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View Full Version : Winter 2016 TOTQ - Lonesoldier79



Lonesoldier79
03-24-2016, 01:33 AM
I bought my RT in June of 2010 from an old Mennonite guy in Hatfield, PA for $4,500. He had a small mechanical shop and he used it as his daily driver. I didn't know anything about Dakota RT's at the time, but it had 80,000 miles on it and had a V8. I was originally looking for a S-10 or a Ranger to haul power tools and hand tools for work, because I was tired of using my car trunk and it didn't have enough space to carry my ever expanding inventory of tools I needed to keep with me. I met that old man at a dinner one night eating dinner with other guys on my crew. The old man overheard us talking about me looking for a truck and he came over and offered to sell his Dakota RT. The next day I went to take a look at it and take a test drive. I went straight to the bank and pulled out the cash right afterwards :jester:

Shortly after buying it I started looking around on the internet for cheap easy mods to do and I found Dakotart.com. I asked typical noob questions and got the typical noob responses back. A few guys like Adobedave and Huskerrt79 gave me some good ideas and I started saving for parts from there. My original intention with the truck was to just make it fun to drive. Like most of us it's never enough and you want more. So, I started saving for more and better parts.

Fast forward 2 years I decided the RT was no longer going to be my daily and I wanted to get semi serious with it. I wanted to do a complete refresh of the engine while upgrading the heads and cam and have the trans rebuilt. I was shooting for 300whp at that time and after a couple of years saving up for more parts like an M1, 52mm TB, SCT, Wheels and built trans from Chris Orlando, exhaust and a bunch of suspension stuff it was time to start the process in December of 14. I spent a month rebuilding the truck and when it was said and done I hit my goal at 305whp. Around that time Jason Thompson was offering his Paxton kit for a steal and I was lucky enough to scoop it up being semi local to each other. That set the next build in motion....

I called up Chris at PIE to build me a forged FI-360 with the goal of making a 600whp totally street RT that I could beat on all day long and not have to worry. Despite some negative things that had been said, I decided to go with him being a supported vendor and knowing other guys who had success with him building their engines. And he would let me pay what I could when I could. The build finished last August and I was able to run it at last years Nats. Though it wasn't as fast as we had hoped, it still made it through the shakedown with no issues.

Present day it has recently been repainted Tuxedo black and the bed linexed. I have other plans in the works, but life always finds a way to slow down progress :dumbass234: Thank you for the nomination and
considering my truck for TOTQ. Below are a few pics from over the years to show how the APE has changed

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chase1500
03-24-2016, 10:22 AM
Looking good Eric.

Lonesoldier79
03-25-2016, 08:42 PM
Under the hood:

PIE FI-365 bottom end
Stage two ported EQ Iron Ram heads
Indy 360 intake manifold
PIE blower cam 228/236 .544/.544 113lsa
Mopar aluminum valve covers
PIE return fuel system with -10AN billet fuel rails 80lb injectors and 400lph fuel pump
F&B 58mm throttle body
Paxton Novi 2000 supercharger with billet 10rib drive pully, frozen boost A/W intercooler, heat exchanger and bed mounted reservoir
MSD, Blaster coil and Performance Distributors 9mm Livewires
Wizard Cooling aluminum radiator with four 10" Spal electric fans in custom shroud
Battery relocated to bed

Exhaust:

Spintech mid length headers with full 3" catless exhaust

Drive train:

Z-code performace 46RE with 3000 stahl PATC 10" Billet torque converter
LPW deep trans pan
Derale trans cooler with electric fan mounted under bed
Hi-Potek transmission cross member
stock 9.25 rear with 4.56 Yukon gears and Detroit locker
LPW diff pan
Hi-Potek front and rear drive shaft loops

Suspension:

Custom tubular upper control arms
DJM 2" drop lower control arms
QA1 adjustable shocks front and rear
Energy Suspension bushings
new stock RT springs
Belltech 2" drop leaf springs
03 front break upgrade
Hotchkis front and rear drop sway bars
Hi-Potek X-brace and panhard bar
Caltracs

Exterior:

Vis Outlaw 2 hood
Street Scene split grill shell
Street Scene bumper cover
Street Scene polished grill and bumper inserts
Cervini Roll pan
Cervini Rear tail gate wing
Street Scene wiper cowl
3M style power mirros
Spyder CCFL projector head lights
Ebay clear LED tail lights and third break light
Custom Tuxedo Black paint job with linexed bed
Battery cut off switch
Remote battery terminals
Boydd Cottington 11x8 and 11x17 Timeless 6 wheels
Nitto 555 front tires 255/55R17
M&H Racemaster DOT drag radials 390/40R17

Interior:

Recaro black leather racing seats
NRG steering wheel with short hub and spacer
Pumpkin 4.4 Andriod KitKat single din flip up touch screen DVD/stereo
JL front components and rear coaxial speakers
Rockford fosgate 4 channel 300w RMS amp
US Speedo Aqua aluminum gauge cluster
3 pillar gauge pod with Autometer A/F, boost and trans temp gauges

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X_HAWAII RT
03-27-2016, 05:49 AM
Looking good!:biggthumpup: