im sure these questions have been asked before but i am new here and new to my truck, so bear with me please...i have a 99 dakota 4x4 with a 5.2L engine and am wondering if it is worth the money to put an air intake on it, or maybe just a basic round open air cleaner, or add a cone filter to the existing hose and remove the box,or just leave the factory box on it? also, im wondering about the exhaust. will a new muffler just change the sound, or give me gains in power? i know if i spend a bunch of money i can get alot of gains, such as adding headers andduel exhaust and all that,but i am trying to go low budget here and dont want to spend hundreds of dollars for only 5 horsepower,that isnt worth the money to me. my thinking is i can put either a round open air cleaner or a cone filter on the existing hose and spend around 25 bucks or soand get sufficient gains rather than spending upwards of 200 plus dollars on an intake kit. a couple horepower isnt worth 175 bucks to me. same goes with the exhaust system...thanks in advance for any answers!

 

welcome to DF...

check this thread out regarding round air filters... applies to the 2nd gen rams.
https://dodgeforum.com/m_613741/tm.htm

Mean Green in the 1st gen Durango section did a mod to his airbox that might be worth checking out as an alternative to the round air filter... do a search for it and you should find it.

if you want cheep power there is a couple of things you can do on a budget...
autolite 3923 spark plugs
msd 8.5 superconductor wires
mopar cap & rotor (IMO the best that I've used on 5 different mag motors)
180 deg t-stat
set your tps sensor output to .7~.75 volts
crank sensor mod (adjusts base timing)
fastman 50mm throttle body

these should get you going for sure... the fastman is $230 and worth every penny IMO, I had the 52mm on my 5.9 gasser.

 

I have basically the same truck...only a '98...I didn't notice any real gains from the cold air kit I put on. A K&N filter for the stock airbox would be just as good...or you could make something custom. Search around on here for some custom CAI and you'll find some good info. An open air cleaner is just going to draw hot air from the engine compartment and you may even lose some power especially on hot days. The exhaust did give me a little more top end/midrange power. Not a lot but it was enough to be noticeable. I have a gibson cat back w/single in dual out muffler but I think you would get similar gains from just adding a free flowing muffler.(and much less expensive) Look for something with a straight through design instead of a chambered muffler for the best gains. You can get a little extra power for little money on these trucks if you spend wisely but you won't see any huge gains. Hope this helps and welcome to the site...

 

what size are your dual out's? for your motor, shouldnt be more than 2.25" in diameter IMO and experience (on a 5.9 motor ram)

also to the original poster, forgot to mention a single in/out setup would be best for your truck or if you must have duals.. reduce the 2.5" dual outs to 2.25" to keep a good amount of low end torque. at 2.25" your just slightly more flow than a single 3" out.

 

My duals are 2.5" and I haven't lost any low end power that I can tell. The 5.2 has so much torque in stock form I don't think it would make much difference.

 

i noticed a little low end torque loss when i got my exhaust on my pipes are 2.25 and i have the 4.7 it wasn't to bad wehn i just had the exhaust on but when i got the hi flow cat i could feel a little low end torque loss at least i think

 

I guess I should add that it is possible that I lost low end power because the exhaust was rotted out when I got the truck. I replaced the cat with a high flow one from summit racing when I put the new exhaust on so it is possible that there was some low end loss that I never knew was there. lol Personally I think the truck has some low end power to spare though but the gains in the mid/top end were woth the upgrade IMO.

 

thanks so much...i found some great info about the round air cleaners on the link you left me...im going to give that a try. my local parts store has mr gasket setups for 20 something bucks. now i just hope i get the right one that isnt too high or too low and what have you, lol. i ran across some stuff on those autolite 3923 plugs earlier. i hear they work great.

 

thanks for the reply...all i really found on the most part as far as intakes go is that the pricey intakes ($200 and up ones) dont show much of a difference and dont seem to be worth the cost to me, so im going with the round open filter...look at the link that steve05ram360 left... https://dodgeforum.com/m_613741/tm.htm it sold me on power. the milage gains were not anything but neither is the other intakes from what i have read.
as far as the exhaust goes, i think i will take your advice and go with a straight thru muffler and leave everything else alone...

 

how do i adjust these two things?

set your tps sensor output to .7~.75 volts
crank sensor mod (adjusts base timing)