When i go to start my truck it clicks over but seems like it hesitates in getting power. It gets some and then with in a few seconds you hear the rest kick in. Does this sound like dirty fuel injectors or spark plugs? Bad battery? I'm just not sure. I was thinking about sea foaming the engine and seeing if that helps. The oil when I first changed it after buying it was like mud so I'm sure it had alot of dirty deposits. I also changed the o2 sensors and the cat and have been using that marvels mystery oil. Any help would be awesome thanks

 

If your oil was like mud I would definitely run some seafoam through the brake booster vacuum line into the intake. Slowly let is suck in about half a can, turn the truck off and let it sit about 5-10 minutes. Then fire it up and go for a drive, it is fun watching it smoke out the neighborhood and the looks you get in traffic are classic Have you checked your intake manifold for oil deposits? Possible plenum gasket failure?? Wouldn't hurt to pull the spark plugs and check the gap, not sure if the 3.9L has the same gap as the 5.2L, but if so it should be at .040. Wouldn't hurt to also stop by Autozone or O'Reillys and get a load test on the battery.

 

The oil obviously wasnt as thick as mud but it was bad and like extremly dark coffee. Worst oil ive ever seen at least. Shop said when it went it for state inspection that it threw a check engine light for the oil as it hadnt been changed in so long. Not sure the truth to that as it was missing the cat and had a bad o2 but thats what they said.

 

I've always heard you should like the truck idle and not drive it if your running sea foam through it? The intake was bone dry no problems there. I also put a cold air intake on it and checked it out real good before I put the k&n on. The battery the po put in it was from auto zone the auto zone gold. Has a sticker from 2010 on it so I assume its only 2 years old but it wouldn't hurt I guess to have them check it. can they check it with it in the vehicle or do i have to take it out and take it in?

 

I have always driven it when I run the seafoam, but only after I let it sit off for 5-10 mins. Maybe someone else on here knows differently??? I don't see where it should hurt anything other than the carbon building up on your O2 and Cat, but it will do that idling or driving, probably more idling without the increased back pressure. That is why they don't recommend using seafoam a lot. Put some in your oil as well if it was that gunked up and in a tank of fuel. You don't have to take the battery out of the truck to have it load tested at Autozone so no biggie there. If the batttery has caps, pop the caps (watch your eyes) and see if the water level is good in all of the cells, if not add distilled water until full. I would do another oil change after 1000 miles if the oil was really bad, or at least swap the filter.

When you say it lacks power, is this as in raw power from the motor, or electrical power or both?? Is this just when you turn it over or when you first go to take off after it has been sitting?

 

well it usually lacks power only on the start up. But recently I've had it seem to both sound like it lacking power, exhaust sounds like a 4 banger mazda and it just feels like its not getting full power. Afte driving for a little while it will suddenly kick in fine. Also if I've been running it on and off throughout the day it starts with any any sort of hesitation.

I checked sea foams web site and you were rite as you said to put the sea foam in and idle. Then wait 5 or 10 mins and then drive it around. I will be doing this very soon.

 

Magic marvel oil is great for cleaning out old engine sludge but works slowly but that’s a good thing. If it was as bad as you said even though MMO works slow change your oil in two months add more MMO then two months again and change oil even though that’s a short time change the filter also its getting full of old sludge muck.


Hesitation is injectors and the MAP O2's are part of that but you changed them.

To get clean injectors you will need to run some kind of cleaner in the gas but you need about 3 or 4 full tanks of the stuff to get them clean.

 

98DAKAZ i believe u suggested the marvels mystery oil to me after I bought the dakota. It had almost 230k on it when I got it. With marvels I have noticed increased mpgor at least it seems so. It does run better now then before. I'm just hoping that sea foam with help with the hesitation and do the same job as the marvels just a little bit faster. I am going to use marvels on and off also. I also used a quart of marvels last time in place of one quart of motor oil.

 

If you want FAST you have two choices one for the oil sludge that’s Gunk engine flush that stuff works wonders but can be dangerous it can brake big chunks of the sludge loose that can lodge in the oil intake and clog it up starving the engine of oil and burning the engine up SO BEWARE of fast answers.

Second is your injectors if you want fast go someplace that does an in car fuel injector cleaning usually about $95 they push a strong concentrated cleaner through the injectors this is safe to do but cost more but its fast and safe.

It took years for this oil sludge to build up and the same with the injectors.

 

Are any of the fuel injector cleaner products worth it?