1989 Dodge Ram D250 - Rust Bucket Recap

  |   1989 Dodge Ram D250 right Front Angle Since we paid $2,700 for our '89 Dodge Ram D250 we affectionately refer to as Project Rust Bucket, it has racked up more than 20,000 miles as a daily driver, gone from 170 rear wheel horsepower to 340, and from 19 mpg to 23 mpg. It's still rusty, and it's still low-buck, so the heart of the project remains intact. If you haven't been following along, now is a good time to start, because we're doing a year-long recap on Rust Bucket-all the modifications, dyno numbers, and costs will be here in one spot. You'll see some behind-the-scenes photos, as well as feedback from our readers. So, enjoy Rust Bucket in review, and we'll be back with some more action from everybody's favorite '89 Dodge in the upcoming months. One Year In The Bucket
One of the first things we did was buy a set of injectors. Since we knew our goal was to make more than 300 hp, we acquired a set of Dynomite Diesel Stage IV injectors, a Dynomite Diesel fuel pin, and turned the full power screw in about four turns. The result was nearly 100 hp more than stock (from 170 hp to 264 hp), while fuel mileage and drivability were still very good. With a lot more fuel, we needed to know what was going on inside our engine. Non-intercooled trucks can have high exhaust gas temperatures, so monitoring EGTs was a vital step. We installed DiPricol boost and EGT gauges so we could see how close we were to our self-imposed 1,600-degree F limit, as well as keeping an eye on boost pressures. Anything above 35 psi is bad news for stock turbos, and our truck checked in at 28 psi of boost and 1,500-degree EGTs with the modifications we had performed so far. Next up, was a complete rebuild of our Torqueflite 727 transmission by J&H Performance, along with a TransGo shift kit install. The guys at J&H also whipped up a custom flexplate and installed a Goerend torque converter. The result was another 23 hp and a whopping 124 lb-ft of torque. We also gained an extra 4 psi on our boost gauge, which showed the new converter was loading the engine more. Our engine still had some basic restrictions, so up next was an intake and exhaust upgrade, which helped us barely eek over the 300hp mark with 301 rear wheel horsepower, while torque checked in at 624 lb-ft. Our cobbled-together air filter and exhaust made a big difference up top, where we picked up almost 50 hp at 3,200 rpm.

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Our last modification was a compressor upgrade from High Tech Turbo. At $400, it's much cheaper than a brand-new turbo, and the 60mm wheel is a big improvement over the stock 56mm inducer. Also, the tougher compressor wheel would allow us to use our nitrous system that we'd been sitting on for months. Once the nitrous was activated, we hit a new best of 339 horsepower and 691 lb-ft of torque on the dyno. DP

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What The Readers Say:
We've got a lot of feedback from readers who have expressed an interest in our budget Dodge. Here's some advice that they have given us so far: "Add water-methanol injection, it will provide good cooling without an intercooler, and give you more power when you need it." "Add a posi, I saw that one-wheel burnout in the April '08 issue!" "Power Stroke intercoolers can be made to fit, put one of those on." "Take the air fuel control (AFC) lever out, that way you can get full fuel whenever you want it." "Put a new lift pump on the engine, you're starving the injection pump." "Get a real turbo, one that is 64mm or 66mm, and ditch the nitrous." PARTS AND COSTS Dynomite Diesel Stage IV injectors (Feb '08) $750 Fuel screw modification (March '08) FREE Hacked-together nitrous system (April '08) ${{{300}}} DiPricol boost and EGT gauges (April '08) $250 Rebuilt transmission (w/o labor) (May '08) $400 Goerend Transmissions torque converter (May '08) ${{{600}}} Dynomite Diesel fuel pin (June '08) ${{{200}}} Dynomite Diesel 3,200rpm spring kit (June '08) $30 Custom air filter and muffler (June '08) $200 High Tech Turbo Stage IV upgrade (Dec '08) $400 Year Total: $3,130 So You're Really Cheap
First-gen owners are usually pretty tight with their hard-earned money, so we've added a theoretical buildup with a budget of $1,000. The EGTs might be higher, the transmission would be stock, and fuel mileage will suffer, but 250-300 hp is certainly possible with this combination of parts. Fuel screw modification.................................................. FREE Lucas Prince of Darkness (POD) injectors....................... $450 Intake and exhaust........................................................ $200 Boost and EGT gauges................................................... $200 Grinding the stock fuel pin............................................. FREE 3,200rpm governor spring kit......................................... $30