[Asinine]

This is my first post here, but I'm no stranger to Mopar performance. A few of my old cars are posted at asinine-period-com and I owned a '97 RAM before upgrading to my current 2001. My current ride is a black 2001 QC short-bed 4x4 V10 auto 3.55 SLT-Plus Sport. The only mod is a second battery using the Cummins mounting hardware with NW Wrangler dual-battery electronics (looks completely stock).

My hunt started in a quest for improved mileage, and since some folks claim mpg increases, I can justify a reasonable amount of upgrades if they improve my mpg. The priorities for my project is that all mods must be CA smog legal, retain the factory warranty, improve gas mileage, not significantly increase noise, be reasonably priced, not cause any problems, and be pretty much a bolt-on. After reading through the threads, the 3 items I'm now considering are a K&N FIPK intake, Fastman TB, and Walker QuietFlow exhaust, which should allow for better overall flow. Other possible mods include aluminum pulleys, electric fan, computer upgrade, and improved ignition.

One limiting factor is it appears the dual-battery setup I installed may interfere with the K&N FIPK intake, but I probably won't know until I go to install it. If anyone can tell me how much clearance there is between the kit and the fan shroud and inner fender, that would be appreciated.

I'd like to know if my intended purchases will meet the project goals. I can live with minor issues, but if anything will fail smog or void warranty, I need to know before purchasing. And if anyone has suggestions for different mods or brands, I'd like to hear those too. Thanks.

 

[98QuadCabV10]

Welcome to Dodge Talk Asinine.
There aren't too many mods out there that will increase mpg, that I have noticed. The only things I have done to my truck to get my mpg up was a performance muffler and cutting out the cats. You could put a better muffler on but you can't remove the cats since you live in ca. I am going to be installing headers this week or next week depending on when they arrive. I'll let you know if that helps out my mpg. So far from all of the mods that I have done, I was able to get my mpg up from 6-7mpg to 11.20mpg.
An intake could increase it and will not void your warranty or emissions. I have heard that the 1.7 roller rockers are one of the best performance mods to do to the V10. I have not tried that yet since they are around $1K.