I agree - unless you are on very good terms with a mechanic, labor is not likely to be cheap for this work. Might want to check with your designated mechanic to obtain an estimate for the desired labor and to determine if your mechanic will allow you to purchase your own parts.

I'd do everything listed above, with the exception of the 1.7 rocker arms, as they can easily be installed later - only requires removal of the valve covers, plus new valve cover gaskets.

Don't forget to include the distributor related items (cap, rotor, plug wires) - with the intake off the truck, it makes access to the distributor easy and takes care of items that can cause pesky/needless breakdowns later.

BTW, when you have a moment, please update your profile with more information about your truck.

 

Glad you are excited about your dodge truck. They are great trucks but they are dogs when it comes to performance. Let me give you a little perspective on what you are about to invest in.

These trucks are severely under powered with a 200hp motor and thats the bigger 360. Performance gain with all these mods will be very little, maybe 20hp above 4000 rpm. Is 20hp worth that much time and money to you?

You already have the best performance mods that will make a difference CAI, Catback exhaust and 52mm TB. You won't get much more from your planned mods without a new cam and heads, or stroker kit.

Installation is probably gonna cost more than the parts themselves. I would get a good friend that knows automotive repair to give you a hand and do it yourself. Get the free Official tech repair manual from this site. Take some time to read each section you plan to work on and then read again till you understand and feel comfortable installing it yourself. Also visit the many DIYs on this site.

Don't want you to put all that cash and effort into your truck and expect huge gains, it takes a lot to wake these motors up past what you already have. It can be done but requires a lot of hours under the hood, if not doing labor yourself I don't see the tiny performance gain worth that much money.

 

Ummmm?,not gain?? How come all the nice trucks here had all this expensive mods and they say that opens up there trucks???,so the F1 airgap and nice shortys headers would do minimal improve on my truck??,:-(

 

Yes my friend, won't get much more power out of that motor with your planned mods. Maybe 20hp more. Gotta go pretty deep into the motor and pocket to get more out of it. There are some other members that will tell you the same.

However if you do gears you will notice a nice improvement.

 

Ok thanks for all your help guys and ill be doing the F1 airgap and shortys ,and going to star searching for gears!!!,its always a pleasure to be part of this forum!!!,keep it up!!!

 

If you install these parts before a tuner you are going to lose bottom end, you need the sct and the 1.7 to help recover that loss. If you use the SCT you don't have to upgrade the pcm, the SCT will program your current one to work with your mods.

Gear's do not add any hp or tq all it does is change the effective ratio. If you make 235hp & 196 ftlbs tq it will still be the same after the gears are installed.

Beeker has a thread on here that has dyno sheets in it from the mods he has done, you might hunt that thread up and have a look at it.

 

Ok mercury so please what u should do whit this 2,000 bucks coming soon???,like if u were me!!!,sct then F1 airgap?,(or Hughes single plate?),shortys and roller rockers???,the thing is that I don't know what are the steps to follow!!,please advise!!

 

SCT tuner, no labor charge.
Hughes plenum plate, 4hrs labor
1.7 rr's, 1.5-2hrs labor
Shorty headers, 4hrs labor

As for the intake look for a used M1 or a used airgap, they don't have to be new. I have seen the M1 used go for $300 or less.

Found this one on ebay, its an egr intake but that can be plugged off.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/mopar-perfor...-/111249057217

This is the part number you need for the M1 intake.

P5007852 M1 intake, 2 bbl mpi, aluminum, single plane, magnum direct replacement, without EGR 1997-02 5.2/5.9 same height as stock manifold. $486.50

 

Whoa merc thanks a lot!!!!,am going to go in that direction!!!!,finally I have my steps in order whith my money!!!!,I can't way to star preparation for those mods!!!,so excited!!!,sorry but I really love the sound and look of these 2nd generation dodge,mine is a beast and I hope to get more power and acceleration from my truck!!!,again thanks for your time and help!!!,am so glad to be a member of this forum which so many good knowing people that helps the ones like me!!!!,happy New year!!,and most than anything what a beautiful truck u have chief!!!!!,lol take care.

 

Have fun with your build, you will enjoy the end results.

Anytime and Thank You for the complement.

I hope you stick around DF its a great place with great people.