It was recomended to me by a section mod that I post my little intro in the 2gen general discussion as well as the new members area. I've been lurking around and reading a bit of the convos on this forum the last few months and decided to get involved a little bit.

I recently purchased this truck after owning a 95 Chevy Blazer for 6-7 years. The vacume/electric 4x4 was a nightmare on that truck and after about 250K of otherwise reliable miles I decided it was time to buy a full size truck for several reasons; I live in the Rockey Mountains working as a Professional Snowboard Coach so 4x4 that's reliable is a MUST. I own a snowmobile and though my Blazer towed it just fine I like the idea of tossing it in my bed and not having to tow a trailor, clearance, and the ablility to move stuff around / haul loads (firewood, moving apartments and such).

After about four months of serching GMs, Fords, Dodges, and Toyotas, I came across this 2001 Ram truck new in on trade at a dealer. So new in on trade that it had some issues and had yet to be washed and detailed, that and there was a discrepancy on the miles since the odometer was broken for a year and had recently been fixed I was able to pick it up for a good price (about $2,000 under a lot of other trucks I had looked at were priced).

So began some cleanup work:
-I removed all the doofy Ram symbol accesories, Ram symbol tail light covers, Ram stearing wheel cover, Ram floor mats, Ram logo 4th brake light in the reese hitch.
-Upper dash had cracks and holes, replaced that with a new one from Mopar
-Fixed the interior dome lights
-Replaced a leaky power stearing line
-Replaced the two license plate lights. It needed pig tail harneses, the old ones were melted and just hanging from the rear
-Replaced the right upper and lower ball joints and axel shaft seal
-New front brake rotors and pads
-Oil change/filter
-Spark Plugs, wires, cap and rotor
-Air filter box was cracked and in need of a new filter as well, so I just went with a Spectra Ram Air intake/filter (give the engin bay a little bling).
-OEM exhaust was in need of two new claps, so that fixed a minor exhaust leak it had.
-The tranny fluid was waaaaaaaaaaaay (like nearly a quarter of the dipstick) over filled causing it to hesitate to shift. I drained it and added new fluid/filter. Smoothed her right out.
-In the middle of replacing all 8 fuel injectors now. It has to crank for a minute to start. I have ruled out that it's the fuel pump, regulator, relay, or temp sensor causing this. The truck smells of gas when it starts so my next guess is I have a bad injector that leaks out when the truck is turned off, Ill give an update once finished.
-Took it to get an alignment.
-Added an Eagle Topper/Cap from Craigslist since I travel a bit and live in a alpine winter climate I need room carry Snowboards/Gear and such.
-Also tracked down a matching aluminum wheel and a used tire for a spare. I had to dremel out the middle of the wheel to get the hanger through, so now I have a nice all terrain spare that I could drive freeway speeds on.

The truck has after market rear speakers and a nice new CD player with removable face and a USB port. I think the previous owner had sub woofers because I removed alot of usless audio wire that was hiden under the interior trim. Also came with decent all terrain tires with little whear

I still need to fix the power locks, right power window switch, instrument bezel (cracked but not to bad), and find a new sunglass holder for the ceiling consol.

The engine runs/idles smooth, she shifts smooth, and drives smooth. Once everything is fixed I plan on adding a after market cat back exhaust, and an extra spring in the rear for heavly loads(maybe a truck camper). Haven't really decided on a locking diff or any type of different gearing yet because this is my only vehical and sees alot of freeway time as well as off road/back road and snow road time.

Since here she is.

 

It's a nice looking truck, but how many miles do you have on her, engine, 4x4? Expect to have to replace the intake plenum plate and gasket at some point, as that tends to be a point of failure and excessive oil consumption (that is, if it hasn't already been replaced, as the OEM was steel, whereas the fix is aluminum and that can be told by a telescoping magnet down the throttle body to the bottom of the intake, as well as looking to see if you can see oil pooling at any point down there). For all of these trucks' faults, they are great trucks to work with, so welcome to the fam I say

 

It's 4x4 Sport with the 5.2. There was some discrepancy on the milage as the cluster had been replaced/fixed, the odometer reads about 107k but we estimate between 120k-150k actual. I have read up on this plenum issue, maybe tomorow if I get a break in the rain I'll go take a look. Thank you for the heads up.

 

They are great trucks! You can't kill the damn magnums

Anyway, fix your plenum and put a double roller timing chain on it while you're at (yes yours is stretched at whatever miles it has)

 

great looking ram.. welcome to thefamily!

 

Thanks glad to be here I really am enjoying the truck. To give an update on the starting issue; I replaced all the injectors today and that solved the starting problem. Truns right over

While the throttle body was off I determined that I do still have the stock plenum in the truck. It did however look fairly clean down there, a little bit of oil stain near where the PCV valve vents, definatly no puddling or even enough to get on my magnet. I think for now I'll just leave it till I start to notice any issues, or symptoms. I'm glad to know what to keep an eye out for. Thank you DF.