I dont have experience with the LT's, it's just what I've heard. my exper. is with the gibson shorties on the 5.9 motor. mine went on a fairly stock motor and I felt a slight dip in low end but a better gain in the top end. Then coupled with the exhaust setup I played with I was able to find what worked for me. I ended up with a flowmaster dual out setup that I necked down to dual 2.25". this was just a tad bit bigger than a single 3" exhaust. gave the dual outs I wanted with the performance of the single.

when I got the CTD and took the '00 ram back to stock, i was almost in tears when I drove it and saw how much power was lost going back to stock. It was a shame but that is what was needed to sell it. the market for a modded truck is small. I pulled off 1.7's, gibsons, 52mm fastman & pulled the hypertech program. I left the r/t heads (not practical to pull them) and a modded Kegger.

when I was modding it one thing to mention that I found was an awesome change was I changed the stock FIPK filter for a 6x9 round one. bumped the power up into the 2~3k range and was very noticeable in the mountains when climbing the hills. Again the bottom end dropped a tad bit but overall it was better.

 

the gibsons came with a thick gasket that worked fine. I switched to the napa's after swapping the heads...

 

cool thanks I appreciate it.

 

You ain't just whistlin' Dixie there brother.


Any headers that bolt up to the stock crossover and y aren't going to help that much. At the same time it's not going to throw the tune much off when the pcm is in open loop. I can see where someone that installed lt's and a whole new custom exhaust all the way back with no means of tuning them may run into problems running lean.

+1 on the harness extender. I used solder and heat shrink. I also installed a wideband on the opposite side. I was able to data log the a/f vs. rpm in order to get the tune right all the way through the rpm band.

 

And thats exactly it.... most of those who put LT's on their stock engines arn't getting tunes. Out of curiosity... OP, are you planning on dropping $600 (or w/e) on the SCT tune now, then the a/f gauge (around 300) + adding the bung (varies), and then the pinging issues the sct guys seem to have within the next month to get your truck running right? Sheesh.. talk about the fine print haha, ill stick with my shorty's and enjoy my extra hill power at a fraction of the hassel and cost. I found mine in the classifieds - $150 for brand new ceramic coated pacesetter's, stage 8 locking header bolts, and free shipping to my door. Can't beat it.

 

you got one helluva deal on that one. i will have to invest in those stage 8 locking header bolts though.....when i can find a place to buy them. I like my shorty's because i was in the car racing world for yrs prior to owning a truck and the principle is normally the same when it comes to shorty VS long tube headers.....if you do not have any major engine mods then long tubes will not do you much good and in some cases detract. i have the stock Y-pipe and cat that goes into a single 3" exhaust pipe > a Flowmaster Super 40 single center in/out > split tail pipes exiting out the corners at an angle and this set up works for me. i actually saw a gain in the performance. so i guess if LT's wrk for you then great but on a truly stock motor I don't see how.

 

hey Steve did you sell your add-ons already?

 

It all depends what you're into I guess. Admittedly, I went way overboard, but I had fun and a 5200lb truck that did 0-60 in 5.8 seconds. Some are happy with a truck that does a little better than stock, and some go all out. So far as I can tell, the OP is on his way (from memeory: 4.56's and the Hughes Kegger probably set him back ~$2500.00). He probably bought the lt's for a reason, and is selling his Hypertech, so my guess is a SCT tuner is already looming in the front of his mind. I was merely trying to offer advice based on the assumption that he is working toward something that might out-perform "slightly better than stock". I didn't mean to insult you when I said that lt's help low-end more than shorties, but for most that is just an accepted fact. The severely lacking y/crossover setup that DC put on the 2nd gen.'s probably skews what is normal though.

 

It's all good man. I looked at your sig earlier and saw you had a nice setup going. Maybe one day ill be there.....

P.S. he has 3.96's he says ... prb 3.92's that came stock. and he has the hughes plenum pan. Don't worry, my memory is bad too

 

It was fun while it lasted. I sold that truck. I just like to poke my head in here every so often while I'm waiting for the aftermarket to catch up to the 09's. I keep telling myself that the only thing I'll do is get a tuner for it but I'm sure I'll get the bug again.