Swapping out v6 with LS 5.3 into family truck handed down 1998 Dodge Ram 1500. Looking for advice, recommendations what have you on a transmission to use for my project. It is currently manual and would love to keep this way and is a 2wd truck that I am looking to also convert to 4wd. Now I know I’ll get people to say just get a different truck that has all these things but this truck means a lot to my family and I’m looking to do something fun with it.

 

Find an LS-powered manual tranny truck in the junkyard and grab all related parts

 

The chance of you finding a ls with a manual tranny and it being 4wd is slim so your best bet would be finding an ls with a manual tranny that can also have a split or separated t case. It's your swap so do as you wish.

 

I have noticed there is a lot of experience in ls swapping into a dodge dakota. Does anyone else know while I also research this how different the mounting of the LS engine might be into the Ram model? I think for now I will be keeping the truck 2wd and stick with a 4L60E to keep things more simple and do those conversions at a later date. If anyone knows if there are adapters or mounts out there available I would love to hear about it for either the transmission or the engine itself. The wiring and fuel I will be able to figure out for the most part.

 

Sticking with 2wd would really be the cheapest and easiest option. If the $$$ allows I would begin sourcing a front end off another 2nd gen 1/2 4wd and get to swapping. Ls swaps that involve 4wd aren't cheap and will definently increase the cost dramatically. If you can do all the fab work you'll save a lot of money but if you're having someone do all the fab work then I'd just sell the truck and get something else. You can't keep the current manual transmission because 1. It wont bolt up and 2. It doesn't have a t case connected. There's a guy whose profile name is casias, I believe he is on this site but he swapped a 6.2l ls into a durango and it was either 4wd or awd. He however already had 4wd so the swap was easier. The main issue with doing a 4wd swap with an ls is finding a good setup. If your committed then start looking into what manual transmissions fit and can also come with a t case or will allow a split t case. Best of luck, I'll continue answering your questions to the best of my ability. No one ever bothered to answer any of mine so I know what it's like.

Edit: As for mounts and stuff for making the swap easier, don't get your hopes up. For the Dakota you need a 1/4" thick steel plates that adapt the factory mounts to the ls. I don't know what the ram mounts look like. As for the transmission I don't know either. The dakota cross member just needs a little box made of steel plates to space it up for the proper driveshaft angle. You'll need a costum driveshaft(s) to fit the length and shaft. The only thing that might not function after the swap should be the tach on the cluster. I recommend wiring in everything for temp, oil pressure, etc. Also make sure the speed sensor is located in the rear axle. If it's not then you're gonna have to wire up a speed sensor from either the transmission or make a custom setup to work a speed sensor. The 4l60 and 4l80 have built in speed sensors for the computer so that's much easier. I'd go with the 4l80 but it's more expensive because of how durable it is.