Hello everybody, I am new to this Forum and quite frankly not too bright with locating parts, hence why I am posting this here. If you can help it would be greatly appreciated, if you cannot then thank you anyway for taking the time to read.


Okay, I have a 2001 Dodge Ram 1500 4x4 that I am just not impressed with performance wise. It seems like first and second gear are the ONLY strong gears on the truck, 3-5th are slow at picking up speed. So I am wanting to pony it up, add more horses to it but not sure exactly what I can do to achieve that.


I looked into Edelbrock Performer RPM, my brother recommends this to me, however, I cannot find anything that says it will work with my engine. Now, I do live in Texas, but I live in a non-emissions county so I don't have to worry about all of that. I was looking into the Edelbrock Performer RPM Air Gap intake manifold 7577 which appears to be for 1992-2003 5.2L 318, from what is says on summit racings site. But it isn't a fuel injected manifold. So would I just have to convert to carb or could I have the injector ports machined into this manifold and be good to use it?


I am wanting to put a cam in it, maybe new heads, just want it to have more power. My brother says he can help me, he is the mechanically inclined one of my brothers, but I am just curious from all you other Forum members if its a lost cause?


It's a beater for now. I am wanting to add more HP, rebuild the trans and transfer case and probably paint it flat black. Or maybe a semi-gloss black. If you guys could help I would surely appreciate it. Just fishing for ideas here. Planning on putting tax refund to good use on my truck.

 

Edelbrock also makes one for port fuel injection engines. I am not able to come up with one right quick, but, Hughes engines sells them as well, as the Hughes FI Air Gap. Not precisely cheap though. There is also the Chrysler M1 intake, which also has provisions for FI, and is more of a direct bolt-on than the Hughes piece. They are becoming difficult to find though. Either one is an improvement over the stock kegger.

That said, I recommend having a read of the Plenum thread, stickied at the top of this forum. I suspect that yours is blown, and that is probably a large part of your problem. If your truck is approaching/past six-digit mileage, timing chain is going to be quite stretched as well, which is also a contributor to low power. Failing plenum can cause clogged cat, and fouled O2 sensors.... which will also rob power.

Just doing the plenum fix, and timing chain can bring back quite of bit of power on an otherwise sound engine. When you start changing manifolds, and cams, then you also introduce the need for a proper (custom) tune..... another 4-600 bucks.

 

Swap in a 5.9! You'll need the pcm from it also. It's a better base to start with(more displacement).

 

Size doesn't always matter. A supercharged 318 will pump 600 at the crank according to Keene belle

 

Yeah, but good luck finding a kit for less than a few thousand bucks......

 

Yea that is the downfall. I think people underestimate the 318 to much. I wish someone would make a weight power ratio graph of the dodge trucks from 90's up

 

You can install all the mods you want and add a good tune but it's still not going to pony up your 318 unless you build a 408 stroker or supercharger. All the mods in my sig will only net about 50hp increase. Don't expect big power unless you go big budget.

 

Big numbers aren't really necessary to have the truck feel powerful. The trouble with getting high horsepower number is, they are usually developed high in the RPM range. Exactly what you DON'T want with a truck. Torque is king here. Building an engine for low-end grunt will NOT give you huge horsepower numbers, BUT, it WILL give you a truck that you can actually use as a TRUCK.

 

My two cents... I bought the SCT tuner from hemifever and that woke up my little 318 pretty well. I believe along with that tune you swapped in a set of 4.10 or 4.56 gears (assuming you have the stock 3.55) and fix your plenumm, you'll really wake that truck up.

I have an AirGap sitting at home I'm waiting to install, and I can't wait, I've heard of some great mid-high RPM power gains from it.

 

The 318 anf 360 engines were designed specifically for trucks. Hauling and towing. Max hp and torque comes in at lower rpm then most motors. Personally if your looking for that snappy high revving horsepower. You might want to consider a 5.7 hemi. My opinion I don't like them in a truck motor cause when hauling their constantly high rpm screaming. My old 5.9 hauls way better then any 5.7 hemi I've used to haul a trailer. But as far as fast and quick acceleration and hp the hemi beats mine. When I drive a hemi truck it feels more like a toy then a work truck. I'd never trade my old brute 5.9 or my 5.2 truck for a hemi but from what I hear that almost what your looking for