Requesting advice

[Dennis Flannery]

My 06 5.7 hemi ram has been super reliable since I bought it in 2012. But with 328,000 miles, it’s showing it’s age and I need to rebuild it. I’m considering making it my project truck, to take me into the back country fishing and hunting, so I don’t want huge power only to end up sacrificing reliability. I want to upgrade the power, add a lifted suspension, Ltd slip Dana’s front and rear, and run 37’s.

I am thinking of adding a performance cam, heads, intake, long tube headers, tuner, and electric water pump (have replaced three mechanical) and improved oil pickup/pan/windage tray.

Local shop says the block can easily take boring 40 cu over. If I increase the bore I’d go with a forged crank and pistons.

Questions: upgrade cam, bore or both? Which cam and how aggressive? Roller or tappet? Should I beef up the crank/pistons or replace with stock bottom end?
Do I need to upgrade the ignition and fuel system with cam? Cam/bore? Bore only?
Do any of these create a problem with MDS?
Should I rebuild the tranny or upgrade?

 

[Snake15eyes1998]

With all the things you wanna do. It sounds like you want power gains. If its just taking you hunting, fishing etc. Just my opinion, I'd keep her going until she's on her last leg. Unless she's there. Put another hemi into it, 4.56 gears with lockers and 37s. Your set man. She will take you anywhere. But if your gonna do all that to the engine, you really need to think about swapping the tranny to something stronger. Plenty of guys on here that say. Anymore power then stock and those 545RFEs don't like that. Even the " built" 545RFEs are hit and miss. Some guys are on their 3rd or 4th transmissions. Good luck man.

 

[HemiLonestar]

My 06 5.7 hemi ram has been super reliable since I bought it in 2012. But with 328,000 miles, it’s showing it’s age and I need to rebuild it. I’m considering making it my project truck, to take me into the back country fishing and hunting, so I don’t want huge power only to end up sacrificing reliability. I want to upgrade the power, add a lifted suspension, Ltd slip Dana’s front and rear, and run 37’s.

I am thinking of adding a performance cam, heads, intake, long tube headers, tuner, and electric water pump (have replaced three mechanical) and improved oil pickup/pan/windage tray.

Local shop says the block can easily take boring 40 cu over. If I increase the bore I’d go with a forged crank and pistons.

Questions: upgrade cam, bore or both? Which cam and how aggressive? Roller or tappet? Should I beef up the crank/pistons or replace with stock bottom end?
Do I need to upgrade the ignition and fuel system with cam? Cam/bore? Bore only?
Do any of these create a problem with MDS?
Should I rebuild the tranny or upgrade?

Well....
- cam good
- heads good
- intake......so do you mean air intake or intake manifold; this is very important
- tuner - custom tuning mandatory with cam and heads
- electric water pump; are you prepared to completely throw off your accessory drive? Were the previous three OEM or parts store specials? Reason I ask is that I have about 170k on my original 2003 water pump and it hasn't failed me yet....
- oil pickup - improved how? It sucks oil out of the sump through a tube...
- pan - lotsa options there, don't screw up and get a car version
- windage tray - the pan gasket IS the windage tray lol: https://www.shophemi.com/p-238-mopar-57l-truck-oil-pan-gasket.aspx


- What's hilarious about all the oil things you mentioned....you never once mentioned the actual pump.........
- increased bore - don't go nuts; modern engines have less metal in them for weight savings. This includes between the cylinders. Stick with a clean up bore if it's even necessary.
- already mentioned cam, but here we are again lol......roller or flat tappet. I get why you would ask this question since you are on the senior side, but I am going to post a link for your factory service manual and you really need to read it. Almost every modern engine since the 90's has been built with hydraulic roller cams. 1) it would be a step backwards to put a flat tappet in a 3G hemi and 2) I don't know that you could find a lifter, much less a cam to do it with lol.
- installing stronger components is never a bad thing, but you need to consider how far of a build you intend to run with and whether you really need it. The 6.1 crank is a bolt in and is factory forged. Can go with whatever your rod of choice is. Forged pistons can be had but they're louder and knock sensors tend to not like them (they'll pull timing when it isn't needed). The only high performance Mopar engine currently running them from the factory (and incidentally since 1971) is the Hellcat and its derivatives. Even the 392 doesn't run forged slugs.
- your stock fuel and ignition systems are more than up to the task unless you intend to add nitrous or boost.
- you can pretty much kiss MDS goodbye depending on cam selection.
- trans - any time you have an appreciable increase in power or a high mileage component and you refresh it there should be corresponding work done to the matching one. Even if you were just doing a stock rebuild, that fresh 5.7 is gonna make mince meat out of that 300k+ mile transmission. Here's where we **** all over your Wheaties. As @Snake15eyes1998 said above, depending on how far you decide to go, the RFE isn't gonna last. You got over 300k because your truck is stock. Left alone they go the distance. You start upping the power too much or keep nailing that full throttle 2P downshift and it's gonna take a **** on you (I'm on my third and I'm not even done with this truck lol).
So your options here are:
- keep a spare trans on hand
- swap to A518/46RH
- swap to 46RE
- swap to 4L80E
- swap to 8HP70
- go manual
- swap to some other trans that no one has tried

