camshaft or gear swap

[Budnicks]

There's far more than one way to skin a cat

Kind of performance 101 stuff...

I'd go with gears too of those 2 options
It will help for later mods too, especially if you go bigger tires...
if you go with a Magnum Engine, Harlen Sharpe also makes
great full roller rockers 1.7:1 bolt ons, fit under stock VC's too
no mods at all...
I think of all the mods I've done, one at a time so I could see cause & effect
that woke up my little 5.2 Magnum the most
The exhaust was 2nd most, probably equaling the K&N filter &
AEM spacer air tube too

A little bit of pocket porting/larger valves etc. will do wonders too...
Get a book on it, it's not that tough, just take your time &
don't hog them out too much, mostly under the valves
& a good multi angle performance valve job...

It doesn't need to be over-camed to make a ton more power...

Mancini Racing sells them HS's at like $389 they were anyway IRRC
for 5/16 ball & ball OE size/style pushrods
they oil thru the push rods on them Magnums not on a shaft,
they are pedestals {If you didn't know already}

If you stay with a EFI {or a carb} do a gauze filter &
a swirl space under the TB {or 1" spacer under the carb on a dual plane},
for the EFI larger air inlet tube Like AEM, K&N etc.
a good DB2 programmer/flash tuner too if you keep the EFI,
I'd highly suggest you get the computer out the rig
you get the engine from too
there are a couple of places that make some good replacement TB's too
Holley 52mm for 1 {I'll go to that when I do my stroker}

I've done all those things except the gears so far,
{I've done all the mods & gears on my old 99 Dakota R/T 2wd, really woke up that 5.9ltr}
I also will do Edelbrock shorty headers & it already has a 3" cat back Flowmaster
on my 99 5.2ltr 4x4 SLT Dakota, it really woke it up, BIG TIME,
do the same for a 5.9ltr Mag., my Dakota has 32" x 11" tires, it had 31" x 10.5's
I'm rarely in OD here in the mountains except on flat land,
it has 3.54:1 really needs 3.91:1's
to really complement the other work I've done, it only has 57k miles on it,
so I've been a bit hesitant to do the gears yet, but will soon...

Probably do the 4" 390+ci stroker too down the road
when the engine gets weak...
No replacement for displacement for torque values

the exhaust manifolds {& heads/especially the R/T heads 2.02 int}
on the magnums are far better than the older
LA versions for flow too, except for the expensive 68-70 340 stuff,
if you don't go with headers, pick them up when you get the engine

there's a great book for Mopar Performance Magnum Engines 2nd edition
#P5007610 lots of great info, for the modern/Magnum Truck SB's

I hope some of that rambling helps some

good luck

 

[cwhubb]

There's far more than one way to skin a cat

Kind of performance 101 stuff...

I'd go with gears too of those 2 options
It will help for later mods too, especially if you go bigger tires...
if you go with a Magnum Engine, Harlen Sharpe also makes
great full roller rockers 1.7:1 bolt ons, fit under stock VC's too
no mods at all...
I think of all the mods I've done, one at a time so I could see cause & effect
that woke up my little 5.2 Magnum the most
The exhaust was 2nd most, probably equaling the K&N filter &
AEM spacer air tube too

A little bit of pocket porting/larger valves etc. will do wonders too...
Get a book on it, it's not that tough, just take your time &
don't hog them out too much, mostly under the valves
& a good multi angle performance valve job...

It doesn't need to be over-camed to make a ton more power...

Mancini Racing sells them HS's at like $389 they were anyway IRRC
for 5/16 ball & ball OE size/style pushrods
they oil thru the push rods on them Magnums not on a shaft,
they are pedestals {If you didn't know already}

If you stay with a EFI {or a carb} do a gauze filter &
a swirl space under the TB {or 1" spacer under the carb on a dual plane},
for the EFI larger air inlet tube Like AEM, K&N etc.
a good DB2 programmer/flash tuner too if you keep the EFI,
I'd highly suggest you get the computer out the rig
you get the engine from too
there are a couple of places that make some good replacement TB's too
Holley 52mm for 1 {I'll go to that when I do my stroker}

I've done all those things except the gears so far,
{I've done all the mods & gears on my old 99 Dakota R/T 2wd, really woke up that 5.9ltr}
I also will do Edelbrock shorty headers & it already has a 3" cat back Flowmaster
on my 99 5.2ltr 4x4 SLT Dakota, it really woke it up, BIG TIME,
do the same for a 5.9ltr Mag., my Dakota has 32" x 11" tires, it had 31" x 10.5's
I'm rarely in OD here in the mountains except on flat land,
it has 3.54:1 really needs 3.91:1's
to really complement the other work I've done, it only has 57k miles on it,
so I've been a bit hesitant to do the gears yet, but will soon...

Probably do the 4" 390+ci stroker too down the road
when the engine gets weak...
No replacement for displacement for torque values

the exhaust manifolds {& heads/especially the R/T heads 2.02 int}
on the magnums are far better than the older
LA versions for flow too, except for the expensive 68-70 340 stuff,
if you don't go with headers, pick them up when you get the engine

there's a great book for Mopar Performance Magnum Engines 2nd edition
#P5007610 lots of great info, for the modern/Magnum Truck SB's

I hope some of that rambling helps some

good luck

Budnick, yes thanks for that info it helps a lot

 

[cwhubb]

I want to thank everybody who gave me their thoughts on this, I'll probably go with gears, and then if I break or grenade something I'll go buy a 2500 lol

 

[Cranky]

Lower gears will also help take some of the strain off of the transmission. Sorta like riding a 10 speed in 5th gear all the time....