200,000 miles with engine rebuild at 100,000. Timing cover gasket blows on my way back home from airport. Limp it home then limp it to the shop where I have my worst experience with a shop. $1000 with new pump, flushed radiator, chain and sprocket and oil pan gasket later WITH a visit back for a new thermostat but really to also put on the oil pan gasket they never installed 🤬I was about done getting screwed for shooty work and quite frankly horrid customer service from them and les schwab (I could rant for pages) So I decided I’m working on my truck from now on until I can find somebody who know what their doing. So now I’m here after my own costly attempts to ask for help. He’s how the run down....



after over heating I start to pop my hood everyday and inspect. The main think I was looking at was that radiator hose that looked like **** meineke said was fine. (It wasn’t, it leaked but patched it for the foreseeable radiator swap as it was a small leak out the bottom of the hose. Sealed fine. noticed evap hoses cracked and hissing coming from my intake. So I stared changing hoses, what a bunch of fun.



while doing minor fixes here and there I notices distinct surges in idle and started doing research. Clearly had a hunting idle issue that got better with each and every change. When my truck stalled on my way home from work and then wouldn’t start I assumed my fuel pump was bad. With no acumen of basic test procedures I adamantly changed my fuel pump and rust treated my frame as I had my whole bed taken off. I still cringe over this repair. The fuel pump part.



I was able to remove the old rollover valve and grommet with out damage! But... as luck would have it, reseating it in the new pump I over seat it and had to rip out the grommet and valve. Both completely mangled and unusable. Replaced with a valve and a grommet from a Plymouth/Cherokee/Grand caravan something like that, if any one cares I have the part numbers written down somewhere just not easily accessible right now. Either way it didn’t fit after waiting a week and I had to put fuel gasket maker on it but if I ever roll over that valve won’t do ****. The fuel pressure will pop that thing out like nothing. Almost forgot how bad the seal was when I gassed up for the first time. Made the attendant shut it of because it never took the 15 gallons it said it should and it had a few gallons already. Bad Idea in hindsight cause that stuff stays tacky and won’t harden. Furthermore I used about a half a tube because i didn’t wanna go back in there, well now I’m gonna check if when I gassed up I popped the seal. No gas poured out but had I not stopped the guy, who knows. But this isn’t any where close to the end of the story.



After my regretful work, regretful in that the issues was still present and that I continued to do more potential harm. I stalled at my first red light going to work, and a second time at same light going home and again before my drive way each time needing to give it quit a lot of gas to start and stay running.



Long story short I replace distributor, cap, rotor, plugs and wires, new coil, accidentally had plugged in #2 to #4 and got a hard ping noise on start up. Thought everything was over. So I figured ehh let’s keep going.



discoved my mistake fixed it and boo yah it starts but the timing isn’t right, adjust the fuel advance as it’s the only thing I can do, and get purring nicely.



dive it to work next day. 45 seconds before I get to the stop light I die at normally, *POP!* 200 rpm drop instantly but felt like I had les restriction and more throttle response until I rest at idle at the stop light and she dies. The light cycled twice before I got her running and when I did I had to drive it like a fork lift, with one foot on the gas and one foot on the brake.

couldn’t get her started after limping to the parking lot of work. Thankfully a block away from the light.



after this I changed my iac and and tps. I could get her to stay on with minimal help, but anytime I put her in gear or quickly tapped the gas instant death. I walked 7 miles home in defeat but walked 7miles back with every tool and cleaner I had to ralley the next day. I would not quit.



I deep cleaned my engine bay in hopes I would uncover the issue. Fixed some questionable grounds, treated the hoses, acquainting my self to my vehicle. Figure out how to check codes from a fellow Dakota in the lot. Fuel rich and torque converter/ neutral safety switch code. I get down below to the transmission because I’ve never actually looked there before and it looks as though no one else has ever either. Clean it up and find a really saturated plug. Speedo sensor discovered. Clean it up and wouldn’t you know it. Doesn’t die when I put it in gear. But issue far from resolved.



so far I have cleaned every electrical connector, changed my IAC, TPS, distributor, coil plugs wires, fuel pump evap lines and a new battery because the one in it was half the size of what should’ve been in it.



i still dangerously low rpms 2-4 and very sporadic except on acceleration. I no longer get torque converter code but I can’t decelerate or accelerate to quickly with out killing it. So I decide its time to take her top off.



