Uneducated second gen owner in need of help

[Mopar1973Man]

My suggestion... For those with a bad case of CRS (Can't Remember S___)

 

Download this app for your phone.

https://www.simplyauto.app/

 

Now track all your fuel and maintenance on your vehicle. 

 

 

Even warns of when thing need to be taken care of.

 

About 3 years of logs...

Edited June 21, 2019 by Mopar1973Man

[Kane4sythe]

19 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

gladly do that task. Just did that exact thing for a gent down in Parma, ID. Meet him for the first time and looked over his truck and gave him a task list to look into. Then next we'll start talking labor and what jobs I'll do. 

My apologies for taking so long to reply, it said I reached the maximum number of posts. That would be great, only problem is Idaho is not very close at all to Pennsylvania 

19 hours ago, Silverdodge said:

and also my best advice to u is not to do anything drastic like go huge injectors ect and also keep up on the maintenance and there good reliable trucks but remember when it goes down it will be expensive ?

Looks very good. What did you do in preparation to run tires of this size

17 hours ago, JAG1 said:

There is quite a bit of things that need attention first that are in the article section. All mostly for reliability and the long hau

And what would these things be?

18 hours ago, Macarena Man said:

truck came with 16" rims . . . run a 285 x 75R-16

The rims have the proper offset, etc. to give you decent wear on the front end/steering components.

20" rims are a little 'yupp-ish' . . . but, I'm another 

Truck looks good. I just want something that stands out a little more, ya know?

19 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Best to build in stages. Like other have suggested take care of the repairs first. Then do your upgrades. Best to build slow and in stages. 

So what exactly do you mean by “stages”?

[Mopar1973Man]

47 minutes ago, Kane4sythe said:

So what exactly do you mean by “stages”?

 

Ive seen too many people try to build the dream truck in one pass. Go out and by 200 HP injectors, twin turbos, 5 inch exhaust, Quadzilla or p-pump. Then wonder why the truck sucks, too smoky, always broke down. 

 

Like myself I've slowly learned what is required for each step as time passed from 2002 on. Back in the day a good day driver was RV275 injectors and a tuner. Now you can actually start out at +75 HP injectors and Quadzilla. Too many make the lofty goals of 500 HP and up and have no idea what they are getting into. I say build slow and in stags and learn about the truck and what you need before jumping too far and over doing. 

 

[Silverdodge]

Same size as was on my truck when I bought it front has a quality leveling kit will pucks new 4 links and had a rare parts track bar 

[dripley]

3 hours ago, Kane4sythe said:

And what would these things be?

The list can be quite daunting. The articles section covers it fairly well. 

 

First off as an example if you want the bigger tire and wheels some front end work might be necessary. If the parts are oe they could be nearing the end of their life span. I changed mine at 240k. Some here have seen better but not many. If you have that done somewhere its 1000 dollar bill +. If you do it yourself a 400 dollar bill. I am not saying you need to do this, it may have already been done or the oe parts are still good for now. Its just an unkown.

 

Then say you want to start adding power. The first thing you need to do is beef up the transmission to handle it. That might have already have been done. Another unknown.

 

Your VP, injection pump, is it the oe, has it been replaced? There life spans can be bit erratic on longevity. They dont always give much warning before they fail and then some times they do. Just another unkown.

 

These trucks are very reliable but you do have to keep up with them. The more you can do for yourself the more money you save. 

 

 

And just to add the site runs on a subscription base. The subscription fees are very small. If you do one repair on your own with the advice here and it pays for itself. I dont have a clue how much money I have saved on labor and diagnostics compared to what I have donated over the years. But I am way to the good.

Edited June 22, 2019 by dripley

[Kane4sythe]

2 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

seen too many people try to build the dream truck in one pass. Go out and by 200 HP injectors, twin turbos, 5 inch exhaust, Quadzilla or p-pump. Then wonder why the truck sucks, too smoky, always broke down. 

