I have a 2002 dodge ram 1500 with the 4.7 motor. I got the truck handed down to me from my dad which he used for work. Its has about 215,000 miles on it. Besides replacing the motor which i dont have the money for, what are a few way i can restore and boost some power and performance back into my truck?

Thank You,
jugstin820

 

A good place to start would be here and see what everyone else likes. There are lots of small things you can do that each will give a little and total something big.

3rd Gen FAQs

 

A truck that has that many miles on it, and not a diesel, you want to be carefull of what you do put on it and how hard you drive it. I would say for starters: New Spark Plugs, a Cold Air Intake, Exhaust maybe. You'll probably want to flush the transmission and also change the fluid in the rear end too, if it hasn't been done in the last 40k miles. I know that you dont want to spend money on a new motor BUT before doing anything i would have a TRUSTED mechanic look er' over and see how the internals are before you spend any money on the motor itself... IMO

 

wow I'm impressed, I hope my motor lasts that long. For starters, id do a cold air intake, exhaust, spark plugs, all new fluids, clean the throttle body, power wire, or 180* tstat.

 

You may want to look at either gutting your cat or a high flow one, with that many miles i'm sure it is getting plugged.

 

Haha I have a 2002 Ram with the 4.7 that my dad gave me as well!
Only my truck only has 89,xxx miles on it.
After you are confident or make the decision to start doing some modding there is actually quite a bit you can do for the 4.7
Always look into the future for your mods, For example if you want to do cams, heads, intake manifold, then you should consider SCT over Superchips. This will save a lot of money.
If you just want it to sound better, than a simple muffler swap will do the job. But if youre thinking about headers, then basically the entire exhaust needs to be changed.
I have JBA headers, mandrel downpipes, magnaflow y-pipe, 3" I/O hi-flow cat, and single 3" piping with a straight-thru muffler. It sounds pretty mean at WOT, yet there is no drone and is whisper quiet on the highway.
I first recommend to change the y-pipe. It is pretty restrictive and will yield both economy and performance gains.
For some reason, many 4.7 guys recommend a giant 4" CAI, which i feel is unnecessary. I have considerable mods and my CAI is 3.125" ID. I used to have a 4", but when i switched to 3.125 i noticed considerable torque gains.
Theres always cams, I have the HO's which are plug and play and offer some very nice bottom end gains.
Then there are intake manifolds, heads, throttle bodies...etc.

You have a lot of options man, just always think about future mods as it will reflect your each decision and it will save you time and money.

 

Personally, i wouldnt spend any money on a truck with that many miles. Chances are, you'll end up needed the money to replace expensive things like lifters and/or tranny.

I wouldnt even bother replacing a motor with a truck that has 215 000 miles. Body and other components are probably on the verge of falling off.

thats just my opinion though.

 

It depends on where he is. My old F150 had 190k on it when I sold it, and that truck looked better than it did when it was brand new. Not a spot of rust, a dent or a ding, nothin. His case might be a little different seeing as how his truck was a work truck but still. Don't judge a book by its cover right?

See for yourself.

 

Luckily there are no lifters on a SOHC engine (only cam followers). Transmissions are the weakest link in these trucks. One thing I have noticed is that when taken care of (with the occasional flogging) they last pretty well. I have 115,000 on mine, guy who works for me has an 02 with around half your mileage and it runs great. Been trying to talk him into a programmer and HO cams.
Most of this will depend on how well your dad took care of it while he had it. I've seen work trucks go wel over 300,000 before the body falls apart, and I've seen fords disintegrate with less than 100,000 on the clock.

 

you might try something like a cold air intake/sewer pipe intake, replacing the Ypipe that joins the two exhaust pipes into one, putting in a free flow muffler. Those aren't too expensive but will add some smiles to the miles. I wouldn't think a rebuild would be that expensive either...compared to R&R the engine.