[LIMtnBkr17]

Hey Guys,
Im driving a stock 2000 Dakota Sport with a 3.9L. I have an 18 foot boat and also tow a 12 foot open trailer for quads and dirtbikes. Are there any relatively inexpensive ways to get more power out of my engine? I get bad gas mileage, and the engine struggles even when its not towing anything. Has anyone chipped one of these engines? Superchips has a chip but I personally dont know if it will be worth it. Any thoughts on the chip or any other mods?

 

[KotaChuk678]

largest gain of power I got for my 3.9L was when I switched to the colder spark plug :banana2:

 

[KREWZER]

towing with a V6 is kind of dumb to begin with, but theres a couple of little things you could do to start. Like ^ this guy said, colder spark plugs. Autolite 3923s to be exact. Pick up a V8 Throttle body and throw it on there. Try to open the exhaust. Just getting a less restrictive muffler like a glasspack or something would help. Theyre like 20 bucks from summit. A "cold air intake" is always worth it if you can pick one up for cheap or make one yourself. Several people have done this.Theres plenty more, ill let other people add.

REMEMBER PEOPLE! HE SAID INEXPENSIVE!! so dont start telling him to buy headers and shit.

 

[03'Dakota]

warlock or something like that uses his 3.9L for towing his drag truck. different gearing, superchips, colder plugs, trans cooler will all help a bunch

 

[realdeal7369]

all depends on how dep you wanna go into mods. rear gears, and a good diff, cant get pricey depending on what your after. 3.92 work well with the 3.9, or any truck on here to be honest.

if you wanna go full tilt boogie with it...

v8 tb, cai, mod the intake manifold by opening up the tb holes, and polishing and porting the intake. same with the stock heads. get a good cam focused more on torque. port match the heads to a set of 92-03 exhaust manifolds. port them the same as you did the heads so they match up. get a custom y-pipe made. better cat conv. good flowing muffler (i have a aeroturbine 2525 for sale too)...if you wanna stay with a stock sized exhaust. if not, then go NO BIGGER than 3", but i would thing a 2.5'' pipe would still be good, if you make is short, and use a high flowing muffler.

trans shift kit, trans cooler, deep pan....round it out as far as im concerned...maybe even a reflash if that can be done, or a hp computer...id also look into a custom flash to trim the at idle to 1200rpm fuel down a touch. seems these trucks run rich right out the box. you can smell it.

 

[LIMtnBkr17]

"towing with a V6 is kind of dumb to begin with"

Yeah I know, I used to have a Silverado with a 350 but I sold that and bought a truck with a 6 cylinder to save on gas and turns out it doesn't matter. I still get shitty gas mileage, just now without the power. Thanks for your help guys.

 

[threesixoh]

I'd second getting a good set of gears in that rearend. 3.92s or even 4.10s, depending on how fast you drive, would really make a night and day difference. it's like comparing my brother's QC 5.9 dakota with 3.73 gears to my CC R/T with 3.92s. even that small of a gear change makes a huge difference.

 

[JBert]

towing with a V6 is kind of dumb to begin with

Riiigghhht. I've towed my ski boat and my Camaro with no problems. Don't know where that came from, but ok.

Easy things to do:

- Cold Air Kit
- 180 T-Stat
- P&P Your own intake manifold, cutting the runners down
- Shift Kit Will Help, add a cooler while you're at it
- Remove mechanical fan, add e-fans
- Exhaust


If you get some cash to spend, check out Hughes Engines for their 3.9 products. Their cams are priced pretty decently, and they have a pretty decent product line for the 3.9, that isn't bad as long as you do things in packages.

 

[punishem1]

gears pulleys,tb,exh,..

 

[EasyEDak3.9]

do Cam's really help these V6's much?

 

[JBert]

Like with most engines, the Huges cam will work best with supporting mods. Using it in conjunction with a 50mm TB, headders/exhaust, p&p'd intake manifold, and a cold air kit will result in maximum gains.

Depending on which cam you go with, you may have to upgrade your valve springs, rockers, and push rods as well.

 

[KREWZER]

my V8 cost almost less then most V6 headers, and im still making more power. Towing with a V6 is dumb when the power of a V8 can be had for far less then equal price of trying to modify a v6 to do the same. and ummm, ive towed shit with my truck when it was a V6 as well, and uuuhh... its way easier with a V8 now, so thats where that statement came from.

 

[02roadtrack]

Before i got my r/t I towed with the 3.9 for a long time. I put the cai, v-8 tb, headers, underdrive pulleys, a e-fan and a magnaflow cat back on it. With the superchips tuner. Thetruck really ran great. I pulled a small track hoe, some derby cars, a race car, couple jeeps, several boats, 2 jet skis, even a couple small tractors. It didn't pull bad either, make sure you install trailer brake on heavy stuff. They are rated for 7000 lbs. The v-6 does a decent job. It is not dumb for pulling with a v-6. It is dumb to try to think it is a v-8 though, mine with the mods it had would be right there with a 318 until you started to do things to it. And the way the economy is right now, it will be cheaper to mod the v-6 than to trade to a v-8. You can buy everything used on here that will work on your year v-8 and use it on yours with the exception of headers, hell people are giving away there tb's.

 

[b2™]

Hell stock my 84 318LA only had 175hp. How is that different that him towing w/ a 3.9L V6 putting out the same #s? As long as he isn't exceding his payload and towing capacity.

I have a V8tb, CAI, 19lb FMS injectors, Jet Stage II Chip, Magnaflow Muffler, and run Royal Purple Oil and I'm @ 215hp @ the crank.

 

[KREWZER]

who gives a shit. i dont tow anything anyway. I just wanted a faster truck, hence the V8 swap.

 

[WarlocK451]

The 3.9 is more than capable to tow with...In stock trim, with truck in tow and tools and everything, I was able to run 80-85 mph on level ground. Had to pusher it hard to pull some steeper grades though. the biggest gain your gonna get (as far as torque is concerned) is a cam change to a "torque" can such as the Hughes Engines cam. Hughes claims a 30-40ftlb increase over the factory cam!!!
You want to keep the Duration down to generate a lot of cylinder pressure a low RPM (idle-4000 rpm) for towing...therefore you will always be in the engines torque/powerband.
With other mods like a Cold Air Induction (take look the "homebrew" units that peole made and save money by making one yourself...I made mine for $60.00), Good spark plugs(I use NGK V-Powers $1.99) good plug wires, good cap and rotor, highflow cat-back exhaust will reward gains. Headers would help too.

One quick little modification that showed a pretty impressive improvement in torque was relocating the IAT sensor from the Intake manifold and putting it out into the air stream. The computer thinks its colder out and richens the fuel mixure and alters the ignition timing. You can feel a noticable difference.

 

[NisMopar]

What brand spark plugs would you guys recommend? And does the exhaust system really free up the HP?

 

[408TKO]

Get a cold air intake, V8 tb, might also look into free flowing exhaust, the exhaust manifolds from the 1992 3.9 magnums flow better then the newer ones, these can be a cheaper alternative then buying headers.

 

[sltdak]

What brand spark plugs would you guys recommend? And does the exhaust system really free up the HP?

NGK makes some nice plugs for our Magnum engines.

 

[JBert]

who gives a shit. i dont tow anything anyway. I just wanted a faster truck, hence the V8 swap.

Then why even post? Move along.