Hey guys, have a 2008 1500 hemi and am unsatisfied with bottom end power and torque. Installed a air-raid intake and can now really hear this thing lugging. Pulling a holiday trailer is painful, lug down and down til downshift, race up to up shift, start again. Will a tuner/programmer make much difference? Which is recommended? Can I delete MDS? Any and all advice appreciated. Upgrades are cheaper than trading, but am not too pleased with this truck.

 

New gears would be great for pulling, bringing you up near the power band a little more. What are you running now and what size tires do you have?

 

I'm sure if Hammer reads this he'll give you the long speech about it but in simple terms the 5.7L Hemi was never designed to be a purpose built truck engine. As you know the 5.7 is used in a number of dodge vehicles such as cars. So the Hemi makes its power in the mid to high RPM range. That being said I don't personally think the 5.7 lacks on the bottom end but then it's the only engine I've ever owned so I can't really compare it. As for mods a tuner will help as will shorty headers.

 

Well you can turn off MDS with a tuner but that wont do much.
And as for the headers you would want long tube to gain the power were you say it lacks

 

Wildikem66 - shorty headers will give you bottom end power. Long tube will give you top end power.

shorty headers and taller gears will help the most, the programmer will also help a lot.

 

I thought it was LT's for more low-end torque while being better all around, and the shorties for more mid-to-high torque while leaving low-end alone... I think we may need to get more clarification on this. I know I do because I'm only days away from installing LT's on mine...

 

I felt the exact same way with my 2500 with stock 3.73 gears and 285/70 17 highway tires.
added Superchips programmer, 4.56 gears, and even went to a bigger, heavier tire (Toyo MT 285/75 17) and it is a whole new truck. The superchips really pays off with how much better the tranny works, and adds some tourque/power as well, but the gears made a huge difference.

 

I did more research and i do stand very corrected.

Nascar uses long tube headers ..... for the Top end power that they are looking for.

 

Yea the general rule I've always seen was LTs are for more high end HP while Shorties were for more low end torque. Both provide more HP and TQ but those the areas where they are better over one another

 

Good rule of thumb