Yeret
The Village Drunk
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2014
- Posts
- 943
- Reaction score
- 178
- Ram Year
- 1999
- Engine
- 5.9 Magnum
Hey all, got a few general questions regarding the 5.9 Magnum engine in my truck.
1. My engine has excellent power at low RPMs and partial throttle, however is quite flat post 2,500 RPMs and especially when I give more than half throttle. I do know my engine has the so called ECM "death flash" which apparently changes the ignition timing (see question 2)? Also, I suspect my intake manifold has the ubiquitous plenum leak as my engine loses about half a quart of oil every 100-200 miles (!!!). I know it sounds kind of obvious, but would either of these two cause a significant reduction in mid-range power?
2. What exactly does the "death flash" change? Does it reduce the amount of ignition advance across the RPM range or does it flatten the ignition advance curve so it takes more RPMs to achieve a certain degree of advance? From what I've read, this "upgrade" seems to do more harm than good (less power and fuel economy) so I would certainly want to reverse this if practical (re-tune ECM?).
3. Are the Magnum engines prone to be dirty? I barely make it 2,000 miles between oil changes before my oil looks like a melted Hershey bar and this time I have less than 800 miles on a Valvoline 5-30 (cold weather is here) change with a Purolator filter and my oil is brown-ing already. I bought my truck at 156,000 miles and currently have 170,000 and have changed the oil almost religiously every 3,000 miles. This last summer I was running Valvoline 10-40 and interestingly enough it seemed to "age" better than the 5-30 I'm running now...
4. Next year I'm looking to upgrade the ignition. I've been looking at Accel and MSD tune-up kits which look nice but while browsing Summit Racing, I spotted a kit by Davis Unified Ignition...
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/dui-dgetkkt-bl/overview/make/dodge
It's a bit more money, but the 45,000 volt coil going to 10mm wires and all-brass-contact distributor cap and rotor look really groovy. Has anybody used this set on their engines?
5. At the moment, I'm running an open-element round air cleaner (broke my airbox attempting to remove it last year. Don't ask, I was a *******...). My cleaner in question is 10x2 and works fine (and looks really cool) but I'm curious, if anyone here has done a similar modification, if a wider cleaner would be any better. I can't go much taller due to clearance issues, but I can go a few inches wider...if it's worth doing.
Thanks for any and all answers/input!
1. My engine has excellent power at low RPMs and partial throttle, however is quite flat post 2,500 RPMs and especially when I give more than half throttle. I do know my engine has the so called ECM "death flash" which apparently changes the ignition timing (see question 2)? Also, I suspect my intake manifold has the ubiquitous plenum leak as my engine loses about half a quart of oil every 100-200 miles (!!!). I know it sounds kind of obvious, but would either of these two cause a significant reduction in mid-range power?
2. What exactly does the "death flash" change? Does it reduce the amount of ignition advance across the RPM range or does it flatten the ignition advance curve so it takes more RPMs to achieve a certain degree of advance? From what I've read, this "upgrade" seems to do more harm than good (less power and fuel economy) so I would certainly want to reverse this if practical (re-tune ECM?).
3. Are the Magnum engines prone to be dirty? I barely make it 2,000 miles between oil changes before my oil looks like a melted Hershey bar and this time I have less than 800 miles on a Valvoline 5-30 (cold weather is here) change with a Purolator filter and my oil is brown-ing already. I bought my truck at 156,000 miles and currently have 170,000 and have changed the oil almost religiously every 3,000 miles. This last summer I was running Valvoline 10-40 and interestingly enough it seemed to "age" better than the 5-30 I'm running now...
4. Next year I'm looking to upgrade the ignition. I've been looking at Accel and MSD tune-up kits which look nice but while browsing Summit Racing, I spotted a kit by Davis Unified Ignition...
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/dui-dgetkkt-bl/overview/make/dodge
It's a bit more money, but the 45,000 volt coil going to 10mm wires and all-brass-contact distributor cap and rotor look really groovy. Has anybody used this set on their engines?
5. At the moment, I'm running an open-element round air cleaner (broke my airbox attempting to remove it last year. Don't ask, I was a *******...). My cleaner in question is 10x2 and works fine (and looks really cool) but I'm curious, if anyone here has done a similar modification, if a wider cleaner would be any better. I can't go much taller due to clearance issues, but I can go a few inches wider...if it's worth doing.
Thanks for any and all answers/input!