Another week clicked by on the calendar, and we returned to the Lakeland Motorsports Park ready for another shot at the track with our stock truck. On a cloudy afternoon, the '05 Ram shot past the eighth-mile traps at 72 mph clicking off a 10.33. Now, many readers out there may not be acclimated to eighth-mile times, so the easiest way is to multiply the elapsed time by 1.57 to get an estimate as to how the vehicle would perform in the quarter-mile. With that equation, our time comes in at a 16.22. Not too bad for a peg leg, 5,000-pound truck, but not good enough.
At the trackside pits, the Airaid cold air kit was hurriedly bolted on, a process that only took a meager fourteen minutes. What we learned was: 1) the Airaid kit does not require the removal of the base of the stock box, as their air shield clips onto it in seconds, and 2) you might not feel the difference in the seat of your pants, but you'll sure hear the difference as the unrestrictive intake tube roars like a waterfall, and you'll surely see the improvement in your mpg when you finally decide to drive within the confines of legal speeds.
In addition, a billet-aluminum throttle body spacer was given to us by Crane Cams to see if any improvements could be seen. The spacer is a CNC'd piece, but we couldn't really tell any measurable difference with or without it, though we were sure an engine dyno would render different results. With the intake installed, we improved our best e.t. to a 10.27 at 72 mph. With no significant gain in our mph, our estimated quarter-mile time came out to a 16.11, shaving off a tenth of a second.
We came back to the pits to let the engine cool. As we did so, we pulled out Superchips' new '05 Ram programmer-the FlashPaq-a super-easy programmer box that quickly saved the stock vehicle computer sequence in its memory and swapped it for their "87 Octane" setting. Superchips advertises a significant improvement in vehicle fuel consumption, better running temperatures, and improved efficiency and performance. With such high claims, we thought we'd see for ourselves. Within ten minutes, the truck was ready for another pass. This time, our best was a 9.82 at 74 mph, or a 15.42 at the quarter-mile, making us believers in Superchips' claims.
 The Airaid system utilizes...  The Airaid system utilizes the factory base, so don't bother removing it like we did the first time around. Airaid's element is a washable, reusable filter. |
 |
 Airaid includes all the hose...  Airaid includes all the hose clamps and rubber tubing needed to attach everything together. Even with the 1-inch thick spacer, the Airaid kit was forgiving enough to bolt-in without any alterations. |
 Installing the headers and...  Installing the headers and exhaust was far trickier. Hoisting the Ram onto a lift made the job easier. To aid in getting access to the header bolts, we pulled both front wheels and unbolted the wheel liners. |