I'm about 95% sure about a purchace of an 04 Dodge Ram 1500. What would I need to do to get 400 hp out of this truck? All comments appriciated. Thanks.

 

A STS turbo

 

what engine does it have? if its the Hemi, easy. if its the 4.7 its not so easy but its possible. for the hemi, you could go with the turbo, that would put you well above the 400 hp you wanted but it also comes a big price too. you just spent a lot of money on a new truck so im guessing you dont have 5k to throw into a turbo setup right now. id go with a complete exhaust setup first to get proper airflow. the stock system will work but if you want it to breathe good and gain its full potential id go with headers down into highflow cats, into an x pipe and into two mufflers of your choice. then a cold air intake (get a good name brand like K&N or a Mopar CAI not one of those ebay jobs), superchips programmer (run on premuim using the 91 octane performance setting) and i think youre there or close. reset your PCM and let it learn your driving style and enjoy all the new power you have.

 

Its got the 5.7 engine. What type of suspension setup should I go with to keep the *** from swinging all over the place.

 

You wouldn't come close to 400hp with all that on there sorry to say. You might see 400+hp at the crank but as far as rear wheel hp you'd only be looking right at around 345-355rwhp max if you go all out and drop a few grand into the setup for everything and if your willing to do that then you may as well just drop the extra into the sts turbo and call it good.

As far as the rear end swinging everywhere your best bet would be adding as much weight as possible to the bed of the truck. Its gonna be way to light weight to handle all that power and not slide all over the road even stock pickups have this problem too. Also forget about going fast around corners if thats what your thinking of doing with it. Trucks are not ment for that type of racinging. Have you ever attempted to take a corner over 25-30mph? It doesn't work to well to say the least! I'll only do Drag racing personally.

 

Getting 400 RWHP is really not that hard in a Hemi. Fortunately that series motor has been out long enough were all your aftermarket companies are making alot of bolt on's and add on's. Also though there is alot of garbage out there also. I will not give you my blueprint for my truck but I am almost right at 400 RWHP dyno'ed. First off you need to go to the bank and get a loan because you are about to spend an *** load of duckets. Then oncethe money starts burning the hole get yourself a true dual exhaust sytem. That means headers, 2 high flow cats, X pipe and a good muffler system. Personally I'm running Magnaflow and love but I would suggest that or Basanni. Now that you have reduced all that backpressure we move onto the motor. As far as a cai I would suggest AirRam remember performance does not have to pretty. AirRam intakes are truely insulated and actually keep your air cooler as were alot of other manufacture's use an un-isulated heat resistant plastic which does heat up. Now for my Cliff notes version. If you really want unleash the monster that exsists under the hood bolt on's only go so far. You need to crack open that engine. After you are completely done with your new hot rod make sure you have your computer re-done. Now alot of these hand held programmer's are great, but what you need to have done is a complete reprogram. I went to Mass. to have mine done and let me tell you it was worth every penny. just to let you know Turbo's are great but you need to worry about how the hemi handles them. I have dealt with more bad than good. Also Superchargers I bought my truck new in 04 and I am still waiting on a successful Supercharger sytem. If you get any Kenny Bell. Well good luck this is just some simple advice and I hope it helps. Ohh by the way as far as cornering get a 2.5 by 5 inch drop kit. Good luck and take care.

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1baddodge - I have to admit you have one bad *** truck there and by looking at all the mods you have done to your truck I know that thing has to be fast as hell. That being said, and after all that work you have done on your truck your only sitting on almost 400rwhp (which is a alot of power for a truck) and after all is said and done you dont have a warranty on your truck anymore as you pointed out. Now I may be wrong here but for a guy to go out and buy a new truck I'd almost put money on it that he would want as much of a warranty as he could for it. Dont quote me on this but this is also a double edged sword though cause there is no way to get 400+rwhp without voiding the warranty without just spending the extra 20 grand and buying an SRT-10.

Now if you do want to get 400hp and not caring about the warranty at all and you do not want to deal with all the engine internals this is what Id suggest. I have heard alot of good things about the STS Turbo and Im thinking of buying one soon (early christmas present). They have a few different setups I believe. The lower one which is like 3-4lbs of boost I think is like $3,000 and the one that hit 7lbs+ of boost will be around $5,000+/-. What I would do is go with the lower boost so you dont have to make anychanges to the engine internals like you would if you ran the higher options. This alone will jump your stock ram to around 375rwhp+/-, Then add a true dual exhaust and go with something thats a more performance exhaust setup with some good headers and high flow cats which should bring it up to around 385-390rwhp. Next get a decent CAI to help it breath better, followed by a Superchips Tuner which should bring it to right around 400rwhp+ by now. Just a side note here, get the turbo last, start with the exhaust setup, CAI, and Tuner first so when you do get the turbo it'll have lots of room to breath. Now most of that shouldnt void any warranties until you add the turbo. After all of that is said and done reset the computer and have fun.

Turbo -$3,000
Exhaust (full front to back performance setup) - $1,000 - $1,500
CAI - $250(+/-)
Tuner/Programer - $380
Total
$5,000+/-


****Also remeber to upgrade your tires so they can handle the power/speed cause the stock tires wont be able to for very long****

 

truckin151--sorry your right about that i wasnt thinking rwhp i was thinking at the crank so yes the setup i mentioned WILL get you close to 400 at the crank but that will only put about 350 of that on the ground. still pretty good but i think you interpreted him correctly as wanting 400 rwhp.

also if you dont want to get a turbo you could go with a new cam setup plus all the standard things like exhaust superchips and CAI.. it will be considerably cheaper than a turbo.

 

The only problem with doing engine internals is your whole warranty issue so if you have it and want to keep it dont do the internals unless you go through the dealership to do so. As many have found out in some cases if it is a dodge/mopar part being installed and you have th dealership do it most of the time it wont affect your warranty. and yes the cam will make a difference but it still wont bring you up to 400rwhp it'll be close though. Either way you look at it though if you want 400rwhp be prepared to drop a minimum of 5 grand into it in just aftermarket/bolt on parts and thats not including any body mods or hoods or tires or anything that has to do with the suspension or appearance