My 97 RAM Project
 

I'm starting this thread to start keeping track of my truck upgrades. I bought my Ram December 2013 and it's been a heck of a ride so far, and by ride I mean all the maintenance and upgrades along the way to bring it up to par...

Hopefully I can go back and find through all my pictures everything i have done.

1997 Dodge Ram 1500 SS/T
I bought it with around 140,000 miles on it. Today it has 169,000.

Stay tuned ;-)

Picture just after I bought it.

Attachment 29962

Sound Deadner and Heat Barrier
 

Been doing some research lately on sound dampening vehicles and audio upgrades. My truck is more of what I call a "shop truck" than anything and it's treated like one as well. So basically anything I do to this truck is on a budget.

I found a lot of people are using the asphalt based flashing with aluminum for sound and heat barriers. From my research it looked like it started becoming popular with old school hot rods and their full metal jackets. They actually lined the complete car with this stuff from top to bottom. Much cheaper than dynomat, has similar characteristics, but wow, they didn't need to do the whole car.

Anyway I found through this research the frost king ducting with aluminum backing and sticky foam. This stuff doesn't have any asphalt and actually has an R rating of 3!!! This made me want to try it. I decided to layer my whole doors since I'm using it for heat and sound deadening. If I was just sound deadening I would have strategically placed small patches and then used closed cell foam.

So far the road noise is almost gone just doing the doors. I'm very happy with how it's helped the audio as well.

Before:

Attachment 29960


After:

Attachment 29961


Material:

Frost king duct insulation - http://www.homedepot.com/p/E-O-12-in...B&gclsrc=aw.ds

Aluminum tape
Heat gun to remove old plastic
New plastic push pins on door panels



I also bought a memory foam mattress for a twin bed from Walmart but that's only for another layer between door panels and frost king if I need it but after a couple of short drives so far it's made enough difference I dont think I will need the foam.

Some day I plan on doing the floor pans and rear of cab with this stuff.

So while I had the door panels off I wanted to get specifics on my audio situation. The previous owner had sub wires ran under the driver seat when I bought it and it's also got an aftermarket head unit. I found an old sub of mine i used back in the mid 90's and thought if it still worked I might be able to bring the truck to life with what I had. I used crutchfield as my one of my sources to figure out the specs on my amp and speakers, what could go with what, and more.

My truck came with the infinity sound system originally but the only thing left from that system is the door tweeters, and to my surprise they still work lol. The doors were equipped with a pair of ARC AUDIO XXD 3 way speakers. The rears I replaced with some cheap AutoZone speakers last year or so just to get something going. The head unit is a Sony xplod HD which has a 17 RMS rating to each speaker.

These arc audios are 100 WATT! But the passenger side had some small slits in the rubber so for now i hit those with a little super glue to hold me over till I can get some cheap component system. I also would really like to get a powered sub for under the 3rd seat.

My amp is an old 4 channel 175WATT Alpine. It works believe it or not... Got it wired both channels as bridged mode to supply the ARC AUDIO door speakers with 80watts RMS. They sound 10 times better with the amp and super glue ;-)


Attachment 29958


As you can see the speakers were getting wet as its been raining here. So I went and got a pair of these from AutoZone to fix that issue plus they help with audio sounds as well. These boom mats in my newly sound proofed doors were a great addition.


Attachment 29959
​​​​​​

May wanna replace the window belt seals as well.... Try and keep the water out of the door.

Thanks I will look into those. Do you know where I can a good set for cheap? LMC Truck are more expensive than rockauto. I also found some even cheaper on ebay.

LED Tail Lights
 

I showed these in another thread, but here are the new tail lights I installed last week. I got my paint matched from a local body shop and sprayed the new plastic to match my truck. Turned out pretty good. One thing I had to do was buy a new relay. The old one would not run the flashers.

Old relay was a 224, new relay is a 552.

Bought the tail lights from LMC Truck.


Before:

Attachment 29955


After:

Attachment 29956

Attachment 29957


Some of you guys mentioned getting a new LED bulb for the reverse lights. Well, I finally got to use them a couple times since I installed them and yeah, they work, but my brake lights are brighter than my reverse now lol.

Rear Main Seal - Replacement
 

Couple of weeks ago I decided to tackle a rear main seal leak. I did some research and got everything I needed for the job. All from autozone again. Budget of course. But they sell the felpro's and those have always performed well for me.

Anyway I didn't get many pics of the job as its been beat to death on the internet but this thread is for tracking purposes anyway. I had to scrub the underneath of the engine all the way around the oil pan as there must have been a nasty leak from something else, the whole bottom of the engine was caked in oil/dirt from years ago. Now I did notice the pan gasket leaking from the driver side just under the motor mount. So not only was the rear main leaking but so was the pan gasket. The things PO's leave us with...

So this truck has 169,000 miles on it. Has some nice scoring on the crank bearings as you can see below. She will need a rebuild soon... She already burns oil some, or maybe it was all leaking from my rear main??!! :D :D Yeah I wish I could get that lucky...

Attachment 29952

Attachment 29953



Didn't take any pics of the new pump but I also replaced the oil pump while I was under there. I primed the new pump before installing and cleaned the heck out of the the pickup tube and screen.

Attachment 29954




Did I mention now my transmission pan is leaking again? Yeah its a rolling chain of events with this thing... I will get some juicy pics of that when I tackle that job soon.

I know what its like. This past year has been a year of repairs, almost all preventative but needed. These trucks are labors of love and true classics. Great job keeping up with it!

Thanks, and your right about the labor of love. Stay tuned man, I have 2 years worth of massive projects to post :D