When we first acquired our "1st generation" 1989 Dodge, a lot of people asked "why?"  It didn't have creature comforts or huge fueling capabilities like the later trucks, heck, it didn't even have cruise control!  But it was cheap, light, and simple.   In our book, simple meant reliable.  They were also known to get over 20mpg with ease, so that was a big plus in the $4.00 per gallon world we live in.  Lighter also meant we could go faster with less power.  The newer four wheel drive diesels weigh in at about 7000 pounds, while ours weighed in at 5000.  That means we could be just as fast as the newer trucks with a few hundred less horsepower.  Well, enough about why we did it, let's get along with our first couple mods.

The first two things we did both involved adding fuel.  We cranked up the injection pump and we put new injectors from Dynomite Diesel in the truck.  Non-intercooled trucks have about 20% larger injectors than the later intercooled models, so they're off to a good start.  Our truck made 170rwhp stock, which is about 40hp more than a comparable intercooled truck.  There still was more left, as the injectors gave us another 30hp, up to about 200rwhp.  After the injectors came more fuel from the injection pump, which involved breaking the collar off the fuel screw and turning it in about three turns.  This gave us about another 70hp, bringing our total rear wheel horsepower up to 264rwhp.  Be careful when turning the fuel screw, as if you turn it too far your truck can go into a "runaway" where it will rev up to 5000rpm or so until it blows up.  The quick way to prevent your engine death is to have the intake ducting off from the turbo and have a 2x4 handy while you're tuning so you can smother the engine if it starts to run away.

So far we had gained 100hp for $750 (cost of the injectors, the fuel screw modification is free) and dropped our zero to sixty times from neck and neck with a Prius (11 seconds) to a respectable 7 seconds. 
Our EGTs had gone up from a max of about 900-1000 stock too 1200-1400 if we weren't careful, so we had to watch ourselves.  At high elevation (4000ft or so), the non-intercooled truck would bury the 1600 degree gauge if we had our foot in it for too long.  If you're towing, performing these modifications will just mean more "right foot" driving; you'll have to modulate the throttle more to keep your exhaust gas temps in check. 


That's all for this week, long live the 1st gens!