hey kicker you might want to get your facts straight the 3.9 V6 puts out 175 stock not 225, so uh you might want to do a little research before posting, Anyways to get the truck to not kickdown in my humble opnion would be to follow my mods, mine doesnt kickdown anymore when i go drivin through the hill country of Texas when it used to real bad, now I just need to get back to the dyno for the new numbers with my headers and programmer.

 

hey texas, my brothers 2003 3.9 litre has on the sticker, 225 ponies, if older trucks lack those numbers i care not, your mods are costly and he doesnt have to go over board on them, he can get by with bolt on items such as exuast and air intakes, wich in themselves are costly, $350 for a tube and cone filter, he might as well put a paxton supercharger on it rather than spend 2000 on an obd1 reader and a computer to do the upgrade, aside from the chip costing 300 to 500 bucks, its not worth it for a lousy 25% hp gain

 

stock our V6 was sluggish on inclines, now with the flowmaster 40 series and the 360 air intakez, its got alot more power we do have to give it a lil more gas for it to maintain a constant speed but if u floor it it certainly won't sit there for long. It's No V8, but its definetly a powerful V6... 65k on the odometer.

 

Im actually suprised at my truck. I turn the O/D off unless I am freeway driving, and 1500RPM will pull me up a lotta **** no problem

 

hey kicker get your facts straight, your first post said 220 ponies, now your sayin 225 ponies, only the 3.7 puts out more than the 3.9 which is what dodge went to. Trust me the 3.9 puts out 175 stock its on numerous articles and such and also IF my truck put out 225 ponies instead of 175 i would have dyno'ed alot more than than 146 to the wheels and thats before i put on headers and the programmer!!!!! btw learn to spell (lol) this is just from a quick google search:


Description
The Dakota has 4 engine options; a 4 cylinder with 120-hp, a V6 with 175-hp, and two V8's with 230 and 250-hp. They're available in 2 and 4 wheel drive and ABS is optional.

 

So what TB spacer do I get and where? Also what about a different TB altogether?

 

Check out the fastman for a TB swap (his site is on the forum) and he should be able to hook u up. As far as a spacer I got mine from poweraid/airaid, now as far as a HP increase I really dont know but I did do a dyno run of 146/210 and that was before the headers and the programmer. I need to get back over there but I havent had the time, to get my new numbers. Im HOPING/WISHING for around 170 HP!

 

my '03 Dak w/ V-6 does the same thing however the severity seems to vary per gas tank so it appears the computer is rather sensitive to fuel quality (or lack thereof)...

 

you consider 25% as lousy?!!? even on only 200 hp that is 50! that is plenty
[quote]ORIGINAL: 99Dakota


its not worth it for a lousy 25% hp gain
mudkicker78

 

I to had problems climbing the bigger hill and moutians in my 3.9L but i had just bought the truck and still learning the feel of her. After expermenting around i found 2000 rpms and up she would pull the hill fine with about half throttel and accelrated. (not breath takeing accelration but it got the job done this was also with maybe 200 pounds in the back as i was move cross country Va to Az so pleanty of road to learn her) I also noticed anythign less then 2000 rpms you where basicly screwed where you either kept your current speed wtih excsive throttel appliance or on the bigg *** moutians climbs slowely lost it thought a simple down shift would help. So basicly 2000 rpms and up your in the green under it well thats a shame. Thats jsut my input though.