look at it this way...youll smoke your tires w/o trying. And you can drift, w/o trying....(in rain)

 

that can make your truck slow,,, what size is the pipe?? have you checked plenum gasket?

but most likey the gears

 

JasonW... I know of a cummins powered 2nd gen Ram with a few "mods" that has been dynoed in at about 650 ft lbs of torque. He can incinerate his 35 inch tires at the drop of a throttle. Oh...he has 3:55s. So yes, you can overcome poor gearing and weight with mondo torque. It's tougher with a gasser, and generally requires a LOT of work (read money).


The gears only mutiply the availible torque your engine produces, and because they do it on the bottom end of the horespower scale, you will lose it on the other end unless you increase the availble horsepower. As others have stated, the 5.2 is a very old design saddled with making an increasingly heavier vehicle move. When you start modding the suspension and tires you need to modify the powertrain to make up the excess drag those items place on it. Eventually you will not be able to overcome the displacement, or not without serious and increasingly unreliable mods.

 

I'm gonna have to agreewith Mohawk..I have a 5.9 and its got some get up and go to it

 

this confuses me, b/c i have 265s on my truck (approx. equivlent to 32s) and i have stock 3.55s
and the 318, and its got no problem in the power department, loaded or unloaded
sure newer trucks may be faster off the line, but she ain't no slug

 

Yes, I was exaggerating a tad (or maybe a bit more ), but you take that same Cummins truck and regear it, he'll be even better.

My point still stands, there is no real substitute for proper gears. Sure, you can add a ton more power and compensate somewhat, but just think of all that power AND proper gears...

 

huge power and correct gears = tire shredding, pedestrian scaring, cop too scared to give you a ticket power!!!!

 

All the power your engine can make is no good if you can't get the revs up where it is usable. Large tires combined with high gearing (low numerically) means it takes longer for your engine to get to the sweet spot of its rev range. It will be a dog off the line and take forever to pull through the shifts.

 

For 35" tires, you need 4.56 or 4.88 gears no doubt. For 33" tires, 4.10 are perfect (4.27 would actually be better, but no on makes them for the 9.25).

I've yet to drive a 5.9 that runs as hard as my 5.2, even with 35" mud tires. It is plenty big, you just need to gear it up right.

 

Actually you can overgear a torque monster...he readlines about 4500 rpm. 4:56s will kill his top end.
Because there is so little difference in the hp and torque between a 5.2 and 5.9 from the factory, it is possible that the 5.2 responds better to certain mods than its big brother. The 5.9 or we used to call a 360, has never been an impressive motor. You should know (and I remember) that the 360 was a smogger motor designed to replace the performance 340 and the slug 400 big block (and the gas slurping emissions destroying 440) depending on the application. In an age where it was creeping into bankrupcy, the 360 cut Ma Mopars production and certification costs. It did niether job exceptionaly well, but then again we were working with 3400lb Dusters and 4000lb trucks. But, I degress.
Oh, I remember...I reread the two original posts...and the numbers don't work. If you are "racing" another truck with a lift and 37 inch tires, and he has a stock 350 motor or even a couple of bolt ons, and the stock gears (which are usually 3:73s) he shouldn't have any low end either. There's no frelling way! I'm sorry guys, the factory motor wouldn't, couldn't make this happen.