I just got a low milage 3.9 that I am going to swap into my truck in a month or so, and was wondering if there are any tricks I could do to it while I have it out of my truck to make it have a little more umph. I looked at the kegger mod, can I do this to the V6 also?

Thanks!
Jordan

 

You can swap in a Throttle Body off the 5.2/5.9, that'll open your airway a little bit. And as for the intake kegger mod, I really don't see why it wouldn't work.

 

There are lots you can to do to improve performance. Not all is cheep tho.
Yes I belive the kegger mod can be done to v6s. Check FAQ2 for a good write up on it. For straters go with high per. cap rotor wires coil and plugs. Autolight 3923 is the best for our trucks. Larger throttle body like mentioned above. When you do the kegger mod you can open up some of the intake runners and you might want to see if you can open up the runners on the exhaust manifold. For a list of performance parts you can buy check the FAQ2.

 

will rocker arms for the 318 magnum fit the 3.9 also? then I could out 1.7:1 rockers on it, or 1.6:1.

 

Yes they will. we have stock 1.6. High per. will be 1.7 $500 or so. On most you have to get taller valve covers. There is one that will work with stock covers. I forgot that brand name. A big performance adder is if you go to lower rear end gears.

 

I currently have 3.90 gears in the truck now, and it gets up and goes pretty good for having 200,000+ miles on it (the odometer is broken)

 

There's tons of stuff you can do. If its low mile and nothing is wrong with it, you can do little things to eek out performance.

Get good plugs and wires. Autolites are great. The thing to take into consideration is heat range- you want a colder range. The part is listed in another response. I like champions personally, as that's what dodge puts into the trucks to begin with. Coupled with a 180* thermostat and higher octane gas, you can advance the timing a bit and eek out some horsepower; just don't overdo it.... you'll start getting preignition issues.

Intake! Get a more freely flowing intake. What I did was remove all of the ducting to the intake. This initially gave much better flow. Because I'm a cheap-*** and like taking on additional work without expense, I intend to take a dremel tool and remove most of the metal from the air cleaner and some from the top to increase flow. There are also replacement intake assemblies (one made by edelbrock) that flow better; I saw one that'd fit on the 3.9 for $40 at Advance auto parts.

Exhaust! Lower exhaust backpressure will help evacuate the exhaust gasses more quickly. This makes a little difference, but what you'll notice is increased throttle response. Removal of the stock muffler and turned tail pipe and replacing with a "straight-through" muffler (glasspack) will improve exhaust efficiency considerably. You might see 1-5 HP increase with good exhaust, more if you opt for a fully built system.

With the above mods you might see a 15-30 horsepower improvement which is definitely noticable. Oh, and despite what people say, 5w30 full synthetic... as its just as good at temp (that 30 is the hot viscosity) as 10w-30.

If you got the cash, a custom shop (lots here in St. Louis) can build a low end turbo kit or install a supercharger but it's gonna cost you, and all the above stuff will get done with it to prevent preignition anyways...

 

Oh, BTW- The above mods I suggest (barring the TC/SC) are entry level upgrades, or what I like to call "Step One". I used to drive a 1998 Pontiac Grand Prix GT and after those entry level mods were done I could race with a stock GTP (factory supercharged) and beat them regularly. The upgrades cost less than $150 all said and done on my GP, and I had to buy tools too!

I am not sure what they'll do for a DAK but they're still entry level upgrades and won't effect your daily drivability. Well, advancing the timing without running premium will....