Well, I put a superchips tuner on my truck, just to get a little more power out of it, which worked. But then came the pinging (which I assumed was from overriding the death flash). So I assumed it was DEFINITELY the plenum plate, since it has 130k+ miles on it.

So, I ordered the parts, got them, was going to do it today with a buddy. We took the airfilter off, looked down in the butterflies, and of course it is SPOTLESS down there...No oil, build-up, nothing. So the plenum is definitely good then. (We had my friends dad look as well, he worked at a Dodge dealer for 7 years, and knows what he's doing for sure)

So, if it isn't the plenum, what else could it be? Plugs? Wires? It just had a tune-up done about 3k miles ago, champion plugs.

Could it just be the superchips? Do I just need to run the 91 tune and put higher octane gas in it? Or?

 

Could be plus. Which tune did you use 91 tune and 87 gas? I got a wicked ping when I ran that tune. I pulled off the road right away and kicked it down to tow tune and 87 tune with no ping.

 

the plenum will blow out....mine looked clean as well until i took off the THROTTLE BODY itself...THATS when i found mine was bad...

theres no way around it, you'll have to do the plenum eventually...

 

Wow, 130,000 and it isn't blown? My 1997 has 62,000 and runs great.....but the gasket was blown. 2 weeks ago we tore it apart and hell yeah, gasket was blown out in several spots.

 

I'm not saying it won't ever go bad, but right now it looks spotless. I'm wondering if the P.O. maybe had it fixed? I'm not losing any oil but I thought thats what the pinging was from.

I'd hate to tear it all apart to look, but it looks spotless through the butterflies, and I'm not losing oil. My friends dad said he could tell from doing so many, and it was definitely fine.

I tried the 91 tune with 91, and I tried the 91 tune with 87, but I've been running 87 tune with 87 octane for 99% of the time. I only get the pinging at higher RPMs.

 

my old man bought his Ram in 97 with 26K....it is a 96.....the comp had the deathflash at 26K already....and my best friend bought the truck (my dad bought an 04 GMC 2500HD 6.0L crew cab 4x4) and i checked the plenum, and the air filer is soaked with oil....my dad towed his 32ft. camper with it....never a problem. VERY well maintained.

So it could blow at any time...just varies on the truck i guess.

 

Yeah. I've read some that lasted 150k, and others that made it to 25k. I guess it just depends on the truck, like a lot of other things.

I thought the pinging was from a blown plenum, but since it looks good, I guess its ok still. I suppose when I notice the loss of oil I'll know to give it another looksie..

 

do you have a CEL by any chance?

 

No, except for two seperate times I had a CEL go off for a misfire on (I believe) cylinders 1 and 2, but it's only gone off twice since I bought the truck (2 months ago), so I didn't think much of it.

 

PM hemifever and he will make you a good tune for 100 dollars. He will make a customized timing table.

But it is probably the plenum gasket. Taking off the throttle body is not a "tear down" It is a good saturday morning job.

THat is a good chance to take it completely off and blast it with some TB cleaner.

130K miles...it is blown.