I recently picked up a 99 ram 1500 5.2 the truck has 97000 mi on it, within the past two weeks I have done oil change, new plugs, wires, cap and rotor, tranny fluid and filter change, new cat and o2 sensors and new exhaust. Before I did all the work I had multiple problems the truck had surging idle, spark knock under medium to hard acceleration when cold tranny did not want to shift from 2 to 3 untill warm cel on with numerous codes, now tranny seems better, truck runs alot better but under hard acceleration up hill still get alittle spark knock and idle is smoother but not perfect, I randomly get a cel for #7 misfire,#8 misfire and multiple misfires if I reset the codes there usually back within a few days. Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

Welcome to the forum. The search feature does wonders. You are most likely getting spark knock from a bad plenum gasket look down your throttle body and if there is any oil pooled there that's one problem. Check for plug wire routing for your missfire and I'm not sure about the surge but I would start at the idle air control.

 

these sadly are all common issues to see on here so try the search feature and you will get your answers as fast as you can read them....search"merry Christmas" for the service manual that will tell you what your codes means... the bad plenum was good advise....it seems this is a defect most 2nd gen dodges have....the only real way to fix it is with an aftermarket hughs brand kit..... Dodges answer was to come out with the "death flash" instead of fixing it which basically retards the timing so much the bad plenum gasket isnt as noticable ...at the cost of a good chunk of hp.(hmmm isnt that what harley does so they can sell thier performance stage packages?)...the guy that came up with that likely went on to be CEO or work in politics...sorry...been drinking. going to bed before I say anything else brutally honest...

 

yeah harley new efi system sucks from the factory but its for a completely different reason. they run really lean for air cooled like almost exactly 14.7:1 air cooled harleys like it closer 12.5:1 but thats all the EPA BS if you got one and really want to keep the efi power commander even on a stock bike and it will run better. The screaming eagle bs is basically a less restrictive exhaust and a K&N filter, and if dealership installed they usually give you closer to 14:1 A/F ratio so you can see a little better performance. complete rip off now but whoever came up with it is rich now.

 

i bet hughes is the richest car part store cause us dodge owners keep them in buisness buying the plenum plates lol

 

Ok so there is some oil down in the plenum... I will be ordering the Hughes kit and while I have it apart plan on cleaning out the throttlebody and rerouting wires. I'll let you know how I make out, and on a side note Harley can keep there efi I prefere the efi on my gsxr 1000 lol

 

ok so i have a new problem today i got out of my truck from about a five mile drive and all i could smell was antifreeze, i checked for leaks dont see anything, i also had the heat on in the truck and didnt smell it in the truck only when i got out outside of it. I put my hand on the upper radiator hose hard and hot as hell lower hose bone cold, radiator cap cold, I am assuming bad water pump but any other thoughts or ideas ???

 

your heater core broken its another fault with our dodges

 

Ok so here is the update i installed the hughes plenum kit , cleaned the throttle body installed new tps, new water pump, 180 thermostat, hoses and flushed coolant system. I also rerouted the plug wires per tsb, and yes cleaned and dielectric grease all connections taken apart. i also had to replace the auto tensioner pully it was frozen up. Now the bad part after driving it a few times seems to run and idle good but on came the engine light code is for cylinder 7 misfire.... now what ?

 

check for spark on that cylender and check compression. also did you keep #5 and #7 plug wires away from each other?