VIDEO: Our 2003 Dodge Dakota R/T Project Hits A Snag!

We have been working hard to bring our 2003 Dodge Dakota R/T back to its former glory. One of the final mechanical issues that we needed to deal with was the leaky intake manifold gaskets. In this video, we tackled them, but unfortunately, something went very wrong. 

In the process of removing the intake manifold, the left front intake manifold bolt broke off into the head. That was on a Sunday afternoon, and I didn’t have time to deal with extracting the bolt at the time. The truck sat for a week until we were finally able to drill the bolt out. Unfortunately, I did not cover the lifter valley or any of the intake ports during that time. 

Typically you would want to cover everything up, so there is no risk of getting foreign objects into the engine with the potential to cause damage. I didn’t bother with it as I knew the engine would be coming out soon anyways but unfortunately paid the price. 

In the video, you can hear a rattling noise immediately after I fired the truck up, and it was missing on two cylinders. I immediately shut the truck off and pulled the intake manifold off for another visual inspection, with things visually looking ok. 

In our first post on our project truck, I announced that we would be swapping the engine and created a poll for our readers to vote on. It is currently an extremely tight race with building the 5.9 Magnum in the truck in second place and with ONLY 3 more votes 392 swapping the truck in the first place. Originally we were going to run the poll until the end of October, but since we need to decide on which direction to go now, we will go the 392 route.

Our goal is to build an 8.50 1/4 mile capable truck, and we will be building this to all NHRA 8.50 safety standards. To get there, a 392 based twin-turbo forged 426 stroker should get the job done, with all the right parts, of course. 

Stay tuned to our YouTube channel as this build is about to get exciting, and on top of that, we will be bringing you another wild build as well very shortly!