Ok, I undersatand. Tbh, I’m not very concerned about speed at the moment. Definitely later on down the road but if I try to look at all the things I need to do down the road it’s just extremely overwhelming, so I’m just trying to focus on one thing at a time. That being said, right now I just want to put on some nice wheels and tires, then after that task is done My next goal is preparing the transmission for about 400 hp. But first of all I want to make sure my truck is solid mechanically, this is hard for me to do by my self though knowing nothing about mechanics.

[Mopar1973Man]

1 hour ago, Kane4sythe said:

I just want to put on some nice wheels and tires

 

Be careful. You might possibly alter the final gear and create issues. Very common problem people want the truck to look cool. Put bigger wheels and tires on foul the final ratio up and end up with high EGT's, lower MPG's, and front axle issues. I just got off the phone with another gent just put 37 inch tires on and complaining off super high EGT's and extremely low MPG's and asking how to fix it. I hate to say it but change the gearing in the axle to 4.10 before changing to larger tires! Optimal final ratio should be 3.55 to 3.73 to the ground.

 

1 hour ago, Kane4sythe said:

My next goal is preparing the transmission for about 400 hp.

 

Do the transmission BEFORE the tires. You end up killing the transmission with the tires (if oversized). Bigger tires typically trap torque in the transmission creating more heat and failures. 

[Macarena Man]

3 hours ago, dripley said:

 And just to add the site runs on a subscription base. The subscription fees are very small. If you do one repair on your own with the advice here and it pays for itself. I don't have a clue how much money I have saved on labor and diagnostics compared to what I have donated over the years. But I am way to the good.

Please move this post to the appropriate forum, as I don't want to de-rail the OP's thread . . . apologies.

Have tried to contribute once in the past . . . didn't work out.

I live out of the US, and have never wired monies before. I just don't know how to do it.

The advice and knowledge on this site is priceless . . . .

Thank you,

Greg

[Royal Squire]

If I were you, knowing what I know now, having learned a ton from the good folks here, this is what I would do. First of all, unless the tires are going to leave you stranded, I would put that on the back burner. Yeah they would look good but if the truck won’t go.....my first purchase would be a fuel pressure gauge to make sure I’m not starving VP-44 injection pump. Next I would check for AC voltage and do W-T mod, both are in articles on this site. I would also check and clean all grounds and batteries and battery terminals. These mods are very inexpensive and simple to do.

If you need a fuel pump I would likely go with a mechanical since the electric pumps seem to generate excess AC voltage if I understand correctly. Just a few of the many things I’ve learned from this site.

Others may have different opinions. Listen and learn from someone else’s experience. It’s much cheaper!

 

[Silverdodge]

Yes final gear ratios and are annoying at 3.21 but I finally got it all figured out lol so i can live with it 

[JAG1]

I have an entirely different opinion when it comes to my trucks. All I want is reliability. I don't need all the power and noise since I'm not a kid any longer. I have places to go and things to see..... I love to travel, camp, metal detect historical places, travel high into the mtns and get relief from summer heat and meet with friends. To me it's plenty good just to have a nice clean straight truck with all the needed mods for the long haul. It is not my intention to slight the younger generation about their ideas..... I just don't want the complications and added troubleshooting with a larger degree of modifications.

[Kane4sythe]

11 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

issues. Very common problem people want the truck to look cool. Put bigger wheels and tires on foul the final ratio up and end up with high EGT's, lower MPG's, and front axle issues. I just got off the phone with another gent just put 37 inch tires on and complaining off super high EGT's and extremely low MPG's and asking how to fix it. I hate to say it but change the gearing in the axle to 4.10 before changing to larger tires! Optimal final ratio should be 3.55 to 3.73 to the ground

 

11 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

 

12 hours ago, Kane4sythe said:

I just want to put on some nice wheels and tires

 

Be careful. You might possibly alter the final gear and create issues. Very common problem people want the truck to look cool. Put bigger wheels and tires on foul the final ratio up and end up with high EGT's, lower MPG's, and front axle issues. I just got off the phone with another gent just put 37 inch tires on and complaining off super high EGT's and extremely low MPG's and asking how to fix it. I hate to say it but change the gearing in the axle to 4.10 before changing to larger tires! Optimal final ratio should be 3.55 to 3.73 to the ground.

