I have only had my 97 Ram 1500 5.9L with 205k for 2 days. But I will be honest. I thought this thing would have a ton morepower. I have to really work to break the rear end loose from a dead stop. It is running 285/75/16 Geolanders AT-S's. But still. It should be more powerful.

Where should I dive in to start looking for the torque/power sucking areas?

 

check your plenum

tune up plugs cap and rotor msd wires

fastman throttle body
1.7 harland sharp rollor rockers
CAI
open exhaust mufflerr highflow cat new ypipe or x pipe
sct tuner ext
gears list goes on

 

Well, a couple of things.

One, is the "death flash". Do a search on it, but in summary, Chrysler flashed all PCMs they could get their hands on with greatly retarded timing, so that there would be little to no engine pinging caused by the leaking plenum gaskets. Paying a tech half an hour of labor to reprogram the PCM is a lot cheaper than the 4-8 hours of labor + parts to replace the plenum gasket/pan.

Second, most of our trucks came with 3.55 gears. That gear ratio is great for 225/75-16 tires, or 245/75-16 tires, or close to them. However, for anything larger, like my 265s or your 285s, they suck. Those gears were not designed to turn these larger tires, hence why there is no get up and go.

3.92s are what I'm going to here in the next few months since I stumbled upon some cheap from a member here that was selling them, be about right for 265s or 285s at most. 285s or a little larger, you might want to start thinking about 4.10 gears.

Only problem is, unless you know how to install new gears... most mechanics want $900-$1000 for just labor on both axles, not even including the gears themselves.

EDIT: +1 for what lastrights suggests. Even just a basic tune-up can help a bit, especially if you're unsure of the maintenance history on the vehicle.

 

Plenum...hmmm...gonna have to read up on that. Never heard of such a thing.
What tires came on these trucks stock? I believe this is a stock suspension running the 285's.

I tried checking the air filter, but you have to get back under there with a screw driver to get the O-clamp off and remove the entire filter holder before you can check the filter. Haven't had a chance to do that yet. I am going to try and buy just a Flowmaster muffler and replace the stock garbage can muffler and keep the stock pipe. Does the cold air intake make that much of a difference? On my 97 Landcruiser with a 4.0L straight 6, I steered clear because I was told it didn't make much of a difference.

 

the plenum is pretty easy to do. i just did mine. and i had power before i found out about it. i learned of the plenum from this site, and found mine was bad. look through the TB and if theres oil its shot.

As for gears i have 4.10's and they are awesome with my 265/75/16's. and with the tune-up i got the 8.5 mm MSD wires, and those give her some more boost as well

 

When you upgraded your wires to 8.5mm, did you upgrade the plugs as well? What did you go with?

I am doing searches on everything else.

Being a Toyota guy for the past 15 years, where there wasn't a whole lot of improvements with mods made to your engine, this GM thing is fun. Could get expensive. If these bolt on fixes really make big changes I may become a GM lifer.

 

i went with the E3 plugs, (6.99 a piece at advance auto parts) and i love them

 

Spark plugs for the Magnum's run the gammit. They are finicky, what works good in one guys engine, might ping or idle rough in another's. I tried 4 different brands in 3 different heat ranges before settling on the Autolites I run now.

 

very true the boche platinum 4 i bought striahgt up SUCKED. then went to the E3 and shes thanking me now

 

GM??

tell me that stands for Grand Mammoth or Great Mopar!

GM??