Hey all. My name is Mark- I'm a horse trainer and grease monkey by trade. New to the forums, but not to cars, Ma Mopar, and headaches.
My most recent headache is my fiancee's '99 Dodge Ram 2500 5.9L (360 gas). The truck has just about 70k of HARD miles on it. It was a municipal truck in AZ (I hadn't met her when she bought it, and don't want it to break us up already! ), and was never maintained.
A bit of background. Just did plugs, wires, cap, and rotor on the truck. The heat shields for the plug boots were FULL of caked-in dirt. Took FOUR hours to clean it all out and swap in the new bits. Lovely. After this, however, the truck ran fine, and had decent power.
Today, installed a K&N Filtercharger kit. No problems there. Her stock airbox had been cracked, allowing lots of unfiltered air in, thus the intake. On first test drive, truck ran fine- nice new sexy power.
After driving for a bit, she mentioned the truck suddenly seemed to die on power going up hills. She wasn't kidding! I drove it home just now- up a MILD incline, I could barely get it above 30 MPH.
To my seasoned booty, it feels like it's hitting fuel cut/dying on fuel. The truck would barely rev past 3,500, and when I put my foot into it, it wouldn't give me anything more.
My first thought here is fuel pump crapping out.
Beyond what I think and feel, any ideas?
I've been a wrench jockey for years in the high performance field. I can tell you with near certainty that the intake is NOT at fault.

I would love for anyone to tell me I'm wrong (as long as they're not ), or that it's something simple. In the AM I'll go over my work, but I don't think it's at fault. I'll probably check compression and will certainly check the radiator cap in case it's a blown head gasket.

Are there any easy checks to test the fuel pump? Might try the old beat-it-with-a-hammer trick.
Also, it seems like a PITA to swap the pump- is there an easy way? I will likely be doing the work on my back in the snow, so any tips will be appreciated. Thanks in advance!
Cheers, and hoping to get some sleep Mark W.

 

Next issues- looking through the service manual, and for parts.
First up, how do you tell what size fuel tank the truck has? Besides filling it up, which I don't want to do if I'm dropping the bugger. Is there a VIN number or anything?
Also, can I rock an Airtex Master pump from Autozone? Or is the OEM the only way to go? Thanks, Mark W.

 

Sounds like the CAT to me.
You can take your vin number (located by looking though the windshield from the outside of the truck on the drivers side at the bottom.) and call your local dealer to have a build sheet printed out.

I just removed the bands on the fuel tank, and put a floor jack underneath it to lower it enough to unhook the pump. Once I got it on the floor I emptied what little was left in the tank and checked for debrie. Once that was done, I just reinstalled it.

Being that that truck is a 2500 I would bet money that it has a 35 gal tank.

Easy way to check the pump is to turn the key on, but dont start it and go back to the tank and listen for the hum of the pump. If no hum you got issues.
You can also buy a pressure gauge and attach it to the fuel system and check it that way.

 

You can raise the bed instead of lowering the tank. There's about 6 bolts that hold it on.

Catalytic converter could very well be clogged. If you have an infrared thermometer you can shoot pre and post cat. If post-cat isn't hotter than pre-cat (cat burns unburnt fuel) you have a clog. You might have to rev it up to the point of power loss to notice. a muffler shop can also pressure test it or just cut it off and visually inspect it.

 

Hmm- I'll try beating on it cold. Before the cat warms up, it would run decent, na? I'll let you know- that was a thought, actually. I'll post back in a bit- Mark W.

 

You can also temporarily remove the pre cat sensor and take it for a drive, and see if it's any better. You'll get a CEL, but you can just reset the pcm after. And btw, if the cat is bad, most likely so is the lower intake gasket.(plenum)

 

What good would removing the oxygen sensor do? Mark W.

 

lets exhaust out of the opening if the cat is partially clogged, it's a bypass of sorts

 

Kinky- never heard that trick before! Thanks, fellas. I'll go kick it around, see what happens. Cheers- Mark W.

 

I edited my above post with more info, if you didn't see it before you posted.