Are we really stuck with high dollar parts and logic controllers?

[Nick_rp]

Im not that old but i grew up learning you can swap a vacuum spring, widen a hole in the carb or 1000 other various easy/free/cheap mechanical mods to boost performance.

Heck, years ago you could put zip ties on a gas pedal cable to improve throttle response!

But now i feel like everything worth doing for performance has a $200+ price tag.

Is there really nothing in the easy/free/cheap catagory anymore or are the people who were smart enough to figure that stuff out retired?

No disrespect to my fellow ram owners but it seems like the common mods now a days are tow mirrors, touch screen retrofits and headlight housing swaps. Where is the cool stuff?

 

[kurek]

I remember as a kid hearing the old men complaining about all the newfangled electro gizmos in cars and how you couldn't do anything with them.. that was like cars from the late 70s that dared to have transistorized ignition instead of points to fiddle with every 5000 miles. Never changes!

In a 1981 Chevy C/K you could get a 5.7L OHV V8 rated 160 hp and 250 lb⋅ft . Our Rams have the same displacement, same valve arrangement and make more than twice the power how do you think they managed that?

They figured out all the free/cheap/easy stuff you're talking about is free/cheap/easy for them at the factory too so they already did it all.

Don't need to flow hone a plastic intake manifold, it's already smooth and perfectly port matched the day it's molded. Plus it doesn't heat soak. Don't need to shorten or lengthen your intake runners they do that on their own while you drive. Don't need to dink around with timing or AFR it adjusts that on the fly. Don't need to fool around with the throttle response or install a shift kit, it's adaptive already.

The only stuff they didn't do is stuff that takes real money even at the factory, like boost. That'll still put lead in your pencil but it takes money.

Plenty of neglected older cars out there to restore if you want a project.

 

[JoeCo]

Plenty of neglected older cars out there to restore if you want a project.

I second that idea, save an old car!

 

[46RamMan]

But you won't get a feeling of acompolishment if the computer takes away all your fun .. I like making my own adjustments and like to see what "I" can do to make it run better when "I" tinker with it.. and I don't mean putting a backup camera on it or fancy mirrors... that's just trim not performance...

 

[Fast69Mopar]

The good old days of the cheap and easy performance improvements are long gone. Everything is software based and electronic. These days our performance improvements come from a laptop or a handheld tuner so we can tell PCM's and TCM's what to do.

I miss the days of swapping intake manifolds, carbs, headers and camshafts on the cheap but I actually prefer the way things are now.

With the advancement in electronics and fuel injection and especially the the advancements in tuning capabilities we can make super precise adjustments to squeeze every ounce of horsepower and torque out of an engine and make a transmission shift the way we want it to.

 

[Pull Ya]

Anyone else see the recent u-tube about the 2 teenagers and the dial telephone---some us had to be or are being forced into the computer age
Jay

 

[Razzman]

Those days are long gone. Technology never goes backwards

 

[avantiguy]

A trip back to those days would suggest that performance wasn't cheap either. I grew up in the late 50's ( had my license in 1958 ) and watched performance improve until the early 70's.

If you wanted to gain significant performance, it wasn't a Ziptie or a vacuum spring to get 1/2 to 1 second off the et's, it was cam & lifters, carbs, intake, tires, and rear gears. At my income back then it was a small fortune.

We are lucky today that right of the showroom floor you can have a ton of performance and, on a relative scale, performance is less expensive now than it was then.

I do have two old cars powered by SBC stroker engines I work on to keep me out of trouble but they aren't much faster than my 19 Laramie Hemi.

 

[Ribtipram]

Thats the problem my wife's 2014 infiniti is faster then my 98 vett WTF

 

[kurek]

Thats the problem my wife's 2014 infiniti is faster then my 98 vett WTF

I bet a modern Hemi 1500 gets to 60mph faster than most 70's era supercars... lot's changed!

 

[Ribtipram]

I bet a modern Hemi 1500 gets to 60mph faster than most 70's era supercars... lot's changed!

Oh yea back in 98 the vett was bad ass. Now it takes a 6cyl in a small car to kick its ass. Vetts gone now though got ran over by a semi on the highway last nov.

 

[Nick_rp]

I remember as a kid hearing the old men complaining about all the newfangled electro gizmos in cars and how you couldn't do anything with them.. that was like cars from the late 70s that dared to have transistorized ignition instead of points to fiddle with every 5000 miles. Never changes!

In a 1981 Chevy C/K you could get a 5.7L OHV V8 rated 160 hp and 250 lb⋅ft . Our Rams have the same displacement, same valve arrangement and make more than twice the power how do you think they managed that?

They figured out all the free/cheap/easy stuff you're talking about is free/cheap/easy for them at the factory too so they already did it all.

Don't need to flow hone a plastic intake manifold, it's already smooth and perfectly port matched the day it's molded. Plus it doesn't heat soak. Don't need to shorten or lengthen your intake runners they do that on their own while you drive. Don't need to dink around with timing or AFR it adjusts that on the fly. Don't need to fool around with the throttle response or install a shift kit, it's adaptive already.

The only stuff they didn't do is stuff that takes real money even at the factory, like boost. That'll still put lead in your pencil but it takes money.

