Kotta390

I am replacing my busted grille and I found out that the fasteners that attach the 4 points on the grille to the grille bracket are missing. Anyone know what size these bolts are and do they have a washer? There are 4 of them.

I suppose it would be another couple hundred lbs less if I didn't have a dually. Well either way I am fine with the weight, just lighter than I thought. My 2006 Hemi Ram QC 2wd was 5400lbs without me in it and a full tank of gas. That truck was pretty damn heavy for a 1/2 ton and it still ran 14.30s in the 1/4 with a SCT programmer and 4.56s lol. Of course I wouldn't dare put this truck on the dragstrip, it would hurt my feelings too bad haha...17secs or worse probably

I just think that because I'm 2wd and not 4wd that must count for a large difference in weight.

Well I had to haul some scrap to the local yard and after everything was emptied I weighed the truck with me in it and it weighed 6440lbs with me in it. 245lbs. Does my truck only weigh that much?? I had 3/4 tank of fuel and it's a 2wd. Seems a lot lighter than I expected??

The Smarty helped my fuel mileage about 1.5mpg almost a full 2 in some instances over stock and I have stock injectors.

What do you consider a "dog" I know I am comparing apples to oranges, but with my Smarty on Catcher #5, it was a HUGE DIFFERENCE over stock from the throttle sensitivity to just straight raw low-end torque. The top end didn't gain much but enough to notice. I would imagine +50hp injector making a pretty significant improvement over stock ones.

Check your power steering reservoir after doing several lock to lock turns and see if it is foamy?

I agree with Mike and although I may never tap the pump, I do understand that there are too many variables to cause these VP44 pumps to fail and the previous listed items he mentioned are what I would consider far more detrimental to the pump itself than a wire tap. I wouldn't be afraid to tap the pump but my end goals are to gain more power and longevity than to do a wire tap. I am not looking for that much power, I already have a race truck (one in my avatar) it pulls the wheels off the ground lol and when I am not driving it, I got back to "Grandpa" mode and just drive my rig and enjoy it. Just my $.02. Trust what Mike says, everything he has told me so far has been spot on!

It's so nice to have steering back!

Yeah there were a few choice words said, but it eventually went back together!

Well last night I installed my new steering box and let me tell you this...HOLY HELL did it make a HUGE difference. The steering went from about 40-50 degrees of play down to maybe 10 degrees of play. The tseering is SO much more responsive to turns now! I got a reman unit from Carquest Auto Parts and it is just amazing what the difference was from the stock unit. I want to give a very big thanks to MnTom for sending me the factory bolts to install the new box and they worked out excellent! I can't thank him enough for helping me out in this situation. The only thing that kinda sucked was removing and installing the pressure and return lines on the box itself. It was a tight area to work with and if anyone wants to know, they were both 18mm fittings. I swore up and down thy were standard but none of the bolts/fasteners were standard that I could see. Everything went back together fine and now I am one happy camper! Just thought I would share and again Thanks MnTom for the help!

Calling it "tuned" is relative per application. In some sense a equal length header can be considered tuned but just because it is tuned doesn't necessarily make it equal length. Now the science in a real tuned header will be different for every combo. A "tuned header" usually describes a header that has equal length (or nearly equal length) primary tubes. We all know that primary tube diameter, tube length and collector design all go into the recipe for a tuned header. Now, the chore here is to get the header "tuned" to the RPM at which the engine makes the most horsepower. A "tuned" header is actually in "tune" during a very short RPM band. (This RPM band is even shorter in a high RPM Pro Stock of Competition Eliminator class car.) A "tuned" header is not at all necessary in a street or street/strip application. This is because a street/strip vehicle needs to produce HP and torque throughout a wide RPM band, therefore the header would be in "tune" for a very minimum amount of time.

With equal length header primaries, you will gain some performance but Idk if it will be as much on a turbocharged engine compared to an NA engine because of the scavenging effect the exhaust pulses create. I Imagine it will create the same effect just larger pulses. BTW that is a gorgeous looking turbo manifold

Basically what I was saying before. I agree with this.

