Im a newbie to this forum. Joined a while back but have been reading through the archives trying to educate myself. Im no stranger to cars, restored a fair share of old muscle cars. That ended a while back with two daughters that came along. The itch got so bad to start wrenching again that I convinced my wife to let me get an old truck for pulling my fishing boat and hauling wood up at the cabin. Found this great old '87 Dodge d100 short box, 2wd, 4 speed, 225/6. I absolutely love the old girl. Been fixing it up some. Good weather is here. Well all my wrenching experience is pre emissions and computer controls. My truck is still running the lean burn sytem, its all stock under the hood but the air/smog pump is disconnected and there is no cat. Now Ive tuned this thing up with new plugs, wires, cap, rotor, set timing and it runs decent but i imagine if its running the lean burn computer and with no cat or smog pump its not running optimal. Just looking for some advice on which direction to go...lose the lean burn...keep it and fix what needs fixing. Just want her to be a nice running old truck. Its 375 miles one way to my cabin. Thanks

Welcome to the board?

A few ways to go on this for sure. I'm guessing that like indiana there's no emissions testing so ill go off that. Now federal law states you are not allowed to remove OE pcs that deal w emissions. Since that's out of the way, I'd scrap the lean burn system and convert to either Chrysler electronic ignition or as I done and went with GM HEI. There's plenty of posts on here detailing how. The lean burn system is an octopus but easy to cut out.

Once that was done I got a vacuum gauge and started tuning by it. Runs like a top now. Since the cats gone, if you wanted you could run 2.25" pipe for better flow. Delete smog pump since its dead weight. The pump shouldn't change much of how it runs since it just pumped into the exhaust.

Under the lip of the hood there should be tags w codes for the options or it could be a metal tag on the radiator support. They should let you know axle ratio, limited slip, primary color etc.

There will be others along that have a bit more experience I'm sure. Search for the trucks using the variants of d100, d-100 etc. plenty to read that will help. Keep us posted on the progress.
Pohlman

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225, Offenhauser, Holley 350, A833OD, 3:55, GM HEI,99 Durango starter
BOOSTED! WH1C, BIG FMIC, 10#
Operation Noble Eagle 03-05
Operation Iraqi Freedom 05-07
Operation Enduring Freedom 12- 13

I too have the HEI.
The computer on mine is mounted behind the battery.
I chose to gut the computer and mount the HEI module on a 1/4"x4"x6" aluminum heat sink inside the computer housing.
The reason i did this was the computer was cooled by incoming intake air.
Secondly all the wires to hook up the HEI run to the computer.
I mounted the HEI and heatsink inside ran 5 wires about 12" long out of the housing and hooked them to a 6 pin weatherpack connector I scavenged from a junk yard.
Then I was able to hook the wires from the computer connections the the other half of the weatherpack connector.
1 Of the 5 wires is a ground.

Dave

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86 Miser 170,000+
2 1/4" exhaust
Holley 1920 #55
HEI MSD BLaster 2
17.8 mpg

while I do give credit to the putting the module in the old computer box, I would recommend using relays straight from the batt and a hot feed to trigger the relay. This will insure full voltage and then you can get rid of all the other cpu wires etc. Much more simple routing and you know all the wires are good. I did notice that on mine, one could not simply just unplug the computer and discard it (mine was attached to the breather as the first years of it) Either way thats 2 for 2 on ditch the lean burn.

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225, Offenhauser, Holley 350, A833OD, 3:55, GM HEI,99 Durango starter
BOOSTED! WH1C, BIG FMIC, 10#
Operation Noble Eagle 03-05
Operation Iraqi Freedom 05-07
Operation Enduring Freedom 12- 13

I would check the voltage at the battery and voltage at the coil while truck is running to see what they are.
Mine is 14.5 at battery and 14.1 at the coil which is close enough. I also just rewired my truck last year.
If you have big difference in voltage between the 2 I would definitely use a relay.

Dave

_________________
86 Miser 170,000+
2 1/4" exhaust
Holley 1920 #55
HEI MSD BLaster 2
17.8 mpg