Old durango going out to pasture

[rjtx667]

So a few of you know I have an old 2003 Durango I have owned since new. Its had some ups and owns but has always been a good truck.

Recently I rebuilt the engine 2.5 times (long story).

Then about 3 weeks ago the heater core blew. I was driving to my folks but was able to bypass it and keep going. Then about 2 weeks ago the transmission started acting up. It was still doing fine unless you floored it to pass someone and it would just not find the right gear when it downshifted.

That was it! I am done!! I tried my best to avoid another car payment for as long as I could but I just can't do it anymore.

So I now have a 2012 Durango  AWD 5.7 hemi with 60k miles. It was not a bad price and its nicely equipped. Ernest for some reason wanted the old durango so it will be making its way down there once I have the cummins back.

Not sure how many of y'all have played with the new Dodge's... specifically the durango's, But dodge handicapped them a lot with throttle lag and bad response times. Its not impressive at all. Well my tuner friend was in town Tuesday so we met up for a few hours and I now have a "can tune" on my new truck that disables MSD tweaks some fuel settings and fixed the throttle response.

It is a night and day difference!! Its very interesting that you can disable the cylinder shut off technology and with the other tweaks it ends up getting close to the same MPG!

And for all you thinking it... NO this durango is not going off roading. It certainly does not have the clearance or tires for it.

[ProjectM880]

That's probably my number one gripe about my 2012 Ram.
The throttle response irritates me. But other than that the
truck gets up and goes. Sounds like your new
Durango will be a contender with your Mexican Ramcharger!

[rjtx667]

Not even close! the 5.7 does not really wake up until about 3500-4000 RPM

And add on top of that the durango still has some shift delays because we have not touched the transmission yet.

Now the can tune did net me prob 15-25 RW HP... but hard to dyno a AWD truck.

Besides, I am about to upgrade the cam in the Mexico Ramcharger  :-)

[ProjectPW]

I want the rear end .... please

[rjtx667]

I thought you decided you did not care about that rear end? lol

well since I have to drag it to Ernest because he won't come get it I can drag it to Austin first. Works out good I wanted to come down and hang out soon anyways.

But you don't get the tires!!!! those are going onto my dakota. Brand freaking new Michelins with maybe 2k miles on them lol.

[ProjectPW]

I thought you decided you did not care about that rear end? lol

well since I have to drag it to Ernest because he won't come get it I can drag it to Austin first. Works out good I wanted to come down and hang out soon anyways.

But you don't get the tires!!!! those are going onto my dakota. Brand freaking new Michelins with maybe 2k miles on them lol.

Sounds good I got good pirellis on it. The stupid drum brakes are super annoying. The only problem is that m y dad may be taking it out of town for an extended amount of time in about a week... So I will see if I can work something out ... He could take his challenger for a bit

[rjtx667]

you can always send eric after it lol.

its just sitting in my driveway. My next free weekend in July 24th so I was thinking of heading down then.

If needed it can sit down there for a while, Ernest has not paid for it yet.

I will warn you that something happened to the passenger side timing chain and it sounds horrible but it is running good lol.

That added to the "its time to get a new truck" list, I did not want to replace that timing chain even though I have the parts to do it.