I'm officially one gigantic step closer to finally giving my Ram "Rumble Bee"the Hemi power it deserves. After yanking the old 4.7 out, I slammed the 5.7 in its place. Getting the heavy-lifting out of the way puts me on the back-half of this Hemi swap project for my 2003 Ram 1500, which is incredibly motivating. Though, because there are so many little things that need to be addressed, you could say that the real work starts now. Dropping The New Hemi In Place Hank O'Hop, HotCars Last time you saw my Ram 1500 project, I had successfully yanked the old 4.7-liter out. Simply dropping a new one in its place or rebuilding the old one would have simplified the process from hereon out, but because those odd Mopar motors are ludicrously expensive and early Gen-III Hemis are so cheap, this is where my uphill battle begins.While I did source a 5.7 Hemi from a 2003 Ram 1500, a lot of little things in the engine bay need to be swapped or modified. The computers and main harness are different, as are the torque converter, motor mounts, and Y-pipe. I can't check off a lot of those tasks until the engine is physically in the truck.The good news is that the engine and transmission mount right up. The torque converter can also be used with the same gearbox that was mated to the 4.7. I did get a spare transmission with the new engine, but I opted to reuse my old one simply because I know it works. With all of that paired together, I was free to slam the driveline right into the truck.I won't say the engine and transmission went in as easily as they came out. While the truck is definitely more accommodating to the process than other vehicles, the two going in together is a painful balancing act. Still, with a whole lot of elbow grease and a boat load of patience, I was able to get the motor into its new home. Sorting Out The Wiring Woes Hank O'Hop, HotCarsWhen sourcing the 5.7 Hemi for this swap, I was lucky in that the seller had a donor truck I could pull parts from. I was able to get most things I needed, including the wiring harness. Unfortunately, the portion of the harness that extends behind the firewall to the truck's cabin had been cut. It is a removable piece, but the pinning is different from what's currently in my truck.In my hunt to find that section of wiring harness, I met a guy ready to sell me the entire setup for $100 if I was willing to pull it myself. What's important to note is that, if you're doing this swap, you need to find parts from the same model year truck you're working on because Dodge made a lot of small changes throughout each year. It's not impossible to mix and match, but sticking to the same year truck eliminates a lot of small headaches and wire splicing. As I spent two hours pulling the harness out and overcoming all the strange choices made by Dodge's engineers when designing it, I became increasingly happier that I was working with another '03 Ram to source it from.Now that I have the harness, all the wiring is essentially sorted. There will be some small hiccups here and there, I'm sure, but the bulk of my worries are behind me. It's just a matter of working through the hours of crawling through my own truck's nightmarish wiring routes with thinned patience. Thankfully, knowing there's a Hemi-powered Ram on the other end is more than enough to keep me going. Onto The Final Stages Hank O'Hop, HotCars We're nearing the end of this Hemi swap project. Now that the majority of the heavy-lifting is behind me, I am starting to feel the momentum pushing me through the final act. We're not out of the woods yet, though. As I said, all the wiring needs to be hooked up, which is an annoying process on this vehicle. Plus, all the accessories and other operating systems need to be bolted into place. That's all, without considering getting the exhaust figured out, which is proving to be more difficult than I had anticipated, with limited stock and overpriced parts plaguing parts stores. Stay tuned to see how it pans out.
