Hello, thank you dodgeforum.com. I have searched this site for a few months now and used all of your excellent knowledge. Now I need some advice.

I just purchased a 2001 dodge ram, 1500, 5.9, 360, auto, 3.91 ratio. It was my grandfathers and has a whole 40,000 miles on it.
When I purchased it from him he said it was running a little rough. I drove it home, and around town and was getting 12.5MPG. It also would rough idle at lights.

Here is what I did.

week 1
Tune up, including plugs, cap, rotor, wires (good ones), air filter, and oil change to synthetic.

week2
K&N Intake setup off of my dakota, replaced muffler with a summit flowmaster knock-off 3" dumped right in front of axle

week 3
3 inch lift, new springs, full length add-a-leaf, new shocks, new steering damp, new lower control arms

week 4
Had original wheel and tires on it measuring 29". New soft 8 17x9 wheels with 32.5" tires. Wanted to go bigger, and lower the gear ratio (3.91) with these new tires I should be equivalent to a stock 3.55 setup.

week 5
Hypertech max energy power programmer. Tried on all settings and changed tire size.

Now here is my problem. I'm not unrealistic, I've always owned dodge trucks and I know gas mileage isn't their thing. But through all of these weeks, I haven't noticed any power changes and my gas mileage is exactly the same. 12.5mpg. And no I'm not just going by the Economy computer. I check it every time manually. In my Dakota R/T which I know is 2 wheel drive, but I started with it getting 10mpg and did most of these same things, plus this dakota has a 4.10 rear end and like a 25" tall tire, so I'm taching at like 3000 doing 70. I got it to jump up to a consistent 16MPG

Long story, thanks for reading, any help? My best guess next is to change the catalytic converter and the two O2 sensors. I can tell it's running rich by how quickly the new exhaust turned black inside. I've already check the intake plenuem (spelling?) and it's not leaking yet!

Thanks for your time.

 

O2 sensors are a good place to start. They have more influence over fuel economy that just about anything else. The power programmer is for power.... not economy, not surprising that it would have no positive effect on economy.

Dumping the cat might help with power, but, won't have much, if any, effect on economy.

You also need to keep in mind that your truck weighs quite a bit more than the dakota..... more weight equals more fuel required to move it around.

You are still doing better than me though. I get single digit fuel economy around town, but, managed to pull just about 18 mpg on a long trip.

Welcome to DF!

 

Thanks HeyYou
Upping the fuel economy is just a bonus, but the fact that I don't have any more power and MPG hasn't changed with all those mods tells me something is wrong. I'll start with the O2's.

sorry you are in single digits, I know that sucks! Thats was other concern, it doesn't matter if I'm just town driving, or like last weekend took a 600 mile trip, always 12.5????

Thanks for the Welcome!

 

have you done the plenum yet ? welcome to the forum !

 

Alot of it also depends on how you drive your truck. I can understand you being frustrated with the same fuel mileage numbers after the upgrades. You just need the right combination of mods to achieve good MPG. I recommend you do an upgraded set of headers to get more power and nicer exhaust sound, also the dual electric fans are the only modification I ever put on my Magnum to make a difference in fuel economy. Porgrammer, new exhaust, K&N cold air intake all pretty much did nothing. But the dual e-fans gave me about 10 hp to the wheels, colder A/C and and brought my fuel economy to 14.8 on the hwy. Not bad for 2500 HD 4X4. Only $300 to do e fans from FF Dynamics (that what i put on) a very high quality product.

 

Thanks for the Welcome Lastrights, no I have not done the plenum yet. I don't have any signs of oil leakage or symptoms of that leaking...yet!

Thank you Bigslick050, did you notice any power from the mods you did. I'm feeling very cheated after a $370 programmer and no difference between stock, regular fuel upgrade, and the supreme upgrade. I was messing with it tonight and when cruising at 50-70MPH and I stomp on it, it shifts down okay but it just doesn't seem to be breathing right (if that makes any sense, power feeling and exhaust tone almost choking). Either could be from all kinds of issues. I think I'll take HeyYou's advice and start with the O2 sensors, maybe I'll pull them and drive the truck around a little (avoiding any police) and see if just that much of an opening before the catalytic converter will change anything. I know when I've had plugged cats in the past, that won't even allow the engine to run, that was a good diagnostic tool.

Thanks again. I will try to keep my posts updated, one thing I've learned using this site for the last couple of months I can't stand it when people don't post results of ideas or fixes.

 

Def man. I noticed really good power gains just off the Hypertech programmer and flowmaster super 44 dual exhaust (with the cat). Dyno tested Dec of '08 and made 213.9 HP and 387 TQ AT THE WHEELS. Factory numbers are 230 hp and 345 tq at the crank. And I have also done the K&N Cold Air Intake, removed cat, 180 stat, dual e-fans, and major tune up since then. I suspect I should now be making around 240 HP at the wheels and 430-440 TQ. Keep in mind these are all simple bolt-on modifications and are easy to do.

 

How did removing the cat work for you? I've thought about it, but here in the Pacific NW we like to do visual inspections at our emissions tests? Thought about just punching it out, but was afraid of running a check engine light because the rear O2 sensor would catch it? Either way, my programmer did nothing! and I already have the exhaust, K&N intake, tune up etc.
I just started researching the dual fans, sounds like a good upgrade. That will have to go into the truck budget when it can.

Thanks

 

There are measures you can take to fool the rear O2 sensor into thinking the cat is still there. Just use one (or more?) spark plug non-foulers. Reportedly, works fine.