To start the truck is a 2000 with a 4.7. Last summer the truck stalled while I was on my way to go camping, and when it started back up there was a loud crack and it sounded like a marble was going through the engine making a horrible ticking noise afterwards. Skip forward 6 months due to being really busy with work and school and everything is back together. For some reason the intake valve for cylinder 1 was bent (not sure how that happened. Had heads machined and all that. When I first went to start it it ran but really, really rough. I noticed I had the crankcase breathers at the back of the heads broken off and didn't have the vacuum lines connected, so I replaced those and got that back together. Now the engine won't even start, just turns over. Maybe I hooked up the vacuum lines wrong? I really hope I didn't screw up the timing, even though I double checked before I bolted everything back on. No check engine light and according to my scanner no codes stored. I threw in some octane booster since the gas has been sitting int he tank for 6 months. The old gas is no helping but I dont think thats the root of the problem. Any ideas? I really need my truck back!

 

you might do a compression test.

 

6 month old gas... sounds like a problem... My brother ran 6 month old gas in his motor blew up a fresh rebuilt motor.

 

Do you guys know if theres an easy way to drain the gas tank on these trucks? I tried to siphon it last night but it think theres a screen going into the gas tank, I couldnt get the hose in

 

yea 2000+ dakotas have anti siphoning screens. I am not sure how to drain the tank tho, someone should chime in soon.

Also dont try to break the anti siphon, you will have to trickle gas into the tank which is very very annoying!

 

Yep it looks like a pingpong ball just inside the gas tank, I dont think I can take it out. The only other way I can think of would be to remove the bed and take out the fuel pump. Do these trucks have an inline fuel filter on a fuel line somewhere? Maybe i could take that off and use a compressor to pressurize the tank and force it out that way?

 

Remove the supply fuel line some where and place that hose in a bucket, or on the ground, whichever I don't care. And energize the fuel pump either by cycling the key or applying a 12V supply to the pump from another source.

 

Well the truck starts the same as it did before, I guess it was flooded when I tired it before. To start it you have to have the pedal to the floor and the engine wont go past 2000 RPM's. If you let your foot off the gas, it stalls. Its shaking prety badly and making a lot of knocking sounds. I'm seriously out of ideas here. I don't think it's the timing, although it could be. I always thought on engines like these you're either off by a lot or none at all because of the chain design. I siphoned the old gas out of the tank (not easy) and put in fresh premium. I purged the old fuel from the lines and it still runs the same .

 

I am assuming you had the distributor out? If so, I would move the engine to TDC, making sure it is on the compression stroke, and then re-stab the distributor, making sure the rotor points to #1. even if it doesn't fix the problem, you can eliminate it as a possibility. And, it is a free check. Sounds like something is out of sync in there and you need to start somewhere.

 

His truck does not have a distributor. I would check timing, but you should get a video of it running and post it up so maybe others could help you more.