I've been here for a while though I only recently started posting.. I usually only come here when I have a problem I need to research. Lately, I've decided to do some serious mod's to the truck as oppose to buying a new one.. I hate payments.

My truck is a '02.. but it runs a magnum, so this is home for me.. that being said-

I have a 4x4, 5.9L QC Sport, stock with 20's, but recently moved to 35's..
it looks like 12mpg is good for these trucks based on what I'm reading, and I get slightly better at 12.5-12.7mpg.. BUT: I drive like an idiot.. When I drive conservatively, I can average 17-17.5mpg hwy, and 14-15mpg city..

I could turn the tires all day long on the 20's, and had both decent bottom end, and top end.. Not what I really want obviously, as I'm tweaking- but decent compared to what a lot of folks here complain about.. I put the 35's on last week, DC 35x12.5's on 20 motometals.. guess what? I can still bark them easily.. I haven't tried to turn 'em hard yet though..

I towed a trailer about #2500 this weekend, and didn't really notice any difference between the 20's and the 35's, but the 4.56's are going in later this week just the same..

I bought the truck several years ago w/ 93k miles, and I take good care of my auto's, but there is no telling what happened to it before I owned it.. and as you fellas know, we always suspect the worse in those situations..

When I bought it, within 10k miles, I put a new rack on it, a new water pump, new solenoids in the tranny, new plugs/wires/rotor/cap, shocks, and that is pretty much it.. I run only synth oil, and no less than 91 has ever been in the tank while I've owned it.

My engine doesn't smoke at all.. there seems to be no sludge.. I have the plenum kit but haven't put it on yet, but as it is my plenum doesn't seem to be leaking anyway.. Long story short, I'm thinking the previous owner also took good care of it..

this sounds too good to be true, no?

I have a TON of parts and pieces inbound, and at 147k miles now, will have almost a new top end.. The lower will happen by Christmas.. I know, strange order to do it in.. After ordering the H&S rockers last week, and picking out what heads I'm going with, and accompanying headers- something strange occurred to me I haven't considered until recently, and though I guess I should be happy about it, I guess, if it is true I've wasted my $$..

Without popping the the vcovers, pulling the heads, yada blah blah, how would you KNOW if the previous owner has already done some work to an engine? I'm thinking my set-up MUST have something up it's sleeve as it is, OR, I'm just stupid lucky to be holding factory specs..

Which direction would you fellas think more likely? What would you look at first to decide if the previous owner has done anything? If they didn't do headers (which they didn't), exhaust behind cats (nope), I don't know any other way to easily tell without taking stuff off and peaking around.. The biggest reason why I'm suspecting is that the previous owner thought enough of the truck to put a Volant CAI on it.. We talk about engineering a more powerful engine on paper, but how would you go about reverse engineering it if you don't know the mods already done (easily)?

 

Two ways to find out if the previous owner has done internal motor mods...

1. Ask the previous owner and ask for paperwork if it was done
2. Some elbow grease...you're gonna have to take a look

If you are building your engine...check out hughesengines.com because they sell a complete top end kit for our dodge ram's with the 5.9 It's about 2500 bones