ok i will try to lay this all out in one post. in november of 2008 i purchased a 2001 dodge ram 1500 4x4 with 5.2l, motor was blown when i bought it. threw a wrist pin right out the side of the oil pan. so i purchased a 57,000 mile motor from a 96 dakota.(Same Motor 5.2l) put it in and she fired right up and ran fine. all along i never really realized the truck didnt have the power it should until i drove another ram. all the timing is %100 correct i even did a tune and my buddy cleaned my injectors. transmission was rebuilt by another friend cause the torque converter was not locking up properly and it was hurting my gas mileage a little. so all in all this truck is in good running condition front to back. starts up runs fine just feels like its missing %30 to %40 percent of its power. i even towed a boat with it and it does alright just slow. i removed an O2 sensor and drove it with it out to try and determine if my exhaust was clogged but it didnt seem different. i had a friend give gas while i felt the exhaust with my hand and it didnt seem to be blowing out to much, but i have no idea what it should feel like. if anyone has any ideas on where to go with this i would greatly appreciate it, like i said i have triple checked all vacuum lines, replaced plugs wires rotor cap. or is there an alternative method for checking the exhaust???

 

Welcome to DF!
Be sure to add all of your vehicle info in your sig at some point, so we know what it is, and you don't have to keep typing it all out.

Couple of methods to check the CAT- Use of a heat gun. With the motor warmed up, exhaust pipes before the cat should be colder than pipe post cat. Another good method is to tap the cat housing with a hammer to see if you can hear any kind of rattling going on.

With that said, I don't think a clogged cat is your problem. Have you checked the belly pan gasket for the intake manifold? Almost every single 2nd gen ram had that for a problem. Peering down into the TB with a flash light can give you about a 60% success as to if it's leaking o not. It's not fool proof, and some are going to tell you that it's leaking even when you can't see it in the TB.

 

did the other ram that you drove have the 5.2 or the 5.9? and did the other ram you drove have the 3.55 gears or the 3.92 or 4.10 gears? you can tell what gears you have by looking at a sticker behind the grille on the inside of the hood or by looking at the sticker on top of the driver side of the rear axle.

 

belly pan gasket, i never heard of it, does alldata have a diagram of it, i have alldata 9.8

 

ok i just checked it, it defenitally looks wet with oil, but i would not say puddles, but it looks like oil is all over in there. on another note i looked at the old motor the same way and it was completely dry.. but that motor has been sitting on a stand waiting to go to the scrapyard for about a year now.

i do notice that i am down over a quart of oil every 3000 miles. but i dont have any blue smoke that i noticed nor are my spark plugs wet with oil. they are very dry with a tiny bit of carbon on them

 

Yup. That's where the lack of power is coming from. Time for a change. There is a DIY in the DIY section at the top of the page.

 

welcome to df. hughes plate is your solution.
you may also want to look into a tuner for more get up and go.
the stock pcm flash is dumbed down really bad.

look up superchips for stock. SCT for modified.