Dodge Ram Stuff Again

From: Terrible Tom (silvereightynine@aol.com)
Date: Thu Apr 02 2009 - 22:16:05 EDT


Ok - well... heres whats on my mind...

Ram went in for exhaust work... new pipe and a new CAT. With the factory CAT cut off - it had
all sorts of rev happy throttle-type-response. New CAT went on - and it feels restricted
again... but not nearly what it was before. Its now 3 inch pipe from the y-pipe back. Had a
high flow 3 inch in/out CAT installed.

Granted - this feeling of "ain't got no power" could be the funky problems with the
transmission. I'm wondering if there isnt some ECM problems. All through tis trucks screwball
ass backwards life, its never thrown a check engine light for any of the misfires or backfires.
  With the CAT removed, it never threw a check engine light in protest - I expected it to
squawk about CAT efficencey... nope... and now, even with the transmission still acting screwy
- the "lock up/OD solenoid" code that was present all the time is gone too - the check engine
light has been off for mm.. couple weeks now.

WTF?

Should I start suspecting the ECM of being faulty? I put 89 mid grade in it tonight to see if
that might help with the gutless feeling I cant seem to rid the truck of. I have run it on 87
most of the time... hmm... now I wonder... WTF did I have the powertech programmer set to?
Perhaps I should plug it in and reconfigure teh settings for the hell of it.

Anyway... on to the next thing... assuming I keep Winchester (yeah the truck has had a name all
this time - I've just never offically called it yet) I'm thinking of a few modificatiosn to
help it out. I would like to keep the tire size where I have it - approx 35 inches - but I
noticed that ever sicne I threw those tires on - its hurt fuel economy and acceleration. Truck
came stock with 4.10's - would 4.56's wake it up and get it back in the power/fuel economy
band? I googled this and determined according to a tire size/gear ration calcualtor - that my
tire change should have a corrisponding axle ratio of approx 4.48 - which the closest size
would be 4.56. Pros? Cons? Whatever thoughts etc?

Hhm also - has Powerdyne Superchargers gone bye bye? They used to be sold on Summit - can't
seem to fidn them there... not on JEGS either - and their applications listings pages are not
around?

-- 
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"Man is the only kind of varmint [who] sets his own trap, baits it, then steps in it"
-John Steinbeck
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