I recently bought an '01 Ram 1500 with 5.9L engine. There have been several issues I've been fixing, but one of the few remaining is that it seems pretty sluggish when accelerating.

Note: I've always driven manual transmissions before, and have been able to downshift for acceleration when I wanted to. Which means that I don't know for sure how automatics are expected to behave. When I floor it when I'm merging onto the highway, the engine revs up pretty high, but the acceleration doesn't seem to match the engine RPMs. I've also noticed that sometimes when I let my foot off the gas a little bit, it shifts and accelerates a little faster, but it still isn't exactly responsive. Should I adapt my driving somehow?

I don't race it, and don't intend to. But I do want it to get up and go when I'm trying to merge onto the highway. The only towing I'll be doing is for a relatively small sailboat (20', but no keel or balast, so about the size of a small fishing boat.) That said, I don't need a whole lot of low-end torque, and would rather accelerate fairly quickly onto the highway.

Given my preferences, what's the best approach to improving acceleration, hopefully without damaging mpg too much? It already has a CAI, which was installed before I purchased it. Should I get a tuner? Any other mods you'd suggest? Which mod will give me the most bang for my buck?

Thanks!

 

One thing that sometimes helps is turning off the overdrive when you want to accelerate...the trannies are supposed to shift at higher rpms when you really lay on the gas for faster takeoffs. I believe mine has a high rpm stall converter or shift kit because it winds up to like 3500 rpm before shifting between gears when I punch it...
the other thing to consider is does this have factory size wheels or larger? if you have oversize tires you need to have your differetial gears swapped out to correct ratio for tire size or it will be sluggish. these trucks are around 8000lbs so dont expect rocket performance from a 235hp motor.
if your truck always seems to shift late at high rpm I would suggest tranny service by replacing governor pressure solenoid and sensor and filter and fluid change...I had similiar issue and that resoved it...(you would also see 1741 error with obdII code reader )

 

Check the PCM on the firewall under the hood, it's on the passenger side, see if it has the dealer flash sticker, if it does, you have the death flash, and if you haven't replaced your plenum yet, it is blown. So if I were you, I would fix the plenum, do a tune up (distributor cap + rotor, wires, and spark plugs), and buy a tuner to reflash the PCM to get rid of the dealer flash, that will awaken your motor quite a bit and you will be surprised. Might also want to throw in a high flow cat too, because chances are, it is semi clogged from the blown plenum.

 

its an 01 so it likely has the death flash (the death flash came out in 01) but if you dont burn any oil it is possible the plenum is ok.... po could have had it repaired too...do search on the word "plenum" to learn more than you ever wanted to know about this as well as how to test for leaks. but if it is bad as ramsport stated your converter is likely restricting flow as well...

 

Did the original owner give you all the service and repair records? See if you can find anything pertaining to a plenum fix, he may have done it himself, or had a shop do it, but it is very unlikely. As Augie stated, it could be okay, but these plenums are known to blow out at just 20k, so my bet is that it is toast, and even if it is not toast, it will go eventually, its inevitable.

The plenum repair is probably the most frequently covered topic in the 2nd gen ram section, so a quick search will yield a ton of results on this subject, but if you have any questions about it, were all here to help.

 

I have a 2001 ram, and it is sluggish, until you do this:

1. Plenum kit (hughesengines.com) and 180* thermostat (must be done before you move to #2) and cap/rotor/plugs.
2. PM Hemifever. ANd he will sell you a SCT tuner with 3 tunes (87/91/93 octane) for 275. That will help drastically. It is like having a different truck.

the death flash sticker says "Dealer authorized software update" on it. that is how you know, and I have not seen a 2001 without one.

Or you can "roll the dice" and just get the tuner. But it will not function as well without hte plenum kit fix and the 180* thermostat.


--Dan

 

Air gap is a pretty good bet. It'll give you better acceleration and eliminate the plenum gasket so you won't have a gasket that can blow out.
They claim a 3-6 mpg increase but I just filled up for the first time since installing it so I don't know how much the mileage will increase.

When I got the superchips tuner and corrected the tire size with it, my mileage went from 9.5/10 to 12/12.5 along with a little better acceleration.

 

I say verify the plenum is not blown, get a tunerr, and regear the rear end. It'll be fun to drive your truck again.

Regearing put the biggest smile on my face of all the mods I've done.

 

Aim- What gears did you go with? And how much did it effect your highway mileage?

 

What's the best gearing for oversized tires? I'm having my tranny rebuilt right now, and need to know soon if I need to change anything before I get it back.