Just picked up a 97 Ram 5.9 gas needing work. The first thing Im trying to tackle is a starting issue. The truck starts when cold, after reaches operating temp it no longer starts, cranks over, but no start up. The flash codes give me 54..sometimes a 11 or 42 with the 54,.Last night I run the haynes manual test on the camshshaft position sensor. The sensor pulsed 5 volts as it should. But I did notice the power supply from the ecu did not provide the full 8 volts the manual states. The truck will restart after a few hours. The thermostat is operating nicely, no overheating issues i think...any ideas or help,,

 

Sensor getting hot, and crapping out. Cam and crank sensors are pretty notorious for that kind of behavior. Run the engine hot, and then test both sensors, see which one isn't working.

 

If those sensors go bad as temps rise, why does the engine run while hot?

 

well I got lucky on this one,..Changed only my camshaft position sensor(coil pick-up) and that took care of my prob..Thanks for the advise on this one!