Hello! I'm a new member (if you will have me).

I'm the proud new owner of a 1991 Dodge Power Ram LE.

 

Welcome to the forum, that's a sweet looking gen 1.

 

Thanks!

I just had the steering gear box replaced, had it alinned and put new 31'' BF's on it.

I have two thing on my mind and I'm hoping you can point me to some info on it.

1. I want to swap out the bench seat for something like a 40/20/40 system.
2. I'd love to wake this slugiish 318 up.

Any thoughts?

 

#1. Is something I'm planning on doing in the future. I was thinking of a front seat setup from a third gen. Center flips down, plus the storage inside it. And underneath the center seat is another storage area. I actually have an 05 2500 (not for parts lol) I need to measure the overall height and width to see if they will fit in the regular cab on my 91 D150. Some mounts might have to be fabricated to get them to work, but I think almost any seat will work, it just all depends on the frame of the seat.

#2. Not much if it still has the stock TBI unit. I was planning to build a mild 318 in mine, change the cam, and go carb. Setup. I was gonna go with 1.88 intake valves from a 360, and deck the block increase compression with long tube headers, and a 160* t-stat. But I guess the 318 had other plans and decided to retire and become a boat anchor (block was cracked and both heads were cracked) So now it has a .020 over bored 360 Magnum converted to carb. And I basically did everything to it that I was the 318. I didn't plan on the overbore, but things happen. The ecm is the problem with the gen 1, no aftermarket support for added power. So you can go carb. Or aftermarket stand alone fuel injection, most are self learning, but you can tweak the parameters if you know what your doing. I went carb. Because I like them, and they are old school, would have been easier in the long run to go with the fuel injection setup, would only have to upgrade the fuel pump to a higher pressure one. You can do a small cam, upgrade the timing chain to double roller, move the tbi temp. Sensor to a cooler spot so it fools the computer into thinking it's colder and dumps a little more fuel, colder T-stat for the same reason. Going too radical and I don't think it would run right, if at all.

 

Thanks for the reply.

Do you know of any good resources to aquire seats and other parts? I can't seem t find crap on line or locally.

If we fool the ECU into thinking the engine is colder, will that effect anytning negitively? I'm wondering why they even put T-stats in an engine - I mean, wouldn't you want it running as cold as possible all the time for longevity? You would think that heat would be the enemy of the engine.....

 

For seats probably a junk yard, or somebody parting out a truck. I use summit for mostly all my parts performance orientated anyways, sometimes they are cheaper for oem stuff.
Your mpg might suffer a little bit, but the 02 sensor will keep it from going stupid rich.
T-stat is used because most engines are designed to work the best at a certain temp. To achieve the best combustion to keep emissions in check, and gain the best efficiency and keep the EPA happy. Why I'm running a 160* in my 360 mag build. I'm also running 11.4:1 compression ratio, lower temp t-stat will help keep it from pre-detonating and creating hot spots. Higher octane fuel helps with that also. Higher octane gasoline has a higher flash point to help against pre-detonation. To cold and you'll have Carbon build up, to hot and it'll pre-detonate (fuel air mixture Burns before the ignition system sets it off) holes in Pistons is usually the result, hot spots and the Piston is the thinnest so it gets hottest the fastest. It's usually why running 93 octane in an engine designed for 87 can cause carbon build up, the combustion doesn't have enough heat to completely burn the mix and carbon is the after effect, carbon build up can also cause hot spots and pre-detention so running 93 octane does the exact opposite of what you might think, in reality if you wanna clean the carbon per say you want to run a lower octane to build more heat, but you risk severe damage if run long enough. It takes time for all this to happen, it's not just gonna blow up in the first 5 minutes, or the first 5 miles. Pre-detention is that pinging noise, to low of octane. most vehicles have knock sensors that change the timing to help prevent it the early TBI of Dodge don't have. Like I said don't let it scare you it's a long term effect on stock engines, but it's the main reason for a T-stat. Everything is tied together, lol. I done allot research it was Japanese at first when I started doing research for my engine build. Nothing you'll have worry about if your just doing a stock build with a slightly more aggressive cam. Or just some bolt ons.