my stock 2014 5.7 truck I had. Now I have extra 6.4 heads, 68RFE trans and a few other bits and pieces for something else another day, I also traded the frame and diffs for an 09 totaled 1500 that I robbed the hemi for another truck I fixed up and sold. Some day I'll get around to tuning this truck but in nearly 20,000 miles Ihave had zero issues with it.

Wanted to say thank you again to everyone. It give mes a good idea on prices in this current market or what I should be paying anyways I suppose. The reason why I inquired is I want to say my 2002 Dakota has a 2004-2005ish 5.7 Hemi that I think either came out of a Ram or Durango. Haven't verified the numbers off the block. I know the truck is running a 2004-2005 Ram PCM based upon the part number on the PCM.