How to partially remove shutters on AGS - 5th gen

[Infinitysurf]

Bought my 2019 Ram 1500 DT Laramie new in Sept 2018, I do 100% of my own maintenance/upgrades and intend to keep the truck long term. Currently has 117k and like many others here, I don't like how often the coolant cycles up too 225 not to mention the elevated engine oil temp levels. I KNOW that the "truck was designed this way" but I disagree with the engineers reasoning which has nothing to do with engine durability, don't care about losing a miniscule percentage of fuel efficiency & I want what I want, lol.

To get to the point... I live in the South & have been wanting to install a 180 degree t-stat but can't find specific info on how to remove all the middle shutters on the active grill shutters without breaking something & know without doing that or getting the truck tuned, etc its mostly pointless. I have found videos on how to do it on 4th gen but removing the grill on the 5th gen seems much more involved. From the limited info I have found, to remove the front grille on my 2019 Laramie & get full access to the AGS I would need to remove the fender flares, wheel liners and the painted front/side panels under the headlights in order to remove some grill bolts behind those panels. I would like to leave the top/bottom shutters so I don't have to worry about CEL lights so don't plan to fully remove the AGS anyway. I removed the plastic cover over the radiator & can reach down to the AGS/shutters but everything I have tried seems like I am gonna break the plastic. If I need to remove the grill to get this done I will, but some of the threads seemed to indicate that is not required. Can anyone give me some detailed tips on how to remove shutters without removing the entire front grille or even better direct me to a video?

On side note - I did the trans thermo bypass about 15k miles ago and LOVE how much cooler the trans fluid runs! I installed the PPE trans pan with replaceable filters around 70k miles. Yes, its a PITA to get the fluid level correct each time but have done 3 drain/fills on my transmission so far and will continue to do that every 35k miles - planning to get this truck to 300k miles+. Have been reading threads here for years & have done a lot of mods/upgrades posted by members here. I actually just ordered the materials to mount my oil filter remotely, will be nice not to spill hot oil on myself & the truck every 4k miles!

 

[Mojo88]

Since you're planning on keeping this truck for 10+ years, I'd suggest you bite the bullet and get a tune setup. You can easily make basic adjustments YOURSELF in the tune without being a "tuner". I went with the HPTuners setup, then installed 180* stat and adjusted the PWM fan setting in the tune. The AGS is slaved to the PWM setting, so I kept the AGS fully functional and now my typical cruise coolant temp is 185*, when it gets to 192* the AGS open and the fan comes on, max temp might reach 195*, then it quickly cools back down to 185*. No CEL or any troubles at all.

Plus, I've been able to tweak trans shift points and engine timing and a few other things, all minor stuff. My total cost is ~$1500, and I normally wouldn't have recommended this ... but .... you obviously love the truck and plan to keep it until the bitter end. Kudos to you!!

 

[Wild one]

Bought my 2019 Ram 1500 DT Laramie new in Sept 2018, I do 100% of my own maintenance/upgrades and intend to keep the truck long term. Currently has 117k and like many others here, I don't like how often the coolant cycles up too 225 not to mention the elevated engine oil temp levels. I KNOW that the "truck was designed this way" but I disagree with the engineers reasoning which has nothing to do with engine durability, don't care about losing a miniscule percentage of fuel efficiency & I want what I want, lol.

To get to the point... I live in the South & have been wanting to install a 180 degree t-stat but can't find specific info on how to remove all the middle shutters on the active grill shutters without breaking something & know without doing that or getting the truck tuned, etc its mostly pointless. I have found videos on how to do it on 4th gen but removing the grill on the 5th gen seems much more involved. From the limited info I have found, to remove the front grille on my 2019 Laramie & get full access to the AGS I would need to remove the fender flares, wheel liners and the painted front/side panels under the headlights in order to remove some grill bolts behind those panels. I would like to leave the top/bottom shutters so I don't have to worry about CEL lights so don't plan to fully remove the AGS anyway. I removed the plastic cover over the radiator & can reach down to the AGS/shutters but everything I have tried seems like I am gonna break the plastic. If I need to remove the grill to get this done I will, but some of the threads seemed to indicate that is not required. Can anyone give me some detailed tips on how to remove shutters without removing the entire front grille or even better direct me to a video?

