Mantis, are those numbers from the overhead, or cold hard math?

The plenum issue is the same for both 318 and 360, as they both have the same intake manifold and plenum pan, IIRC.

Oh, Chrysler figured out the problem alright. They did not want to do a recall and spend $400 in labor, plus the cost of new aluminum pans and the gaskets/bolts involved, for every truck they produced. Instead they reprogrammed the computers to retard the timing. Reduced MPGs and power, but the engines would not ping anymore so drivers wouldn't know anything was wrong and wouldn't bring the trucks in to get checked/complain.

 

death flash TSB came out in 00 and 01, so if your 98 was never reflashed, then you would not have it. check for the tell-tale sticker.


my 01 has a computer printed sticker applied, which looks like it came from the factory (or dealer) that way. the computer printed sticker looks like it was a very organized effort to get them all reflashed.

 

I have to admit, I've never read a 'death flash' thread before now. Am I reading this right, all 2001's have it, so potentially I'm losing a lot of power/mileage as a result?

 

I am in shock MY car company had used this half-@ssed attempt to fix this-no to cover up the dead and rotting 800# gorilla in the room. Anyway, my 98 has no mpg #, just temp/direction. That is real full tank to full tank #'s. From what I've read here, I ought to be thankful to get 15-18 mpg. It's just that my 1978 D 250 p/u with a Dana 90 rear end got 21-22 mpg constantly, no matter how I drove it. When I had a load of firewood up to the top of the 4' racks in the bed and was pulling a 65 GMC p/u bed trailer full to the racks I still got 16-18 mpg, with the same basic 318. When I bought the truck 2 1/2 years ago, I thought I'd get the same or more mpg. Now this plenum thing and I am shell-shocked. Oh well, I still think the 94-01 Ram is the best looking p/u ever made.(: I have a 383 out back that I am going to install when/if this 318 ever goes bad. Then when I'm getting poor mileage, I'll have a damn good reason.(;

 

So ignore my previous post. Did some searches, realized I have it factory, and just went on ebay and found a Superchips 3815 for $250. Seems like the consensus programmer choice outside of sct, which I'm not convinced I'll do enough upgrades to pay for.

Then again, tuner will probably lead to a plenum gasket upgrade, rockers...etc....never ends.

 

Mine sure dose!

 

Can anyone get a .bin of the original pre "death flash"?

 

It never does. My wife hates my truck for that very reason, I always find something else for it.

When you get your Superchips tuner, do not update it off the PC yet. There is a problem with the more recent updates and 5.2L/5.9L Magnum V8s. They are working on the solution now, but they just started Friday, so it may be another week or two.

 

lol, mine complained today about me telling her to research like crazy before she buys a car, and I have a money pit. She made a point of mentioning that literally 2 days after I bought my ram, i bought her little brother a bomb Cavalier for his college car. She figured out I have at least as much as I spent on that car into the truck already.

Then she took it to the store instead of her car...go figure.

 

Haha. Mine won't even do that, she tells me its to loud.

Don't know if you saw my edit of the post above, but check it out if you haven't (the part related to updating the 3815 off the PC).