I have a 97 2wd Dakota, 5.2 v8 and one morning, went out to start it and it wouldn't start. turned the key off and then tried again and it fired right up. at idle, it sounds fine, but under load, it makes a putt putt noise out the exhaust. drove like that for about a week with no check engine light on. all of a sudden today, it comes on. I go straight to autozone and have them read it. this is what they pulled.


P0300 - random cylinder misfire
P0301 - cylinder 1 misfire
P0302 - cylinder 2 misfire
P0304 - cylinder 4 misfire
P0308 - cylinder 8 misfire
P0138 - O2 circuit condition
P0141 - O2 heater condition
P0740 - Torque converter clutch circuit, TCC unlocked for 10 seconds, ecm commands converter lockup and did not record engine speed drop.




I have been told fuel pump is bad, injectors, transmission is shot, ignition system failure. wondering if anyone has experience with these codes. thanks

 

nothing at all guys?

 

All of those codes mean not that those things have failed, but that they are out of range. The misfire codes show up when enough misfires have been counted, and the O2's indicate that the exhaust gases are causing the sensors to go out of normal range.
So it's diagnosis time. Fuel pressure should be checked, and you might have a look at the distributor cap and rotor. My guess is low fuel pressure, but you need to confirm that before yanking the pump out.
The random misfire code is the first best clue that fuel pressure is low. The O2 sensors are out of the loop when the engine is cold and the computer is in open loop.
Don't start replacing things until you find the culprit, and it's probably only one thing that is causing the multiple codes.

 

so test fuel pressure first? whats it supposed to be at?

 

You'll have to look up the fuel pressure for these engines - I can't know that from memory. Normally it's in the 30 -45 psi range, and probably you'll find it under 20 if the pump is at fault.