Thanks to all that have replied. It has been about 3 weeks sense my purchase. If not both days at least one day every weekend I have had the truck on a lift just to look and around under the hood etc. Mainly just to see exactly what I bought and what I need. As I mentioned it didn't have a muffler but I already installed one because of Md. State Inspection, as well as I am very sure that shortly I will t notified for the emissions test. As I mentioned I found out it has a free flow air cleaner assy. and a Banks intake. That's about it for performance parts. It has the OEM 4" exhaust system {including Cat} from the turbo to the tail pipe. I have been reading a lot about these Cummins 5.9.
For MY needs I think the best thing to do is install a programmer. Something with a larger screen, and has the gauges built into it. I am thinking I can kill a few birds with one stone. I like to idea of being able to monitor the EGT, Trans. temp, Boost, etc. Saves from buying a few individual gauges, pod/s etc. All I want out of the programmer is to SAFELY stay within the safety specs for longevity of the trans, and engine. I am only interested in 3-4 pre-loaded programs to be honest. Economy, OEM, Performance, Tow. Does anyone have any hands on experience with any programmer they could suggest to me. I have seen them from $200 too $1100. All claim to be the best, ALL claim to offer more options than I want or need...lol
I just want one that 'works' and isn't going to blow the trans out of it, or play havoc with the engine or computer. NO computer issues or lights !
90% of my driving would be in the economy mode, 15% in the tow mode, and maybe every great once in a while I might slip it in performance mode. Going fast in this truck isn't anywhere near my top priority. Making it last a few years trouble free is.
Any suggestions from you guys that have used these programmers ? I have read many threads and come to the conclusion that plain and simple, everyone has their on opinion. Surely there are some that would meet my criteria better than others.

 

This might be some info that will help you. I had a similar issue on my 2004 and was looking for an alternative to tearing the dash out. My issue was a little different as it would divert all the air to the floor on the passenger side from where ever I had directed it to go. I suspect the flapper door was the issue. I could shut my pickup off for a period of time and it would work again. Never did fix it, just traded it off a few days ago. Had a Banks intake, tuner and exhaust on it. Worked great with lots of power. Tuner was change on the fly 6 settings, factory, economy, 4 power levels. Got the best fuel mileage on the highest power setting if I kept my foot out of it. Banks systems are engineered to pass emissions testing but we don't have it where I live. No black smoke from the exhaust either. Here is the info I found on the flapper door, don't recall where I found it but I don't take credit or blame for the info it contains. Good luck, hope it helps. By the way my truck was a great truck and required very little maintenance. Had all ball joints and u-joints and drag link replaced in front end at 100k. Water pump at 95K which was really easy, you tube videos and all kind of instructions on how to do it. One drive line u-joint around 40K. A/C compressor 115k which took out serpentine belt too. For a 2004 it was cheap to maintain and someone got a darn good used truck from the dealer.


Dodge Ram air flapper door removal
I had a similar problem with my 2006 Dodge Ram 3500 SLT QUAD CAB where the recirculation flapper door was broken and no air would come out of the dash vents. At first, I thought the fan was going out since it was making noise so I pulled the fan from under the glove box and discovered the problem.
The actuator motor had apparently turned too much and broke the flapper door pivot shaft, and a small piece of plastic was flying around inside the fan. Once I removed the plastic, the noise went away and the fan was working fine. I then used a piece of stiff wire to hold the door closed as a temporary solution since I need my AC as it was right in the heat of the summer.
I called the dealer several months later explaining the problem and they immediately knew which part needed to be replaced as they had seen the same thing many times before. They sold me a new duct assembly piece for about $60 that included a new actuator motor and flapper door. I didn't even bother to ask how much they would charge me to replace it. I questioned them a bit about what it took to replace and they made it sound pretty easy, except for the part about removing the dash. I just figured it couldn't be too tough, and I refuse to pay several hundred $ to have someone else do something I can do myself So, I brought the part home and started to research when I found this post.
After reading this post, I nervously started to tackle the project of removing the dash to get at the duct assembly which sits right behind the glove box. About 2 hours into the job of removing the dash, I got to thinking that there must be a simpler way to fix this and I didn't really feel like the idea of tearing the whole truck apart to replace the entire assembly when I knew the problem was just the broken flapper door.
So, I looked closely at the new part and figured out how to remove the actuator and flapper door from the duct assembly. I knew that if this could be done from below the dash through the hole where the fan mounts, I could just replace the flapper and avoid removing the whole dash and duct assembly.
During this process, I discovered the factory defect. As I was testing the actuator to make sure I didn't install it in the wrong position and break the new flapper, I noticed that it appears to rotate a lot more than the 90 degrees it takes to actuate the flapper. The old duct assembly has a single plastic stop on the outside that limits the actuator movement and stops the motor while preventing stress on the flapper door when moved to the closed (non-recirculating) position
The new duct assembly has 2 limit stops, 90 degrees apart which stops the actuator motor at both open and closed positions and prevents any stress on the door. Therefore, because the original part only had a single stop on one side, the door became over-stressed in time and broke when the truck was about 3 years old.
Well, I decided that even though the 2nd stop doesn't exist on the old duct assembly, I could replace the flapper door and hope that it doesn't break again, at least not for a few more years. I figured I could always buy another $60 assembly and take on the dash removal/replacement project another time. I was careful to make sure the actuator motor was in the open (recirculating) position and then installed the door at that position. About 30 minutes later, I was back in business and replaced the parts I had removed attempting to remove the entire dash.
The whole process is pretty simple following these steps:
Remove glove box. Unplug and remove fan assembly under glove box by removing 3 torx head screws.
Reach up into the duct and extract the broken flapper door. Next, turn on the ignition and turn the heater control to recirculate position, making sure the actuator rotates clockwise until it stops.
Then, unplug the actuator connector and 2 phillips head screws to remove actuator. Remove the white plastic adapter (which plugs into the door pivot shaft and rotates the flapper) from the duct assembly (this is the trickiest part since you have to use 2 hands to remove the connector which snaps into place).
Slide the new flapper door into the duct and re-install the adapter making sure the door is in the open position and the stop tab is 90 degrees clockwise from the plastic limit stop on the duct. Check flapper and adapter stop position by rotating the door counter-clockwise to the closed (non-recirc) position, making sure the stop doesn't prevent the door from closing all the way.
Finally, replace the actuator and 2 screws and plug in the electrical connector. Replace the glove box and fan and away you go.
This entire fix could probably be done in less than an hour, know that I know how easy it is. Next time it breaks, I may just do the same thing (buy the $60 assembly and steal the new flapper door instead of removing the entire dash to replace the entire actuator duct assembly, which is what the dealer would do and will likely charge hundreds for labor. Too bad they won't just sell the flapper door, which is really the only broken part.
Obviously, Dodge knows this is a factory defect since the new duct assembly has been improved, and it may even be covered by the factory warranty. But if it usually doesn't break for the first three years, most owners will have to pay the dealer to fix it. I seriously doubt they would ever recall this part, since it isn't a safety issue.

 

For a tuner I have an edge juice w/attitude. Its a great setup. You can have up to I think 8 gauges on screen at once, I have it setup for 5 though. Comes with 5 power levels plus stock. You can use it as either a timing only box or as a fuel and timing box. I have mine set up for fuel and timing, and on the extreme mode you are looking to break stuff with stock components, but it gets the best mileage on extreme if you keep your foot out of it (probably because of the aggressive timing, just like ignition timing in a gas motor.) I think they're around $900, but for a good set of gauges you'll probably spend $4-600 alone.