used my two week vacation I never take and order parts and do research. I change my whole exhaust as it was quite mangled. I had already patched all the welds when I had my bed off with exhaust tape but knew this all had to be done. Y pipe pinch 1/2 shut on one side, catalytic converter brick now in my muffler and Swiss cheese style pipes to bring it altogether. I still laugh at the welds. I didn’t bother taking off what looked like a welded on 02 sensor I thought was a possible culprit. So all new exhaust. Before that took off the intake and clean it out. The amount of RTV used in this thing will haunt my dreams. Changed the valve covers and found one pushrod (the one that had the hard detonation event #2) could spin freely 360 while all others where stiff as a beam (the RTV on some of the pushrods concerned me more) The crank position was tdc on first cylinder when I made this note. After having good compression but no way to do a leak down test I moved on. Changed out the horrid gaskets I found on the intake manifold along with the plenum gasket and cleaned out the clogged egr port that had barely a 1/4 inch hole to breath from. exhaust gasket on the headers were reusable but I put new ones on any way. Everything was cleaned meticulously with plastic scrapers and cleaner.



at this point I’ve replaced fuel pump distributor, cap, rotor, plugs, wires, coil, IAC, TPS, MAP, IAT, 02 and exhaust, headers to tail, cleaned egr, all new injectors, intake and exhaust gaskets.

Still has low rpm, but now stays running a little more reliably.

I have three theories: bad ecu, bad torque converter or neutral safety switch, or bad fuel pump component.



now when I start her up I need my foot all the way to the floor and she’ll start and stay running with out extra throttle help, still low and sputtery. Drove around the property and noticed a few things. If I drive over a bump from a dead stop it kills her. I have to feather the gas to get it to not die or have enough momentum before the bump. At idle I can’t kill it anymore by pulling my foot off immediately after reving which is nice but now speed bumps are a concern.

she opens up nice but slowly increasing of throttle is concerning. Sputtering and rpm drops from 300-600 intervals but hardly shutters when throttle speed is increased. Definitely unlocked power I hadn’t had before but still didn’t fix the problem. From further research it seems like I’m in limp in mode. Idles are 500 in neutral, from initial start up but once warmed up it’s 200-300 again. Any time it’s in drive it drops to 200 and hunts for 400 sputtering and chuttering the whole time rarely bumping over 300.

I only have a rich code, I feel I’m in limp in mode. Low rpm and foot to the gas if I want her to start. Clear difference in power in drive and in park. Haven’t gotten it over 25 mph, heard I might need to hit 50mph to reset the speedo or a computer component. Not sure if my year truck operates like it’s OBD2 brethren. Wish I had live data... but I’m not confident getting stuck a mile down there road with my luck but I’ll try it if some one knows if that trick works. Do I need to re adjust my distributor again? Should I try Highway driving? Im open to suggestions and questions. Is there anything else to change other than vehicles?? I’d hate for it to be electrical but it looks like I’m running out of options.

 

update:

transmission won’t down shift from 3rd

adjusted fuel advance but still have to pump gas to start, runs fine except rpm gauge is not accurate. Keeps fluctuating. Taking in for solenoid replacement. anyone know how to pull trans codes??

 

I think you have several things going on.

First, I would plug in with a scanner that can read live data. See what the PCM thinks coolant temp is, when the engine is stone cold. (you have two temp sensors on your truck, one for the gauge, one for the PCM.)

Next, I would check the connector at the pcm. Seems they have a tendency to come loose, and you get some truly odd and strange problems.

 

Exactly how did you "adjust fuel advance" ????
never heard of such a thing on these trucks and I have been playing with them for years.
You can't adjust things like in the carbureted days
And pumping the gas does nothing on these engines. Except maybe flood them

 

Won't even flood them; if anything, hitting WOT close enough will shut the injectors off.

EDIT: I bet he's losing prime.

I think he's talking about the injector sync setting, volaredon. But it'd be nice to know WHAT he means.

RwP

 

ahh but pumping the gas starts the vehicle... so it must not be flooding it or it wouldn’t start

correct, fuel advance was the wrong term. I adjusted the fuel sync by rotating the distributor. I stalled out turning into a bank drive through and the only thing I could think to do was adjust the distributor, got it to start and stay running to get back to work. I had it slightly advanced from my initial reference mark from replacing it and figured i didn’t tighten the bracket enough and it wiggled loose. Didn’t have a distributor wrench, but I do now.

when it’s aligned to previously working reference mark I have to put my foot to the floor to start it. Rotating it counterclockwise I need less pedal to start it up.

 

I’d really like to do that, could you recommend a scanner for this truck? Having a hard time finding one that I’m confident will work.

 

When I was testing the throttle cable I couldn’t get the engine to shut down from hand adjustments but just tapping the gas pedal would bog down the rpms enough, shifting cold will kill it 7-10 times. I’ll post a video if that helps.

 

 

If you get a high enough pressure WITHOUT turning the key, it's keeping prime.

If you don't, it's losing it.

And no, pumping the throttle does nothing to help it start.

That's a carburator thing; these trucks (save for the 1987 V6 and a few more years I4) aren't carbed at all.

There's scanners out there, but not many, that will work properly with a 1995 due to it being SLC not OBDII.

RwP