i have a 98 1500 ram with the 5.2 and when i crank it, it misses and when i give it the gas it has no power. when it gets to operating temp it wants to shut of on me while driving, but it will sit there and idle with a miss. ive changed the plugs so far and was thinkin about the wires, cap, and rotor. someone told me it could be a stopped up cat, but i have no clue what it could be. oh yeah when i went to drive it earlier, i gave it the gas and the check engine light came on and started flashing. i cant make it to town to get it scanned. so i dont know what to do.

 

have you got a digital odometer ?

turn ignition key to ON (where lights come on, but not starter), then back one click to OFF, ON, OFF, ON and watch the odometer. it will flash "done" when, well, its done. write down the code(s) and look em up or post them here.

 

if i didnt know u said u had a 5.2 i'd say u had a 5.9... check your cat, tap it with a hammer while it's running, if the idle lvl's out then u have a stopped up cant, if it doesnt do any thing then check you firing order make sure thats all good, cause usually if it's hesitation and misfiring it's one of those 2.

 

i tried the on off thing and i didnt get a done on the odometer. i turned it all the way forward but didnt start it and then clicked to off one clicked the amount of times you stated. lol maybe im screwin that up.

 

try again. pause about 1 second at each move.
ON OFF ON OFF ON

 

tried the on off thing again and still did not work. i just see my mileage and nothing else. and i hit the cat and nothing happened. still idling real ruff.

 

well damn. it'd be nice to somehow get the codes. it'll give you a direction to go in. otherwise, it could be wires, rotor, cap, fuel pressure, various sensors, or even major malfunction.

 

yeah your sure right about that. im used to good old chevys. where you can put a jumper wire in the odb port and itll flash the codes with the check engine light. this dodge is one tough truck, i turned the 96 z71 into a mudtruck, so the goat is my daily driver. i love it, its been good to me im just not as familiar with a dodge as i am with a chevy. i know these trucks r harder to work on than a chevy in my opinion. i guess im gonna have to rent me a scanner from oreillys.

 

When was the last time you changed those? wires, cap, and rotor? It could be a bad plenum gasket + plugged cat. Flashing CEL = misfiring happening right then and there..steady CEL means a misfire occured (well can mean that or something else..probably a misfire though, check it with a scanner.) (In dodge's atleast).

A blown Plenum gasket alone will cause some funky a$$ problems..trust me.. been there lol. Plenum leak would cause a cat to plug..just a chain of events thing. Cat plugged = no power what so ever (climbing hills, etc), crappy gas mileage. I fixed my cat, and my truck still acted like crap with a fixed cat..i put in new plugs (two different sets of 8), wires (2 different sets), cap + rotor, still nothing and lacked serious power for climbing hills and passing people..overall sluggishness. I had random misfires + cylinder 4 misfire, it would sit there at idle and misfire (sounded like a darn diesel and shaking like a jackhammer). When i got going it smoothed out but still lacked top end power. Put Hughes Plenum Reinforcement kit in, and a set of intake gaskets..and a t-stat for the hell of it, and seafoamed it..and new oil change..and shes like brand new...except my ac pump is on the way out..(no biggie..thats what a dummy pulley and new belt is for ).

Just some hard-learned advice from a DIY guy.
DodgeRAmPower.