New to the forum. I recently picked up a 2003 dodge ram 1500 4 door 52,000 miles for 7400. . Took it to my buddys shop and he said everything checks out and they couldn't find anything wrong. you guyes think i over payed? KBB is 9k but i know thats usually inflated. Any problems that seem to happen to everyone?. And how fast should this truck be? It feels very slow. Maybe its just me but it seems very sluggish and has slow acceleration. Is that what you guyes feel or is my engine blown? What oil would do you guyes reccomend for the longest lasting protection and best performance. . Hottest is 100 during summer and 30 in winter. Would you guyes reccomend any upgrades?

 

anyone?

 

I changed over to synthetic motor oil last summer and noticed a difference. My '02 seemed a little more peppy. Also, you may want to do a cold air intake (CAI). Dual exhaust adds a little more hp. May want to add some sea foam down the breather tube and give it a good clean out.

 

Whether or not it's a good deal is now irrelevant (what's done is done). If you don't have any water in the oil or oil in the water, the motor is probably fine. What do you call sluggish? A set of plugs, throttle body cleaning and a dose of Sea Foam may pep it up some. They do not like to be over-heated, so be careful with that.

As for the oil, viscosity is more important than type. Use what the manual recommends, probably 5W-30. I use Hi-Mileage Pennzoil 5W-30 in mine.

 

As far as the "deal", you can't touch a 3rd Gen with under 75k on it for less than $10k around here, $12k for a 4x4.
4.7 has plenty of power for even a QC, provided stock'ish size tires, so my first guess would be that with 54k on it it's probably never gotten it's 30k tune-up and is way overdue. I'll bet it's still got the original EGR and the throttle body is a caked up, gooey mess...

 

Edmunds.com lists a '03 that is clean with a 4.7L, auto trans and 52K miles at ~7700 for private party sale.

Follow MikeH and Hammer's advice and you will more than likely be fine. After you take care of those basic maintenance items, let us know if it has corrected the sluggishness.

 

Hi HammerZ71! I have a 2003 Ram 1500 w/ 4.7L V8. Does this truck have a EGR too? I checked the index of the service manual for this truck and don't even see an entry.(I'm not a real engine expert, so excuse my ignorance...) Your thread has also introduced me to Sea Foam. Sounds like a real good product!

 

Hi bakerman! Nope, no EGR on the 4.7 until I believe it was '05...

I like Sea Foam to clean for sure. I don't know if they put ethanol in your gas over there in the Ukraine or not, but if they do you may also want to try and find a product made by StarBrite called Star Tron to mix with your gas on a regular basis. Keeps things clean & lubricated, stabilizes gas and above all else it negates the harmful effects of ethanol. I've been using the product for a few months now and I'm sold on it... and no, they don't pay me to recommend it, LOL...