i have a 99 dakota with the 5.2L V8 - Manual transmission - 92k miles. my father in law gave me the truck after it has been sitting in his driveway for a year and a half without being drove. i was told the fuel pump was bad so i changed that then i realized i had no spark as well so i changed the computer and still nothing. then i changed the coil still nothing. then i changed the crank sensor and it fired up and ran great for about 15 minutes then started to Miss-fire / backfire. i then took it to the dodge dealer they told me to do a tune up so i did the cap, rotor, plugs and wires and it still seems to misfire / backfire ocasionally. it seems to be the worst wehn i first start it in the morning and if i keep driving it while it is misfireing it will stop and run great again after a few minutes. it also started to misfire yesterday when i was going through some mud then i let it cool for about 15 minutes and she fired right up and ran great for the rest of the day? any ideas on what could cause this? the only code comming up when i scan is for the crank/cam sensor? also forgot to ad that the dogge dealer told me the intake pan gasket was leaking can this cause a problem? said that it was not leaking very bad...

 

did you ever drain the fuel and replace the fuel filters? after a just a a few weeks gas can start to separate and certainly after a year its probably like jello. if any of that got into your filter its probably worthless and can cause fuel delivery problems. also changing it is cheap and considered regular maitenance, i would assume the previous owner never changed the fuel filter.

the intake pan gasket is very common on these trucks and there are several how to guides on fixing it, run a search and check the FAQ

 

The crank/cam sensor will cause these problems. Since it was sitting so long they can probably be cleaned. I saw this on my sons plymoth breeze. Check the wires going to them for cracks or breaks. I don't know exactly where these are located on the dakota.

 

i did drain all of the old gas and put fresh gas in when i did the fuel pump. i did not however change any fuel filters maybe i will give that a shot as that is pretty simple and cheap to check. is the cam sensor a big job on this truck?

 

i cant seem to find anything on the intake pan gasket is it called something else?

 

search for Plenum gasket or just plenum