A stock 245 is not enough for this brick. Interstate hills kill me with constant shifting to keep a steady speed and i know the tranny is screaming for help. My truck has 86k with a clean well kept motor running 89 octane but it wont even power brake the tires. Im considering a complete new flowmaster exhaust from the block back "headers,cat etc.." but Im not sure this will give me much more than a better sound with a few horses thrown in. I dont want the tires to melt off but I do want better performance. I have a 95 grand cherokee with a 318 that does better pulling hills and its own weight all together.

Can you get 300+ hp out this engine without a complete build?

I see TB's, cold air, exhaust & chips as the typical mods in the forums but what do these mods add up to in terms of over all horse power?

Ive little experience with computer controlled enigines.....back in the day you cut off the cat, slammed a high rise with a fat 4 barrel on a small block and varoom!!!!!!!!

 

Seriously, there has to be something wrong.

My 318 does great on the highway, on big hills I may lose 1 mph or so but its not that big of a deal, ive never had the need to ever downshift on the highway unless im passing.

 

if you haven't already, do a search on throttle position sensor (tps). mine used to downshift like that on every hill. new tps allowed me to apply a little more gas pedal and hold speed w/o the constant downshift. the bad tps didn't register the pedal pressure properly.

 

Im sure with 86k it could use some work, but theres nothing I can find at a glance that would alarm me. I tried to find a rattle in the cat thinking that had to be the issue with performance but it doesnt appear to be bad. I run 70 to 80 on the interstate with easebut on a long hill "West Virginia" Ive got to kick down a gear and run at 3000 rpm to get good pull. The only thing Ive noticed is a rich smell from the exhaust if sitting still and reving the engine....possible o2 sensor but Iwouldnt think that would stop the truck from power braking.

Oil pressure is a steady 40 at cruise, no smoke out the back side, powerfeels realstrongover 3000 rpm with a dropped gear.....

Any suggestions of a check list I could do in my garage would be appreciated. Outside of standard tools I really have nothing to work with but it could get me started.

 

I dont think thats it because theres plenty of pedal before the tranny kicks down. I can run it up the hill and keep given it wasted gas pushing the pedal about an inch with no acelleration. When I do push it enough to kick it down it picks up real good going from 65 to 80 within 20 seconds or so.

hmmmm.....So hard to describe how a vehicle drives if its not doing what you feel it should lol. if it was running like a bat out of hell Id have no trouble telling you guys

 

"A stock 245 is not enough for this brick. Interstate hills kill me with constant shifting to keep a steady speed ...." Yep.
"I run 70 to 80 on the interstate with easebut on a long hill "West Virginia" Ive got to kick down a gear and run at 3000 rpm to get good pull.' That describes my truck exactly.
"I dont think thats it because theres plenty of pedal before the tranny kicks down." Mine, too.

The performance modifications discussed on these forums are for higher rpms.
Based on my experience the quickest and easiest mods for our situationare a ram air setup to the air cleaner and a performance program to advance the timing.
Those things helped me but I still come out of overdrive sometimes going up a long hill. It sure seems like a 5.9L engine should have more torque.

 

Thats how mine felt when my cat was bad...
Highway took lots of throttle.

 

Judging from the pictures
it is possible that your tires
are consuming an extra 15-30 hp
and making hills harder to climb without downshifts.
In an afternoon you could determine if this is true
by 'borrowing' a set of original tires from another Ram owner.

It is also possible your throttle control cable to the trans is mis-adjusted
or that your VFS solenoid inside the valve body is not setting the correct line pressures for the ATF.

Anything you do to improve the way your truck slips through the wind
at 65-79 mph highway speeds
(aerodynamics)
will 'free up' horsepower that will allow climbing hills easier.

If you want to consider engine mods
the newest issue of 'Engine Masters Magazine' has an article by Steve Dulcich on the build up of a Magnum 360 V8 is well worth a read.
Dulcich has a similar article online about a previous 318 build up:

http://www.carcraft.com/howto/116_0401_318/index.html

 

Hank, who/where can i get this magazine from ? the 'Engine Masters Magazine'

 

One big difference between our vehicles is possibly in the rear-end gears. My 3.55's are terrible for power. A lot of other forum members have 4.10's or even the 3.96's and seem to have more than sufficient power. I've a set of 3.96's sitting on my shelf, so as soon as I can afford the install kits, and a long 3 day weekend, I'll be installing the larger gears.

Check your rear end housing to see what gears you have in there. There should be a small metal tag bolted on that once you wipe it off you'll see the gearing. I'll bet you're running 3.55's.