More often than not when the engine is cold there is no power and the the engine will cough a few times and then all cylinders will catch for a few seconds and then loss of power again. This goes on for about ten minutes and when the engine is completely warm the problem goes away. Some days it doesn't do it at all. There is no "engine check" light so the dealer can't help me out.
my thoughts are to get new plugs and new wiring harness installed but I'd like to hear from some experts on this forum. My Ram has 75K miles on it.
Would appreciate any help I can get. Thanks in advance.

 

Welcome to DF. Read this please. https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...um-thread.html

 

You love posting that don't you? (I understand your frustration though ESP when people write "heavy spark knock, no power up hills help me!! Lol) Why not add the tsb spark plug wires routing? I'd say change those, wires, plugs, cap, rotor, and plenum and you'll be all good. I changed my cap and didn't route them correctly and forgot to push my ignition wire down all the way so it was running sluggish as well. Is your truck getting too hot when this happens?

 

Yea I do! Because thats the first thing that needs to be addressed. Once that's fixed/and READ(the sticky that can't be missed) , we can get into the other things. Which, btw, most if not all, are mentioned in the plenum thread.

 

If the engine runs fine hot, the wiring harness is not your problem.

 

No my truck never comes close to overheating.
Several years ago, towing a trailer through Penn. similar symptoms appeared but worse. By the time I got the truck back to the dealer I could only keep the truck running in no higher than 3rd gear and not letting it idle at lights.

The dealer changed the wiring harness and plugs and that fixed the problem.

Is it possible that over time the carbon core in the harness starts to crack or separate and thus cause intermittent spark? If so, then when the core heats up it expands thus closing the gap and allowing the spark to flow freely. Just a thought.

 

Huh? I assume you are talking about the spark plug wires?

While they were changing the "harness", I bet they flashed the PCM too.

Did you read the plenum thread? Or is that not your problem?

 

Yes I'm talking about the spark plug wiring harness. Yes I read the plenum thread and thats not my problem.
Let me try to simplify. Imagine that I had filled the fuel tank with about 25 gallons of gas that had water in it. The engine would skip, cough, fart intermittently. This is how my truck had been running for about a month when the engine is cold. As usual when you try to troubleshoot a problem the problem is not there. My truck has been running fine for the last 4 days.
Are all plug wiring harnesses carbon core or do they make copper core ones too?

 

It's not the wires, the o2 is shot(and cat not too far behind) because the plenum gasket is blown and oil burn off is ruining it. LOL

 

Well Zman17 you were right. Last week the "check engine" light came on for a few days and went back out again. Took it to the Dodge dealer this morning and sure enough the computer code was for the O2 sensor. $200 to replace. We'll see if that cures the problem.