Plenty of neglected older cars out there to restore if you want a project.

I dont know why but i got ZERO notifications about this post. I thought it was dead in the water. What you said makes a ton of sense and i get it but i still wish there were $0 mechanical mods to be had.

I guess it just boils down to "me vs the rich kid" type scenario. I know my way around an engine and i guess i just wish i could drill a hole in a carb and out perform the guy who bought their HP. Know what i mean?

I know those days are in the past but still... leave us some damn wiggle room! Let me swap a return spring, solder a different resister on a PCB or something! $2 that adds 14.876 HP.

Guess im just missing the good old days. Now all the cheap mods consist of painted emblems and everything else in the "mods under $100" forum.

No hate, just wish there was more is all.

Ok, no more tequila and ramforum.com

 

[indept]

Answer is YES

 

[kurek]

Cool stuff is cool for a reason right? It communicates that you have the resources (money, brains, determination, whatever) to make it happen so you get the cool thing. So if there's a screw you can turn for power and all you did was read about the screw from somebody else and go turn it then what exactly did you bring to the table?

I'm not busting your ball bearings here. If you want power well you already got it without doing any work. If you want prestige there's no shortcut to that - which is the whole reason prestige is prestige. If you can take a shortcut then everyone does and it's no longer prestigious anyway.

Those engineers and bean counters didn't do everything.. keep looking - sometimes the lowest hanging fruit comes just from un-counting those beans.

 

[OCDTech]

Thats the problem my wife's 2014 infiniti is faster then my 98 vett WTF

Kinda know how you feel, few years back i had a sweet 5.0 factory Mustang. This truck just as fast if not more so.

 

[ram1500rsm]

Get yourself HPTuners, a laptop and a wb and start reading and learning all about pcm/tcm tuning management. You’ll learn something new and I promise you’ll be busy for years to come.

 

[aladin_sane]

I dont know why but i got ZERO notifications about this post. I thought it was dead in the water. What you said makes a ton of sense and i get it but i still wish there were $0 mechanical mods to be had.

I guess it just boils down to "me vs the rich kid" type scenario. I know my way around an engine and i guess i just wish i could drill a hole in a carb and out perform the guy who bought their HP. Know what i mean?

I know those days are in the past but still... leave us some damn wiggle room! Let me swap a return spring, solder a different resister on a PCB or something! $2 that adds 14.876 HP.

Guess im just missing the good old days. Now all the cheap mods consist of painted emblems and everything else in the "mods under $100" forum.

No hate, just wish there was more is all.

Ok, no more tequila and ramforum.com

As has been said earlier in the thread, if you still want to do those kind of mods, you will need an old car to do them on, and you may still not get the performance your hemi has from the factory.

 

[Wild one]

I dont know why but i got ZERO notifications about this post. I thought it was dead in the water. What you said makes a ton of sense and i get it but i still wish there were $0 mechanical mods to be had.

I guess it just boils down to "me vs the rich kid" type scenario. I know my way around an engine and i guess i just wish i could drill a hole in a carb and out perform the guy who bought their HP. Know what i mean?

I know those days are in the past but still... leave us some damn wiggle room! Let me swap a return spring, solder a different resister on a PCB or something! $2 that adds 14.876 HP.

Guess im just missing the good old days. Now all the cheap mods consist of painted emblems and everything else in the "mods under $100" forum.

No hate, just wish there was more is all.

Ok, no more tequila and ramforum.com

Not sure where you came up with the idea theres no wiggle room anymore.You can still do headers/cam swaps and there's even aftermarket intake manifolds for the Hemi,and if you want you can upgrade the pistons and do a blower/turbo or nitrous,plus there's lots of kits out there to up the cubic inches.Things haven't changed much from the 60's/70's, the same upgrades still apply,they just cost more,and are a little more labour intensive to install.My truck gives 6 speed Hellcats fits at the local track,and I don't really have all that much in mods,mines still a stock block/stock head engine with a cam/headers etc. ,basically what's referred to as a full bolt-on truck,with a small 75 shot of nitrous and a hell'va good HP tune.I have roughly 450 dragstrip passes on it plus 75,000 clics of spirited driving,and I've had to replace the 8 speed once and after I stepped up to a Detriot Tru Trac posi unit,i haven't had any issues with the rear diff.Look at Matt Fikac's /Moes truck,he's close to 800 hp at the tires and is knocking on the 9 sec door with a truck that is still daily drivable,albit it's on the ragged edge though,lol

 

[FlaSeadude]

You can always do what I did - throw on a new exhaust and a CAI. If you're still bored, you can then tackle the MDS delete option...

 

[Docwagon1776]

Asking that they leave a few HP on the table so you can feel you accomplished something by claiming it later seems...odd to me. You are essentially claiming they did too good a job. If a goose lays you a gold egg each day, just enjoy the gold instead of complaining eggs are hard to stack.

I'm quite happy to have a truck with this kind of performance out of the box without the need to fiddle with things. If you want to fiddle, you're going to have to spend money. I've got the lifetime warranty, so if I want to fiddle I'll fiddle on my Camaro, another car that would have required massive modifications to touch what it does stock today.