JonnysDodge

I have a 97 with a 4" exhaust, cold air intake and cam plate is turned, would like to know how to get more power out of my truck, ie HP and Tourque. Any ideas?

Thanks
Jonny

dodgeguy71

You came to the right place Jonny and Welcome to DTR!! I just did a useless post... Someone will be along with all sorts of ideas for more power!

TxDiesel007

Welcome to DTR!! you have come to the right place tolearn more out of your truck. cam plate turned? Ive never heard that expression, but here you go as towards what else you can do...


THIS is just to get a little more power out of your ram. You can do serveral things, i see you are getting gauges, and you have an air intake on the way. which is good. Now this is an into to the main power source of the ram, Your P7100 Pump, and what you can tweak on it for more power. You can also time it, but thats advanced, well at least for me... use this as an intro more than anything.. I tried my best to explain it.... here goes... and

I meant to say post.... sorry.....

Here is an intro the link to the pic might not work, but u can see it as banks plate in my gallery.....

to get more power out of your truck the first and foremost investment is a good set of gauges. These are a must anytime that you are adding more fuel to your mix.

A governers spring kit, Reffered to as a GSK is a wonderful investment that widens your normally narrow powerband from the 12 valve engine and allows you to fuel hard to at least 3200 RPMS or so, before it starts to defuel, this is all dependant on your governer arm adjustment and your plate positioning. A Torque, or fuel plate should come next. NO one really follows the plate guide anymore and the most popular plates nowadays are 100 (PM northslope for wicked work! ) and a zero plate. Piers Diesel Research and Hot Rod Diesels have them for the same price, The fuel plate... here is my explanation....

Torque plates.... ok this is a torque plate right here... https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...=500&page=1

More commonly reffered to as fuel plates, they come in different numbers to explain how "aggressive" (for lack of a better term at the moment) that they are 10, 8, 6, 5, 0, and 100, zero being a flatt plate that bombards the pump with fuel, and a 100 being a ten plate curve with no top end defueling, much like the zero.. The one you see there is my banks plate, screwy yes, i know, i dont get it myself. that plate goes in the P7100 injector pump, It goes under what is called the AFC housing, which has a little starwheel on it, the starwheel can be accessed with the removal of the hex dealy using the the right hex head size plug, and u loosen it for more smoke, and better lower end, and tighten it for the inverse. Use a good screwdriver.... furthermore... You will see four screws there where the starwheel is, two that are flatt, one that is possibly a breakoff screw that can be a real PITA to remove, take a hammer and good screwdriver and bang the tar outta it, it will come off, if that fails, left hand drill bit... Looking down the driver side, the top left hand is the breakaway, and the top right is a regular screw as well, the bottom two are 8mm bolts and you need to get around to one that is in the back of the AFC housing that holds that fuel shutdown solenoid in place...

Install time, for a newbie, well it will take you about a couple of hours at most. If you read my literal "dissertation" of a post hehehehehehe. it tells u the procedure on how to do it. Your only real problem might be that break off screw, especially if your truck is stock, However, nothing a good strong screwdriver and some persuasion cannot take care of.

The other tricky bolt is the one (if you look down from the drivers side) behind the Fuel shutdown soleniod (electronic hooked up deal that bolts in front of the injector pump, easily removed with in my case an 8mm (and most should be too) socket and pull out the two bolts. when you undo those ull notice that there is one in the back that is holding the housing, you can just loosen the one in the rear using a deep 8 mm socket and just move teh shutdown soleniod out of the way, (downward) and then you can get to the plate..

When you are in there its simple adjustment, u just remove the stock plate and put the other plate in place of that one. NOTICE you have some play here. If you dont have gauges, dont set it full forward, If you do have gauges set it forward for a 30 or so rwhp increase!

Now put it back together and you are done. Installation is simply the reverse of removing it.PS having a magnetic tip screwdriver REALLY HELPS...

Which one is right for you.. id say the ten if you are not gonna be that aggressive with it, but the 100 is downright WICKED!! that be the one to go with, the zero is just too much at the low end for me but for dynos and racin, its awesome!.. The zero, PM Northslope AWESOME AWESOME WORK, and ull be helpin out a fellow DTR member, and the zero plate you can grind yourself, well you can do either or, but PM northslope do a search for plate grinding, started by gunracer1.. good instructions..

Either ways, you are going to need a clutch or tranny work if its an auto.....if you are going to play hard, in most cases if you just want a modest power gain, just get a 10 plate, set it a lil bit forward, and a GSK will wake up your truck. In the stock position its easily drivable and fun as well.

Waste gate, if i was good with pictures id put one up for you, but im sure you know what the wastegate looks like, that head looking deal, it is usually hooked to a rubber or similar airline, you want a little more boost? You can get a longer hose or pinch it up, There is a thread, i dont member where tho, where it shows someone improperly blocking the wastgate with a screw.... Well that aint good.. Anyways

Also make sure you get the KDP done on that truck as well... Not hard to do, look in my previous posts, KDP Report Using TST kit, or somethin similar to that......

If you want more also, and you have added a GSK, and a fuel plate (cam plate) go ahead and set the timing to 16-16.5 degrees to get the most out of your truck. The timing will seem to shift the power band on the truck to allow the harder fueling to come a little later in the powerband (around 1900 or so rpms in my truck), and it will seem like u lost a little bit of low end, but its a tradeoff well worth it, and u will get slightly better MPG..

PS this is cut and paste of other posts, sorry if its redundant....

Best of luck and hope that this helps..

Tx

JonnysDodge

thanks for the info i will get started and let you know how it goes.

JonnysDodge

I was looking around at fuel plates, they have 4 different stages on them from 1-4 how do I know which one I need, for the 100 like you mentioned in your last response?

Teddy Bear

U can take your stock fuel plate out and grind it down to make it a 100. Do a search for "100 plate" and im sure there is a pic of one somewhere. Actually i think theres one in TXDiesel007s photo gallery

JonnysDodge

So I am wondering which plate would be the best for me. Let me tell you what I am doing then you can give me all your input. I am pulling about a 8000 lb trailer, and would like to have enough power to pull it anywhere, with ease. I pull up and down the canyon, and when I go up the canyon, all the other diesel trucks pass me like I am standing still, I would like to have the power to keep up with them. What do you all think?

JonnysDodge

Any suggestions out there?

RJF

I would think a number 10 plate. You have to watch EGT's pulling that weight through hills.