Upon your reply, I pulled the intake off the truck. While I was removing it I noticed that an o-ring was missing from one of my fuel injectors. The intake to head gaskets seemed like they were sealed fairly well, although I didnt have to pry the intake off the truck. It just kind of lifted off. Some of the bolts werent all that tight either but its only supposed to be torqued to 12ft/lbs. I took the intake in to work and threw it in the parts cleaner and got all oil residue out of it. I havent had time to throw it back on yet. I hope to before the end of the weekend. I'll let yas know how I make out when its back on. But I'm not getting my hopes up.

 

I just did the head gaskets on my 89 3.9L and needed to pry the intake manifold up to break the seal.
12 ftlbs. sounds light if we are talking intake manifold bolts; they are 45 ftlbs on the 89 and I would think the same for a 92 (verified 45 ftlbs at the Automotive Repair Reference Center).
Regards,
Greg

 

As per my 1996 service manual (and the 2001 as well):
The plenum gasket pan (if removed) bolts will be tightened, in sequence, as follows
(1) Tighten to 2.7 N*m (24 in lbs)
(2) Tighten to 5.4 N*m (48 in lbs)
(3) Tighten to 9.5 N*m (84 in lbs)
(4) Verify all bolts are at 9.5 N*m (84 in lbs)

Throttle Body bolts:
23 N*m (200 in lbs)

Intake manifold bolts:
(1) Tighten bolts 1 and 2 to 8 N*m (72 in lbs). Tighten in alternating steps 1.4 N*m (12 in lbs) at a time.
(2) Tighten bolts 3 thru 12 in sequence, to 8 N*m (72 in lbs).
(3) Check all bolts are tightened to 8 N*m (72 in lbs).
(4) Tighten all bolts, in sequence, to 16 N*m (12 ft lbs).
(5) Check that all bolts are tightened to 16 N*m (12 ft lbs)

Generator mounting bolts:
41 N*m (30 ft lbs)

Adjusting Stap Bolt:
23 N*m (200 in lbs)

Conversions:
in lbs x 0.11298 = N*m
ft lbs x 1.3558 = N*m
N*m x 8.851 = in lbs
N*m x 0.7376 = ft lbs

I wonder if the differance could be in the fact that the Dakotas from 1992 on have multi-port fuel injection, instead of throttle body?
Note: the manual says, "Apply a small amount of engine oil to each fuel injector o-ring. This will help in fuel rail installation."

Hope what your doing finally helps your dakota!
Post back if you need more info, or, when the jobs done!

 

"I wonder if the differance could be in the fact that the Dakotas from 1992 on have multi-port fuel injection, instead of throttle body? "

Good point dodgerules86, I just checked the Automotive Repair Reference Center site again and they give your torque figures (and procedure) starting with the 94 year model, but allpar.com shows you to be spot on with move to MPFI in 92. [sm=icon_ladiesman.gif]

Glad you pointed that out!
Greg

 

It shows right on the intake mani that you should not go over 12 ft/lbs. I torqued things down to 15 so we will see. 12ft/lbs does just seem way to light for me also but......whatever mother mopar says I do. I did notice however that my injectors werent going all the way down into the ports when the fuel rails were bolted down. The o-rings were barely in the holes. So I removed the rails completely before installing. I altered the mounts to allow the injectors to sort of "pop" all the way into the manifold. I am wondering if this was my problem. I havent started it yet because I want to change the oil and I need to get antifreeze before I try to fire it up. I will be sure to let you guys know what happens.

 

Truck still no workie workie.......I am about ready to call chrysler and have one of their engineers come look at this thing....I am getting a lil preturbed. Well on the way now is a new distributor. Lets see what this does...........

 

You mentioned a mechanic talkin bout the auto shutdown circuit. Right?

I also have a 92 dakota, its a 5.2 but I'm sure the relays are the same. My 92 had a problem with stalling but not with backfiring at that time. It does currently but thats another story. ARG!

Anyway have you tried replacing the auto shutdown relay? You can test it real easy. Under your hood on driver side fender wall is a black box. Remove cover and you see black cubes. Flip lid over to get location of various relays. Take the relay from the ASD or Auto shutdown spot and move it to the starter relay spot. Put the starter relay in the ASD spot. Attempt to start your truck, if starter no work your ASD Relay went bad. New is approx $12 at NAPA or the like. If truck does turn over repeat test with Fuel pump relay.

