98 Dodge Ram question(s)

Sorry for such a long post!!
I just bought a 98 Dodge Ram 1500 truck. Its got 183K miles on it. It was a one owner and he gave me many of his receipts which were from a local Dodge dealership. Heres the important info that I have found,
rebuilt rear @ 105K including pinion bearing and clutch kit,
right axle u-joint @ 127K,
drums and rotors @ 135K,
left upper & lower ball joints, left outer tie rod, track bar, alignment, oil pump @ 165K
Fuel pump @ 180K
Of course there may be more done that he didnt save receipts for. Its hard to believe that both side ball joints and tie rod ends wouldnt have needed replaced but thats all the ones I can verify have been done.
It was last inspected and driven in 2009, when it started to let him sit and thats when the fuel pump was installed. He claims that over 3 or 4 trips to the dealership after being towed in they replaced many different sensors installed the pump but it still stalled. Of course he doesnt remember what sensors they were. He finally got tired of being left along road so he bought a cheap vehicle and never could afford to put more money back into truck.
So after sitting for between 7-8 years I ended up with it.
My plan is to install a dist pick up, good tuneup including plugs, wires, cap, rotor, PCV, breathers, plenum gaskets, clean/mod throttle body, clean IAC, oil change, coolant change, trans fluid/filter change, rear oil change, transfer fluid change.

Now heres what I found this weekend. Engine started right up after installing new battery, Wouldnt idle below 1500 RPMs and had a slight miss until about 2500 RPMs then seems to go away. Ran for only about 5 minutes total saturday as it was clean up exterior day!
Truck has absolutely NO brakes. No fluid at all in the MC.
Now back at it today, clean up day for interior but I decided to check a few engine things first. Added 1 gal of antifreeze as thats all I had there and couldnt see level in rad as still low. Checked oil, PS fluid, trans fluid levels. Fuel gauge said empty so I added 5 gal plus a can of seafoam to both oil and fuel. Started it up and ran at 2000 RPMs (65 PSI oil)until temp started going up. It went all the way over to about 220-240 and no heat in heater. Motor sounds good no tapping or rapping. Shut it down and left it sit for 5 minutes. Felt both heater hoses and rad hoses. No real temp in any but one heater hose luk warm but both rad hoses cold. Rad felt cold. Restarted and temps going up still wont stay running under 1500 RPMs so I keep it around 2000 RPMs once temp gets to 210-220 the needle drops back down to about 200* starts climbing again then falls to about 180-190 and stays there. STill wont idle but now it will go down to 1000 RPMs. i let it run there for 10 minutes, temps stay the same, and eventually it will stay running at idle. Temp still good, heat starts to come up in heater vents. engine smoothing out. I let it run for about 45 minutes revving it from time to time and sounding good. No tap or rapping, no oil leaks or trans leaks, No coolant leaks visible. Oil pressure holding at 40 PSi at idle and 60-65 when above 2500.

Here are the questions I have as this needs to be a safe for towing my trailer with Dart.
Engine:
Are there any other things other then coolant hoses I should address? Not going to do them until after I drive it a few times to be sure no leaks. Will be pulling plugs and doing a compression test of all cyls, tuning up with parts I mentioned earlier in post.
Should I go to a synthetic oil? Recommendations? I normally use Brad Penn oil. He was using a standard 5-30 oil.
Transmission:
The Napa man was telling me there is a filter in some of these trucks that is built into one of the trans lines, I didnt find it but the line at the rad is rubber and replaceable. He was going to check for a listing. I plan on pulling down the pan gasket and replacing the filter. While its down should I install a shift kit since I will be towing? Any other mods I should do to trans?
What type of fluid should I use in transfer case?
Also the shifter at steering wheel has the end taped on so do I have to replce the whole lever or can I just buy replace the handle? I havent removed the tape to look at it. Not sure if tow button switch works. Does that disengage the overdrive?
Brakes:
Will be turning both rotors and drums, replacing the shoes and pads, rear wheel cyls and hold down spring kits, front hoses and calipers, rear hose. Not sure about the master cyl yet but will be running/flushing fluid first. Gong to use DOT 3 or should I step up to DOT 5?
Suspension:
Dont know what shocks are like but expect to replace after sitting that long. Suggestions on brand if need done.
Will need 4 tires before it can be driven as ones old are rotted very bad. Will be installing Hankook ATMs.

Well that should keep me busy for a while. I cant get on the lift until I get dads Monte Carlo back together but thats another story!
Here are Some pics of the truck. I have removed the push bar in the frt and if anyone needs it I am selling it cheap! I removed the lights as I did need them for another project!
Thanks and I look forward to your help
Rod

Almost 48 hrs and no responses. Was hoping to hear some thoughts as to what opinions from others that own Rams were. I know members on here are brand loyal so what issues have you had similar with those of this truck and what fixes have you had to do.
Rod

Change the bottom of the intake, that causes a lot of problems.

