My son has a 93 Dakota with what I think is the old 318(?) and it chugs when it is under load.

I've had a the cadalytic converter go out in other vehicles and it acts about like that. I'm not sure if that is common in the 1st gen Dakotas or not but would love some thought around this.

It really happens if you are running along and then for some reason it kicks up to around 1500-1800 RPM. The wierd part is, then I can sit in the drive way and run it up to 3,000 or higher if wanted to and there isn't a single miss or blubber.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

Could be a plugged converter. When it's warmed and running, just check to see if the converter gets red at all.

 

check EGR system had a similar problem turned out to be EGR valve

 

Even if it is 50 degrees out this truck will die unless you warm it up for about 10 to 15 minutes unless you keep the idle up WAY high like 2K or higher when you are puting it in reverse, drive, stopping at a stop sign etc. It smells like it floods itself?

Could this be EGR or converter. Going down the road, it runs beautiful.

 

Check your fuel pressure... at the rail, and after pump (probably before the filter). I had this problem, and it ended up being a bad fuel pump... not enough volume would cause the engine to run lean anything over idle, and i'd get the same thing to happen.

I'd also suggest pulling the codes, and see if the computer has anything to say. I also know a few other things can cause the same symptoms. Sometimes the crank pos. sensor is dead, or the timing chain needs to be replaced. I think I've even heard that a bad plenum gasket could cause this.

If you have a fuel pressure gauge, I'd say that's the easiest thing to check aside form the codes.

 

Just had a 93 dakota with this problem, ended up being bad spark plug wires. It is a hard problem to diagnose without more information I think. 1500 isn't that high is it? I run at 1500 easily, but I have a manual transmission.