Upgrades for everyday driver

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Jeff Auberger

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Looking to add some kick to my everyday driver. 2013 ram 5.7 hemi 1500 4x4. I am looking to do some simple bolt ons for some extra power. I need to keep it simple as it is my everyday driver. I was thinking a tuner, cold air intake, and a throttle body spacer. What kind or upgrades have people found worked will with the hemi and kept it reliable.
 

NJMOPAR

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Don't waste money on a TB spacer, they're a gimmick. The Ram intake is already a decent CAI, if you want to upgrade, either a Vararam or Volante would do.
A Pedal Commander will let you feel the power the Hemi already has without adding any more.
 

MADDOG

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Cold air intake, freer flowing exhaust (just swap out the stock muffler), a programmer and, later, a custom tune.
 

Quick_Shifter

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Looking to add some kick to my everyday driver. 2013 ram 5.7 hemi 1500 4x4. I am looking to do some simple bolt ons for some extra power. I need to keep it simple as it is my everyday driver. I was thinking a tuner, cold air intake, and a throttle body spacer. What kind or upgrades have people found worked will with the hemi and kept it reliable.
A lot of preferred vendors on this forums to get your parts from. A tuner is where you will see the most gains.
 

BigJoe1094

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if budget is an issue you could also swap the lower airbox in from a 6.4/eco diesel instead of a CAI. That's one of the things i will be doing later this week.
 

Burla

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What transmission and gearing do you have? 65rfe? 3.55 or 3.92's? Stock these things have a lot of power, the weaknesses can be getting that power to the wheels better.
 
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Jeff Auberger

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What transmission and gearing do you have? 65rfe? 3.55 or 3.92's? Stock these things have a lot of power, the weaknesses can be getting that power to the wheels better.

It is the 65rfe transmission and I believe the 3.55 gears but I am not sure sure on that.​
 

Burla

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It is the 65rfe transmission and I believe the 3.55 gears but I am not sure sure on that.​

Which is good news if you are looking for real gains and gains that also give longevity. RFE weakness is the valve body, you get a plate upgrade bolt on with other upgrades and tune the pressure, it will shift like a beast and protect the clutch packs. The gears would be a large commitment, it is a cost, but there is zero doubt a gear upgrade would give you the gains you need, especially if you have large tires or want large tires.

Must see tv for guys with rfe's, don't pay attention to brands, just take in the info. As you use your truck like a truck, the valve body just gets worse and worse with leaks, and you loose performance at the wheels with every leak. You plate that valve body tune up line pressure, you rfe will never hunt for a gear. Call it a shift kit or whatever, their are some applications where a shift kit is more beneficial. This is not the case with the 8 speed, or certainly not as much as the rfe.


 

Burla

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A think the 13 will need to unlock pcm, something guys like me with the 2010 don't have to worry about. Maybe someone with more info on that can chime in. But when you tune for trans pressure and shift points, you can also delete mds.
 

Wild one

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A think the 13 will need to unlock pcm, something guys like me with the 2010 don't have to worry about. Maybe someone with more info on that can chime in. But when you tune for trans pressure and shift points, you can also delete mds.

He's good on the pcm Mike,it's not till 2015 that they started locking them.
 

Jose Zambrano

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I daily drive my truck and I take it to the track so hopefully I can give you some input. Like most have told you already, throttle body spacer is a waste of time and money. I would suggest start with the a custom tune first, that's where you will see the better gains and you will need it to see any real gains from anything you add to the truck. I don't have the pedal commander but I have the 9-drive which is like $100 and it works the same way as the pedal commander. I've had it for about a year with no issues. The next one would be your headers, clutch fan delete, lower temp thermostat, bigger throttle body. Depending on how much money you want to invest in all of this next would be a bigger cam, stall converter and possibly new gears. Gears and stall converter would be the things that will start putting your transmission to the test. I would leave the CAI for last if you really want one or if you find a used one for sale.
 

T Jones

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Looking to add some kick to my everyday driver. 2013 ram 5.7 hemi 1500 4x4. I am looking to do some simple bolt ons for some extra power. I need to keep it simple as it is my everyday driver. I was thinking a tuner, cold air intake, and a throttle body spacer. What kind or upgrades have people found worked will with the hemi and kept it reliable.
As one poster already said, your stock CAI is already pretty decent. I don't see where you would actually gain much by way of noticable power, if any at all, by upgrading your CAI unless it would pull in cold air from the fender well, which your stock intake already does. Just drop in a high flow air filter during your routine maintenance. You'd get just as much out of that as you would by upgrading to an aftermarket CAI. The TB spacer, definitely no. Actually, just a couple of bolt ons by themselves aren't going to give you any real noticeable power unless you start adding more bolt ons to compliment the ones you have. For me, I would like to add long tube headers and a Carven muffler to mine. Not that it will add a lot of noticable power but headers and a Carven muffler would definitely improve the tone quality of my 5.7. For immediate gratification I would go with something like a Pedal Commander or Sprint Booster.
 
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slbenz600

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Looking to add some kick to my everyday driver. 2013 ram 5.7 hemi 1500 4x4. I am looking to do some simple bolt ons for some extra power. I need to keep it simple as it is my everyday driver. I was thinking a tuner, cold air intake, and a throttle body spacer. What kind or upgrades have people found worked will with the hemi and kept it reliable.
All of what you are doing is great from experience 3 inch cat back exhaust (Make sure the Y Pipe is removed), if you want low noise install X muffler if you don't care dual 3 in and out. You could order 3 inch stainless steel system and do-it-your-self.
 

NOV87

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Pedal Commander or a tune. Burla is off by a couple of years on unlocked PCM, but dead on as far as improving 65RFE :). They started locking them in 2015 and newer. Longtube headers and better flowing exhaust are good additions. Stall TC will make a big difference, but it'll heat up your 65RFE real quick, so that's the price to pay. Gearing to 4.10 or 4.56 would be really good, noticeable and actually helpful to the drivetrain. But, very expensive if your truck is 4x4.
Aftermarket Cam, from what I hear, gives a noticeable bump in HP. Deleting clutch fan and installing lower temp thermostat will yield no noticeable power gains, in my opinion. But probably good for engine longevity.
 
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