Hey guys..

First post on here and I thought I better make it a good one. I just bought a 99 Dodge Ram Quad Cab 4x4 with the 5.2 in it. I LOVE THIS TRUCK!!!!!

As a Mustang nut and performance buff, I wanted to do some mods to this truck because heaven forbid I leave it stock..

First, I want to say pardon my ignorance. Though I've always loved the Ram and looked forward to the day that I got to own one, I'm not familiar with moding and tuning of the Dodge Rams.

I want to install a CAI (air raid?? any suggestions), do the throttle body mod, headers, true dual exhaust. Which programmer will work best for these types of modes and will work for future expandability? As with the SCT, you can get mail order tunes that are programmed to work with your mods (BAMA Tunes for Mustangs as an example). Does it work the same way with Dodge trucks?


I am going to jack this truck in the air fo sho and put a set of 35's on it. My goal is about 7 inches of total lift. In the future when it comes time to rebuild the motor, I do want to change the heads and cam. Can someone suggest to me a good cam and heads? Iron heads are perfect being that I have no interest in running the silly thing on a drag strip and with the cam, I am just looking for something with a slightly higher duration and more lift to give more bottom end torque to make up for the bigger tires.. I know I need to look into gears too... About when will I need to upgrade the injectors and where can I get those? What about upgrading the fuel rails and fuel lines say for blower applications?

Can someone suggest a good performace website where you get your parts from?

Thanks and again pardon my ignorance

 

welcome to the forum. you should check out the Air gap from Hughes, along with their 50mm TB. i personally like mopar performance parts, (rockers, lifters, ect ect) how many miles does she have on her?

 

KRC, Comp Cams, Summit ,Jegs, hughes engines.

If your planning all of that down the road, I.E heads, cam, go straight to the SCT. But if you know your going to hold off on those for awhile and dont mind buying another tuner down the road, get Superchips. FORGET the hypertech, its crap.

the 210x cam is liked, along with the 206 but its all about how much power your want.
2.02 R/T magnum cast iron heads, or aluminum hughes makes a set of 2.02 heads that (they say) ourflow the R/T heads. IIRC, those heads can take up to a .525 lift.

Gears your going to want 4.56 if your gonna run 35s, you may also want to do the 1 ton axle swap.

IIRC, your injectors should be fun until you put on a blower.

OH, almost forgot, check out viper trannies, or Dr. Evil.

 

Thanks guys for the fast response. I was really leaning on the SCT being that was all I used in the Mustangs.

I was looking at the hughes heads too, but I wasn't sure.

It seems like the Air Gap intake is the way to go. It really improves gas mileage??

 

i would absolutly loose that kegger and go for the air gap. specially since its inevitable (sp) to not have a blown plentum eventually, install the air gap when you replace plentum, also should use Hughes for the plentum

 

Sweet!
Also Cowboy, I forgot to mention that it has 250K on it. I have no way of knowing whether or not it's been rebuilt, but it sure does have quite a bit of *ss when you floor it. How many miles should one expect out of these motors before rebuild? How can you tell if it's been rebuilt?

 

well those 5.2's are gods gift lol, virtaully bulletproof, gotta love em, take care of it, and it will take care of you. and im sure if it has 250,000 on it then the plenum has been changed about 100k ago or better so you should be good there. if your unsure, remove your air filter, (with motor off) open butterflies on TB, and look inside, if the kegger has any oil, darkness, or blackened soot, your plentum is shot and you'll know it.
you may not be able to tell is was rebuilt

 

I would check the plenum. Just because it blew 100k miles ago does not mean it was replaced. It is something that most people won't get fixed because it is expensive and not neccesary to keep the truck running. Also if it was actually replaced they probably did not use a renforcement plate so it may be leaking again.

 

Ok, so that will probably be one of the first things that I take care of. What is the reinforcement plate? I've heard about the alluminum belly too, what exactly is that?

I know these 5.2's are awesome and I feel pretty confident with it. That's one of the reasons I can't wait to modify them.

Would the plenum gasket blowing be one of the reasons that it idels ruff when you first start it up in the morning and after that it smooths out and idels ok? Or is that something related to a O2 sensor or something of that nature from open loop strategy on a cold start?

 

use the search feature at the top of the page and type in plentum, theres enough info on the subject to keep you busy reading for days. its very educating