The other cause of this is a bad engine controller (computer). Are you getting strange code 12's even though you've not disconnected your battery in over 50 starts? The next prob I had after a bad ASD relay was a PCM (engine computer) that had an intermittent short which caused the truck to not start (or die if it was running, idle or on freeway dont matter). When the truck wont start you will note that immediate after turning key to on (not start) the check engine light doesn't come on for its normal 4 seconds indicating the bulb aint burnt out. Until the check engine light returns on turning key to "ON" your truck wont start. When it DOES come back it will fire right up. This is a sign of a faulty PCM (Engine Controller, ECU, ECM whatever you want to call it parts store will know what you mean if you say engine computer).

I currently do have a backfire prob on mine. My engine computer went bad and so far I've had two remanufactured replacements in it and both make the truck backfire. No idea now if its a (second) bad reman computer or if something else got knocked out by my old computer. The truck ran fine on Friday but has backfired ever since I replaced original computer on Saturday morning. The old computer had the intermittent loss of power (code 12) problem. I actually think the original problem stems from the corroded solder joints in the wireharness along the firewall (three of them, blue, red (with stripes white or orange) and a black/gray group. 4 wires in each of the three clusters). The solder joints corrode and cuase a short. I think I let my problem go to long (didn't know what problem was for a while) and it knocked out the computer.

 

I agree. However, I think I already asked him (erock92kota) if he checked all the wiring, and he said yes (I believe it was in another thread). But that is correct, they did have problems with corrosion on a few splices they did at the factory. (Typically, the splice that send power to the fuel pump relay and automatic shutdown relay). It would probably not hurt to take another look at all the wiring, and fix anything that looks remotely suspecious. I would recommend getting a voltmeter with a continuity tester. Test for things such as voltage drop (on powered wires) and continuity (on non powered wires).
Also make sure you test all grounds. Diconnect all the ground wires and clean the spots up (no dirt or corrosion, just clean metal on metal).

 

Yeah I also posted the 92 with 94 engine thread. I have replaced everything just about right down to every relay under the hood. I had the wire looms all apart and spent the better part of a sunday with a multi meter tracing wires, checking for shorts, broken wires, etc......I did find a few shady connections and some bad grounds but I fixed them...even the green corroded blob under the relay/breaker panel under the hood where the asd and all that jazz is located......the problem still persists.

So far I have replaced:

any relays I found
computer
air charge temp sensor
map sensor
coolant temp sensor
throttle position sensor
crank sensor
cap
rotor
hall effect sensor=distributor pickup
plug wires
plugs
pulled intake and gave it a thorough cleaning
made sure vacuum ports in intake were all free and clear
new intake gaskets
new o-rings on injectors and cleaned the injectors while they were out
modified fuel rail mounts so injectors were seated correctly
fuel filter
fuel lines
all vacuum hoses
checked and rechecked and rechecked vacuum plumbing
I have set the #1 cylinder at top dead center on the compression stroke and made sure distributor lines up (there are marks on the pickup to align with #1)
cleaned throttle body and made sure that all vacuum ports were clear
checked fuel pressure...holds at like 30ish when idling and a lil higher when I give it gas when its running for the minute it runs but it never dropped below 29psi

There are other things but I can't remember....I have done everytihng and a bit more then I can think of aside from replacing the actual distributor and pulling the front of the engine apart to check the timing there.

It will run like a champ for about a minute or so with some throttle hesitation....then it picks up a miss....then it starts to stumble and surge....then all of a sudden it either shuts down or if I try to save it, everytime I hit the gas it will die out and when I let off it tries to recover but normally results in backfiring either out the exhaust or out the throttle body. I have an open element air cleaner on it and I can hear the air getting sucked in thru the idle control like its trying to cut the air off to the engine. Like the valve is closing and allowing a smaller amount of air by. I havent replaced this part yet...but it is on my to do list in the near future. I would think that if the idle control was going bad I could still rev the engine and keep it running like I have done on other cars when they have gone bad.

 

I never thought about that. Didn't you say that it would die if you drove it anyways? Or was it, as you were stopping it would die? (Or was that someone else?)
The idle air control (IAC) motor is controlled by the computer. There is a pintle on it, that moves in and out of the passage on the throttle body to let more or less air in. When they key is turned to the ON position, the PCM moves the pintle into position. Of course, "like I have done on other cars when they have gone bad. " << of course, you know how they work, I didn't need to type that [:@]