1994 1500 slt 4wd 5.2l

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archham

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1994 1500 4x4 LB 43K miles
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5.2
Greetings all -

My son who is about turn 16 just got a '94 1500. It only has 44k on it, has been in the family since new (my uncle, my dad, my FIL and now us). I had a '95 1500 just like this one except mine was red, this one is gray/silver and a long bed.

Getting ready to do maintenance on it and, of course, wheels/tires.

I have some questions:

1. Recommendations on plug wires? Originals still on it (have new Champion plugs already- those are originals as well).

2. Wheel/tire sizes? I will let him go a little wider but not taller than the current (265/75/16). Looking at Pro Comp 7069 and Cooper AT3, but not sure of size/offset to use.

3. Probably going do the brakes, at least the front, looking at EBC rotors and Hawk LTS pads, any other thoughts?

4. Headlights, might replace them - ideas on brands/where to buy?

Thanks to all -
 

dapepper9

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1. Summit wires are the best bang for buck for most stock trucks. Better spark and resist crosstalk a little better

2. Larger wheels or staying 16"? 285/70/16 would be wider than the 265s without going taller. Bigger wheels would need to adjust for that

3. You can convert to 2500 LD brakes or swap the knuckles to run 00/01 brakes. Either upgrade will give you dual piston calipers rather than the singles it has now. Other than that a good set of semi-metallic will be your best stopping pads

4. Headlights you can go a few different ways. Can convert to the 99+ sport quad lights by using the Genis Garage harness and opening up the area behind the headlight for the extra bulb, can run an OEM replacement or any generic clear lens headlight, can go all out and build an HID projector retrofit for the best lighting possible. If you decide to go with an OEM look the sport upgrade truly is an upgrade and can be pretty much plug and play while the oem or clear replacement will be better than what you have currently. Either of those i would suggest Philips XtremeVision bulbs, best on the market for us. If you're more interested in the more custom look and max performance i can delve into that more
 

Shadow_Death

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Killeen, Tx
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2006
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5.7L Hemi
When I ordered my Plenum kit from hughes engines I also ordered a tune-up kit from them for about $90

It came with:

8mm MSD Plug wires
NGK Spark Plugs
Accel Cap & rotor

Now I'm just waiting on my MSD 8228 blaster ignition coil from Amazon to replace my rusty old one.

I figured I'd share what I did to mine. Maybe it'll help some.

Edit: I saw the above post by dapepper9 about headlights. I went with Auxbeam F16 led headlights for mine with stock clear housings. One of these days I'll get some pictures of the lighting. They do a pretty good job of cutting the light off so it won't blind other drivers.

The bulb of choice
https://goo.gl/photos/besmBiHxR4i6fDtr6


The housings I chose (they're not the greatest but better than stock.)
https://goo.gl/photos/VqDnQnFqmmRybeP18

Also don't mind the truck, it used to be a city truck but with 115k miles and a 318 I couldn't pass it up.

Sent from my Nexus+6 using Tapatalk
 

dapepper9

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LED are trash. Period. They are not in any world a good replacement for the philips i posted earlier. They lack reach of pattern, lack a defined pattern, and do blind others. Doesn't matter which specific bulb you run they all do it. I would NEVER suggest LED as a main headlight
 

Shadow_Death

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LED are trash. Period. They are not in any world a good replacement for the philips i posted earlier. They lack reach of pattern, lack a defined pattern, and do blind others. Doesn't matter which specific bulb you run they all do it. I would NEVER suggest LED as a main headlight

As someone who deals with LEDs every day at work I almost hate to break this to you but you can't be right on everything you said here.

1. LEDs are not trash. If they were then the new PI Utility vehicles that Police use wouldn't have Factory LED headlights as low beams and Projectors as high beams.

2. They can be as bright as or brighter than Halogen/incandescent bulbs with a lower power draw.

3. The last of reach of pattern is dependent on the headlight housing, the LED configuration on the "bulb" itself, and the intensity of the LEDs used.

4. The lack of the defined pattern is also dependent on the headlight housing used.

5. You just said that "They are not in any world of a good replacement for the Philips I posted earlier." if you are suggesting that the Philips are brighter than the LEDs then your Philips bulbs you suggested would pose the risk of blinding someone even more than the LEDs I suggested.

https://goo.gl/photos/T75fQBkmKjruGFLH8

The ones I suggested will only fit this way, no other way unless you break the tabs in your housing opening. In this fashion those front LEDs are the low beams. They direct light towards the bottom of the housing and away from the top. Those rear ones are the high beams. They spit light everywhere and are the ones that WILL blind someone. (If you are running those towards on coming traffic then you're a fool anyway.) These specific ones throw light out the sides instead of the top and bottoms. Also that reflector in the front is useless as these don't have forward facing LEDs. I refused to get those at all.


