alright, where to start.

new here, just signed up, but i'm a 17 year old from new england, i race motocross, and i just bought my first dodge, which so far isn't going so well.

we bought this '95 dodge conversion van with the 3.9 magnum, 82k miles, good shape and a bunch of new parts. it had been sitting around 5 years, and i'm having fuel issues with it right now. luckily i got it for what I think was a steal.. 500 bucks.


i don't know if anybody could help me out but i'll throw this out there. basically i got it, started it and it wouldnt rev up, it will rev if you ease into the throttle and it ends up starting to cut out and run terribly, as if its running out of gas but not quite. if you let off the throttle and let it catch back up to itself it will rev back out again if you do the same, but for the most part it just wants to sputter and run terrible. it runs fine up to about 1/8 throttle but once you get past that it will just start to slow down and run bad. i'm pretty sure it's a fuel issue but who knows, i'm 17 and i havnt been around cars very long. i unclipped the fuel line at the halfway point of the van and tryed to see if it was even pumping gas by having somebody sit in it and turn the key on and off to work the fuelpump, and it would just dribble at most. i have put gas in it, checked alot of basic stuff, but i don't really know what's wrong.
my dad knows alot more than I do about this stuff but he is busy lately and doesnt have the time to waste on this thing so i've been trying to figure it out. he was saying today that he thinks the fuel line has air in it, i tryed to bleed it on the thing up on top of the intake WHILE RUNNING it and ended up running for the fire extinguisher.
it runs fine at idle and at low throttle opening and also when driving but you cant open it up at all or it just starts to die.


i need this van in 2 weeks for the first race of the season, i love how it's setup inside with the fold down bed and all that and I can easily pull a small trailer or even put my bike on the back of the van with this hitch hauler thing that I have called an "add a bike".


also i'm sure others have similar vehicles, does anyone have a rough estimate of fuel mileage. please tell me it gets better than our tahoe with the 350 in it because that thing is a pig at 16 mpg.


thanks
tyler

 

Insufficient fuelflow. You would get about a quart of fuel in 10 seconds if the pump were working good. I suspect that you'll be needing to change that pump.

About 11 mpg city and14 mpg highway. The V8s actually get better mileage than the V6s do.

 

i was thinking the filter wasfull of stuff but i can't really see how it would even run normal alot of the time. it seems like it runs out of gas but you can let off and it seems to catch back up and go again.but ive been putting off dropping the tank and checkin it out.

the fuelpump is very loud alot of the time, and other times you can't even hear it, when you turn the key forward right before you would to start it, you can hear it run but sometimes it sounds very weak and sometimes it sounds loud or normal.

the miles i'll be putting on it are mostly highway so thats a little better than 11, but that's still dissappointing for a v6 haha. not enough power to pull the big van.

 

also, when it starts, it sounds fine, but after running for a couple minutes, i hear a noise that sounds like the timing chain being loose.

the guy i bought it off told me it (along with many others) makes that noise becuase the v6s dont have a timing chain tensioner? hah was he lying to me or is that actually what's wrong?

 

At 82K miles the timing chain shouldn't be bad yet, and no, there isn't a tensioner. If you hook-up a fuel pressure gauge to the fuel rail on the engine, you will be able to confirm if it's a fuel pressure problem or not without having to drop the tank. But from your description it does sound like a lack of fuel is your problem. You could get lucky and maybe it's just the fuel pump relay working intermittently instead of the pump being weak.

 

alright, thanks for the help. i'm going to ask my dad to pick up a fuel pressure tester tonight. i should already have one but right now all i have as far as tools go right now are just the basics.. wrenches, sockets, etc, as well as a bunch of bike related stuff. first ride of the year this weekend, can't wait, the 120 foot tabletop over at the local track is calling my name. hopefully this year i don't break my leg on it again.

 

the relay would be under the hood on the right side (facing the back of the vehicle) near the battery right?

i'm also going to call napa right now and check the price on a fuelpump.. hopefully it doesnt cost a whole lot. i just wanna get this thing running good.

 

The sloppy timing chains are well known on your era 3.9 engines - dodge issued a tsb, http://dodgeram.info/tsb/1997/09-07-97.htm about this, and if I'm not mistaken, made the tensioner standard equipment in the 3.9's after 97. I installed a new timing chain on my 97, and within 20k, the chain was rattling like crazy; from what I understand, there is no harm, it just sounds awful. I installed the tensioner (replaced the chain since I was in there) and it has been silent for the last 50k miles. Good luck!

 

You don't want to buy a fuel pump from NAPA unless money is not an issue. You'll pay almost twice what you can buy it for on the Internet. Be careful before you purchasebecause many of these electric pumps look similar but have slightly different features. Best to remove yours first so you can match it against the actual (or picture of) replacement unit. Pain in the butt, but worth the time.

BTW, I get 17MPG highway in my 93 B150 3.9L, but I have the Aisin 5-Speed manual transmission. About 260K miles on my engine and the timing chain is still quiet. Says a lot for regular oil and filter changes!

 

With that many miles and knowing the tell tale signs of your problem, you need to clean the IAC and TB ports.

See this step-by-step 56k dial-up friendly procedure.

https://dodgeforum.com/m_525409/tm.htm