[Dr. Awesome]

Go to rock auto.com. They have all the parts list and diagrams of the head etc. That’s usually how I do it if I don’t know.

 

[02GenHandMeDown]

I do all my parts shopping from rockauto, never knew they had diagrams though and I can't find any now. Do you have a link?

 

[02GenHandMeDown]

The last couple days I’ve made quite a bit of progress on tearing it down. The intake, fan and reservoir are all back out, a bunch of connectors and hoses are out, and the coils are out. Need to borrow a set of quick connect fuel line tools, and then u think the valve covers are next.

 

[02GenHandMeDown]

Haven’t got much further on the head gasket replacement, but the new gaskets came yesterday and I got a few little things like new wipers, a pack of lug nuts to replace some damaged ones, etc.

And I finally did my grill! I sanded it all down so it’s ready to paint (although it won’t be warm enough to paint until spring, it’ll look wierd until then haha), cut the mesh and zip tied it in place. There are a few minor imperfections in it, and the pattern isn’t ideal, but for $8 I think it’s pretty good! I ordered automotive goop from eBay so when that comes I’ll glue it all together and put it on the truck!

Merry CHRISTmas and a happy new year everybody!

 

[Dr. Awesome]

Looking good

 

[02GenHandMeDown]

So here in MI we had a random 45 degree day, so I figured that was warm enough for spray painting and got the grille finished. Of course when I when inside for a sec it started sprinkling, so there's a bunch of wired bubble on it, but it looks better then the ugly sanded chrome and black haha! I'll sand it down and repaint it in the spring. I put it on the truck, somethings a little goofy about the way it's bolting up (there's an 1/8 inch gap at the top which I don't think should be there but I'm gonna put that off till I take it off to paint it in the spring), and besides my bad choice of mesh, I'm pretty happy with it overall! I'm going to avoid cutting a hole for the latch in the mesh by rigging up some kind of wire system, but until I do that I just used what I had sitting around to rig it up with some fishing line.

I got the fuel rails pulled a couple days ago, and got almost all the accessories off, I'm just a little confused about the power steering pump. The youtube video series I'm using isn't clear on it.

I also took the parking light lenses off thinking I was gonna tint them, turns out I don't have enough tint film left though. I'm thinking about buying more that isn't so dark and tinting the whole headlight assembly, and also maybe taking apart the headlight housing to try and defog the lenses from the inside.

 

[02GenHandMeDown]

Got inspired reading other build threads so I tackled another piece of tearing the motor down! Got the intake plenum, AC compressor, and various hoses and wires off. And I made a before and after pic from when I started to now, mainly to make me feel like I'm getting somewhere 😛

 

[Dr. Awesome]

Nice

 

[02GenHandMeDown]

Nice

Thanks!

 

[02GenHandMeDown]

Don't have a pic but I got the passenger side valve cover off this morning, I started on the driver side too but one of the bolts is in super bad shape and looks to be pretty close to stripped so I'll tackle that later.

And I spent $100 on a 3" front 2" rear lift kit! Probably not the best idea seeing as half the motor is sitting in the bed and 2 tires are flat, but whatever lol!

 

[02GenHandMeDown]

Well here's a little update finally, both valve covers are off and yesterday I cleaned them up good and wet sanded them a little. Today is a pretty good day for spray painting considering it's January, so I gave them two coats of gloss green enamel, I hope I got the right stuff and it doesn't flake! I'll probably add another coat or two in a bit.

And my lift kit came today.... I guess I just have bad luck with coil spring spacers. Or maybe there's something I don't understand. It's supposed to be a 3" front 2" rear lift, shackles for the back and spring spacers for the front. I don't know much about shackles so I'm gonna assume they're the right ones, but the front coil spacers measure 1 1/4". I know that because of such and such geometry or whatever it should lift it 1.5 times the spacer heights, but according to my math that comes to 1 7/8" of lift, probably less once it all settles. That being said, I hear that you shouldn't lift a Dakota more then 2 inches up front, because then you have no downplay. I'm not sure if that's 100% true or not, can anyone explain that? If it's really that bad to lift it 3", I could just play cool, not bother talking with the seller, keep it and consider it as a 2" all around... even though I'm not really a fan of that look and would prefer to have it levelled, I'm not that picky. If it's so atrocious I can't stand it, I can just take the shackles off and have a waaaaaaaay over priced leveling kit! lol, anyone got any advice or opinions?

 

[Tryanide]

Reminds me so much of an old buddies parking lot party build in his green 2nd gen. Sweet little truck get that gasket slid back in, grille looks great!

 

[02GenHandMeDown]

Reminds me so much of an old buddies parking lot party build in his green 2nd gen. Sweet little truck get that gasket slid back in, grille looks great!

Thank you! Can't wait to get everything back together and finish it up!