I seem to remember making some suggestions for you recently that would most likely fulfill your needs......
https://www.ramforum.com/threads/recommendations-on-3gen-5-7-hemi-rebuild.170857/

https://www.mediafire.com/file/dz5njv6rdc1khkp/2006_Dodge_Ram_Factory_Service_Manual.rar/file

 

[Dennis Flannery]

Hey bud, thanks for taking the time for a thorough response.

-By intake I meant intake manifold; single or dual plane?

- tuner - I knew the MDS is gone (no real loss!) due to cam upgrade; any recommendations? Are there some that disable MDS?

- electric water pump; didn’t know it would completely throw off the accessory drive so great info. The previous three were put on at a local shop. (All three times it went when it was freezing out and I don’t have a garage) I’ve read that the water pump issue is common.

- oil pickup/pan/windage tray: I know OEM tray/gasket is one piece but if I switched pans for better volume, etc was there a tray to consider. Was told by the parts guy at dealership that the 3G hemis are known to blow the oil pumps because of the pickups getting clogged. So understood the issue to be the pickup.


-Thanks for notes on cam and bottom end. Re roller or flat tappet, I’ve read that oiling issues on the hemis can cause the ‘hemi-tick’: rollers sticking and wear on the lobes. (I’ll ignore the ‘senior’ knock, lol)


Great info on trans!

 

[Dennis Flannery]

With all the things you wanna do. It sounds like you want power gains. If its just taking you hunting, fishing etc. Just my opinion, I'd keep her going until she's on her last leg. Unless she's there. Put another hemi into it, 4.56 gears with lockers and 37s. Your set man. She will take you anywhere. But if your gonna do all that to the engine, you really need to think about swapping the tranny to something stronger. Plenty of guys on here that say. Anymore power then stock and those 545RFEs don't like that. Even the " built" 545RFEs are hit and miss. Some guys are on their 3rd or 4th transmissions. Good luck man.

 

[Dennis Flannery]

Thanks, I figured I needed to swap trans, and yeah power gains...because

 

[HemiLonestar]

See bold

Hey bud, thanks for taking the time for a thorough response.

-By intake I meant intake manifold; single or dual plane? - doesn't apply to modern EFI/MPFI engines; unless you're willing to completely alter your accessory drive you only have one choice anyway, your stock one.

- tuner - I knew the MDS is gone (no real loss!) due to cam upgrade; any recommendations? Are there some that disable MDS? - Any tuner is capable of turning MDS off. If you're camming it you'll need a custom tune anyway and your tuner can put that in the tune for you.

- electric water pump; didn’t know it would completely throw off the accessory drive so great info. The previous three were put on at a local shop. (All three times it went when it was freezing out and I don’t have a garage) I’ve read that the water pump issue is common. - tends to be more when people use cheap ass aftermarket pumps....OEM pumps are pricier but haven't had one fail me yet. You can do it, but you're gonna be figuring out a custom belt.

- oil pickup/pan/windage tray: I know OEM tray/gasket is one piece but if I switched pans for better volume, etc was there a tray to consider. Was told by the parts guy at dealership that the 3G hemis are known to blow the oil pumps because of the pickups getting clogged. So understood the issue to be the pickup. - where do people come up with some of this **** lol? Any engine will blow if sufficiently starved for oil. Hardly the exclusive domain of hemis. Even if you switched pans the gasket wouldn't change unless there was a change in the location of the pickup (not likely because you still have to use a sump designed for a pickup).


-Thanks for notes on cam and bottom end. Re roller or flat tappet, I’ve read that oiling issues on the hemis can cause the ‘hemi-tick’: rollers sticking and wear on the lobes. (I’ll ignore the ‘senior’ knock, lol) - as I said, you read about roller lifter issues on an engine series newer than yours. The 3G/4G hemis aren't designed to use flat tappets. The hemi tick isn't caused by the rollers sticking....where have you read some of this *****?


Great info on trans!

 

[Dennis Flannery]

HemiLonestar, thanks again. All the ‘*****’ is why I come here-to get the scoop.