Pros, Cons, Magnum 5.9 Engine

I bought a 03 dodge 5.9 magnum.

I am wondering, what are the pros and cons with this engine?
What can i do to increase the hp and improve the sound?

I'd love to make my truck a project and make my
engine sing... Thanks !

PRO= Made for a very long time and fairly bullet proof.

CON= Down on HP and TQ compared to the smaller Hemi V8.

Cam, intake plenum, headers, head work, exhaust, and a tune.

You could bolt up a magnaflow system under it for sound and a bit of performance.

Man, you have to love those 03's, they came with everything..... What PCM does it use?

Chewy hit it on the head

So there is still hope for me.

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Don't forget the plenum leak issue with the Magnums (unless that was what Chewy was referring to, if so sorry). I fixed that with a Hughes plenum kit and it gave me 50k trouble free miles before I got rid of the Durango it was in. Shine a flashlight into the open butterflies, and if you see oil, the gasket is probably leaking. The stock plate is too thin and the gasket fails often. The Hughes plate is awesome. If you have to do the plenum repair, either go with Hughes or get an M1 and ditch the beer barrel.

Awesome!, thanks so much for the replies guys!
Chewy, you made a to do list for me .
Look forward to upgrading one day but until then!...

Is it true that the 5.9 magnum was that last of its kind
put into a dodge ram 1500 in 2003?

If so that would make this truck alot more valuable to.. ME.

yeah after that it was either 4.7 or 5.7 hemi for V8 options.

Like chewy said, its a fairly bulletproof engine. Magnum V8s (5.2, 5.9) are just a reworked design of chrysler's LA block engines that date back to the 60s.

a cam does wonders for them, and hughesengines makes not only the plenum kit, but an R/T cam that really wakes it up. Add some harland sharp 1.7 ratio roller rockers to get even more lift and duration from it, and it really perks it up. I had a 98 5.9 limited grand cherokee, and I ran the hughes RT cam, 1.7 rockers, thorley headers, magnaflow, and a ported stock intake with 24lb injectors and a BBK throttle body with an SCT tuner. I dont recommend the M1 intake, it focuses more on high RPM power, I had one shortly, but ditched it in favor of a modded kegger which offers more low end torque.

look at my sig. lots of mods there.

weak plenum gasket. weak heads-some tend to crack. terrible on gas.

very strong bottom end.

I agree with being terrible on gas. I use to have a 95 3/4 ton with the 5.9/360 and the best I got out of it was 15 mpg. It normally got 13 hwy and 10 city.

Intake plenum was the only big issue mine ever had.

If the wife would allow it i would like a 98-00 rcsb with the 360 as a project truck

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