Ok guys. I am buying a 99 ram 1500 with 113,000 miles and i had a few questions before I got too deep into it.

first of all the engine.... I have heard so many differnet sizes(3.9, 5.2, 5.4, 5.7) It says it has the 5.2.
1. How dependable are the engines? Is it one of those engines I'm gonna have to completely tear down and rebuild, or can I jsut re-ring it and put some new bearings in it with some new gaskets and be good?
2. What kind of horsepower am I looking at stock? How much does it take to build it up also?

Next up the tranny... 5 speed manual
3. Yet again, how reliable? Anything I need to do right after I get it, besides change the fluid(I'm gonna do that anyway)

4. Offset of the lugs for rims. I have a set of rims and tires off my last truck and i wanted to see fi they would fit this truck.
If there is any thing else I should know just post it here. I'm really looking forward to getting into this thing and making it awesome. Thanks for yall's help

 

2nd Gen Rams only have the 3.9 (V6), 5.2, or 5.9 (both V8)'s

If I'm not mistaken the hp on the 5.2 is 230. But maybe its 245, somebody on here will be able to tell you for sure.

These engines will keep going for quite a while. I'm pretty sure there quite a few people on here with 200k+ Magnum motors. Its a good motor. I dunno about the 5-Speed tranny's though.

 

Welcome to DF!

the biggest problems with the dodge's are the plenum gasket leaks, the tranny's have problems and the heads crack between the valve seats...

put a bigger tranny cooler on there asap.

look down the throttle body into the intake manifold and look for oil pooling on the bottom. no oil, no problem. a light film is normal

when you have a miss that you cant track down, it's probably the head(s). when you pull them off, have them checked for cracks. the R/T heads are an excellent replacement head

 

I bought a 99 ram 4x4 318 with 90 000 miles on it in may 2005, and it's been giving me problems ever since. It was a one owner truck mostly lady driven really clean.the only reason why I bought a dodge was because I love old mopars I have a 1968 dodge dart 440, my last truck was a 1990 chev silverado 4x4 ( I also bought it off of the original owner) the thing was mint, the only reason why I sold it was becuase it had 200 000 miles, and I wanted something newer. one other thing you should know also, is the ram 4x4's are really hard on front end parts. I hope you have better luck then me.