Hi, I have a 2001 3.9 V6 Dakota with almost 74k miles on it. After I start it up and get going you can hear popping coming from the front in the engine area. After it pops which is usually for a minute it stops and doesnt do it again until after it has sat for a while, not on of course. When I am trying to pick up speed and it pops I'll be pressing the gas down (Flooring it will make multiple rapid pops)and it just pops and barely accelerates then it will all of a sudden take off and thats it, then its good until after it sits a while. You can feel it on the gas pedal when it does it. To sum that up my truck, most of the time, pops after i start up, only when I am pushing on the gas, for no more than a minute (Depending on how much i am accelerating). I just had it serviced too and they replaced wires, plugs, cleaned fuel injectors but that did not help. Please help!

 

replace the O2 sensor before the cat. I had the same problem with my 99 v6.

 

Thank you, Ill keep that in mind and hopefully that is the answer. Could it be anything else by any chance, worst case scenario?

 

may want to check your plug wires at night just to see if they are shorting out.new doesnt mean they are good.

 

I had a 97 Dakota V6 that developed a clicking sound at about 45000 miles. The clicking would get faster as I accelerated and would stop after the engine had enough time to warm up. When the motor was cool, it would do it all over again. Turns out that I had a bolt head broken off of the exhaust manifold and had an exhaust leak. I can't remember if I had any performance issues with it though. A hundred bucks at the Dodge dealer fixed it.

 

Bob,

My2002 Dakota is having the same problem. Did you ever find the cause of your problem?

Thanks, Woody