So I have a 98 Dodge Ram 3500 12 Valve, I am installing my egt and boost gauge this weekend. My rig is completely stock as far as I know. What should be my next step? I was thinking a #10 Fuel plate. Then maybe exhaust and intake. Any ideas, been doing a lot of reading on these forums. Also any ideas on an inexpensive was to get better ride quality?

 

I'm in the same position as you. Right now I have intake and straight piped exhaust. Next ill be ordering some gauges to keep an eye on things as well. But before I go crazy with the fuel plate and tuning the AFC, I am going to get at least a stronger torque converter because the stock TC can barely hold stock power. And down the road a nice valve body and shift kit. Once I get a torque converter is when I'll be adding the power by tuning the AFC and getting 3k or 4k governor springs. Then maybe some injectors and so on!

It's totally up to you but I would recommend investing in a torque converter before you start adding some power. My 2 cents!

As for ride quality, you can't get much of a smoother ride with a 1 ton dually! But I had a 500 pound pallet of equipment in my bed and it was a worlds difference with the added weight. I felt like I was driving my old half ton 2 wheel drive pickup! Maybe throw some sand bags or something in your bed but you will probably be sacrificing some mpg's.


1995 Ram 3500 4x4 5.9 12 Valve Automatic
4" Straight Pipe to 9" Stack

 

I have a 5 speed manual transmission, the clutch seems good on it. I plan on ordering a south bend clutch kit that can handle some more horsepower, but until the old one starts giving me problems I will just stick with it.

 

Ohh. That changes everything haha. I wish my truck was a stick! But shoot. I would start off getting a fuel plate to your liking an tuning the AFC. There's a bunch of write ups around here somewhere on how to get the most out of your AFC.


1995 Ram 3500 4x4 5.9 12 Valve Automatic
4" Straight Pipe to 9" Stack

 

So I need to tune the AFC, I can't just put the plate on and call it a day? Not sure how to tune AFC, looked for forums on it and it doesn't get specific. What does AFC stand for?

---AutoMerged DoublePost---

I am hooking up the wiring on my gauges, egt and boost, where is the easiest place to hook up the power to, I don't care about dimming them, just want them to turn on when the rig gets turned on. Any ideas? I was thinking the cigarette lighter?

 

Well you can throw a plate in there but you can get even more out of it by increasing the rack travel to get more fuel adjustments and such. Heres a good write up I found that explains it all. Not sure what AFC stands for .

https://www.dieselbombers.com/attach...adjustment.pdf

As for the gauges. Try and find something that only has power when the key is on and not something that is constant 12 volt power. I'm not sure if the cigarette lighter it constant or not. If you have a volt meter or test light just open up the fuse panel and see if the fuse to it has power when the key is off. I would wire it up to the running lights so when I turn the lights on the gauges are on also.


1995 Ram 3500 4x4 5.9 12 Valve Automatic
4" Straight Pipe to 9" Stack

 

Got the gauges installed, they seem to be in perfect working order. Boost stays under 30psi and egt stays under 10000. When I threaded the bold for the egt in the manifold it went a little crooked but seems to be fine with no leaks. Next up fuel plate.

 

 

Nice! That looks excellent! What brand are those and what did you wire the lighting up to?


1995 Ram 3500 4x4 5.9 12 Valve Automatic
4" Straight Pipe to 9" Stack

 

I bought a tri pod kit from Glow Shift, Boost, EGT and a clock (was going to get a fuel pressure but heard that glow shift makes a crappy fuel pressure gauge, so I will add that later). I just wired directly into the fuse box.