Hey guys thanks for taking the time to look at this Ive been using the search functions and I think I am suffering from information overload lol there is a ton of reading to do on here and I appreciate everyones help.....I have a dodge ram 5.2 1500 4x4 auto 1997 model, the truck has done a great deal of sitting and to be honest In the past 3 weeks Im pretty sure Ive put more miles on it than its had on it in 2 years. I got it right (needed pinion seal, leaky valve cover, 4x4 out....a fixer) and after a couple of evenings working on it I got it back to being road worthy. Ive driven it for nearly 3 weeks with no complaints untill yesterday morning.

Im in the national guard and I got up yesterday morning to attend drill and it was a pretty rainy day and on the way there I noticed that while going up hills and at only wide open throttle the truck would cut out and buck like crazy. It was so harsh at first I was assuming "well **** my transmission is slipping" but then I forced it to buck again and realized it was actually cutting out, at this time it was only WOT and going up hill and about the same RPM levels (4000 in 2nd and around 3000 in 3rd gears, sometimes going up hill it didnt wanna rev. past 3 grand and that seemed to **** the snyder chip guy off because I passed him at the bottom of the hill assuming I was gonna run off and leave him, but he ended up running me up the hill hahaha) The truck has sat for a long time so my next line of thinking is that possibly there was some drugs sitting in the bottom of the tank so I put half a tank of 91 in it with a big bottle of lucas treatment and some octane booster...no improvement....The next morning I got up to attend another lovely day at my armory and while driving to drill I realized this miss/bucking behavior is getting worse....Before it only did it at WOT up hill, now it does it at WOT regardless of incline or not, and a funny thing is I can shift the truck in neutral an rev it and I can manually shift it in 1st gear and it will not miss/buck

No check engine lights, no smoking, its a good running truck untill I wanna give it hell in WOT

Ive beat on the cat, no rattling (it looks like the original cat), I recently changed oil,plugs, air filter, I have a change of plug wires to put on it (autozone gave me the wrong ones last time) I'm using champion copper plugs, I took a mister bottle and sprayed the plug wires while running and seen no arcs, they seem to be routed good, none are touching, I'm still going to change them I just havent gotten to it yet, but I'm 99% sure they prob arent the problem, I unhooked the coil and made the wife crank it and looked at the arc it still showed some blue so the fire looked healthy enough. in the last 3 weeks I've probably put a few hundred miles on this truck intermittenly, and like 2 weeks ago while climbing a hill at WOT I noticed it sputtered a couple of times, but it was fine afterwards. The first time its started every morning it will start right up in a couple of cranks, but after its been running if you let it set for more than 5 or 10 min you have to crank it for several seconds and give it some throttle before it turns over (IAC??????) I noticed up untill like 2 gas tanks ago that every time I opened my gas tank it had built up pressure in it, but now when I open it there is no pressure in it (1/4-1/2 full)

So what do any of you guys think?? Cat or Fuel pump, I'm leaning towards fuel pump but I wish I could just cut the cat off and call it a day lol, I'm not really a fan of going to the parts store and buying a 200 dollar part and throwing it at something not being 100% sure thats what it is. Every time I turn the key on I hear the fuel pump prime the truck. The only thing that makes me think its something wierd is that I can run the truck at WOT in first gear at 5,000 rpm and it wont miss, but now as soon as it runs out to about 4,000 or 4100 in 2nd it bucks like crazy, and the same goes for 3rd gear at around 3,000....Tranny fluid is acceptable, the symptoms are here with OD on or off, (its just wierd to me) ....

Thanks for your time guys sorry about the long message but I just wanted to explain this the best I could

 

the most reliable fuel pump test is to buy or rent or borrow a gauge and test the pressure at the fuel rail. should be about 49psi on most models, seems like V6 might be lower, but i'm not sure.

symptoms of a bad cat are generally an inability to rev up past a certain, fairly consistent, rpm. an easy test for this is to temporarily remove front 02 sensor for pressure relief.

plugs, wires, cap, rotor, coil can cause electrical skipping.

 

I went ahead and removed the front o2 sensor this morning and took the truck down the road and it still has the same miss/bucking, it was also noticeably harder to start this morning. My fuel got down to below a 1/4 tank so I went ahead and put the last half of my lucas fuel stabilizer (I bought the big bottle) in the tank and drove it again and for about 5 or 6 min. the miss/bucking was noticeably better, but then it started raining and it was no longer safe to keep recreating this condition. I went back to my garage and after it stopped raining I resumed my running up and down the road WOT and the miss/bucking is back, when this truck does this its a 5 or 600 rpm buck, while going 60 or 70 mph its pretty noticeable lol..

So after today I'm fairly certain its not the CAT, but it still may be related to something bad in the bottom of my gas tank that may have gotten stirred up (because the lucas seemed to help for 5 or 6 min.) When the weather improves I'm gonna put my o2 sensor back and then I'm gonna replace the plug wires, and find another bottle of fuel additive and repeat giving it hell till it decides to stop missing lol.....Thanks

 

If fuel pressure is low, it could be a clogged pressure regulator, which sits atop the fuel pump assy.

 

I had similar symptoms when i had an o2 simulator on my rear sensor, the truck would surge in rpms like crazy, I went back to the original sensor and the problem was gone.

 

The o2 sensors are both on the truck, whatever the problem is it hasent thrown a CEL yet. As of right now this problem is only present at wide open throttle. The rest of the time it runs as it should...

 

The check engine light came on after I removed the O2 sensor. I just got done putting it back in and went to the parts store to get another bottle of fuel additive and had the guy put a scanner on it and it also gave a code for misfire on cylinders 1 & 8.........So I guess there is the miss lol....

 

bad fuel pump in my truck caused a bank one missfire code.

 

Just got done inspecting the plugs on cylinders 1 and 8, neither had oil or gas on them but they both were covered in a thin layer of soot, I cleaned the plugs, changed plug wires, swapped injectors around, and the miss is still present.......I guess its looking pretty obvious that the fuel pump is most likely the prob....

 

I would just put a guage on it to verify that way, but I cant find anyplace someone could attach a gauge. From what I've seen they are on the fuel rail, but mine has absolutely no place to plug one in...