CAI is useless, so is a chip. You want a tuner, not a chip, especially if it's one of those "chips" off ebay promising 30+ MPG and 100+ hp.

Not sure I understand if your a "poor" college student why you would be wanting to spend money on mods. As stated, spend the money on maintenance items to keep the truck running properly till you get out of school. What do you want out of your truck? What are you looking for? Also, please post some details about your truck as requested.

We will try to keep this thread on topic, but being vague will only attract the trolls who like to post useless stuff in your thread and invariably lead to page after page of off topic posts.

New O2's will help in that they won't be clogged with crap and will be more accurate for the PCM to be able to tune the air/fuel mixture better. This = MO POWA. to an extent. Don't get your hopes up that it will be a huge difference, mostly a smoother power delivery and a tad more mileage.


If your idle is a tad jumpy, like a little bump that you feel every once in a while, that might be an indicator that the timing set needs to be replaced. My truck does it as well, as I have not replaced it yet. :D
A new timing set will make the engine smoother on everything.



jkeaton: I'm TRYING to be helpful here! :D

I would have to check on the 02 sensors. I've had the truck all of 3-4 months. My mpg is based on full tank, set trip meter to zero, and next fill up miles driven over gallons used. 1996, Ram 1500, only mods would be the exhaust, 158,000 miles, 4 speed auto. I think you just got me a project for after class haha. Its sorta a ugly looking thing, it has a fiberglass stepside box, but I like it. Definitely catches peoples attention!

Pics of the step side or it didn't happen :D

Not to hard to check them, just have to unscrew them and look at them. Any carbon build-up or other kind of build up and they need to be replaced. Please disconnect the negative battery cable when replacing them to reset the pcm. NTK brand is recommended too stay away from Bosch's they cause issues.

Fiberglass stepside box? Post up some pics of that!

Some good things to do:

tune up: New o2 sensors, ntk or denso ONLY, brass contact dizzy cap, premium rotor, 8.5MM spark plug wires, champion copper plus or 2 ranges colder champion platinum, K+n air filter to replace factory filter in stock airbox, clean the throttle body, run CD grade or better engine oil with the oil filter used on the V10, put good non-low-silicate antifreeze in it, keep all fluids topped off with high-quality fluids and change them at proper intervals, keep tires aired to spec, make sure all rockers are tightened down properly, SCT Tune, etc.

Bad things to do:
CAI
Drive on flat tires
Never change fluids


My point here is, just doing the regular stuff with PREMIUM parts will do a heck of a lot more than you might think.

Hah. You posted up what I was thinking, but didn't say.


Yeah, we're gonna need pictures of the truck.



Toll to the picture whores. Our advice isn't entirely free, you know. ;)

Yeah, ill get some after class and put em up. I though I had it set as my profile pic, but I guess not. Maybe the pic ll be there if ya click on my profile. idunno. Its unique. It caught my eye, and that's why I bought it after I got hit by some damn outta staters.

^Damn that's funny^

I went out and checked my oil real quick and was gonna check the timing chain, then I realized, I don't know what the **** I'm doing. How do I check that? I think its in pretty good shape. Its a solid running vehicle. It'll outrun a 318 Dakota or a 350 chevy vortec, easy. Also, it has an aftermarket tranny that a couple of my friends put in. They didn't wanna waste it. It also doesn't burn oil, which is nice.

I must admit, I LOL'd at that.


You CAN check it, but it's a pain in the ass. You take the disty cap off, get a big breaker bar, pull the fuel pump relay, and start turning the crank while watching the disty rotor. Basically, if there's any huge amount of slop in it, you'll notice it.