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Rebuilding 5.9L Magnum V8, what to do to get more power?

 
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Old 07-20-2004, 05:55 PM
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Default Rebuilding 5.9L Magnum V8, what to do to get more power?

Sorry if this is the wrong place for this, it's my first post here.

Well my dad has a '99 Ram w/ the 5.9L 360 V8. It's been going through oil like crazy so he plans to have the engine rebuilt at around 100K miles, right now it's got about 98,400. Anyway he firgured if he's gonna have the engine pulled he might as well mess with and get more power out of it. I really don't know much about trucks and I'm sure he thinks he knows more than he does but what are some options for getting more power out of the engine and about how much would they run?

Thank you for you patience with a new guy,
J.
 
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Old 07-20-2004, 06:25 PM
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Default RE: Rebuilding 5.9L Magnum V8, what to do to get more power?

Nothin wrong with a nice 408 buildup. Or if not, just go back with stock internals, stuff in a healthy cam, a pair of 1.7 Mopar rockers, a fastman throttle body and maybe a mopar converter and enjoy
issuez
 
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Old 07-20-2004, 08:31 PM
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Default RE: Rebuilding 5.9L Magnum V8, what to do to get more power?

how much power does he want and how much $$ is he willing to spend super charger 3000-4000$
 
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Old 07-20-2004, 11:08 PM
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Default RE: Rebuilding 5.9L Magnum V8, what to do to get more power?

How much does a rebuild tipically cost?

He probably won't spend more than $10K total. It becomes mine after it is fixed so if it's more than $10K he'll probably just buy a new one. I'll try to ask him tomorrow.

"Nothin wrong with a nice 408 buildup"

Umm, sorry for being stupid but what's that?
 
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Old 07-21-2004, 12:13 AM
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Default RE: Rebuilding 5.9L Magnum V8, what to do to get more power?

You can save yourself a bundle by going with an Magnum shortblock and having the heads done locally. The shortblock runs around $1200. You can port the heads yourself with some templates from MoPar Performance. Have a local machine shop do a 3-angle valve job and install new guides and seals. Get a hotter cam and headers and a performance PCM. Have fun.
 
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Old 07-21-2004, 01:17 AM
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Default RE: Rebuilding 5.9L Magnum V8, what to do to get more power?

Replace it with a Vortec. My buddies '96 extended cab Z71 eats my truck up. It almost makes me sick to my stomach.
 
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Old 07-21-2004, 01:09 PM
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Default RE: Rebuilding 5.9L Magnum V8, what to do to get more power?

Your dad's 360 probably has a bad plenum gasket. They blow pretty often. Look down the throttle body and look for oil staining on the bottom of the intake manifold. Oil staining = bad plenum gasket. Go to www.apsprecision.com and look for their billet plenum kit. This will fix the plenum problem for good. Or for mor high end HP go to www.krcperformance.com and get an M1 manifold. A rebuild at this milage is probably not needed. I've replaced 2 of these on 2 different magnum engines, fixed the oild consumption each time.

HTH.
 
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Old 07-21-2004, 02:19 PM
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Default RE: Rebuilding 5.9L Magnum V8, what to do to get more power?

Simply increase the displacement from 360ci to 408ci. Do a google search for a 408 stroker kit. They're out there for ~$1500, combine that with ~$500 for the machine shop and enjoy. Enormous torque and horsepower potential for a relatively tame investment.
issuez
ORIGINAL: SithSolo1

"Nothin wrong with a nice 408 buildup"

Umm, sorry for being stupid but what's that?
 
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Old 07-22-2004, 05:46 AM
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Default RE: Rebuilding 5.9L Magnum V8, what to do to get more power?

I've never worked on my 5.9's internals, but i have tore apart a Dakota R/T Motor and done lots to it! There are plenty of things you can put on it as the afore posters have said, but the easiest thing to do to get some HP is a Reworked throttle body and a mopar computer, with a full set of exhaust and some good headers. You could probably pull all that off with a little over $1250, but it just depends on how much power you really want. Some swear by NOS, but I would stay away from it unless you really know what you are doing.

Anything you need just holler
Ryan
 
 



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