On side note - I did the trans thermo bypass about 15k miles ago and LOVE how much cooler the trans fluid runs! I installed the PPE trans pan with replaceable filters around 70k miles. Yes, its a PITA to get the fluid level correct each time but have done 3 drain/fills on my transmission so far and will continue to do that every 35k miles - planning to get this truck to 300k miles+. Have been reading threads here for years & have done a lot of mods/upgrades posted by members here. I actually just ordered the materials to mount my oil filter remotely, will be nice not to spill hot oil on myself & the truck every 4k miles!

I haven't removed the shutters on a 5th Gen,but on the 4th Gens you grab them in the middle and flex the shutter out towards the front,and they'll usually pop out. They'll flex out quite aways with out breaking

 

[Infinitysurf]

That does sound like a really solid option. How does that work, do I find a local shop to do the initial tune setup, etc or is that all done online? Is the 1500 basically for everything that goes into the tuning... I would definitely be interested in looking into these details more so I know what is required and the best way to get this done.

 

[Infinitysurf]

Thanks @Wild one - I will give it another go with a bit more aggression till I can decide if I want to go ahead with a tuner so some of the settings can also be adjusted like Mojo88 mentioned.

 

[Wild one]

Thanks @Wild one - I will give it another go with a bit more aggression till I can decide if I want to go ahead with a tuner so some of the settings can also be adjusted like Mojo88 mentioned.

You can still stick a 180 in it and reap some of it's benefits even with out tuning the truck.The fan should cycle on if you have the tempature controls set to A/C or defrost

 

[Mojo88]

That does sound like a really solid option. How does that work, do I find a local shop to do the initial tune setup, etc or is that all done online? Is the 1500 basically for everything that goes into the tuning... I would definitely be interested in looking into these details more so I know what is required and the best way to get this done.

You can do all the minor adjustments yourself. But a good deal of caution is required, a mistake could easily cause real trouble. If you want a 'real' tune, then you can buy a canned tune from any number of real tuners (like Flyin Ryan, for instance), and load that in yourself.

RE: the HPTuners setup. Download their software (free) and buy the dongle (~$300). I downloaded my stock tune, and emailed that file to HPTuners. They loaded that file into a brand new unlocked PCM. I got that new PCM and installed it into my truck....... then put my stock PCM on a shelf, never to be touched unless some emergency, haha.

You can probably find a junkyard PCM for cheap money. But you'd need to get it unlocked and programmed (HPTuners can do this, I believe). You'd also need to buy some 'credits' from HPTuners to be able to modify and load tunes. You'd want 'engine' and 'trans' credits.

My total cost for everything (dongle, brand new PCM and credits) was about $1500.

Here's the HPTuners page for Stellantis vehicles, which explains more: https://www.hptuners.com/vehicles/stellantis-tuning/

You can download and play with the VCM Suite software for free. Plenty of YouTube vids to get you started.

If you want a tune to look at, here's my stock tune, 2019 RAM 5.7L, probably exact same tune as you are running right now: http://csgbenefits.org/Stock-Tune-From-OEM-PCM.hpt You would open this file using the VCM Suite software. But you won't be able to make/save any changes to it.

 

[Infinitysurf]

I am capable of doing pretty much any mechanic work on a vehicle but struggle with tech related stuff so if I go this route I will definitely feel more comfortable hiring someone who does the programming on a regular basis for the initial setup at least.
I have a 180 degree MotoRad UltraStat 5416-180 on the way. Think I am gonna install that and see how the truck reacts & in meantime will start looking into the tuning options & finding a PCM. Greatly appreciate the detailed info!

