Modifications

Capable as my truck is, this is what both makes it unique and what makes it perform. Most of my modifications are minor because this is a great platform already.

The first modification my truck got was rather sudden. I loaned it to my dad for a day since I didn't need it at the time, and off he went the next morning I noticed that my truck had some nice shiny chrome nerf bars under it. Mopar to be exact. Now eventually I will replace these with a set that mounts to the frame instead of the body but for now, they'll do. I have draged them through all kinds of stuff including rock and they have yet to do any real damage to the body. After this I added some nice shiny chrome tow hooks to the front of my truck. Not those $120 Mopar ones rated at 5,500 lbs mind you, but the $10 specials that were rated at 10,000 lbs and on sale at the local Canadian Tire (yes my truck has driven to Canada on ocasion or two).

Also around the same time I added a CB system, since a truck isn't a truck witout a CB. A Cobra 19WX ST all in the mic unit finds its home under the center seat up front and a 4' Wilson Silverload is mounted to my front left stake pocket with a custom mount. Some 100/80 Heliolite halogen bulbs replaced the stockers to I could actually see where I was driving in the dark and gave me fair warning of deer in the road. A modification to the control relay allows the fog lights to stay on with the brights and 55 watt bulbs replaced the stock 35 watt models there.

My next modification modification was an aftermarket exhaust. This really didn't increase the power a whole lot but the truck sounds better and it gets better fuel economy so it's worth it. The cat-back I have is a Gale Banks 3.5" mendrel bent system.

	Here is a side by side compro of the stock exhaust to the new one. As you can see, even the stock exhaust wasn't to bad at 3" diameter piping. It took all day to remove the stock exhaust so I went cruising that night with nothing behind the cat except a foot of 3.5" tubing. It was quite loud but it sounded very much like an 18-wheeler. Who knows, if I find a 3.5" ID glass pack mabey I'll put that on. :-) In the mean time this will work fine. My only two complaints are the muffler's so big it hangs down part the frame rail and...
	The exhaust tip is further back. The good news is that it's tucked closer up to the body. It used to sit about 2" lower down and imediately behind the tire. That by the wa is a 4" polished stainless steel tip.
	As you can see at full articulation there is barely any room between the ground and the exhaust tip.

After the exhaust I added a K&N air filter and the turbo became quite loud. To compensate for the increased airflow I adjusted the AFC and picked up a noticable amount of power. The downside was that my truck blew clouds of black smoke untill the turbo could spool up. My friends thought it was cool that I could sit at idle and puff black smoke on command, and that's how my truck got it's name... Puff.

To follow all this up I also wraped the exhaust manifold with a fiberglass tape made by ThermoTech and again noticed both cooler operating temps due to reduced heat soak and increased fuel economy due to improved functioning of the intercooler.

Again increased boost ment I could give it a little more fuel and I gained in power again. Now, increasing the engine's output like this tends to require testing and my tires only laster 46,000 miles as a result (I usually average about 80,000 on such Michelins) and finalty I wore them out. Well, ok, to finish 'em off and test the power I did one final BIG burnout spining 'em in 2nd through 4th gears. 70mph on the odometer, I'm lucky I didn't loose a belt but that's what happens when you get enthusiastic about something. :-)

Besides this gave me an excuse to go from 245/75R16 to 285/75R16's and my flotation problems were solved... well, almost. Aired down I did ko at the Crane sand hills but what do you expect from a 7,000 lb truck on 11.5" wide tires? I couldn't climb any of the huge dunes but I did learn about hill climbing and angles. Momentum and airing down were the first 2 lessons I learened thanks to this place. Took over 2 hours of digging after I sat the truck on its frame!

To improve articulation I added longer than stock shocks. Which ones? Nitro Predator 8000's... I don't know either but they were $7 per shock and they alowed me to droop enough to just barely disengage the coil in front and gave a little more droop in the back also.

While I was still wheelin I also was going to school and that's how my next mod came to be. One day I came out of class and found that someone had increased my aproach angle by pushing my front bumper up against the radiator.

Took it up with the insurance company and 2 days later got a check. That same day I had a ProZap on order and about a monht later (They swore it wouldn't be more than 2-3 weeks) it arrived! Bolted it on that same day! As an appology for the lateness they gave me a free rollerized fairlead. This is the first bumper they made with fog light mounts and I think it came out very nice as you can see.

A torque plate swap was performed in my long quest for more power by me and a friend, which reconfigured the injection pump to marine specs... 300hp, 700 ft lbs.

Still unsatisfied I started adding a Warn 3" lift also, but wound up only swaping the 4-link for now. Full lenght add-a-leafs will find themselves a home in my leaf packs soon I hope along with the cast aluminum spacers for the front. Hey it beats them sitting in the garage whee they are at the moment! That about brings you up to date on mods... I have replaced the u-joint several times but even with 440 ft lbs it's no wonder it kept breaking. With the current 700 it's amazing that they hold up as long as they do!