When I left work Wed. last week, no problems. Came home and parked it (98 Ram 1500 5.2L 4x2). Got up Thurs. to run my errands for the day; everything was fine in the neighborhood w/ the 30 mph speed limit. Got on main road and had no power. Truck was running smooth still, but felt like a 4 cyl. engine. Turned around and headed home. Have a steep hill before my house and when engine was under load, the CEL came on. Parked it. By now it is running a little rougher. I have not done any maintenance other than oil changes, fluids, and grease since I did the plenum gasket back in Sept. 2006.

Read the codes and pulled P0303, P0304, P0307, and P0300. Cylinder 3, 4, and 7 misfiring. The 0300 is multiple cylinder misfire. No running lean codes or anything else. Plugged in a test plug to check for spark and not getting spark on plug wire 1, 3, 4, and 7. Checked ignition coil and it is good. Cap and rotor button had some severe corrosion on the terminal and Changed the distributor cap, rotor button, plug wires, and spark plugs. Cleared all the codes after writing down the freeze frame data. Truck still runs extremely rough and dies if you give it a lot of gas! There is also a heavy fuel smell after it dies. Rearranged the relays and did not develop a different problem and original problem remained. Checked for spark again and I got good spark across all 8 wires. Left it alone for a couple hours and went back out (just a few minutes ago) and it ran great for about 2 blocks and then back to no power and rough running. NO new CEL.

Any suggestions as to what to look for next? CPS or fuel injectors?

 

try changing the cam sensor under the distributor cap.

 

Maybe a plugged converter

 

Similar thing has happened to my old car. I've checked everything even its Mazda fuel injectors and found out that it's the cam sensor. Try checking it out too, we might have the same case.

 

I had the same problem a couple of years ago. The Catalytic converter had a total melt down. I had got cherry red and melted the catalyst, which clogged the exhaust pipe and choked the engine. My truck was running fine, the started having a trouble idling and lost a lot of power. (If you can get away with it) I would either remove the cat, or core it. I went through two OEM cats before I decided to core it. This is a very common problem with the 2nd gen rams!

 

Dutch: I live in the communist state of Maryland which has strict Emissions Testing. Cant core it or remove it.

OK, I replaced: plugs, wires, distributor cap and rotor, and re-routed the wires according the TSB. Tested for spark with inline spark plug tester and all is well.

Checked: Ignition Coil, Fuel Filter, Camshaft Position Sensor, Crankshaft Postion Sensor, Idle Air Controller, ASD Relay, Fuel Pump Relay, Throttle Position Sensor, O2 Sensors, and fuel injectors. ALL passed and are good.

Did a fuel pressure check and it was good. Did a vacuum test and it was fine too. Took it for a drive and when you put your foot into, the engine sounds MUTED. So, I am back to the only darn thing that I dont know about is the CAT. Anyone know of a decent way to test it WITHOUT a shop? Can I take it off and see if a bunch of crap falls out of it?

 

simplest test is to temporarily remove the front o2 sensor. if cat is clogged up this will reduce the restriction and it will run and/or rev up a little better. another test is to use a fancy thermometer on the cat. if normal the output will be hotter than input. if clogged up the input will be hotter than the output.

 

have an ir thermometer. Will give that a try tomorrow and see what I got. Thanks for the assist!

 

The Rams are Notorius for CAT problems. If you want to save yourself a future headache, I would core the CAT. Not exactly legal, but the truck runs worlds better. I spent $500+ putting a brand new mopar CAT on mine, and six months later the stupid thing had a total meltdown. It also created a lot of back pressure that weakened some of the seals on the engine. I optedto core mine instead of buying another CAT. I have heard many dodge service guys doing the same thing.

 

magnaflow cat, 159 bucks and easy install

http://store.summitracing.com/partde...p;autoview=sku