5.7 hemi, when you say change the bottom of intake what do I change it to?
Thanks for the suggestion. Just need to know more about it.
Thanks Rod

The gasket pushes out causing, vacuum leaks, using oil, clogged cat. Hughes has the kit for 125 bucks. Way better design than the factory. Look it up.

I think what is meant is to check for intake leaks. The magnum intakes have a habit of leaking through the valley area into the intake itself. {if you've got oil fouled plugs at the rear position, this is a sign of the leak] There is a kit sold that fixes this problem. There is a test also. I believe there is a ramchargers web site with the info. common problem.

sweet truck though. Nice score. now to get her reliable. My bud had a 1998 with over 265000 miles on it so I know its possible.

magnummopar.com also has the intake belly pan repair kit for a cheaper price than Hughes.

Take a look down the throttle body to see if any oil is puddled, that will tell you if the plenum gasket is bad. Chances are it is. Pull the IAC(idle air control) off the back of the throttle body, they get carbon build up and won't idle well.
If you replace the o2 sensors in the future use NTK, these trucks don't like Bosch.
I've been using a synthetic blend 10w 30 oil for 10 years in mine.
The transmission cooler line has a check valve near the radiator that could fail or get clogged up, I replaced the rubber hose section with the check valve with a piece of high pressure hose made for transmission coolers.
The heaters in a word, suck. If the heater core isn't clogged up the blend door sticks.
When you start driving if you get detonation or pinging under load there is a technical service bulletin for plug wire routing and going to a step cooler plug, which worked for my 98.
It sounds like you have a good plan for this sharp looking truck, best of luck with it.

Thanks for all this info. I guess im going to go ahead and pull the plenum just to be safe. Its going to be a few weeks before this is ready for road so i might as well get it done.
Thanks to all for this info. Please keep any other suggestions coming. I got this at a great price so i can put some money into it to make it a good truck.
Any one know if i can adjust the bands on trans when i drop that pan or is it non adjustable.
Thanks Rod

Brad Penn isn't necessary. I've ran 2 of these (one 5.2 and on 5.9) well over 200k, and some close to 200k. Never a running problem. In fact, my ram now has 234,*** and climbing daily. I run 10w-30 QS high mileage (formerly Defy) in the summer, and 5w-30 QS synth blend in the winter. My 5.2 I had in my '99 Durango had the intake plenum shot. It got about 600 miles to the quart of oil. I changed #8 plug about twice a year, and all of them about every year and a half. #8 plug is usually the one that sucks in the most oil if the plenum gasket is shot.
I drove mine this way for almost 5 years, and never replaced it. Ran good when I got rid of it. Here is a video I recorded of the 5.2 with the intake plenum shot that I posted on Jeff's (MRJL) 318 day....

what transmission? You should be able to adjust the bands per spec, but if it ends up with the adjuster way in, your band may be shot. I managed to get a slip-in band in to replace mine since it was skipping the shift to second. I took the opportunity to replace all the solenoids as well. I still have problems with overdrive for some reason.

The window sticker says 4 speed automatic. So far thats all i know. So is that an overdrive or just 4 speed. In the old days i remember adjusting bands on 727&904's as parys of a fluid/filter change. Didnt know if that was possible in todays trans.
Rod

rod7515 said:

The window sticker says 4 speed automatic. So far thats all i know. So is that an overdrive or just 4 speed. In the old days i remember adjusting bands on 727&904's as parys of a fluid/filter change. Didnt know if that was possible in todays trans.
Rod

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It's overdrive. Not sure on '98's, but 99's don't have bands that adjust on the outside. Sitting for 8 years did nothing any good. I'd change all fluids, moisture will gather, especially if it was sitting in weeds, can't dry out underneath. Might want to even consider injectors, get them off ebay for 95 bucks.

Wires in the tilt column in my Durango were broken and frayed at the ignition switch. Years of up/down caused them to break. Might be a cause of the random stalling. Cam and distributor sensors are also common problems. Also had some issues with the fuel pump relay or relay socket in the fuse block at one time.

Plan on going down to garage tomorrow morning and doing a compression test. Hoping that will show good in all cylinders. Depending how long that takes I may start to replace brake components. I turned the rotors and brake drums earlier this week at work so if time permits I will do new brake hoses, calipers and brake pads on front. I went with the fleet pads from NAPA as they claim they hold up very good. The biggest concern will be the removal of the drivers side brake hose as that has the fitting for the crossover tubing to the pass side and normally they are rusted tight into the fitting which can lead to breaking off the tubes tip. Will have some heat handy to help. I did spray them 2 times this week with penetrating spray.
I'll let you know how the compression test turns out tomorrow night.
Rod