 

[02GenHandMeDown]

I picked up several different grits of sandpaper today and tried my hand at cleaning up my fogs. I got the numbers wrong and got grits in the 400-800 range plus one pack of 2000 (which turned out to be a lifesaver), but even with that it made a huge difference and I can redo it when I get some 1000, 1500, and 3000 grits. Basically what it did is take all the gunk and whatever stuff was on it off, but because of the grits being too low (I used the 600, 800, and 2000, whereas 800, 1000, 1500, 2000, 3000 would've been ideal) it replaced it with a smattering of light scratches. I'm happy with that trade-off though, and like I said, I can clean it up later with some finer grits. I ordered some LEDs for the fog lamps so I can't have them looking messy 🤪

Here they are old and new side by side:

And with both finished:

Here's the youtube vid I used, super helpful!

Things are moving very slowly right now as far as taking the motor apart, and there's nothing notable to mention about that.

I'm really disappointed that the cheapest clear corners are $40+, I was hoping to get something for $20-$30 but it looks like I'll be keeping the stocks. I ordered some tint film to try and tint just the amber part, but when it came it was way darker then the ad so I got my money back. I might try again at some point, but I'm not even sure I'll like the look so for now I'll clean them up a bit once I get some finer sandpaper and call it good.

 

[02GenHandMeDown]

Oh and I sent the lift back yesterday, now I'm debating about which kit to buy next... a 2" front and back for $70 of a 2" level in the front for about $45ish. I'm leaning towards the 2" all around but I'm not sure yet.

Aaaaaand I'm trying to work something out with my intake.... Apparently my understanding of what a CAI is was partially wrong, the intake I got off my buddy's 1500 was one that needs a box around it (sorry I don't know the correct terms lol), and of course the one off the 1500 won't fit my dak. I found a cheap basic red filter for free though, the filter itself won't do much in terms of power, but somebody on some forum suggested deleting the airbox that is connected straight to the throttle body so if I do that I'll be gaining a little bit of hp in the deal, and it'll look better then the stock intake anyway 🤪

 

[Tryanide]

If ya want perfect lenses without sanding them paper thin you can always sand the oxidation and rough pitting out and clear coat over it a couple time with a high quality clear and buff them. Supposed to be a more permanent fix to the UV damage and oxidation. Haven't tried it myself but plan to when I retrofit the headlights on my third gen.

True cold air intakes are at the very least shrouded and gasketed off with an air supply coming from the front somewhere. At best they're a stock style box almost with a chamber sized right with a quality filter and good runner to the throttle body. Hot airs are pretty much everything else, your pod filter on the end of a pipe for example. Nothing wrong with them in theory just toastier IAT'S but they're alot more convenient.

My advice on your lift would be do it right the first time and buy both now if that's the route you wanna go. At the end of the day when you lift the rear you're gonna have to spend the other half of that $40 if not a little extra so buy the whole kit. I'd try and go for a leveled lift myself🙂

 

[02GenHandMeDown]

If ya want perfect lenses without sanding them paper thin you can always sand the oxidation and rough pitting out and clear coat over it a couple time with a high quality clear and buff them. Supposed to be a more permanent fix to the UV damage and oxidation. Haven't tried it myself but plan to when I retrofit the headlights on my third gen.

True cold air intakes are at the very least shrouded and gasketed off with an air supply coming from the front somewhere. At best they're a stock style box almost with a chamber sized right with a quality filter and good runner to the throttle body. Hot airs are pretty much everything else, your pod filter on the end of a pipe for example. Nothing wrong with them in theory just toastier IAT'S but they're alot more convenient.

My advice on your lift would be do it right the first time and buy both now if that's the route you wanna go. At the end of the day when you lift the rear you're gonna have to spend the other half of that $40 if not a little extra so buy the whole kit. I'd try and go for a leveled lift myself🙂

I don't think there's much of a chance of these getting paper thin, they're not flimsy lights (I speak from experience, I dropped one and it bounced all over the place on a hard floor lol), it's not all that much sanding, and most of it is with high grit.

About the CAI, that's what I thought too. But looking on ebay, most the ones I'm seeing at least look like just a pod filter with a pipe to the throttle body; the $50 ones and the $500 ones.

Yeah I would definitely prefer a 4" front 2" rear which would level it, but the problem is everything on these forums say don't lift a dak more then 2" in the front, because if you go 3" then you have no down play in the suspension. And I want something a little more then just 2" in the front to level it, so I think coil spring spacers with some of these shackles which have two sets of holes would be ideal, that way I can lift it 2" in the back or if that looks too goofy drop it down 1"

This is the kit I'm thinking, I just contacted the seller asking about the actual height of the coil spacers. No returns accepted so I want to be sure on this one before I buy. HD Suspension 1987-2004 Dodge Dakota 2"-2" Lift Raise Coil Spacers Shackles Kit | eBay