What's up guys. I'm a proud owner of a 1999 Dodge Ram 1500 sport 4x4. I love my truck, although at 5800+ feet above sea level, it's been a bit of a dog. I'm in Iraq now, and have ordered a slew of parts for my rig for when I get back. I have a buddy with a chassis dyno, so I plan on doing some before and after dyno pulls (I'm going to try and do one after each upgrade to see what works and what doesn't, depending on time). It should be interesting to see what the rollers do with some of the upgrades. I don't have any pics of my truck with me, but I'll get some up here in a few months when I get home. Anyway, here's the vitals
1999 dodge ram 1500 4x4 w a 5.9L
73K miles
3.55 open gears
totally stock other than a K&N FIPK (although I'm going to replace it with the stock airbox to see what actual gains I got out of the FIPK)
and a hughes plenium re-enforcement plate

here's what I've ordered so far, and what I'm going to test out

Hughes stage II throttle body
Airaid TB spacer
March steel performance pulley set
flowmaster 'american thunder' dual exhaust
gibson stainless steel headers (1 1/2" primary, equal length shorty's)
4.30 ring/pinion with rear trak-loc
17" alloy wheels off of 03 ram
Hypertech Power Programmer III
Trans-go shift kit w/ B&M trans cooler
... that's all I can think of right now, although I'm sure there is more. Anyway, what I'd like from you guys is some inexpensive upgrades I may have forgotten (I've spent a bunch of cash on this thing since I've been gone, and I don't want to spend a bunch more), or some stuff that you've heard may or may not work for more driveability/power gains for me to test out when I get back. I'm planning on getting a list of extra stuff to do, and check it out.

Also in the cards... I'm looking into trying an E-85 swap in my truck after I get all these upgrades done. My Idea is either a piggy-back engine management system to control the fuel and spark curves that I can change quickly with a laptop, or have a second computer put basically on top of the stock computer with a more radical fuel and spark curve in it. The idea is to try to make my truck into a flexible fuel vehicle with a couple wire connector swaps, or a few quick keystrokes so it'll run on either E-85 (85% ethanol) or E-10 (standard pump fuel). The main advantage to this is that E is hovering around 2.00 a gal in Lakewood, CO right by where I live, and E-85 burns cooler and has around 103-105 octane depending on the time of the year. Although the fuel mileage will decrease slightly (it needs 33-40% more fuel, although only requires about a 9:1 air fuel ratio for complete combustion opposed to gasoline's 14:1), it should make up for it with the reduced costs. Stay tuned for updates!

 

WELCOME TO DF! [sm=americanasmiley.gif][sm=bounceybounce.gif][sm=happy046.gif][sm=hail.gif]

Sounds like you have a nice ride thats gonna be even nicer! Thats sweet you have access to the dyno.

I noticed you want to get a TB spacer though...[sm=badidea.gif] http://www.truckblog.com/story-444-f...e_body_spacers read that


Oh yeah, I have to [sm=ttiwwp.gif]

 

Welcome. Rig sounds sweet. Just want to say thanks for what your doing and where your at. Stay safe and come home.

 

[sm=americanasmiley.gif] First of all, thank you for serving our country.

Second, welcome to the site.

Socha_62 beat me to commenting on the TB spacer. From what I read, save your money on that one.

TPS mod is a good idea. http://www.v8performance.com/tipsandtricks.htm#TPS_Mod
Other good reading at that site: http://www.v8performance.com/tipsandtricks.htm

Decent plugs, wires, cap and rotor. 180 F thermostat. Look through the site, there's a lot of other good info here.

 

Yeah, I've heard they don't work for crap, but I got one anyway. If it doesn't make any difference, I'll sell it on ebay, but I wanted to see for myself anyway. Oh, I left out the MSD 6A and MSD plug wires too... can't forget about that! Already have an accel cap/rotor and a 180* themostat as well...
and thanks a ton for the support guys.

Oh, and I didn't bring any pics of the truck to Iraq with me, so you'll have to use your imagination for a while until I get home... but it's a standard cab, and it's black... Just go look at your truck, and imagine it black, and standard cab, and that's about what it'll look like! lol

 

For you to run E85, I would look into more. IIRC, (If I remember correctly) E85 can tear up our tanks, fuel lines, fuel pump/filter, and injectors. Just something to think about!

 

The EPA mandated that all fuel lines be able to handle any fuel, including methanol past 1997, so the lines are cool. Injectors are also ok, although I'm sure I'm going to have to upgrade the injectors and fuel pump anyway to keep the injectors under the "happy" 80% duty cycle, and since I'm going to have to install an aftermarket pump, I'll do an aftermarket fuel filter at the same time. The tank will definately have to be replaced with a steel one, although that's not a huge deal, I also have a buddy who does race-car fabrication, and can build me a baffled steel tank with the same dimentions and the original for the cost of materials (about $100)... this is the same guy with the dyno. He does work on a winston west car (baby busch series), and does hot rod honda tuning.