Does anyone know any somewhat cheap ways to build these pieces of **** up? They are reliable engines but they're all bark and no bite. the thing has about 170hp to the wheels if that, I was thinking about doing H/O cams, or replacing the intake manifold, but those are pretty pricey. I was looking at a 68mm throttlebody too, I just don't know what to do. I wanted a 2500 v10 but couldn't afford it so I ended up with this junk. Any help appreciated, thanks

 

Sell it and buy a Durango with a real v8 5.9 in it.

Something about a plastic intake that... well... sucks.

But hey, I'm looking at a 4.7 too. For my wife.

 

yea those 4.7's are really hard to get any bit of hp out of em besides tearing down the motor and building em up. and the 4.7's have over head cams on em. so you would have to get 2 new cams but then if you get the wrong ones you have to replace the tq converter and so on...
now the 5.2ltr and the 5.9ltr are easy to get more hp out of. any thing from headers and exhaust to intake, a slighty better cam. to the 52mm tb. and you can get chips for those to to get more hp.
but you can get a chip for your 4.7 not sure where, also you can get it dyno'd and have them custom tune your pcm for some more hp, and that will probably run ya a few hundred, but for 50 more ponies its well worth it!
also im pretty sure on those 4.7's that the cold air and complete exhaust kits dont even give ya much more, so its probably not worth it unless your just looking for a more aggressive exhaust profile.

 

Unfortunately the only durango I could find was the 4.7, and I just needed a car. I got a flowmaster 40 series on it and I think it did give me a few more horsepower. I could feel it have a little more pickup than stock, not much. Although it is the smallest of the smallblocks I just don't understand why it has literally no power

 

there must be something wrong with yours if it has no power, mine has enough power for daily driving and anything i have tried to tow with it (i dont tow much so take that bit as you will)

ftr, wheel dyno graph from a 4.7l dakota (same setup as our trucks)

 

It has power, but it just doesn't have the pickup that i'd like on the highway, and thanks for the dyno chart, that was actually pretty cool. I got 122000 miles on mine, and it is a tough engine and does have a pretty adequate amount of power, I just want more so I can have more pickup on the highway, maybe my engine does need a rebuild, without a dyno I'm not sure. I just wish I had the power of a v10 lol

 

No power, but with a FM40 on there, it is certainly as loud as hell and sounds like it has power.

 

Yeah it does sounds pretty nice for a 287, but I just hope it performs well in the mud. Since it has lockers in 4wd it shouldn't be too bad. It just can't compare with my friends 89 blazer with a rebuilt 350 sitting on 35s haha

 

thats weird, something is off in your case, could be as simple as a bad oxygen sensor not responding, or your trans not downshifting fast enough hence no power, because i know that mine has plenty of cruising power on the highway, but for passing i NEED it to downshift in order to get the acceleration i need, mine fortunately downshifts quickly like it should when i step on the gas to make a pass. I will say that the 4.7 is not a race engine, nor is it the best for heavy towing, but for daily driving it should be more than adequate

 

I am not a fan of the FM40. It is way too loud. Noise is not power. There is a difference between good sounding performance and simply a loud muffler.

There was a DOCer with a killer 4.7l build. It still wasn't a match for my moderately modified 5.9L of the day. It was very disappointing to him.

My factory-freak not withstanding. Nor my modifications since.