Ok heres the scoop. 1992 Dodge Dakota with a 318, 5.2 Liter V8. Been nothing but great to me but been havin a bit of trouble lately....

On the way home (its a 10 hour drive) a few weeks ago, first 6-7 hours she ran great, no problems. I was on her pretty hard, goin bout 75-80 all the way outta Maine then brought her down to 65 or so once I got into Mass. Anyway, after about 6-7 hours she started bucking and jumping whenever I was below 2000 RPMs...pretty bad too, ran kinda ****ty above 2k too, but she ran. Whenever I came to stop or slow down, shed buck hardcore and even stall, like as I was pulling into the gas stations and all. Another thing: she OWNED gas...completely sucked the tank down like nothing...cost me an arm and a leg to get home. Anyway...

Got home, let her sit till Sunday (got home Friday night) and started it up to bring it to my cousins, and she ran great! No problems at all...so we replaced the cap and rotor, all the wires, all spark plugs, PCV valve, and fuel filter anyway...changed the oil too. Ran great all week, no problems. Sunday came and I headed back up to school, and after 6 hours or so, it did the same thing! Exact same problem...And after a few days of sittin in my school parking lot, I started her up and she runs great now, havent had a problem yet...but I havent driven more than an hour or so with it yet. So....

People have said: Oxygen Sensors, Catalytic Convertor might be clogged...some computer in the engine...**** i dont know, people say stuff. The guys at Exxon say if there isnt a "check engine" light on (which there isnt) its probably not the Cat or the O2 sensors and there isnt much they can do if they cant see the problem.

I was readin the problem and the thing that one guy mentioned about how his truck runs bad under 1/2 a tank...The only times my gas tank gets below 1/2 is on long trips and both times it started happening it was pretty low on gas...however, it doesnt just stop once I fill it back up like that other guys.

So....any ideas guys??? Thanks!!!!

 

Check for a blown plenum gasket. Pretty common on all magnum v8s. Pull the airhat off and open the throttle body bores and look inside with a flash light. If you can see oil pooling down there or a lot of residue it is likely blown. It will be sucking oil from the engine into the intake manifold. Over time it can clog up the sensors in the TB - IAC particularly. Also the IAT sensor on the manifold and can start clogging injectors pretty good too.

 

If your truck is an automatic, it sounds like the torque converter lockup switch may be giving you problems. I had this same exact thing happen on an old cavalier. It is meant to lock the torque converter at highway speeds to conserve gas, but if it locks up as you are trying to come to a stop, the Torque Converter is not allowed to slip and your car/truck will begin jerking hard and will usually stall once you come to a stop. It's a part that you will most likely have to get from the dealer, most part stores don't carry them. Hope this helps.

 

Is there a loss of power? Does it only run crappy when you are actually driving or also when the engine is just at idle?

My dakota was experiencing the bucking below 2 K , loss of power, and also stalled it a couple times when I was backing up.

turned out 2 of my fuel injectors were almost completly clogged, got the fuel rail cleaned and replaced the two really bad injectors, completely solved all my problems

Just my 2 cents hope it helps

 

My '91 cuts out or won't run sometimes, I put on a mechanical fuel pressure gauge which I got off E-Bay for fifteen bucks. It just revealed that when the problem is present, fuel pressure is down to 10 PSI instead of the 15 PSI when it's running right (see related post). I suspect fuel pump... This also happens to me below half-tank. Try a fuel pressure gauge, it'll give you one more data point... Rotsa Ruck

 

Here is a possibility. What makes it trouble to solve is the intermittent nature of it. But, it is possible that the ECM in the lower part of the upper housing is giving you trouble due to heat. When this happens again, slowly pour some water over the distributor to cool it off. If the problem continues, you've eliminated one of the potential problems. The 10 psi fuel rail could be due to a bad fuel pressure regulator located on the fuel rail--vacuum operated.

Hope you solve this one!!

 

I'm pretty good at fixin' dodges & I agree .... Install a fuel pressure guage!!! ALSO did anyone check how plugged the fuel filter was???? If it was hard to blow through it might have killed your fuel pump!!!