Hello guys, hope everyone is doing well!
I have some questions regarding my 3.9L dodge ram 1500.

Are there any aftermarket performance computer out there to help with towing? or should i invest in the superchips programmer?

Also, im running 3.55 rear end gears, and have a 46re tranny in it because my 42re blew up. I put in a 46re because thats all i could find at the time at the salvage yard.

I am looking for a little more power for everyday driving/towing. I know its a 3.9, im not expecting a power house, and please dont go right to "put a v8 in it" I love my v-6's fuel economy. engine has good compression, full tune up and plentium gasket fix. i also ported and polished my throttle body and intake, and cleaned up the inside of the kegger (intake manifold).

Anyone have any ideas on what would help? like headers and exhaust maybe? or what about different gears to help with acceleration, the heavyist thing i tow would be my trailer with a riding mower on it (1000 lbs) or my small 14ft boat (900 lbs). would 3.93 gears be better than my 3.55?
also, would i get more power from fuel injectors out of a 5.2 or 5.9?
Sorry for the long post, bear with me. Thank you so much in advance guys, God Bless!

 

The 3.9 wasn't really adequate to the task even when it was new.... but, since you wanna keep it.....

Given you have the RE trans, I am going to assume a 96 or newer truck, so, a programmer certainly wouldn't hurt.

Going to the harland-sharp 1.7 ratio roller rockers will pick up a few ponies as well. (10hp/tq on a 5.9, not sure how that will translate to a six.)

Headers and free flowing exhaust. Won't net you much, if anything, but, it isn't just single mods that make the motor, its everything working together. Don't forget the high flow cat as well.

Changing gears would probably be one of the best "seat of the pants" improvements. 3.93s, or 4.10 would certainly make a difference. Of course, gears ain't cheap. Yours is likely a 2wd though, so, probably 500-700 bucks for the job. (including parts.)

Changing injectors likely won't make a difference, unless yours are already having issues.

High flow air filter? Spectre, or K&N.... don't bother with a cold-air intake, they don't make any difference at all. (aside from making the intake louder.)

If you have a lot of miles on the motor, (over 100K) do the timing chain and gears too.

 

i def. want to change gears, maybe i could find some at a salvage yard, get a 3.93 out of a dak or something. i do need to do timing chain, i have 168,000 on the motor. and as for high flow cat, i think mine would be the best for flow (its hollowed out) haha. this helps alot though, thank you! the engine does have a slight missfire when its cold. when you hit the gas it like its holding back, you can hear small backfires, then it clears up and runs normal, and runs great when at temp. what do you think could cause that? i have a new cap and rotor, plugs and wires are in good shape, stock coil. i recently fixed plentium and intake leak, and cleaned injectors.

 

Probably a sticky valve. Mine does the same thing.

Go with a decent double roller chain. Don't bother with the stock replacements. It's not a bad job, think it took me about three hours, doing it in my driveway, and being truly **** about cleaning up gasket surfaces and such.

 

Yes I heard go with double roller chain as well, since Chrysler motors cam and crank are further apart, which leads to streching/wear faster. I plan on doing that next month. If it is a sticky valve, do you think putting in new valve springs would help? I've also heard if the computer is messing up, like some of the chips are soldered to the board coming loose can cause that as well. Haven't taken computer apart yet to find out though.

 

PCM failures aren't real common..... though it does happen.... Think I would try running some seafoam thru the vacuum line for the brake booster first, and try and clean things up a bit, see if it makes any difference.

 

did the sea foam thing already, helped with idle smoothing out a bit. put in marvels mystery oil in gas and oil. one thought i did have, if my fuel pump is getting weak, would that cause the problem of it holding back, almost like starving for fuel a bit, with back firing, then picking up and going like normal? what should my fuel pressure be at the fuel rail? im suspecting fuel pump because my sending unit is starting to not read correct all the time, sometimes it will drop to empty when i have a full tank. so if the electrical stuff on the pump is starting to fail, maybe the pump itself too? its never been changed, and the truck has 168,000 miles.

 

If its the same as the V-8s, which I have no reason to believe it wouldn't be, should be right about 50 PSI. If you could put a gauge on it, where you can read it while driving.... (tape it to the windshield) see what pressure is doing when you get on it.

Missing at higher RPM on my truck was a bad crank sensor.