Hey guys my name is Hunter. I'm an avid car enthusiast, mostly Volkswagen's. I bought a 1989 Dodge ram 50 2.0 5spd 2WD a few months ago. Been a good little truck. When I bought it I was told the fuel filter was bad, and that was why it sputtered sometimes, but after noticing the diesel like black smoke poring out of the exhaust, I knew that could not be it. Checked all my vacuum lines and came up with nothing. Took the carb off and sprayed the crap out of it with carb cleaner. Runs great and is way better on gas now!

Anyways I bought this truck so I could put my VW down for a while and swap in a new motor. I have a 1982 Rabbit 4dr LS, bought it back in February I guess, and have only driven it a few times. It had a little 1.6 diesel in it, that the rings were fried and it ran away on me. I junked a previous rabbit of mine and had and still have a tonnage of parts, and decided to swap in a 1.6 turbo diesel. After going through the whole motor and putting it in, there was no oil pressure and fried the bottom end (only ran for maybe 10 min total). So thats been an ongoing project. I'm awaiting the new motor for it, a 1.9 turbo diesel out of a 1996 jetta. I'm sure some of you are familiar with these vw motor as they are great swaps for small trucks. I am getting the Canadian AAZ 1.9 so it is and easy swap. I don't plan on rebuilding it, seeing how the last one went, and because I just want my car running!

So once I get this thing done and can daily drive it, I want to do something with this truck. Yes a 1.6 turbo diesel and an adapter plate for my d50 trans would be simple and not too hard. And seeing as I have a bottom end, and the know how to source the parts cheap, it would be a cheap rout. But I'm thinking something much bigger..

I can bet that a V8 has been swapped into one of these trucks before? Maybe a place to buy the mount kits? But how about a V8 turbo diesel? I'm not sure what kind of truck to get one out of, but I know I want a V8 single/twin turbo diesel. I don't want to make it 4WD, and I don't want a stupid diesel stack. however I do want that "jet engine" sound. haha.

I do plan on having bracing to the frame done. I dont want to 'race' this thing but if I get a big ol superduty with an 8in stack next to me, I want to show him how dumb all that big stuff is.

So any Ideas? Links? Maybe a better forum I should be posting on?

My Rabbit!


My Truck and some of the ways I use it