agelam

My truck is running realy bad and I can't use anything but premium gas. Also it bucks like a bronco when using regular. I was thinking it might be o2 sensor but the check engine light does not come on. Is there a chip I can get? My mechanic says there is no adjustment. Another thing, it is going through oil. About a quart every month. My mechanic says that it is not the valves. He did a soke test on it and he says everythin gis good. I was told by a dodge dealer that it is the air intake manifold gasket. This confuses me but the problems could be related. There is no real power drop. Please if anyone can help me out I would apreciate it.

Raylo

Did your mech do a vacuum test? I'm surprised that your dealer said you had a leaking intake manifold and didn't consider this as the cause or recommend you fix it. Depending on exactly where it fails a leaking intake manifold gasket can do all sorts of bad things like leak oil, leak coolant and/or cause you to lose vacuum. If the vacuum leak is bad it can cause driveability problems. This is not a small or cheap job.

cardoc

The intake gaskets are a very common problem on those engine.

ozplanet

Sounds just like the intake gasket. The intake is a 2 piece design. There is a sheetmetal plate at the bottom. Since the plate is sheet metal and the intake is aluminum. They both shrink and expand at different rate which causes premature wear on the gasket.

One way to check is to remove the throttle body, shine a flash light down in the intake plenom and see if it is wet. Should be realtively clean in there. If it is leaking you will see evidence of oil.

Dodge has a replacement gasket that is thicker to help stop the failure. But, there is also an aftermarket kits that replaces the sheetmetal plate with an aluminum one.

ozplanet

Also, at the same time the fuel filter could be blocked. I know in my 94 my filter is blocked and sometime the truck just will not start because the fuel pressure is zero. So I will remove the air from the line at the fuel rail. The truck will eventually push enough fuel through the fuel filter to get the truck to start. But, the truck runs like crap for a while because the fuel pressure is still not as high as it should be. It would back fire if I press on the gas too far.

I would just go and change it, but my fuel filter is in my gas tank.

agelam

Thanks for the suggestions. Also does anyone know if you can adjust the timing with a chip or some other way. Why did they make it impossible to adjust the distributer? I just doesn't make sense to me. In my original post I meant smoke test. I guess they pump smoke in the engine and look for leaks. They did not find any.

ozplanet

Nope there is no way to adjust the timing. It is all computer controlled.

How are the plugs and wires ?

I was reading about how the ram does have a problem with crossfire. The wires should be separated especially around the back of the motor. They have a tendancy to get hot back there with the exhaust and spark on each other and cause detonation.

For the oil PVC valve maybe sucking oil. Check the filter on the other side see if there is any oil in the breather tube.

One other thing to check is the EGR valve might be stuck open ?

These are just common things that go wrong to help narrow down the problem. But, I would almost guarantee that all your problems are related to the intake gasket.

Here is a site to help out.

http://dodgeram.org/tech/gas/Trouble/ping.htm

agelam

Well I finally got the intake manifold replaced and the plugs and wires also. The pinging is 90% gone and the gas milage is much better. It was down to 8 mpg now it is 11 +. It cost me over $600 for the gasket. and over $300 for the tune up. Every time I take this truck into a shop it cost me plenty. Now I can use regular gas so I can't really complain too much. Thanks for your help ozplanet!

ozplanet

That is great to hear. 90% ping gone is about normal, there will always be some ping at part throttle. I find it really depends on which gas station I goto.

Each time I fill up at this one gas station a Pioneer my truck pings and just does not perform as well. But, what can you do...when the gas is cheap, you can't be picky.