Before I could finish up wiring the engine and transmission, I had to install the sensors for the temperature and oil pressure gauges. The Dakota Digital Gauge set requires that you use the sensors that they supply with the gauge kit. This meant that I had to drill a 11/32″ hole into the water pump jacket and then tap it to 1/8 NPT for the sensor. Both the temperature and the oil pressure sensors are of the two wire variety and both had special plugs and sockets that were provided with the sensors. Hotwire had also provided wiring for both gauges but it was of the single wire style (grounds though the sensors threads into the block). Once I had the hole drilled and tapped for the temperature gauge I used an 1/8 NPT tee and short nipple to mount the oil pressure gauge sensor and the ECM’s pressure sensor to the same oil passage in the block.

Once the sensors were mounted I made sure that all of the rest of the plugs on the ECM harness were attached and locked to their proper sockets and then I proceeded to dress and cable tie the wires, including the new ones that I had installed for the gauge sensors. I think I said it before, but it bears repeating Tony Squire at Hotwire got it right with this harness. Every plug was correct, all of the wire lengths were spot on, all in all the money that I spent on the harness and computer saved me days of head aches trying to breakout the necessary wires and remove the rest from the stock harness.

While I was under the wagon wiring the transmission, I removed the fuel tank vent line that used to go to the EGR system on the top of the engine. I also removed the EGR and all of it’s plumbing and then plugged the hole in the air box on the manifold with a 1″ round black plastic plug from Ace Hardware. I also installed a block off plate where the EGR mounted to the front of the block. The old girl now is sporting a piece of polished billet aluminum, if I have my way it will be the only piece that she has…

While I was online shopping at Street & Performance (another great aftermarket company from Mena Arkansas) I also bought a Spectre Air Filter. Since the air inlet on the air box is oval shaped, I found the original Durango Air Box that I had saved and cut the plastic right after the elbow where it had transitioned to a 3 1/2″ round opening which fit the Spectre’s 3 1/2″ rubber adapter quite well. The other cool thing I bought there was a set of AN fitting adaptors to convert the Chrysler A/C compressor to normal AN lines from the uni-block style found on new cars. After installing them on the compressor, I noticed that now I had three pieces of polished billet on the car, will it never end? 😉

After the air cleaner was installed I mounted the Lokar Transmission Dipstick/Oil Fill (billet but not polished!) on the fire wall using a 5/16″ aluminium spacer that I cut from a piece of scrap that I had under the bench.

Finishing Up the Engine/Transmission Install

As it sits right now, we are close to starting the engine for the 1st time with it’s new ECM. Next up, installing the core support, inner fender panels, power steering lines and reservoir, transmission coolers, radiator and fan plus sensor-relay and wiring for it and the rest of the A/C plumbing. Once past this stage I can bolt up the front fenders, bumpers, grill and hood and be fairly close to the final weight on the front end so that I can do the final measurements for the wheels and tires which are a month lead time order depending on what I decide on. At present I am thinking about 4 – 18×8 – 4″ backspace Americans mounted with a set of 225R18-60s which is what the 2005 Dodge Magnum (the original design goal for the project) came with. Damn Americans are $75 a wheel more expensive than Cragers.

Now on to finishing up the dashboard which I need to mount in the car so that I can begin to wire everything, and boy do I have a lot of wire to run…