Cold air intake, exhaust, Some people like the "Chip". But with Hp increase you will lose MPG. These are the most popular. But I would recommend that you vist a performance shop near you if you want too know the lastest parts available for your truck. Best of luck
Yes, there isn't a heck of a lot you can do with these, they are geared that way for towing, etc., to give more power at lower rpms. I'm not sure if you can "chip" a Dodge truck as easily as you can a Ford or Chevy.
I've owned 3 of these trucks and i know them inside and out. The best way to go about it is with your air intake and exhaust for starters. K&N is good and so is Air Raid for the intake. For exhaust Flowmasters sound good, but you'll get more of a response for horsepower and fuel mileage if you get a magnaflow system. Also headers will get you more power and better gas mileage, but you need to be careful in chosing the ones that you get. Shorty's are about the safest bet, but you'll have to keep checking them because they leak if not installed propperly. If your motor is gas I strongly recommend that you do NOT put a performance chip on it. Your transmission will not hold up with the power that it will put out. If you are going to go with a chip you need to beef up the transmission along with it. An easy performance upgrade is also a throddle body spacer. It really depends on how much money you want to put into it. If you have anymore questions just give me a shout.
My dad has the same truck as the one you described and he has put a K&N filter as well as a dynomaxsuperturbo exhaust. im not sure about how much HP he gained but it made it peppier but still sluggish off the line, but it is partially due to the rear end gear ratio since his has the tow package. I have an 05 ram with the hemi and i purchased a superchips programer and it woke up my hemi big time. im not exactly sure of the efficency of the micro tuner which is the model for that year of truck but it offers some tuning for your truck and the amount of power increas isnt enough to worry about tranny damage unlike diesel truck where you're boosting them 100+HP at the push of a button.
I have a 96 ram with 5.9L and ive noticed it better off the line since ive done these upgrades. 1)Edlebrock Ti-Tech headers 2)Free flowing Flowmaster exhaust 3)Jet Module (stage1) 4)Gears (3.73-1) 5)MSD Ignition 6)K&N Cold Air Kit and like i said before ive noticed a considerable amount of power gain, not enough to blow the doors off of someone in a race but its not as gutless as before