Just over 96,000

had 67,000 when i bought it 3 years ago (it was nearly cherry then too, since then, indiana road salt and an accident have marred the body)

and thanks

 

The monster is still just a pup!

 

hell, it's just gettin broke in, i'm hoping the plenum fix restores some of the power it has seemed to lose over the last 3 years....

....i remember the summer after i bought it, peeling out of a friends driveway after we woke up some people down the street by setting off M-80s at about 2 am

 

The moving parts in these engines are incredible,I'm trying to get 500,000 out of mine before I change any of the internal one's!...I would be close if I hadn't been layed off so much in the past 2 years.

 

yea from what i've heard the bottom end is nearly bomb proof

 

Ok boys i've put the whole rebuild thing out of my head for now..sounds pricey. How much HP could i gain by putting on new proformance heads to exsisting motor .... and which heads and where to get them ?
Also would like to find nice valve covers for the new heads .

thanks

 

If you are referring to heads off a R/T model dont bother ALL Mopar heads on the Magnum V-8's are the same.

"Iron Ram" heads are the same no matter where you get them, unless you are going to pay for extra work. These heads are from a company called EngineQuest. They also sell a "Monster" head which I am installing on my baby. 375 is the going rate, who you get them from depends on who you like dealing with and the shipping location.

Clearwater is where I purchased my heads. It is just down the road so shipping was cheaper. Marty(KRC) and I did some talking on my build. He suggested I just go with the 1.7's and stay with the stock cam unless I really want to spend the money. You also do not really need a 52mm T/B 50mm will be fine. I am running the 50mm but also forcing air so take it as you will.

I used to have the same problem with the down shifting. To cure that you can either turn O/D off on the hills or get you a tuner. I was running a Superchips and that fixed it.

Dodge has always been known for the strong bottom end.

 

These newer engines dont take small mods as well as the old engines did. Anything you do your sensors will most likely try to undo with any minor mods that you try.Heres a couple options you have

Option 1: Go through the bottom end add a stroker kit go with atleast a 40 over bore and mild cam, bigger TB add them heads you want with new tuned headers, install a Cold air intake with a small turbo from Banks, take it to have the computer reprogrammed or add a super chip yourself, after all this is done go ahead and get yourself a couple of tranny's too your gonna need them.
-or-
Option 2: Change your gears add a 4.56's you might even be able to go to a junkyard and pick up a set from a sport model rather cheap. This is the single most imprtant mod anyone can do to their truck it will give you the largest gain in performance.
If you go with option 1 you will need to go with option 2 sooner than later to save on your tranny.
I have built many engines in the past just one thing really doesn't help out a whole lot you could look into Banks products for your truck they do wonders on large gains for a small price

 

$3,000 for a long block?! No thanks!

 

Where abouts are you? BC?
Do you have to pass an etest?
How much are you thinking of spending?

96 5.9 stock was 235hp crank.
What you need to do is gears first, go with at least 4.10 gears, if you plan to go to 35s any time in the future then get 4.56grs(biggest that fit 9.25diff). That will solve the tranny hunting on grades.
It will cost a bit of highway mpg but you will gain some intown cause it takes less to get rolling.

With a 96 you can get some decent power out of them without even touching the mtr.
Stock Indy ran 16.3 sec 1/4m ets with 0-60 of 7.65sec
With only bolt ons I got it down to a best of 13.99 et & 5.41 0-60.

MP PCM, Ramairbox w/14" K&N, 3pc pulleys, efan, Eddy TES hdrs, ypipe, 3" h/f cat, 3" catback exhaust, 2400stall tc, 3.92 grs (4.18 final on 28" slicks)
Some of that gain was due to wt reduction but I would estimate it was making about 250rwhp & 330trq. 25% driveline loss meant about 334hp crank (99hp more than u have now)
That was enough to pull away off the line from any stock s/c Ford Lightning(99-04) at the time(back in 00-05) which were making an under rated 360(99/00)-380hp crank(01-04).

MP PCM was the only tune that worked on a 96 at the time, SCT now available & it can give probably 30crank hp on a base tune to well over 45hp (if mtr is modified)
Superchips & Hypertech DO NOT WORK ON 96

If you crack open the mtr you need to replace a lot of parts.
Motor changes have to be balanced & compliment each other or they can cost power not increase it.

Big heads are great if you have a tb, intake, cam & valve train that will support higher rpms to utilize the heads. Gears & torque convertor are also going to be needed. These things can add up very fast.

IMHO, start with the basics
Gears as mentioned above
Get a Edelbrock 14x3" filter kit, toss the paper filter in the garbage & order a K&N#1650 (14x3) filter for it. Find some decent shorty headers w/ypipe & replace the cat with a high flow Magnaflow 3"(NO ETEST DELETE THE CAT), get a catback exhaust, last top if off with an SCT tuner. Those items alone will make if feel like your driving a completely different truck.
Then if you still need more hp/trq go with a 50mm tb & 1.7rr. Easy installs that will help off road.