For those of you from the south....that thing under the back seat with a light green handle is a snow scrapper. (in the last picture with the subwoofer)

I've had a good time fixing this thing up with my kid. It is going to be his first car. It is 1000 times better than my first car which was a 1976 Toyota Corona station wagon.

At first he made every tool look like it was made for left handed people. (he is right handed) Lately, he is doing the work and I am just drinking a beer and fetching tools. (occasionally stopping bad ideas from being played out) I do double check the torque on the fasteners but I have respect enough to wait until he isn't around to do it. It has been a great excuse to buy more tools also. I do all the painting. He thinks I know what I'm doing. Truth be told, I have some idea what I'm doing but I sand off 50% of what I put on before it looks good. (my YouTube channel will chronicle my struggles with rattle can painting soon)

For some reason, I love the looks of this generation Ram. I can remember when I first saw it in about 1994 and loved it right away. (many cars/trucks take a while to grow on me before I like the style) Everyone was saying it looked like a semi truck in the front. I don't really see that anymore but I love the way they look when they aren't all rusty. Normally I like everything to look stock but the aftermarket headlights on these things look great. (silicone before you even install them in my opinion)

You can have about 15 things going wrong in the engine before it is hard to start and about 20 things wrong before you get a check engine light. (it seems that way at least)

I towed a heavy fiberglass boat with my first one or a fully loaded trailer and I barely knew it was there if I couldn't see it in the rear view. To contrast that, I towed both with a minivan and you never forgot you were towing with that.

I have read this forum for years but just started posting. Yeah the mileage is pretty bad but gas is relatively cheap at this point. I would love to some day have the holy grail truck in good shape with lowish miles. (1998 12V Cummins with 4 doors, 5 speed and 2-tone) I have never owned a diesel but my interest in this truck convinced me that it is worth the extra money in the long run. You easily get it back in resale value. This truck (my kids) for example would be worth so much more with the Cummins in this shape with 143,000 miles. (it would be my truck then I think) I would guess it would be worth at least double.

 

Glad you enjoyed working with your son! With engine iI' the odd ball out, hate diesel. My 2001 ram 2500 coming was swapped to a 360 by me and soon to be a Hemi. Glad you got it fixed and running, keep painting and you'll learn, at least that is how I did.

 

About to do the first big repair job with my son, clutch replacement on his 2001 Toyota Echo, should be interesting. Since there are less and less trade type classes in schools(wood shop, metal shop, small engines, etc..), we need to teach our kids for sure.

If you do want to replace the cat I recommend getting Magnaflow part #51274, I've had the #23285 for the 5.9L for about 6 years, very happy with it. Install is not bad, fit was perfect and the bends are all mandrel, I had mine welded in(still on stock muffler), but you could just cut and sleeve I'm sure if you wanted. It's a little pricey, and the 5.2L part is a little more pricey than the 5.9L one unfortunately, but your not getting just a cat I guess either.

 

Cool project, it looks really good! I like to see people build stuff with their kids. My daughter bought a 87 Chevy with a blown motor when she was 14. We missed having it running for her 16th birthday by a month. We went through the drivetrain and fixed the floor, rockers, cab corners on the drivers side. She drove it all through high school. She recently bought a Pontiac G6 and wants to finish her pickup now that it won't get dinged in the school parking lot.

 

I've never heard the words hate & diesel together in one sentence. I've also never heard of anyone swapping a cummins out to a 360. Why do you hate diesels? Just curious, not hating on you or anything

 

I live in PA and owned a brand new 2008 Cummins with a portable heater. Went to my local mall (really bad winter was -24) and came out an hour later wouldn't start so I had it towed to a Dodge garage as a local diesel mechanic said something was wrong they shouldn't gel over that quick. Dodge garage said nothing was wrong was just too cold, that was strike one. Strike two was when I bought this truck. It's a 01 2500 that was 12V auto swapped but came with the factory 24V stuck (both have under 50,000 miles) both lift pump are bad and the parts are outrageous in price. For a good lift pump that won't fail (like the stock ones, apparently they have problems?) was like $1200 for that I bought a 360 with tranny and a Hemi with a tranny (going in once it is built) and still had $200 to spare. Strike 3 is more heavy off road and I know nothing about diesel. I don't have all diesels they just aren't for me. I still have the two engines in my garage so if I every sell the truck they would go with. (By the way only paid $250 for the truck lol)

 

Fair enough! I don't know much about the 2nd gen diesels but I do know they had some injector pump issues. 3rd gen diesel is where my knowledge is at. You could make some good coin if you sold those 2 diesel engines by themselves, probably the same if not more as if they were in the truck. 2nd gen cummins are well sought after, if it's not a 53 block.

