I know this may sound backwards, but I have a Really tired non-intercooled engine in a 1990 dodge.

I believe the main part of the problem is in the bottom end (low oil pressure)

I have a decent intercooled engine in a parts truck (1992) but I don't want to butcher the front end of the '90 to fit the intercooler
.
can I use the head off the non intercooled on the intercooled engine and deal with this problem that way?

thanks.

 

Just use the intercooled motor with all the NON intercooled accessories bolted to it.
It has been a 5 ish years since I did that swap, but the fan hub, fan blade [to match the fan shroud], upper radiator neck, throttle linkage / bracket, intake plate, intake horn, turbo and the 6 injector lines and hold down clamps come to mind as things I swapped to do that to the motor I used in my '89 Ramcharger build.
I may have even swapped the vacuum and power steering pump.
Easy enough if you have the two motors next to themselves and a few gaskets in hand.

 

Oliver,

one other thing, iirc, I have read somewhere that the non-intercooled head has some heavier duty parts/design. did you successfully run the intercooled head without an intercooler?

 

The big things with the earlier heads is the larger injectors [nozzle size and count size wise] from the factory and the larger holes in the head [9 MM rather than 7 MM] they thread into.
The injector spray pattern of the intercooled pistons and the intercooler injectors work best together. Just like the NON intercooled injectors and pistons pair best. They spray the fuel into the bowl of the pistons slightly differently.

I have had no issues with the intercooled motor in my Ramcharger after installing non inter cool style accessories on it years ago.
I gets about 22 MPG on long road trips like the two times my daughter and I took it to the Mopar show in Carlisle which is almost a 1000 mile roundtrip.

 

great news,

thank you Oliver.