1996 ram 1500 4x4

Looked down my nice new Holley throttle body and saw the pooled oil. I hear the spark knock and my fuel consumption is atrocious
Sooo it's time to do the plenum
Anyways I want to ask all my questions. Before hand so that it will flow smoothly.
1. Which spark plug will need to be replaced ?
2. Which 02 sensor is the one that needed to be replaced?
3. ReAlly don't want to buy a new cat. Should I gut it and hope I pass emissions tests? Would it mess up my o2 sensors?
4. Are the fuel rails and injectors a pain to get off? Any special tools?
5. Are throttle cables fairly easy to remove?
I'm really looking forward to getting this done. I have heard so many people love the feel of there trucks after they are done

 

could possibly install something like a oil catch can in the pcv line before you do the plenum fix. i know i install a oil/water seperator in my pcv line and not even 2 days later i think i am seeing a fair bit of oil in it that would have ended up in the engine.

 

1. Which spark plug will need to be replaced ? Any that are bad or all of them.
2. Which 02 sensor is the one that needed to be replaced? Probably upstream.
3. ReAlly don't want to buy a new cat. Should I gut it and hope I pass emissions tests? Would it mess up my o2 sensors? If you have emission testing, it will not pass with the cat removed or gutted.
4. Are the fuel rails and injectors a pain to get off? Any special tools? No. Be easy and replace O rings.
5. Are throttle cables fairly easy to remove? Yes.

I would recommend replacing timing set with double roller set and water pump and t stat while there.

 

Ok cool thanks. But I have no option if I want to regain power but to replace the cat then. Water pump has only 500 miles on it so that should be fine. Same with tstat but I'm getting the Hughes kit so I will get another tstat. Why the timing? How would I re time it? Is it necessary because I am on a tight budget. How do it tell if the spark plugs are bad?

 

If you really have a bad plenum gasket (which I think you do have one), change all the plugs, not even a judgement call.Good plugs should have a nice tan color to them, should be able to find pics online to show the difference but seriously just change them all!. Crap, when me and my brother go snowmobiling, if we foul our plugs out we get new ones. #3923 Autolites from Wal Mart $14 for all 8 is a good option, good plugs better than the champions.

Honestly the Hughes kit is a big waste of money, even the $50 one from ebay, it may work, I've heard of people still blowing their plenum gaskets. Save yourself the insane amount of cash and buy some Copper Permatex to slap on both sides of the new plenum gasket, it will stretch with the steel plate when it heats up & create a cushion keeping the gasket intact.

I would wait to even start to think about changing your cat or o2 sensors, I had large chunks of carbon the size of marbles growing off of my spark plugs and if what caused that to grow on my plugs didn't clog my cat nothing will!.

Put your money into new wires,brass contact cap,rotor,plugs & wires and pcv valve, you'll thank yourself for that. If you suspect your cat is clogged get the codes read, the downstream will trip a code if it sees the cat is not doing its job, and if the upstream o2 is dirty it will be tripped.

I didn't even Seafoam my motor afterward, did the tune up, plenum gasket and celebrated for two weeks doing burnouts and trashing 2 sets of crappy rear tires.

 

Just do everything gd said and you should be good. He's talking about the timing chain. It can stretch over time and it's no better time to replace it. Well, maybe there is but you're already working on the engine so why not. Pull the water pump, timing cover and your right there. I'd just go with the ebay or hughes kit. Personally I have the hughes kit that had everything i needed to put it all back together. It's a better piece of mind knowing that there likely won't be anymore problems compared to the steel plate, but that's just my thinking. Have fun with the fix

 

I'll take my chances with a $7 tube of copper permatex on something as simple as a plenum gasket. I've used copper permatex by itself to seal Snowmobile jugs to the crank case of an 800cc tripple cylinder drag sled engine that see's 10,000 Rpm every winter, that was back in 2002 and it still runs perfect and has perfect compression. It will outlast the useful life of the truck on the plenum plate.

While we're at it, I've got a bridge for sale if any of you aluminum plenum plate buyers have any extra cash laying around, which by the sounds of blowing the kind of cash you guys do on the aluminum plenum plates, you guys should easily be able to afford a share in my fake bridge...oops did I say that out loud?.

 

There is more than one way to fix a leaky plenum besides buying a plate... You seem to get all pissy when it gets mentioned around here.. It is the cause of alot of problems.. And it is worth the time to just fix and not have to worry about it again.

 

Make sure you use shorter bolts if you re-use the steel plate. The main problem with the plenum is the bolts bottom, before torquing the plate tight.

 

Alright I love the responses thank you!! The copper permatex sounds great. What are the other opinions? Really the reason why I wanted to do the Plenum is because of the terrible gas mileage. I talked to my very trusted exhaust mechanic about the signs of a clogged cat and he says it should be hard to get over 15 mph and pass people. I'm am nowhere near that. And can sOmeOne gI've me a better idea of what spark knock sounds like? I'm not so sure I have it. Is it possible that just my o2 sensor could go bad? I am getting may e 8 mpg right now and it's extremely annoying . I just naturally blamed it on the plenum and I know this sounds stupid but I think I kind of imagined the other symptoms. So now what I want to do is:
1. Rotor
2. Dis. Cap
3. Sparks
4. Copper whatever gasket seal and felpro gasket and special bolts ( where would I get those)
5. New 02 sensors
What does every body think? I really want to get some of this main mait. Out of the way for a while so I can focus on leveling kit and new tires