rzr6-4
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2022
- Posts
- 1,227
- Reaction score
- 2,390
- Location
- nebraska
- Ram Year
- '09 2500
- Engine
- 5.7 hemi
09 2500 Hemi
Before:
So my truck has always run a bit weird. At high RPM it's great, but its always been absolutely gutless at low RPM. I know running 35s right now isn't doing it any favors but it used to do it with 33s as well. Often times has a hard time picking a gear on the highway, always having to down shift for hills and even sometimes for a head wind. Frequently use OD OFF to get it to stay in third, to prevent the 5th gear bog, downshift to 3rd to speed back up, we have plenty of tq so let's go to 4th, still lots of tq, go to 5th, bog and repeat.
Sometimes when I'm going slow and I get on it hard at low RPM, it will actually slow down. I don't fully understand how these auto-magic trannies work, but maybe the trans is trying to lock up and is bogging the engine down faster than the engine can actually supply more power? Like I said, not sure how lock up works on these, but that's my best theory as to how sometimes more gas = slower. One of the main suggestions I've gotten to remedy this is plugs, so that is what I tried today.
During --> After 30k miles and several years of telling myself I needed to get it done (205K mi on the odo, no idea if they've ever been done), I finally done did got my spark plugs replaced. Took me about 3 hrs, was hoping to do it in 2 but oh well. That said, it would have been 5 hrs and a lot more swearing if I didn't have access to a forklift.
I did the entire passenger side without it, and the first two pairs on the driver. Either standing on the ground or sitting in/on the bumper, the third pair would have been extremely difficult though. 4th pair towards the fire wall? No idea how it would have been physically possible to reach without the forklift. I brought the pallet in just high enough to not catch on anything, then used a ladder to get on the pallet, and had a good place to lay above the engine. Wasn't to bad with this, but not having it easily would have made those last 4 plugs take another 2 hrs.
These are the take outs. Very old, dark, and eroded. Don't know if anyone has anything else to input as far as anything to keep in mind based on how these look. I know it's possible to learn a lot about how things are running from how your old plugs look, I'm just too rarded to make any judgments myself.
After: Took it out for a test drive right after completion. To my disappointment, low end still sucks. All the same issues as before. That said, high end RPM seemed to have a little more pep. Professional driver on a closed course, I did a 4wd pull on gravel up to 80mph, and once I was able to get over 30 and into the power band, it seemed to pull better than it had previously. Not sure if it was 2nd or 3rd gear, but was doing 6k RPM at 80mph but was still pulling and still sounded smooth as I let up. Did it again in 2wd and the rear was still a little floaty from a little wheel spin up until 70mph, which I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have done that before. Not saying that doing plugs gave me any real meaningful power boost, but some of those old plugs look to have a large gap so I wonder if I wasn't getting some poor ignition and perhaps it is running just a few percent better now.
Partially just a write up, partially asking for help on a couple things, IDK, take this for what you want.
Hope to get the fluid changed in the 545rfe in the next week or two as well.
Before:
So my truck has always run a bit weird. At high RPM it's great, but its always been absolutely gutless at low RPM. I know running 35s right now isn't doing it any favors but it used to do it with 33s as well. Often times has a hard time picking a gear on the highway, always having to down shift for hills and even sometimes for a head wind. Frequently use OD OFF to get it to stay in third, to prevent the 5th gear bog, downshift to 3rd to speed back up, we have plenty of tq so let's go to 4th, still lots of tq, go to 5th, bog and repeat.
Sometimes when I'm going slow and I get on it hard at low RPM, it will actually slow down. I don't fully understand how these auto-magic trannies work, but maybe the trans is trying to lock up and is bogging the engine down faster than the engine can actually supply more power? Like I said, not sure how lock up works on these, but that's my best theory as to how sometimes more gas = slower. One of the main suggestions I've gotten to remedy this is plugs, so that is what I tried today.
During --> After 30k miles and several years of telling myself I needed to get it done (205K mi on the odo, no idea if they've ever been done), I finally done did got my spark plugs replaced. Took me about 3 hrs, was hoping to do it in 2 but oh well. That said, it would have been 5 hrs and a lot more swearing if I didn't have access to a forklift.
I did the entire passenger side without it, and the first two pairs on the driver. Either standing on the ground or sitting in/on the bumper, the third pair would have been extremely difficult though. 4th pair towards the fire wall? No idea how it would have been physically possible to reach without the forklift. I brought the pallet in just high enough to not catch on anything, then used a ladder to get on the pallet, and had a good place to lay above the engine. Wasn't to bad with this, but not having it easily would have made those last 4 plugs take another 2 hrs.
These are the take outs. Very old, dark, and eroded. Don't know if anyone has anything else to input as far as anything to keep in mind based on how these look. I know it's possible to learn a lot about how things are running from how your old plugs look, I'm just too rarded to make any judgments myself.
After: Took it out for a test drive right after completion. To my disappointment, low end still sucks. All the same issues as before. That said, high end RPM seemed to have a little more pep. Professional driver on a closed course, I did a 4wd pull on gravel up to 80mph, and once I was able to get over 30 and into the power band, it seemed to pull better than it had previously. Not sure if it was 2nd or 3rd gear, but was doing 6k RPM at 80mph but was still pulling and still sounded smooth as I let up. Did it again in 2wd and the rear was still a little floaty from a little wheel spin up until 70mph, which I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have done that before. Not saying that doing plugs gave me any real meaningful power boost, but some of those old plugs look to have a large gap so I wonder if I wasn't getting some poor ignition and perhaps it is running just a few percent better now.
Partially just a write up, partially asking for help on a couple things, IDK, take this for what you want.
Hope to get the fluid changed in the 545rfe in the next week or two as well.
