ok, i have a little money from tax season to work with but do'nt know where to start. i have around $600 and can't decide if i want to save more for a rebuild, or start where i am at. i've got a '98 ram iwth a 5.2 and 172k on the clock. i don't want to do anything to it that might hurt it, being all the miles on it, but i want it to actually have a little bit of power and not feel like its dragging an anchor all help greatly appreciated

 

with that many miles anymore power is probably going to hurt it unless yo uwant to do basic bolt ons liek CAI, LT's, exhaust, and maybe play with the trucks stance some, IMO save the money for a new truck or a rebuild

 

how much longer do you plan on having this truck? If it's for the long haul I vote to save it for a fresh drivetrain

 

thats true, if you want to keep the body and essentially the truck, dont mod something thats just a deep hole, save it for a new engine and tranny and eventually mod that!

 

nice deposit on an 03' 5.3

 

lol yeah and college wouldn't agree with me on that. although i have looked into a late 90's early 00's model chevy. but just found out today i can't a loan for awhile so not too worried about it. anywho

Z06 Dreaming: yes i plan on keeping for awhile longer. have plans on doing full motor rebuild now.

soon2bespooled: tranny was rebuilt bout ten months ago so it should be good, as long as i don't to crazy.

basically my goal is for my truck to be fun to drive. right now it is pretty boring cause it is so slow. and on that note, i have no idea what to do, but i will have to wait for the motor rebuildc to do that. speaking of which what would be a good round about figure i am going to spend for a basic build. i could figure expenses for other performance parts after that. thanks for the help

 

thats a real good question on how much the rebuild would cost, you figure a bore job would be about 2 grand so maybe 3000? im just pullin number out from where the sun dont shine just cuz i can and remember hearing something along those lines, others will chime in on their figures

 

so i need to figure 3g's plus wahtever i want to spend on internals. any suggestions on what i should do? thinking about going the nitrous route, but not sure how much more that will run me. and yes will search.

 

Maybe you could think about looking for a used 360. If you applied yourself there's a decent chance you could find one with relatively low miles for less than a grand. Of course that only helps if you are capable of doing a motor swap yourself

 

that is another thing i have thought about. i have friends that could help me do that. the only problem would be finding one that is not in bad shape.