for those who are interested.... (this came out of a PM I sent out...plus I reserve the right to change it... it's late lol)

I've messed with my truck quite a bit and have come to several conclusions...

1) the stock heads suck, if your gonna swap them do the r/t 1.92's they will be more bullet proof. I just bought mine a couple of months back and have about 1500 miles on them and with my current setup, I like them. However I have done other mods to my intake system that has caused the powerband to shift up above 2800 or so rpm's... specificly the modded intake.

2) the fastman 52mm throttle body was one of the most awesome upgrades I've done, boosted mpg by approx 2 mpg at the time.

3) the timing chain is junk. if you have 100k or more miles, spend the $100 bux on a chain and all the gaskets and swap it out. you can search for my pics that I posted on this...

4) the stock intake manifold plenum is also junk. swap the plenum plate out for an aluminum one from aps precision with the updated intake gasket... (comes with the kit and I think it included the bolts).

5) exhaust... headers are fine, I like mine. if you go dual out's on 1 muffler, do 2.25" diameter pipes out of the exhaust. you might have to reduce the 2.5's down to 2.25. made a huge difference in low end torque. Needed for towing.

6) the ignition seems pretty good stock, I have the msd off road 6a box and it did help it rev easier at low rpms kinda indicating a better more complete burn of the fuel mixture.

7) DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK!!! I added a fuel cooler which helped with power across the rpm range, most noticeablly in the low end torque area. I did this on my '93 bmw 325is, then my truck, then my '95 m3... it works. only drawback is the potential fire hazard in the event of an accident.

8) if you have the bigger tires (35's I think I read) you should have 4.56 gearing front and rear.

9) with a lift, get a good tracbar if you don't have an aftermarket on yet... stock ones suck.

10) The stock kegger manifold needs alot of cleaning up. Injector bores are a nice wall for the injector spray (needs to be cut back) and the runners are too long. The magnum motors cannot breath at upper rpm's very well... I've always said my truck has asthma, but with the runners cut back to 1.5" from the top, it breaths really well now up top, sacraficing low rpm torque. this is why I'm gonna do another intake. also the throttle body opening had a nice machine lip in one of the bores that I took out of mine.

11) K&N intake kit... worth every penny with stock heads, I went with a 7"x9" long filter and it helped top end alot without sacraficing the low end too much... made me happy I did it. now with the modded kegger, it's too much of a loss on the low end...

12) programmer... I have the hypertech which is supposed to correct for the speedo and big tires but mine doesnt for some reason...

I've posted a few pics on some of these topics from the last upgrade (R/T head swap), if anyone needs to look for them they're not older than 5/1/05...

Upgrades on my list of things to do are the e-fan install and possibly a ASP crank pulley... not sure yet about the pulley. I plan on getting another kegger and modifying it differently so I'll wait until I have the next intake on.




-steve

 

Nice list.

Always like to read your posts.

Wish I had space to pull things apart like you do.


You forget to add your roller rockers in there.

Thought you had done that.

 

oh yeah...! that's what #13 was... well, it was late what can I say... I started #13 and couldnt remember my thoughts...

13) 1.7 Crower roller rockers... simply ROCK, i'm not sure if it's the rockers of the intake mod that did it but the motor runs so much smoother now adays.

I think once I get the intake mod thing worked out (probably will happen in July or August), I should have an awesome tow and 4x4 rig.

And... it just hit me... I just figured out a way to have the injector squirt with the manifold off so I can see how the pattern is when it's in the injector bore... I have enough fuel line from my fuel cooler to hook it up outside the truck, should be interesting...

 

Well hell steve if your not sure what mod made the engine run smoother just throw those old rockers back on and check it then lol.. You really need to pay for a dyno run and see what kind of power you made with all that work..... might be neat to see...

 

Actually I think when I put the next manifold on it'll tell me if it's the rockers or the intake mod. and I'm thinking I might have to do 2 more intakes (3 total) to get it where I want it. So I'll have some modded intakes available if anyone is interested in them.

One of the tire shops I go to is getting a dyno in soon and I'm thinking I might dyno before and after on the intake swap. it would be nice to see the affect on the torque curve. I'm not expecting monster numbers since my block has over 150k on it but it will be nice to know where it sits.

One nice thing is the owner of the tire shop is a racer type so he has some good input on my setup...