Quick and easy tune up on 98 ram 1500 5.9L

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mjp

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Jul 30, 2016
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Mississippi
Ram Year
1998
Engine
5.9L
I have a 1998 Dodge Ram 2 wheel drive 1500 with the 5.9 liter in it. My truck has 135000 miles on it. It was my grandfathers truck so I'm very cautious of what I do to it and very fond of it. I'm not a vehicle expert by any means and don't know a lot at all. I'm wondering if anyone knows of some quick and maybe simple ways to enhance the performance of the truck. Basically like a "tune up" I guess. Fuel filter? Spark plugs? Air filter? Transmission stuff? Those are just some ideas I'm talking about but if other things that I didn't mention can be useful please help me out. Any help will greatly appreciated. Thanks for taking time to read
 

Max78

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Jul 20, 2016
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Location
AZ
Ram Year
1998
Engine
Magnum 5.9
Fuel filter in in the tank and not easily accessible, dont worry about it.

Super Basic
Fresh plugs, cap, rotor, and wires (wires routed as per-service bulletin).

A little more involved
Fresh oil, transmission fluid, transfer case fluid, and the always forgotten diff fluids (Both of them!). If you have an auto adjust your kick down cable (google it) They stretch over time and as a result the transmission feels sluggish and sloppy, I adjusted mine about 3/16"" more exposed cable and my gear changes are nice and firm and right where I want them!

Even more involved on the fluid side
Fresh coolant, power steering fluid, brake fluid.

A lot more involved
Replace the stock hot-water heater sized muffler with a new "free flowing" muffler. Dynomax Super Turbo is a super low cost muffler that has excellent flow and a great sound. This is the one I installed and it sound great!


My old muffler sounded just fine but I was sure it was falling apart on the inside as it was a bit sad looking, replacing it gave me the biggest boost in power out of everything I have done, fresh timing chain was a close second. Timing chain was done at 170K, muffler at 180K.

Very involved

Fresh timing chain, water pump, bypass hose.

This may not need to be done, but a new timing chain at 170K gave me back a lot of lost power, the one I removed was stretched pretty good. Water pump and bypass hose is because you are in there already, no point doing it over 3 times later down the road.
 
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Stegs

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Apr 7, 2014
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Ram Year
1998 Dodge Ram 1500 4x4
Engine
5.2L 318 C.I.
I like NGK plugs, I run them in everything, and they always work great

I just did plugs on my truck last fall, and new wires this spring

For wires i ordered 8mm wires from summit racing. They are cut to length, have everything ready to roll


My truck runs very smooth with these, can definitely tell they are a quality wire

Another thing to do would be both o2 sensors, but before you do that spray some throttle body cleaner down the throttle body and clean it.

Ethanol fuel can gum up very fast, so before you do anything i would clean that really good, drive it for a week, and then start with plugs, wires, o2 sensors etc....


Air filter of course is a great thing, i like napa gold air filters if they are stock

For oil change i like rotella t5 10w30 or mobil 1 5w30 high mileage

Napa gold filters again for the oil filter


One thing that will make a big difference in how your truck drives is proper tire pressure and a alignment. Be surprised how many people are driving on underinflated tires and a misalignment


Real quick word of advice, dont spend money on "performance parts" until your done with the maintenance portion.

Ball joints, u joints, tie rods, pitman arms, wheel bearings, breaks etc....focus on that stuff first.

Your truck is no good unless its running and driving as best as possible
 
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