 

[Mojo88]

I am capable of doing pretty much any mechanic work on a vehicle but struggle with tech related stuff so if I go this route I will definitely feel more comfortable hiring someone who does the programming on a regular basis for the initial setup at least.
I have a 180 degree MotoRad UltraStat 5416-180 on the way. Think I am gonna install that and see how the truck reacts & in meantime will start looking into the tuning options & finding a PCM. Greatly appreciate the detailed info!

The "initial setup" is a true piece of cake. Even if you're a bit tech-challenged, you could do it..... easily.

Now a full-on tune, that's a totally different animal. I totally concur with you, i.e., leave that to a pro tuner. But for the simple stuff, like buying/installing the PCM, that's easy. In fact, transferring the stock tune into the new PCM would be done by HPTuners, so all you'd have to do is swap out the PCM's, takes literally about 5 minutes.

Then your first foray into programming could be to adjust the PWM fan settings, as shown in this pic below. Just make those simple changes, do a "Save As" a new tune, then upload that tune into your truck..... and now your AGS would open at ~192*, then PWM fan comes on shortly after, and your max ECT (engine coolant temp) would be ~195*, with normal cruising ECT at ~185*. .........

 

[Infinitysurf]

@Mojo88 Question, Did bringing your coolant temps down like this also bring down the engine oil temp at all? I know it would not come down much but curious if it made any difference at all that you noticed.

 

[Mojo88]

@Mojo88 Question, Did bringing your coolant temps down like this also bring down the engine oil temp at all? I know it would not come down much but curious if it made any difference at all that you noticed.

Absolutely the oil temps came down. I didn't do a detailed tracking of the oil temps, but I 100% did notice a decrease. I would say that right now the oil temps average ~5* hotter (when engine fully warmed up) than the ECT.

My main concern was ECT. There were times in city traffic when ECT would hit 230*, even when ambient air temps were ~45*F. When I saw ECT reach 230*, that really freaked me out, haha. In all likelihood, those high ECT temps are considered 'normal', and I could just have driven it. But I'm an old-school car guy and not used to that kind of engine heat.

If you pop out a few slats in the AGS, and install a 180* stat, you might be satisfied, and you won't spend much money. In my case, I knew there were additional things (besides ECT) I wanted to adjust (i.e., turn off MDS, set trans shift points higher, minor timing changes) and the only way to accomplish all that was to get into the tune.

 

[Infinitysurf]

My ECT does the same, regularly hits 225 when idling after its warmed up or stop/go traffic and I have never liked it even tho its supposed to be normal. Also never liked that engine oil temps are typically 5-10 degrees hotter and have changed oil every 4-4500k since it was new and have always run Pennzoil platinum or ultra platinum & switched from 5w20 too 5w30 as soon as my warranty was up. Getting both ECT & oil temps down have to be way better for the truck long term.
I am going to try the 180 thermostat - just received the new one I ordered & am going to remove all the center slats. I still cant figure out how to do it in place since not much room to work so going to take apart the entire grill in the next week or so to expose the AGS so I can get that done.
Have decided I am definitely going to do a tune in the future tho. Turning off MDS would also be a huge benefit for me, I manually turn it off every single time I shift the truck out of park by just using the gear limiter and making sure it says -8. But PITA to remember to do it every time so really glad you mentioned that being an option! Makes the cost/benefit balance out even more for me!
Assuming your truck is the 3.21, my shift points may be a little different than yours since I have the 3.92. Its certainly a benefit to have the ability to adjust shifting if needed.

 

[Mojo88]

....Assuming your truck is the 3.21, my shift points may be a little different than yours since I have the 3.92. Its certainly a benefit to have the ability to adjust shifting if needed.

I also have 3.92's. After I adjusted the trans shift points and gave it a tick more part-throttle timing, the difference was AMAZING! Also, I had been doing same as you, manually disabling MDS every single time, haha.

Right now, this truck is possibly the best-looking and best-driving truck I ever owned. I like it so much, I am a tad paranoid about driving it, so I drive real defensively. But even still, today a guy almost side-swiped me, arghhhhh.