 

My 3rd gen I didn't really like had some issues with it as well. I might sell them or scrap them idk yet wanted to keep them with the truck

 

I just ordered the NTK O2 sensor. (23151) Thanks for the tip 2Bit. I also ordered the Mopar PCV Valve (5175352AA) Thanks TarheelDodge. While I was at it I ordered a new thermostat, thermostat gasket, Differential Pinion Seal, PCV Grommet and stuff for my wife's minivan. (RockAuto)

I will report back whether the O2 sensor helps our idle or not and whether the Mopar PCV valve helps the suction noise. They are both inexpensive parts. The O2 sensor was off recently so that should be pretty easy. (at least I hope)

I finished painting and installing a rust free driver's side fender from Texas. It turned out great! I used nothing but rattle cans. (Duplicolor primer and Duplicolor Perfect Match base then SprayMax 2K Glamour clear) I think I will buy a spray gun to paint in the future. That harbor freight pro gun is looking pretty good at the moment. Got my 20% coupon handy.

I liken the process of painting with rattle cans to making sausage. You like the outcome but you are better off not seeing the process.

Rattle cans work, but it isn't easy. I had multiple issues. I recorded videos and my son may edit them and add them to my YouTube channel at some point for people looking for what NOT to do when painting. Humidity was my issue on the base coat. I messed it up and sanded it with 600 before the next coat. My YouTube channel is currently called 2nd Gen Ram and only has 3 short intro videos. (more to come if there is any interest)
We are looking at picking up a RH front fender and LH rear door from the same guy selling TX rust free parts. (get them before he sells them) We may fix a Honda Accord for his friend that was recently in an accident to get some money to do this and possibly buy some exhaust parts. (the Honda needs bumper cover, LH front fender, hood and possibly hood hinges) I figure we will make enough for the 2 parts and maybe have some left over for headers.

I really need to find a rust free driver's side front door for a 1999 quad cab. Eventually I will find one.

I had another Ram a while back that had the typical Minnesota rust. In fact it was so rusty you needed a tetanus booster to look at it from a distance. Luckily we got this one in much better shape.

Realistically, we are going to keep working on the body and rustproofing it. We will eventually get a full exhaust system. (thanks for the part numbers and suggestions) At some point I will be painting the supports for the step bar, the wiper blades, the rear axle, the class V hitch and a few other misc items that are making it look bad. I have to paint the roof due to surface rust and parts of the bed due to some damage and the original pinstripe. (it embedded itself in the paint)

We do plan to do the timing chain as well. I will eventually replace the throttle position sensor, the MAP sensor and the hall effect sensor in the distributor. The intake air temperature sensor looks damaged to me. (it is bent) I want to get bluedriver to see the sensor work. I will do a compression test soon to make sure this project isn't all for nothing.

 

Oh yeah, we need to do the valve cover gaskets to make it stop smelling like burning oil. Nothing makes it to the new asphalt driveway, it all burns off on the exhaust manifold. (just smells bad) It has a tiny leak at the transmission cooler line and a small leak in the rear main seal. It sounds like I can change that seal by dropping the oil pan. I ordered the pinion seal to stop a very small leak from the differential. Those are all of the leaks I could find. I may add dye to the power steering fluid just to make sure it isn't leaking. I need to change the transfer case fluid and flush the brakes. (just bleed them a lot and get rid of the old fluid) Oh I can't forget the front diff. (need to do that too)

When we bought it, I'm pretty sure it leaked ever type of fluid except washer fluid. LOL It went from that to leaking less than my wife's 2009 Chrysler minivan. I gotta show the minivan some love soon.

I would like to do something with the steering. Most likely the 3rd gen steering stuff. I don't know much about it. I will try to find a parts list and instructions on this conversion.

We are planning on doing the timing chain and while we are at it replacing the harmonic balancer. (it wobbles a bit) When I put on a new belt it makes noise for a while and the pulley with the most movement is definitely the crank pulley.

Lots of projects ahead of us. I hope to document most of it and add it to my YouTube channel.