Now all that said, it is important to get the proper bulbs of any type and a housing that will accommodate them. I've seen people run these LEDs in factory housings with the defuser in the lenses which throws light everywhere.

Give me towards night fall to get some pics, if I can, of these headlights. Unfortunately night fall is around 8pm CDT so 3 more hours or so.

I'm not intending to be a jerk but considering what I do for a living your statement above and in the other thread felt a little insulting.

Sorry for hijacking your thread archham. :(
 

dapepper9

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As someone who deals with LEDs every day at work I almost hate to break this to you but you can't be right on everything you said here.

1. LEDs are not trash. If they were then the new PI Utility vehicles that Police use wouldn't have Factory LED headlights as low beams and Projectors as high beams.

2. They can be as bright as or brighter than Halogen/incandescent bulbs with a lower power draw.

3. The last of reach of pattern is dependent on the headlight housing, the LED configuration on the "bulb" itself, and the intensity of the LEDs used.

4. The lack of the defined pattern is also dependent on the headlight housing used.

5. You just said that "They are not in any world of a good replacement for the Philips I posted earlier." if you are suggesting that the Philips are brighter than the LEDs then your Philips bulbs you suggested would pose the risk of blinding someone even more than the LEDs I suggested.

https://goo.gl/photos/T75fQBkmKjruGFLH8

The ones I suggested will only fit this way, no other way unless you break the tabs in your housing opening. In this fashion those front LEDs are the low beams. They direct light towards the bottom of the housing and away from the top. Those rear ones are the high beams. They spit light everywhere and are the ones that WILL blind someone. (If you are running those towards on coming traffic then you're a fool anyway.) These specific ones throw light out the sides instead of the top and bottoms. Also that reflector in the front is useless as these don't have forward facing LEDs. I refused to get those at all.


Now all that said, it is important to get the proper bulbs of any type and a housing that will accommodate them. I've seen people run these LEDs in factory housings with the defuser in the lenses which throws light everywhere.

Give me towards night fall to get some pics, if I can, of these headlights. Unfortunately night fall is around 8pm CDT so 3 more hours or so.

I'm not intending to be a jerk but considering what I do for a living your statement above and in the other thread felt a little insulting.

Sorry for hijacking your thread archham. :(

1. Police use LEDs to be seen more so than to see. Also most of what you're describing use a proper array to throw light correctly
2.brightness is not an accurate measure of how effective headlights are. The pattern and throw is much more important and though LEDs produce more lumens they do not properly use them
3. I'm glad you brought this up. Bucket reflectors, regardless of vehicle, cannot direct an LED properly because an LED cannot replicate a filament. These reflectors are designed for a filament light source. Even a very low intensity will scatter the source
4. Above
5. Not at all suggesting they're brighter and for such i refer to my previous statements on reach, reflector style and bulb design.

The thing is you're arguing in favor of a bulb type that our trucks have no housing support for, oem or aftermarket. I've used em myself before i started researching better options and collaborating with professional builders. The same argument goes for plug and play HIDs. OEM LED headlights use very specific arrays and lenses to properly channel the light. And the energy you're saving at the diode itself is MORE than eaten up by the driver and cooling fans. The actual exterior lens of a headlight also has very very little to do with the actual optics. Remove it and you retain the exact same pattern.
 
Last edited:

dudeman2009

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2001 1500 Sport with enough electrical modifications to make my brain hurt
Engine
Magnum 360
Dapepper is right for the most part. LEDs are great in proper housings, incredible life is really the only point in using previous or early current gen LEDs.

Current gen and next gen LEDs that are seeing use in cars post 2014 are much better than Halogen. But its for a different reason than visibility. Comparing a modern car with LEDs to out trucks even with high output halogen isn't a good comparison, out trucks just wont match. Thats not because of output (high output halogen can beat some LEDs), its because of the engineering put into the housing. Modern cars with halogen lights are just as bright as the same car with LED, its all about projection.

That being said, LEDs are still much better in modern cars solely because of the ridiculous life. Which you need when cars are getting to the point where the book calls for 2 hours labor just to replace the bulb because you basically have to remove the front of the car to get to them.