You are right in one sense. Now we discussed thermal expansion of hot gasses but you are now comparing that too ambient air and if you blow through a coffee stir straw (which is the choke point per say) and then cut off half of that straw and add a mcdonalds straw to the end of it, you didn't do anything or increase the flow of air if the amount of air is constant. You are right in if you replace the WHOLE straw with a bigger one, that definitely make a difference.

I can agree with this 100%

Lol yeah very true. Well at least that answers my question.

This was the only thing that I was wondering. If the expansion of hot gasses continue to expand then I can see the need for a larger pipe throughout the exhaust. In N/A vehicles this isn't really an issue because of the lower EGT typically. So I can see now how a larger exhaust system can be somewhat useful on these truck, of course it all depends on your modifications to the truck like stated before. I don't plan on changing my exhaust for quite some time but then again the only real thing in my future as far as performance goes is some small injectors. Thanks for clarifying that up for me. As I stated before it was the only thing I could think of when it comes to thermal expansion and fluid dynamics.

Thank you again!

See and that's why I brought up Bernoulli's principle. It can't actually act as a venturi because it is going the opposite direction. The only way to speed up the velocity of a fluid or gas under "constant" pressure is to decrease the size of the orifice it is traveling through http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Venturifixed2.PNG, like a carburetor's throttle venturies. So in it's case the pressure drops, velocity increase and temperature decreases. The exhaust system is actually working backwards from a carburetor in theory. By all means I am not arguing or calling you wrong, I just love having discussions like this. It's a good way to learn and I could be looking at this the wrong way, it's just been bugging me to no end LOL.

After reviewing the size of our stock exhaust system's are, I am now trying to find out the point of going to a 4" or even a 5" exhaust system for performance. Now, sound is one thing, but performance, I don't understand the logic. It is simple, and maybe I am oversimplifying this (someone tell me otherwise) but if you have a 3" exhaust flange coming off of the stock HX35 or HY35 exhaust housing, how is putting a 4 or 5" down pipe work when the choke point of the exhaust is 3", then going to a 4" or 5" going to help you move exhaust gases better? I come from drag racing, I always have and It has always been gas, not diesel. Most of the same principles apply in both worlds, but even Bernoulli's principle can't be justifiable in this scenario UNLESS the turbo exhaust flange is larger than 3" and the down pipe or whole exhaust system is smaller than the exhaust housing. IE: you have a Small block Mopar with 1 3/4" primary headers that come to a 3" collector. You can run UP to a 3" dual mandrel system for the highest flow. Now if you put on a 3.5" dual system, you gain no benefit but now just adding weight. The sound might be a tad different but you can't move air faster going from a small tube to a bigger tube. Now you can do the opposite to a degree but only under pressure which exhaust systems don't really have in the sense I am speaking of. Please tell me I am missing something here, or do lost of people like running ginormous exhaust systems for the look?

I am going to get one from Carquest where my Father works. His discount will yield it to me for about $135. All I need is two more bolts and I am getting this replaced ASAP. Currently I am driving his spare car. It's a 2000 Lincoln Towncar with 546k miles on it. Still running and burning a tad bit of oil but has cold AC and great Stereo and comfort

I noticed the SuperTech oil did make the engine slightly quiter but not much. Just enough to notice a difference. I also noticed the first tank I used it on the fuel mileage went up about .6mpg and it was the exact same driving I did the week before without it. So it does make a difference. AD also never dropped with FP and the peace of mind is there knowing the VP44 is lubricated properly.

From what I can tell this is the original steering box. There are a couple of concerns though. 1. The back side of the box has a tapered end to it, so by running nuts down the back side of the box with longer bolts do not solve the main issue. The other 2 mounting bolts already have nuts on them. I can tell they are longer than stock, but the key problem here is that without a flat surface to tighten the nuts to it will eventually back off like the top bolt did from engine vibrations alone and then I have a huge problem. This is how this problem started and the other 2 nuts were loose when I checked them. 2. The gearbox is leaking some already. 3. I have major slop in the steering wheel and I have replaced all 4 ball joints, tie-rod ends and pitman arm. Idler arm was fine. 4. I DODGED a major bullet. If I didn't do the power steering flush on the truck I could have been in a MAJOR accident if the box came off the frame. 5. I thought about doing a heli coil kit on the box, but with the other problems previously listed, I need to own up to the loss of the current box. So yeah I am lucky and unlucky at the same time.