Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives Best/most practical 5.9 cummins upgrages?

Gents,

Wife and I are getting divorced. Looking for projects to fill spare time.

I have a 07 ram 2500 with the 5.9.

I'm not looking to upgrade it to win any quarter mile drags, but anything I can do to help with towing my trailer, etc would be nice.

The transmission is improved over factory already. Billet torque converter, billet input/output, kevlar bands, new electronics.

Suggestions? Pretty much factory, other than the transmission and a Quadzilla Adrenaline programmer.

Bully Dog...

Used it on my 06 and made a huge difference.

Those motors really didn’t need much . Reliable as h -e -double hockey sticks,

Put a set of +40hp injectors next time you have to replace them. I get better power than I ever did with a tuner with that setup.If you don't already have them put in at least a pyrometer so you don't burn it down.

Pyrometer first. Use it to verify that you aren't operating on a sustained basis (towing) at more than 1200 to 1250 EGT (exhaust gas temp).

There is infinite info out there about how to make more power, but about 10% of that info is practical for someone who actually uses their truck. The general formula is as follows:
1. Improve exhaust system. Remove restrictive items, and provide a free and open exhaust path. What you need to do here, may differ from what the diesel shops want you to do. If you have 3" minimum downpipe, 3.5" minimum exhaust piping and a relatively free flowing muffler (example Walker BTM muffler), you're good to WAY more power than you can tow with at safe EGTs using the factory turbo.
2. Improve intake system. Lots of folks put in a 6673 size air cleaner. You'll have to research your rig to see if that's needed or not.
3. Add fuel - you should be able to tweak (mech injection pumps) or tune (yours) your way into more fuel, even with stock injectors. You can quite likely add more fuel with your stock injectors than your pyrometer will say is safe for towing.
4. Improve turbocharger and exhaust - you can change to a borg warner SXE series turbocharger and a full 4" exhaust system, and move more air. This will help mitigate high exhaust temperature. However, from off-idle to about 1500-1700 rpm, your factory turbo will probably make more power with less smoke than any recommended aftermarket unit. With a turbo swap, expect to have a more peaky engine that starts making good power without smoke at 1500-1700 rpm.
5. Once you have a better turbo, then you can chase more fuel with injectors.
6. Repeat 4 and 5 until you are broke, or the truck is broke. Twin turbos, head studs, low pressure fuel system improvements, big injectors, etc. and so forth.

You'd probably have a pretty satisfying rig with steps 1/2/3, without spending much dough.

Don’t do that crap to your truck.

We have the same truck, the very last of the 5.9s, and we plan to keep it for a long time. As stock, it has enough power for our needs, so I've focused on reliability. How many miles on your truck and 6 speed or auto? I've done the following: 55 gallon Titan fuel tank, Dyna Trak free spin front hub kit, Fass fuel pump, Bilstien 5000 shocks, completely updated the front steering, updated the clutch, changed the front alignment specs (which helped a lot), and added a 20" Black Oak LED light bar to the front (which helped immensely when driving through Eastern Oregon and out our dark county road).

1. Gauges
2. Intake
3. Exhaust
4. Tuner
5. Just drive it.

Get much deeper and you’re going to need to upgrade the trans or clutch because it won’t hold the power. Those upgrades will get you 250 ft lbs and 7-10mpg.

If you're looking for a tune, look for the various EFI Live Tunes available. EPA really cracked down on a lot of tuners in Sept of '19

First upgrade is some extra filtration

https://www.glacierdieselpower.com/i-1202-03-07-dodge-ram-5-9l-gdp-mk-2-filter-kit.html

That marriage lasted long.
Lol....
And guess what...l’m still married to the same woman.

Haha.

Nice to see you this morning Tom. How much internet time did your wife grant you today?

And yeah, you're right it didnt last long. Not much I can do about it. Unlike you, I wont let my wife control me.

I'm surprised you haven't had to make another "I'm leaving" post.


Take care buddy.

My wife does not control me loser.
It is a 100/100 proposition.
Of course if your was too you’d still be married.
Haha.
My way is working and yours is not.
So suck it fatty.

Easy to run your mouth from Indiana.

Are you threatening me?

Not a threat at all.

We are both men, we can sit and talk about this over a beer or any other way you desire.

Haha.
I don’t think so...

Figured such.

You know Tom, you obviously don't like me and I'm ok with that.

What's troubling to me is you relishing in the breakup of my marriage as it impacts my ex wife, our children as well as myself. I'm disappointed in myself for even mentioning your wife in a defensive response. My apologies for that. If your marriage works for you then I'm happy for you

A divorce is something I wouldn't wish on anybody and I pray that you or anybody else that reads this doesn't have to go through it.

Honestly, it's hard to even be mad at you for acting like this. I guess I just feel sorry for you that others pain can give you internet insult material. I'll just say a prayer for you and be the bigger man.

Your prayers won’t work for me.
Like all the other fools on here, all your prayers are meaningless dribble.
Enjoy your 5.9 because that’s all you got.....

WTF (what the fück) is wrong with you.