Best post on this entire thread, except for the cool Y pipe mod pic. That thing is sexy! The hp/weight ratio and aerodynamics of these trucks is woefully understated.

Ok...kudos for the mention of the air gap's rpm range...not an intake I would ever run on a ram without proper mods. That would include drivetrain and motor mods.

 

Yup, O/D kills the feeling of power no matter what you do in these trucks, as its a big heavy truck AND O/D wasn't meant for power, but for an attempt at mediocre fuel economy.

And lets be fair to these trucks here... they don't have the aerodynamics of a brick wall. They are more like a... smooth polished brick wall.

 

No, this would be a smooth, polished brick wall:

 

not true , the bottom end on these trucks are pretty much bullet proof its the heads and manifold that sucks, changing out to the airgap was one of the best things i did for 1. no more worrys about it blowing up again. 2. the top end power is 100% better, stock it would take forever and a day to climb to 5k. now it has no problem and it shifts so much better and goes threw the gears quickly. only thing i wish i did was new heads lol cause i really dont wanna take the top end apart again. but gears are next for me sdo i can hit that sweet spot better .

 

Sorry...I respectfully disagree...the airgap is designed to start producing torque and horsepower around 2500 rpm. Note that I said start. There's an almost minute increase below that but it's peak power range is well above 4000 rpm. Some tests show with proper mods it will produce power well upwards of and over 7 grand.
BTW, I didn't pull those figures out of the blue...they're in the Mopar performance catalog and other places as well.

A stock 5.9 is set up to produce its max torque and power well below 5g. My truck shifts at 5000 rpm at wot... which is about where the valvetrain starts to float out.
Sure the top end power is better, but how often do you cruise above 3000 rpm? Most stock trucks lope along around 2000 rpm in od at 60-65ish mph. I don't want to have to kick my truck into warp drive to pass. I want grunt down low...like a diesel. But without the smoke. Since you're admiting you need to change gears to "hit the sweet spot" quicker talls me that your low end isn't stellar. I'm NOT knocking you or your truck. But if you have to mod something to affect a better result on a previous mod then to me, that mod is not as efficient where it needs to be.

Motor mods would mean a cam and heads/exhaust and gears designed to work in the rpm range of the intake...*** backwards of how everyone does thier mods. It reminds me of some guy back in the day who stuck a dual quad tunnel ram with 2- 600 cfm Holleys on a fairly stock 340 with a blueprinted short block but smog heads.... in a 3800lb car with 3:21 gears. At least he had a 3500 stall torque converter and a cool manual valve body.
Oh, it worked...sort of.

One last thing... while Mopar motors are tough, they are not bulletproof. Keep reving that ram over 5000 on a regular basis and you'll descover some things...don't say I didn't warn ya!

 

Great responses guys, lotta good knowledge being shared.
Hey VWandDodge, love the pic of that smooth polished brick wall, LOL!
I think what I really want is more low end power as I'm not real rev happy. I'm gonna start by gutting the exhaust and putting in the Y pipe and 3" high flow cat and muffler. Also getting the SCT "Can" tune, that'll get rid of the death flash and shift better. I'm hoping those two items alone will make a little more low end power. If it's still not enough I'll do the 1.7RR, and think about that RV cam.
I'll post back with the results when the exhaust is done and the SCT shows up, probly be a week or two.

Oh yeah, I might do gears too, we'll see. Little bit at a time.

 

Is the loss of lowend as a result of running an Air Gap really that noticeable? Enough to really make you weary of purchasing and installing it? I honestly have no idea that's why im asking I it just seems to me, that the increase in high end power would overcome the original low end power, thus the psychological feeling of low end loss would be exaggerated, even if one hadn't lost any at all. I have no proof of this lol so its just a personal theory

 

I noticed very little fall off down low with the a-g.. I noticed a pretty decent bump up top though.. of course, gears are helping me to be sure.. I did the a-g simply because it eliminated the belly pan all together, and I won't have to worry about it ever again.. an M1 scared me too much as its even higher ranged than the a-g, so I'm told.. I have ran a keg, a keg with Hughes plate, and a modded keg with Hughes plate.. I noticed little difference between them.. the biggest was from the keg and oe pan to the Hughes plated keg.. now up top in the range? Airgap every time.. passing, it blows the keg away.. to be fair though, I'm thinking gears have a lot to do with that too..

Just my opinion..

 

There wasn't any low end loss from Airgap, jus' wasn't any improvement, And It's only at 60-65mph in O/D up hill, that's about 1800-2000 rpm. I was expecting to see a small difference holding speed on the hills but it's about the same. After reviewing this thread I realize that is not a realistic expectation from installing the Airgap alone. Above 3000 rpm it does feel a little stronger, not a lot, but my truck is completely stock with death flash.

 

Lot of good info in this thread as well as polished bricks (which I love). I have about been convinced to go with the AG when I start my winter truck project. Thanks beeker for the seat of the pants update on the AG.