Thank for the info, i am going to call the dealer tomorrow since its about 1.5 hours from me and see if they cant locate where the stamp would be to indicate whether or not it a 53 block since I have an idea where to tell them where to look, and my other question that may be a deal breaker to me is if it has pulled a fifth wheel, if it was an manual it wouldn't really bother me. And yea for an 11 year old truck I cant bring myself to drop 17 on it. The guy told me he wants to make a deal on it, so we will see what they tell me. Thanks guys

 

I have had no problems with my 53 block and my truck was used in the woods for an engine heater on woods equipment,they put 2 quick couplers in the heater lines and go into the woods and hook them into a freezing cold engine block and let the coolant circulate to heat up the other engine, so the freezing coolant went into the 53 truck block and didn't crack it

 

well just dont be to quick to down the auto tranny in these dodges. the 47re and 48re were not all that bad. too many big name tranny builders have told me they were one of the better on the market, if you take care of them. they just have shorter service intervals than others, 15000 towing and 20-25000 not towing. just to give you an idea of how good they really are, there is a guy here locally that has a 12valve and the last time it was in the shop it had 420,000 miles on it with the stock auto tranny. ganted he doesnt tow with it.

 

Thanks for the info yj, I don't think that the #53 block is going to be a deal breaker, but would hope it isn't one to rest my mind. And banditsdiesel i'm not putting them down I've just always heard that dodges trannys aren't the best . I wont be doing alot of towing, just occasional here and there until i am out of college. And I would probably like to upgrade to a suncoast or something along the lines of that. If I cant work a deal on this truck I am going to continue looking, Ideally I would love a 5 or even a 6 speed if I could find one.

 

i have a sun coast in mine and i love it. the ones that got the bad rep was the older earler 90s and back 727 3 speeds. it was a tranny from gas engines stuck to a diesel. the sun coast comes with a 3 year unlimited mileage warranty, and the ats has a 5 year 500,000 mile warranty. if they werent that good companies wouldnt put a big warranty on them. i installed one in a hot shot haulers dodge. and last time i saw him it had almost 200,000 on it and all it did was pull a 40ft trailer. it was an ats. but i do like the sun coast a lot better in shift quaility and performance.