Some vehicles offer both even on the 2017 models, side by side, they are almost exactly the same. The police use them almost exclusively because they rarely have to worry about bulb life. Nothing more embarrassing than the cop pulling you over for a bad headlight when he has one himself.

On our trucks, putting anything other than halogen affects the spread, get the bulbs Dappeper listed and you won't have to worry about a **** cop pulling you over because your headlights are blinding traffic. The only case i'd recommend LED is when the lenses are incredibly fogged. I stuck LED in mine, but they aren't much brighter than most other peoples halogen, I angled mine in such a way that most of the light is focused downward.

As for there not being LED housings for our trucks. I'm not so sure about that, but they certainly aren't cheap if you want some that are actually designed for LED and not just rebranded HID housings.
 

Shadow_Death

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Took these the other day with another truck in the picture for scale.

https://goo.gl/photos/vfezbr2GBCZ3cuV17

https://goo.gl/photos/qkc4RM5E11Qf3r4c7

https://goo.gl/photos/SLAA4s9b4W6bYod38

That last picture is literally what you see when looking at the truck head on. It just looks like a lit up housing and not a giant white blot of headlight housing like you see when someone slaps HIDs in their reflectors. Also these housings are spotty. The light pattern with the included bulbs was bad, eventually I will replace them when I find something better. No sport mod though, I don't care for the dual bulb setup. :/

They do spread out to the sides more instead of just flood forwards but u fortunately the camera on my Nexus 6 doesn't like to take pictures in low light. It likes to compensate for low light.

The specs:

Plug Type: 9004,Hi-Lo Beam
Power(each bulb): 20W@low beam,40W@high beam
LED Quantity(each bulb): 4pc* high power CREE chips
Working Voltage: DC 8~48V(Fit 12V/24V vehicle)
Luminous Flux(each bulb): 2000lm@low beam, 3600lm@high beam
Color Temperature: 6000K
IP68 waterproof,360 degree Beam Angle
Material: aircraft grade luxury gold aluminum
Operating Temperature:-40 degree Celsius-150 degree Celsius
 

dapepper9

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Exact same setup i had lol. Glared and I'm also much happier now. There's no cutoff in that pattern either. This is what cutoff is:
20170324_055455.jpg
A line below car windows but that line is still there even over 100yds. The pics you have will spread at 50yds and will light a whole building side. Halogens have a similar but little more direct pattern but the 3000k-4300k is much easier on the eye than a 5500k-6500k.

This is a ****** pic of output going down an open interstate at 75. Nothing to use as a reference but you get the idea
20170131_054031.jpg
 

Shadow_Death

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Yeah, eventually I will replace these housings and the bulbs but it will have to wait. My biggest concern was glare but the low beams are dim enough, about standard halogen level. The brights are where the money is. When I turn those on it's more like a combination between flood and spot lights. I don't use those very often though. Yeah the cutoff line is nothing like projectors. But it does reduce the brightness up top. One thing I didn't count on is that my truck, while it's a base model, is taller than most other stock 2nd gen trucks. It used to be a city truck. The A/c went out so it sat for a while, but maintenance was kept up. So it's a 96 with 117k miles on it.

But yeah I am going to replace this setup in the not so distant future though.

I feel bad that I ended up hijacking this guy's thread though.

Oh to get back on topic. That MSD blaster Coil I threw in. Like night and day driving. Another thing for OP to do is to drop the oil pan and make sure it's clean. I'm going to have to do that this weekend. My Oil pressure drops to 30psi while driving sometimes and sometimes it stays at 40. I suspect sludge as it doesn't bottom out which would make me think it's the oil pump. I may just replace that to be on the safe side though.
 

dapepper9

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Completely forgot about it being another thread. Damn lol.

Yeah that tuneup kit is a good combo for most guys. Idk that i would necessarily recommend the MSD coil though. Direct from Mopar is much more reliable. That being said, i do have the MSD and have zero issues with it. After 96 you'll need the adapter accell makes or simply make your own by cutting the plug out of a 94-96 truck and a 97+ truck and splicing the 2 wires together
 

Shadow_Death

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Yeah, I imagine the MSD was overkill but for the price I didn't want to pass it up. It ran me about $50. I actually need to get out there and check the gap on my plugs again. Specifically number 3. I keep getting a pending code saying misfire on cylinder 3. After seeing the code I instantly remembered not seeing my bro-in-law gap them. I was busy with the plenum at the time so I didn't think much about it. Hind sight is a b though. :/
 

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