I hear you about the heads and I went to Pacesetter's website and no headers for my truck. Yeah, I got the shorties and the first two were chrome I burnt up thus the reason I bought ceramic headers. On cylinders 5 and 7 I had to fashion shields around the spark plugs after burning up the plug wires. It was all good until heavy pulling the travel trailer. When it hot outside like over 95 degrees I have to lay off the throttle a bit because the engine temp will go up. We were in Arizona trucking along the engine temp was over 220 at the next rest stop opened the door and got a blast of heat, 114 degrees outside.

We have always gone to the mountains and got into a lot of steep long pulls. I crack up when I hear guys buying a bigger trailer than mine and intend to pull it with a half ton pickup, I chuckle and move on.

There is only one complaint I have about my truck the automatic transmission, I pull in OD but it doesn't take much of a hill for the tranny to shift down to maintain 65 mph. At 65 the engine is turning 2250 RPMs right at the max torque but around 165 HP. I know if I had a manual transmission I could maintain speed with a lot more throttle, talking to a mechanic I know his father had a 3500 manual and burnt up 3 clutches by slipping the clutch to get backed into areas with the travel trailer. So anymore when I come to a hill, I kick the speed control out, let up on the throttle, and hit the tow button on the dash to lock the torque convert with the tranny in 3rd. I don't like hard shifts because that is hard on the clutches in the transmission. Then on the downhill side do pretty much the same to get back into OD. Don't abuse a 47re transmission or it will leave you hanging out somewhere. The V10s and diesels it is mated up to put out all the torque and HP it can handle.

My OEM cold air intake is located on the driver's side and pulls air left of the radiator in front of the radiator support. The main reason I bought the K&N cold air intake was for the washable filter then with research I found it doesn't filter all that well. Not long ago I did more research on air filters and most likely I will put the OEM air system back in the truck.

I will try your Disk Brake Quiet with 3500 pads. With the trailer pads don't last long. I told you I have had the rotors turned 3 times, the first time I got a bad shave and had to take them to NAPA to straighten the rotors. It wasn't much but I don't like any pumping on the brake peddle.

 

Yeah, long tubes for the V-10 are out there, but, they are pricey..... I have some 'cheap' shorties on mine.... had to replace the ones that came on the truck, as they rusted out from the INSIDE. One tube had an inch or two that was just gone. (yeah, that was loud....) Several other tubes had serious cracks. They lasted a good long time though, so, I figure the current set will outlast the truck. (Michigan winters do a number on frames and sheet metal....) I retired my 96 because so much of the body was just gone.....

I pull in O/D as well, unless the trailer/load is rather heavy. For hauling around my garden tractors, leave it in O/D, pulling the dump trailer, with 6K pounds of dirt in it though, yeah, tow/haul mode.

I keep confusing your truck with the V-8 fellers... A fair few of the problems the 5.2/5.9 have, the V-10 doesn't suffer from. I have around 155,000 miles on mine, and it still runs/drives/shifts great.

My truck is actually OVER geared.... 4.56 gears, with 33" tires..... I am turning 2K RPM at 60mph in O/D...... I won't go on the freeway pulling any significant load.... the engine would be screaming.... and I would literally be able to watch the gas gauge go down. I think 35's with the 4.56 would be perfect... but, would make it even harder for the wife to get into the truck. She isn't 'tall' by any stretch of the imagination... raising the truck another inch? She would likely nail my hide to the barn door.

 

I have running boards on mine and no lift kit, with 4:10 rear gear and stock tires. Fully loaded on trips the truck and trailer weigh 14,600 LBs. At my low altitude about 700' above sea level on a 7% uphill grade, punch the tow mode and I can gain speed going up the hill but I won't let the engine turn over 3200 RPM, I would be bumping 68 mph. In the mountains, the engine does a lot of hollowing but a lot less grunt.

I always knew my speed odometer was off running fast and clocking more miles than I was traveling. I clocked it at 60 mph for 10 miles and sure enough, it was fast. Got another speed odometer gear to slow it down and now it clocks .5 mile slow every 10 miles, I can't get it any closer with the available gears. 45 mph and slower by the GPS speed is dead but at 65 mph GPS says 63 1/2 mph, the faster I go the more the difference between the two.

I get around 8 mpg pulling the trailer but didn't check it in the mountains, I know it would be like 5 or less. But I don't care because the cost of a diesel would buy all the gas I would ever use with the V10. When I bought my V10 there was no way I wanted a rattling diesel and at that time the V10 had the diesel beat for torque and HP. I actually bought a bigger trailer than I wanted but couldn't find a 30' Avion so I settled for a 32 footer. By all accounts that is the most the truck can handle well. Anything bigger, yeah I could pull it but not well enough.

 

14K? Well, I understand why you feel your brakes are marginal. A pad change probably isn't going to help much there... but, it's worth a shot.

What kind of mileage do you get unloaded? If I break into double digits, I feel I am doin' good..... but, I don't do any long trips either... Mostly country roads, and in town. I only put about 4K miles on it in a year.... and yes, it is my daily driver, I just don't drive daily.

 

I have only checked the mileage on the interstate HWYs unloaded, a Little over 13, before I fix the speed odometer I was getting 15. Never has been my daily driver, only use it to pull the trailer, have to go somewhere if the wife has the Subaru, or haul something that the car can't handle.

 

I would LOVE to see 13mpg.....

 

Take a look at the end of your exhaust pipe, I bet it is black. Mine is clean because of the long trips and pulling the travel trailer. There was one time mine was getting black (running too rich) with too much low speed but when I got it out on the HWY squeaky clean. These engines are made to work and work hard, the same goes for diesels. Those who use them for short slow trips end up with engine problems. If I was you I would put injector cleaner and fuel system cleaner in the tank about 3 times a year. Once a year on a trip with the trailer I put in these cleaners trying to keep things happy and reduce carbon in the combustion chambers.

This car I had back in the 70s and 80s I put 100k miles on it then the engine needed to be rebuilt. The pistons had a bowel but the bowel was completely filled with carbon making them flat tops. I'm sure that raised my compression.

 

My 'short' trips are 7 or 8 miles one way, so, the engine gets fully up to temp. The exhaust is pretty new, so, still pretty clean. The O2 sensors are original though, so far as I know, I am seriously considering replacing them...... Sure can't hurt.

 

When I had an O2 sensor go bad there was no check engine light. The engine would stumble a little but no other code reader could find the code other than the Dodge dealership. Only on the hottest days of the summer will my engine get to operating temperature in 7-8 miles. In the winter it takes 12 miles or more It is rather frosty in the truck until the heater throws some heat and the truck is always garaged in the basement garage, not heated. Today with a round trip of 24 miles the transmission didn't get to 160 degrees. Yeah, I put a temp gauge on the tranny because of pulling the trailer long distances. The truck came with an idiot light but I haven't heated up the tranny to the point where the light should come on. With the thermostat, I put on the hotline to the coolers (3 external, 1 OEM, and two aftermarkets) it returns the fluid back to the tranny until the fluid reaches 160 then it will pass to the coolers.

 

Yeah, with the weight you tow, I think your solution to keep the trans cool was a good plan. Generally, the PCM will disable O/D before the trans temp lite comes on, and by the time it does, you have already done some damage.

O2 sensors can be like that. The PCM only knows it's broke if it is some kind of obvious fault, voltage out of range, or, not switching when the PCM thinks it should. Otherwise, if the output varies within its 0 to 1 volt range, the PCM believes that data it is getting, even if it is running so rich or lean, that the engine misfires. Usually, it's more subtle than that, just decreasing fuel economy as the sensor slowly gives up the ghost.