Hey guys, Been lurking around the forum off and on learning about the slant 6 engines in preparation for the '83 Ram D150 that will be arriving this weekend. Unfortunately the truck has some parts that have been removed and i am kinda unsure what i am getting myself into. What happened is that the friend i am buying the truck from drove it to someone to have them do a tune up on and that "mechanic" screwed him over. He thought the ignition module was missing but it might be there after all as this truck seems to have the "Lean burn" set up. And there is the spark control module there. In fact there are two different ones. One that is meant to be on the air cleaner which i think is the one that belongs to this truck. But i am unsure. There are a couple other missing parts but my friend has those parts on another parts truck so i am not concerned about that. From what i can see of the engine pics he sent me it looks like it might have a Holley 1945 carb on it. Which if i am right will make conversion to the older EI a lot easier as i will not be dealing with the feedback carb set up. From what i have read so far all i need since i do not have the feedback carb is an older distributor, the ignition module and the wiring harness for the module. When he had informed me it needed the module i had already bought a 4 pin module for it not knowing it was the Lean Burn.

I will let the pics tell the rest of the story as far as i can tell so far:

This pic shows the holes in the air cleaner where the module should go.


The module itself


This is the only pic i have so far that shows the carb. As i said from what i could see it appears to be a Holley 1945


And a couple pics of the truck itself

Hello and welcome! That may or may not be a lean burn truck. Check in the criver's side inner fender by the battery. Around 84 Chrysler started putting the lean burn computers there. Might be someone just threw on whatever air cleaner parts they had lying around. The super six lid is definitely wrong since that is obviously a single barrel carb.

Thanks! So a module like this one



Both modules were sitting in the cab. Plus the wiring harness that matches up to the plugs on them is more to the right of the truck and only reaches as far as around the valve cover area which is roughly where the air cleaner one would be if the housing was rotated in place to properly connect to the heat riser.

Either way am i correct with the carb most likely being a Holley 1945 and being able to get away with converting to the previous style electronic ignition by swapping out the distributor and not having to touch the manifolds at all?

Also i do have a lead on a modified super six that i can get my hands on pretty cheap for this truck so i do have access to the parts to convert this engine to a super if i wanted to. The modified one has a milled head that needs to be reassembled.

Yes, then the truck was a lean burn truck. By 1983 you would have either a Holley 1945 (non computer controlled) or a Holley 6145 (computer controlled) carburetor. There were non-lean burn Holley 1945 carbs that work fine. But your 1945 almost certainly does not have the correct vacuum port to use with a standard Chrysler electronic ignition distributor.

You can convert the ignition system to standard electronic ignition (I recommend the HEI conversion) and you can keep the manifolds you have now. You can run a non-lean burn Holley 1945 or a Holley 1920, provided you change the choke thermostat to one for a Holley 1920. A Holley 1945 choke thermostat will not function properly with a Holley 1920 and vice-versa.

Welcome to the site!

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines

What is the advantage of the HEI vs the Dodge ignition? Just asking as i already have the dodge module and the resistor. I bought the module thinking it had the old set up not realizing lean burn was even a thing on the \6. The reisistor is on the truck already as i suspect someone had already started down the path of converting it at one point. At this point all i need is the distributor and the harness that plugs into the dodge module. Or some spare wire and the HEI module. I am kinda tempted to actually wire both in just to have a redundant back up.

The truck was already converted to manual choke so the thermostatic choke is a moot point. More of a matter of finding either carb type. or looking into an adapter plate to possibly install the carter from the super six.



Thanks.

If you already have the Dodge module and resistor, just go with that system.

Do not run a two barrel carb on a one barrel intake using an adapter. The opening in the intake is a restriction on the aior flow of the two barrle carb and it won't work right. Just find a decent single barrel carb.

Alright, guess its just a matter of trying to find a carb that wont cost an arm and a leg lol.