 

 

Being such the newb to mechanics I am, I don’t  even know what egts are, but I will google that right now. Alright, so let’s say I just go slightly larger on the tires, and I mean just slightly. Will this still need regearing? If so that is fine, as I am planning on going much larger down the road and already have getting it regeard on my long and expensive list of things to do.

11 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Do the transmission BEFORE the tires. You end up killing the transmission with the tires (if oversized). Bigger tires typically trap torque in the transmission creating more heat and failures. 

Even if the tires are not much bigger? I know this is probably a discussion for the drive train part of the forum, so I can ask over there if you’d rather me do that, but in order to prepare my truck for about 400 hp, what modifications to the tranny will be necessary? Once again I really don’t want to do this until later that’s why I’m not planning on putting much larger tires on, just larger rims and smaller tires, but just asking.

10 hours ago, Royal Squire said:

my first purchase would be a fuel pressure gauge to make sure I’m not starving VP-44 i

I have a transmission temp gauge, pressure gauge, and exhaustion temp gauge. For some reason my fuel pressure gauge doesn’t seem to want to work. I mean sometimes it’ll work but a lot of times it’s just at 0. How do I fix this?

[Royal Squire]

Might want to get a test gauge to make sure you have fuel pressure. 

[Kane4sythe]

7 minutes ago, Royal Squire said:

Might want to get a test gauge to make sure you have fuel pressure. 

So it’s a possibility I have no fuel pressure at all? Even though it’s running?

[wil440]

My truck has 33x12.5x16 bfg muds bone standard except fass oem replacement fuel transfer pump. No fuel lines changed as yet and pulls 9k easy.. not fast but nice and steady... i'm too old for fast

[Mopar1973Man]

Just for info value. Just drove 100 miles and transmission temp floated 130F the whole way. EGTs floating 500 to 550F on the flats.

 

Just had a phone call last night where a guy changed out 37 inch tires and lost control of the EGTs over 1100F for most highway travel.

 

Just met another gent that is fighting get more from his Quadzilla but running 25 inch tires and has to down shift quite a bit to control EGTs.

 

Tires do make big impact. Just my own switching from 31 inch to 30 inch reduced EGTs and transmission temperature. 

[JAG1]

Nice bit of information Mike. Is it possible to get a nice set of 16 inch wheels with the correct offset? All my aftermarket wheels, a total of two sets stored away, allow the tires to stick out and don't like it.

 

More importantly, they need to have the right weight rating for hauling a 3000 lb slide in camper.

Edited June 22, 2019 by JAG1

[wil440]

for me the only reason I bought this truck was it wasn't on the skinny tyres my 3500 was on, think thats on 235 and looks anorexic but too much £ here in the uk to change 6 wheels and tyres, I haven't yet decided which is better as the 3500V8 has no real problems just get in it and drive, the 2500 cummins on the other hand... well I read this forum from front to back and I don't trust it worth **** to the point of taking out more breakdown recovery  insurance for the 9k trailer, don't forget here in the uk the truck and 30ft trailer is classed as >>>>> sorry sir "How Long" nah we can't recover that.

I love driving both, 3500 speedo read 125mph coming up the A14 from a swap meet near Dover about 10 years ago and I was moving range rovers out of the fast lane easy and at the time I was doing mileage and fast with the 3500, could be 3 airports a week collecting american car parts to sell, not sure this truck would do the same. Horses for courses as they say 3500 is faster, 2500 is better towing slow, also I live in the UK and if I gave a monkeys about MPG I'd buy a smart car or a battery car, I don't check,  I don't care could be 5 or 30 not interested, and if I could measure egt's and it got high I would just slow down, I won't be putting pizza cutters on my truck and I won't whine when it **its itself i'll just get mi tools out an fix it but I did stump up for a eu tow home including trailer HAHA and I'm not a new convert, I've had Mopar for the last 30 years

[Mopar1973Man]

After 125 miles from New Meadows, ID to Ontario, OR. Here is my trans temp. Yeah it does help to make it run cooler. Last stretch before entering city limits.

 

 

Edited June 22, 2019 by Mopar1973Man

[JAG1]

Where do you guys carry the spare? Make a bracket in the bed?