little help please
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Joined: Jun 2007
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little help please
ok so my truck has the 5.2L in it and quite frankly, it feels i dont know sluggish. its a 95 so i dont know if it has a plugged cat or whatever but they dont make a programmer for that year of truck ive been told. Ive searched on here a little and majority of people say exhaust, i got an exhaust a si/do flowmaster 40 series. what could i add that will make it more responsive and have some more get up and go? like when you give it a lot, like after 2000 rpms it doesnt like KICK and go, it goes slowly no kick and speeds up a little.. on the freeway i have to give it a lot of gas. it has 162,000 miles on it but the people before me that we know took very good care of it, no kids drove it elderly people did so you know it wasnt beat on. so what could be the problem? and what could i buy to fix the problem? would a new high flow cat be better than the stock probably clogged one? and if i can get a high flow cat are they legal and can a muffler shop weld one on? any information would be nice. i just want my truck to have some kick to it without having to give it a lot of gas.
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Joined: Jul 2006
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From: Gainesville, Ga.
RE: little help please
as far as the stock equipment, you might have a problem in any or all of the following common areas...
clogged cat. any muffler shop can give you an opinion, but since they sell cats, don't be surprised if they recommend on. a sure fire symptom is when it won't rev up past 2000-2500-3000 rpm. a simple test if it wont rev up is to temporarily remove the o2 to let out more exhaust, and see if it improves. replacement depends somewhat on th state you live in and emissions laws, but in general, any cat is a legal replacement, and any muffler shop will replace them. they just have to replace whatever the original emissions equipment it came with.
leaking plenum - hands down the most common engine problem on this forum. allows air into the fuel mix, burns oil, can cause pinging, lean condition, lack of power. a sizeable repair job.
throttle valve (TV) cable. this is the kick down adjustment. when you mash the gas hard, this is (or part of) whats supposed to perform the downshift.
throttle position sensor (TPS). this is what tells the pcm how much you are mashing the gas. this is a very common failure that creates a sluggish feeling on the gas. easily replacable and cheap, about 40-50 at local auto parts. here's how mine acted... you'd be going along on flat ground and come to a hill. i'd mash the gas a little and nothing would happen. i'd mash it more and still nothing would happen. by now its slowed down 10mph. i'd mash it a little more and it'd downshift, rev the tach real high, shift a couple of times and then be a dog again. new tps helped a lot.
gas. when i had a bad tps and bad plenum (pinging), 92-93 octane gas seemed to give it more power, but emptied my wallet.
tune up. cap, wires, rotor, plugs, 02 sensor never hurts.
overdrive on/off. my truck will shift into overdrive at about 45 mph. way too soon in my opinion and then it can't even get out of its own way. i do all city driving (<55) with O/D off which keeps the rpms's up around 2000 instead of down at 1200-1300 where it has no torque.
gears/tires. the stock 3.55 gears create a little sluggish feel, and combined with big tires, can create a real dog. consider 4.10 gears. this is expensive, at about 500/axle (or more) and you have to do both the front and the rear at the same time.
clogged cat. any muffler shop can give you an opinion, but since they sell cats, don't be surprised if they recommend on. a sure fire symptom is when it won't rev up past 2000-2500-3000 rpm. a simple test if it wont rev up is to temporarily remove the o2 to let out more exhaust, and see if it improves. replacement depends somewhat on th state you live in and emissions laws, but in general, any cat is a legal replacement, and any muffler shop will replace them. they just have to replace whatever the original emissions equipment it came with.
leaking plenum - hands down the most common engine problem on this forum. allows air into the fuel mix, burns oil, can cause pinging, lean condition, lack of power. a sizeable repair job.
throttle valve (TV) cable. this is the kick down adjustment. when you mash the gas hard, this is (or part of) whats supposed to perform the downshift.
throttle position sensor (TPS). this is what tells the pcm how much you are mashing the gas. this is a very common failure that creates a sluggish feeling on the gas. easily replacable and cheap, about 40-50 at local auto parts. here's how mine acted... you'd be going along on flat ground and come to a hill. i'd mash the gas a little and nothing would happen. i'd mash it more and still nothing would happen. by now its slowed down 10mph. i'd mash it a little more and it'd downshift, rev the tach real high, shift a couple of times and then be a dog again. new tps helped a lot.
gas. when i had a bad tps and bad plenum (pinging), 92-93 octane gas seemed to give it more power, but emptied my wallet.
tune up. cap, wires, rotor, plugs, 02 sensor never hurts.
overdrive on/off. my truck will shift into overdrive at about 45 mph. way too soon in my opinion and then it can't even get out of its own way. i do all city driving (<55) with O/D off which keeps the rpms's up around 2000 instead of down at 1200-1300 where it has no torque.
gears/tires. the stock 3.55 gears create a little sluggish feel, and combined with big tires, can create a real dog. consider 4.10 gears. this is expensive, at about 500/axle (or more) and you have to do both the front and the rear at the same time.