'98 Dakota Hates Playing Nice
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'98 Dakota Hates Playing Nice
So I've come to the conclusion with some recent tests... My truck doesn't like being driven lightly. I've never really been an easy driver on my truck, but never a race between lights person either. I've noticed since the weather has gotten better and warmer, my truck seems to want to play, so I decided to let it. Filled up Monday morning and decided to give it a bit of a run during my drive-time, 75~80 on the interstate, hard takeoffs, some general hooning.
Going through an empty 4 way stop, slammed it to the floor at WOT and surprise, it put me back in my seat and the nose of the truck lifted into the air a bit (nothing incredible, but it's never done that before, ~4 inches or so). It came back down and shifted into 2nd, again the front came up, that torque coming into play. My truck seemed to like that... That evening, I noticed everything seemed a bit smoother, shifting, takeoffs, etc. So I continued messing around when safety allowed (might have gone around a couple corners sideways or not, you can't prove I did it). In general just giving the truck what it seemed to want, someone rode with me during lunch and they thought I had a 318... This is the odd part.
No, it's a 1998 RC with a 3.9L V6, 42RE auto, 3.55 rear diff, and slightly bigger tires (235 75 r15 vs 215 75 r15 stock). It doesn't seem all that impressive, but it's surprised me this week vs how I generally drive. The bonus part of this is, despite driving it faster, rougher, and playing around, I still managed to get decent gas mileage. Fueled up this morning: 18.8MPG reported by fuelly. Slightly down from the previous 19.2MPG from regular driving but not much. My driving is about 60/40 city/highway so I figure that's pretty decent.
Is it the swap to summer blend gas? Is it the truck likes being rode hard? Who knows, but I thought I'd share that and see what you guys get as well... Gonna have to see what kind of mileage I get by driving conservatively though... Just as a test. Also it's mostly stock, only things I've noticed bolt-on wise is the previous owner put in a CAI and magnaflow cat (trailed by a Walker quiet-flow SS, no flowmaster here). I've only done tune-up things, plugs, wires, dist cap/rotor, O2s, and timing chain. Anyone else experience better performance after giving it a good run? I wouldn't think it would be the PCM "learning" as it would simply increase fuel to boost performance instead. All in all, just a fun truck.
Going through an empty 4 way stop, slammed it to the floor at WOT and surprise, it put me back in my seat and the nose of the truck lifted into the air a bit (nothing incredible, but it's never done that before, ~4 inches or so). It came back down and shifted into 2nd, again the front came up, that torque coming into play. My truck seemed to like that... That evening, I noticed everything seemed a bit smoother, shifting, takeoffs, etc. So I continued messing around when safety allowed (might have gone around a couple corners sideways or not, you can't prove I did it). In general just giving the truck what it seemed to want, someone rode with me during lunch and they thought I had a 318... This is the odd part.
No, it's a 1998 RC with a 3.9L V6, 42RE auto, 3.55 rear diff, and slightly bigger tires (235 75 r15 vs 215 75 r15 stock). It doesn't seem all that impressive, but it's surprised me this week vs how I generally drive. The bonus part of this is, despite driving it faster, rougher, and playing around, I still managed to get decent gas mileage. Fueled up this morning: 18.8MPG reported by fuelly. Slightly down from the previous 19.2MPG from regular driving but not much. My driving is about 60/40 city/highway so I figure that's pretty decent.
Is it the swap to summer blend gas? Is it the truck likes being rode hard? Who knows, but I thought I'd share that and see what you guys get as well... Gonna have to see what kind of mileage I get by driving conservatively though... Just as a test. Also it's mostly stock, only things I've noticed bolt-on wise is the previous owner put in a CAI and magnaflow cat (trailed by a Walker quiet-flow SS, no flowmaster here). I've only done tune-up things, plugs, wires, dist cap/rotor, O2s, and timing chain. Anyone else experience better performance after giving it a good run? I wouldn't think it would be the PCM "learning" as it would simply increase fuel to boost performance instead. All in all, just a fun truck.