Hello all,

I have read posts on here about this but I have to ask my way cuz nothing seems right on the money.

1998 ram 318. Wife drove truck (im sure this is the whole problem, cuz I am supposed to be picking up a 1927 chevy 2 dr sedan body right now instead of working on my truck, and she is against the car so she is sabotaging me) parked it went to drive it again and it would start but acted like it was running out of gas and would die. By the time I got to it it would stutter but never start then eventually nothing. Just turn over. The first thing I did per haynes manual is try to release pressure from schrader valve. there was no pressure no fuel came out. I checked fuses and relays all checked out ok. I decided to give up for the day cuz I figured I needed to drop the tank and investigate the fuel pump which I could not hear when I turned on the key. got up this morning went out to begin the task(she just top off the tank) of siphoning fuel and decided to try to start it again and all be damned it started and runs like a champ. I took off air cleaner housing to look at the IAC valve I read on here and that side of the throttle body is dirty and black.

Is this problem the IAC valve? should I remove it and clean it as well as get a new gasket for air cleaner housing which was screwed up and why it got dirty in the first place?

Or is this something else entirely? It idles fine right now.

Devon