I'm new here folks so I hope I'm in the right thread. Here's my story. My son traded a 94 Mitsubishi for a '98 Ram 4WD, swamper tires, 318. The truck has no O2's, no cat. Straight pipes. he put $1200 in engine tune up and chip. Ran OK for a while. Now bogs down, no HP, sucks gas. Code on chip keeps coming back O2's. One mechanic said it was timing. Another said he was positive it was the torque coverters and the transmission is bad. Truck starts and idles great. We've set the performance chip on all settings and does not help. Another piece of advise was to add O2's to the exhaust. He's heading to Afghanistan next month. He doesn't have the money to fix the truck. I would appreciate any advise.

 

$1200 for a tune up and a chip? That's ridiculous. If it's one of those jet chips from eBay it likely does very little for performance/mpg...

Anyways, having no O2s definitely hurts mpgs as will the swamper tires. Put in a magnaflow cat and NTK or NGK brand O2s, and nothing else.

And make sure you check out this thread, its very likely your boggin problem. https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...um-thread.html

 

Thanks Matt. Will follow suggested thead

 

Also, truck shutters and vibrates like crazy when after it kicks into overdrive.

 

That could be realted the the items listed by Matt.

Also, the $1200 for tune up and chip ... he was ripped off. I would see if new parts really were put in, like plugs, cap and rotor, etc. Get itemized bill on work. A tune up with no O2 sensors is not going to help. The computer needs all the data, and the O2 sensor being missing makes the PCM dump fuel like crazy as it is attempting to balance between rich and lean. As it never sees a rich condition, it keep dumping fuel.

 

Torque converters still the cause of the shaking? Or can everything be related to the root cause of fuel consumption?

 

Shakes like crazy when in overdrive. Related to no cat, no O2's or is this really torque converters?

 

How many torque converters did the second mechanic say this truck had? (there is only one) and how would a bad torque converter cause the symptoms listed? I would find some other mechanics if I were you. If it has no O2's, that is why the codes are for O2. The truck needs them. Install the recommended O2 sensors first. and a muffler. I bet that thing sounds gawd awful.

 

I would suggest fixing one problem at a time...starting with the one that are known. Some problems added together will compicate symptoms. Take it one step at a time. And the shaking can be TC, TPS, Plenum, etc.

Do NOT take it back where they jacked you for $1200!

It is NOT likely to be TC.

 

It could be a miss that you are feeling